The overall health of Australian Football League clubs "diminished last year with club debt swelling alarmingly" to A$91.5M, according to Denham & Smith of NEWS LIMITED.
As well, clubs "combined to collectively lose" more than A$3M, which was a A$9M turnaround from '13. Confidential AFL figures show "the negative overall club result would have been far worse if it were not for the huge profits of West Coast and Hawthorn."
In official '14 operating-profit figures determined by the league, the Eagles recorded a positive result of A$4.4M with the Hawks making A$4M.
At the other end of the scale, St. Kilda lost A$3.9M, A$400,000 more than Brisbane. Clubs "are expecting tough times again this year, with up to eight forecasting losses again." The Saints have budgeted for a A$2.2M loss, as has Carlton, which "is facing a loss considerably more than initially forecast." AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan: "Debt is one of the challenges facing our clubs. We are working closely with them to address it."
The league maintains the issue "is not one of revenue-raising, but exploding costs."
One AFL official conceded, "There’s just too much debt in the system. We are going to have to turn it around. We are going to have to break the present business mold."
Not all clubs "see it the league’s way." Brisbane CEO Greg Swann: "We have been concentrating on driving revenue. We have just done things a bit smarter. The costs are not a problem but we need to generate a bigger revenue base" (NEWS LIMITED, 6/19).
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Source: THE AUSTRALIAN
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