The financial health of the 18 Australian Football League clubs "has been laid bare, with only six making profits without substantial help from the league's governing body, an analysis of the competition's finances shows," according to Stensholt & Pierik of THE AGE. While "several clubs in Melbourne have announced operating profits" for '14 in the past few months, an investigation has "found the annual reports posted by the clubs or lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission show many did so only with additional funding from the AFL." Collingwood, Essendon, Hawthorn and Richmond were the only ones of 10 Victorian clubs to "achieve profits in their own right, as did the West Coast Eagles and Fremantle." Essendon's A$720,000 profit, however, was boosted by about A$700,000 worth of donations. The 10 Victorian clubs are also carrying about A$46M in "combined debts, though some of that is related to gaming businesses." Grand-final winner Hawthorn is "considered the strongest of the Victorian
clubs, along with Collingwood." Hawthorn recorded a A$3.4M profit
last year from about A$67M revenue. It made about A$18M revenue from its gaming business, and another A$2M income from accommodation sources. AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan said the league and its clubs face financial "challenges." He said, "I
think we've got challenges at a lot of our clubs in terms of this
disparity between the strong and the less strong, GWS is one of those
(clubs)" (THE AGE, 3/1).
