Adelaide Crows to keep calling West Lakes home as cost of move would savage record profit

DESPITE its home base turning from a sporting centre to an urban sprawl with high-rise offices and apartments, the Adelaide Crows still intend to call Football Park home.

Adelaide Football Club chairman Rob Chapman is declaring the Crows are staying at West Lakes as the sporting venue is converted to an urban base — to reap the $2 million annual benefit from the SANFL’s upkeep of the oval. Picture: Bianca De Marchi

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The Adelaide Football Club is standing firm at West Lakes, despite the Football Park sporting hub becoming an urban centre of high-rise buildings.

And Crows chairman Rob Chapman has two million reasons each year to ignore the repeated calls from Adelaide fans for his AFL club to move to the city centre, closer to its new Adelaide Oval match-day home.

Chapman told The Advertiser — after the Crows posted a record $3.43 million operating profit — the club had no compelling reason to walk away from its “rent-free” lease at Football Park that continues to 2038.

Eddie Betts signs autographs for fans at Adelaide Crows training at Football Park, West Lakes. Picture: Bianca De Marchi

This puts an end to speculation of the Crows finding a new home in the city or taking over the aquatic centre at North Adelaide. And there is no prospect of the club — after losing its much-loved “Shed” complex for the members at Football Park — buying a hotel to create a new social base in the city.

Chapman says such an investment — “high cost, low return” — works against the strategy that has delivered the Crows their best-ever financial figures.

“We’ve made our decision to stay (at West Lakes),” Chapman told The Advertiser. “It is rent free to 2038. The SANFL and the developer (Commercial and General) maintain the oval to AFL standards for us.

“That would become a significant cost to us if we relinquish the lease at Football Park — $2 million (a year) if we wanted to replicate that somewhere else. And our challenge today is to keep costs under control.”

Chapman and club chief executive Andrew Fagan underlined the club’s ability to generate cash from “traditional”revenue streams — sponsorship, ticket and merchandise sales — was “maxxed out” after reaching a record $54.9 million last year. And the search for new revenue streams would force the Crows to look beyond traditional football money pits such as hotels.

“We could buy a pub for $10 million, run it and maybe get a $500,000 return,” Chapman said. “Or we could scour the world for investment opportunities that are low risk and high return — such as eSports.”

Crows players sign autographs for waiting fans at Crows training at West Lakes. Picture: Bianca De Marchi

Adelaide’s investment in the computer-generated eSports empire did come under fire at the club’s annual members’ meeting at Adelaide Oval on Thursday night. Former board candidate Daniel Kiley questioned why the Crows would involve themselves in a venture that contradicted the promotion of Australian football.

Both Fagan and Chapman defended the club’s move noting the Crows’ investment in an eSports franchise was already paying off with “marked increase” in the value of the licence.

“Our challenge is to find new revenue streams — eSports does that,” Chapman said. “And we will not limit it to eSports. We are looking around the world for such opportunities to generate revenue.

“We can see how our revenue can grow without doing that.”

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