RussellEbertHandball
Flick pass expert
Yeah it was a bad deal and one of the main component was we had virtually no corporate inventory to sell. Apart from the SuiteOne area we paid for and built in the northern stand in 2006-07. Nick Bianco actually paid for most of it as part of his sponsorship before the GFC hit in late 2008 and he cut back his sponsorship.
Yes its a lot better than Footy Park because we can sell the 100 people SuiteOne corporate room 365 days a year, plus 18 x 12 seat enclosed boxes and 89 open boxes that comprise either 8, 10 or 12 seats. Plus the McLachlan Room is bigger than the room at Footy Park to sell for pre game function lunch/dinner, and we can use the Magarey Room for functions which an equivalent space wasn't available for Footy Park. Plus we get $2.40 per attendee, which wasn't part of the deal at Footy Park or in 2014 at AO's first year, so a review was done on the stadium funding deal which is now reviewed every 3 years. The crows get the same deal for all these things above.
Koch didn't get us to AO. Haysman and Duncanson pushed hard, Rann and Foley provided the $$ and Demetriou bashed sense into the SANFL and Ian Mchlaclan President of the SACA is a Port member, if he still isn't, was for many part of Koch's Chairman Club coterie group, was important in convincing SACA members to agree to the redevelopment. Whilst Koch was there when things finally changed it was Haysman, Duncanson and Osborn who worked hard on getting the licence off the SANFL, with AFL backing, and giving it to us.
But its not just AO why we are profitable.
Another big part of the turn around is the ability to now get multiple high paying sponsors. We now have 6 that pay at least $1mil a year, whereas 6 or 7 years ago it was none. The China game opened corporate Australia's eyes to the PAFC, we did something nobody else had done, and IMO has been a catalyst to attracting corporates to Port.
Getting an AFLW team has also contributed to corporates coming to Port with more $$$. Our AFLW team very quickly became a profitable venture rather than being just another cost centre.
Another thing is membership which ties in with going to AO. Going from 29k in 2010 to 69k ( apple for apple comparison with old SANFL Cat 1 members and now AO Football members) has been an important part of being profitable.
Covid is another. The AFL slashing $3.5mil off the footy department soft cap and all clubs having to restructure admin staff and wasteful expenditure, is a big reason why most clubs are a lot more profitable now than in 2019.
As at 31/10/23 it was $3.887m which is the lowest since 2009.
Its a choice to maintain debt. We probably will be debt free in 2026 after we have stitched up funding for the bowling club area redevelopment.
Koch and co. keep saying we have paid off all our debts to the AFL racked up mainly over covid and some longer term payables from 2012-15 years, (all up about $5m) and to the SANFL.
We had to pay the SANFL $6.985m for our licence over 15 years. The way the club talks, I interpret that they have paid that off. Between 2023 and 2028 they were scheduled to pay about $3.1m. By paying that off first, instead of debt, it means we aren't beholden to the SANFL if we want to leave their comp.
The crows did an accounting trick and expensed their $11.326m licence fee in 2014 and said that discounted back over 15 years was $8.440m, and booked a liability to the SANFL for that $8.440m.
To balance things out they have had an expense of about $200k a year since 2014, called the dicky "Unwind of discount on deferred liabilities" to expense that $2.886m difference over 15 years. In other words taking a $8.440m hit in 2014 means their profit is effectively overstated by $500k to 600k per year over that 15 years.
The crows cash flow statements shows how much cash they are paying to buy back the licence;
$815.6k in 2023 and $799.6k in 2022.
So between 2024-2028 they have a cash outflow to repay the SANFL of about $4.1m, they will only shown an expense of about $1m via their "Unwind of discount on deferred liabilities" expense and as usual piggyback of us trying to get out of the SANFL and not pay early like we have.
The Bequest Program that was set up over 20 years ago, where people when they die leave cash and/or assets to the club is starting to pay dividends. The Trust arrangement is off balance sheet and over the last 20 years a lot of people have passed away, but I don't know how much is sitting in that trust and what assets they have purchased but the club has said it wants to build non football revenue streams from property developments, over and above the next stage redevelopment at the bowling club. That is a Greg Boulton / Brian Cunningham era measure that will benefit the club for decades.
Not sure what you mean by this.
