That relegation condition seems to be a myth. To me, it smells more like a gentleman's agreement more than anything.
On the licence fee, I've always seen it like a guarantee that gets returned via distributions over the years, no big deal. Like how the league was largely protected by Western United's failure because they paid upfront.
The difference is it used to be returned quicker, maybe over 5-10 years? Now, if it's $15m at $500k distributions, that's going to take 20-30 years! So that would be my arguement for reducing the fee.
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Let's say South enter A-League at the same time as Canberra men's for 28-29. And the non-refundable part of the licence fee has gone up with inflation to $5m since pre-COVID. And the licence gets you guaranteed A-League until 33-34 like the other clubs, that's six seasons. At $500k/yr distribution, that's $3m on top of the $5m. So for South, I wouldn't be paying more than $8m for a licence. Unless the league can guarantee South that distributions will increase, but I'm not holding my breath in the short term.
I could be talking complete crap but that's how it works in my head
There are other factors too, like how Pellegra paid one dollar for Perth on the priviso of putting the money into facilities instead, and wiping the club debt.