codes lie somewhere in between, with rugby union offering the most attract-
ive conditions for top players due to the international opportunities, espe-
cially in the lightly regulated EU labour market. Despite their popularity in
terms of spectators and TV rights, the four football codes’Australian teams
provide only Ablett on the 2013 and 2014 list of thefifty top-paid sports stars,
and Folua in 2014. Australia has several soccer players among itsfifty highest-
paid athletes, which may seem surprising given Australia’s performance in the
2014 World Cup, but the point is that even playing in the second level in
England or in weak leagues in the Middle East, Australian soccer players earn
far more overseas than starting players or superstars in the A-League—or in the
AFL, NRL, or Super XV Rugby.
Australia has long savoured international success in sports, especially
cricket, but also Olympic athletes, and winners in sailing, golf, tennis, or
cycling have become national heroes. In the late twentieth century, roughly
in parallel with the increased commercialization and state support for team
sports, Australian governments increased spending on attracting and hosting
international sports events, and on promoting the success of Australian par-
ticipants in such events. Expenditure on the 2000 Sydney Olympics dwarfed
that on the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, which today looks like an event
from another era. The failed bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup was largely
government-funded. States have spent considerable amounts, usually non-
transparently hidden behind claims of commercial sensitivity, on hosting a
range of more or less mega sports events.^16
The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) also provides publicly-funded train-
ing for elite athletes. The AIS was opened in 1981, in part in response to the
perceived national shame of winning no gold medals at the 1976 Olympic
Games, and has enjoyed strong bipartisan public support. Of the sixteen
highest-paid sports stars in 2012 (i.e. those earning over 3 million dollars),
half benefited from publicly subsidized training via the AIS.^17 Jolly (2013,
p. 44) estimated an annual cost per athlete of $28,000 in 1999, which had
risen to $50,000 by 2012, but suggestions that there should be repayment
from any future income, as in the Higher Education Contribution Scheme,
have been rejected by both major political parties.
(^16) Wilson and Pomfret (2014) provide examples from South Australia. Unsuccessful bids such as
South Australia’s Commonwealth Games bids, or its part in Australia’s 2022 World Cup bid, clearly
wasted taxpayers’money. But successful bids can be even more costly, as in Adelaide’s disastrous
hosting of the Australian Le Mans motor-racing event. On the cost of hosting the Sydney
Olympics, see Giesecke and Madden (2011). 17
Two of the most successful AIS alumni, Andrew Bogut and Matthew Dellavedova, played in
the 2015 National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals. They were likely to be the two highest-paid
Australian sports stars of the year, and their success brought large revenues to two privately-owned
US basketball teams, but it is difficult to see much return to Australia from such government
spending.
Richard Pomfret