Power CEO Keith Thomas says club needs new money to stay in AFL flag race — and China is the place to find it
PORT Adelaide chief executive Keith Thomas insists the Power’s focus is fixed on football and the “China Strategy” has not distracted his AFL club.
PORT Adelaide chief executive Keith Thomas insists the Power’s focus is fixed on football and the “China Strategy” has not distracted his AFL club.
Thomas has highlighted the AFL premiership race is still a money game — and China offers the Power a much-needed new revenue stream to bankroll its chase for flags.
“We’ve not shifted our focus from day-to-day football,” Thomas said. “And every new dollar we find goes to our football goals — to enhance our competitiveness.”
Port Adelaide will break new ground next season with the first AFL game for premiership points played out Australia-New Zealand with its May 14 clash against Gold Coast in Shanghai.
But Thomas concedes — amid some Power fans taking issue with China seemingly taking precedent over needs to remedy an underperforming football program — his club has not explained its “China Strategy” well enough to its supporter base.
Thomas is today making it clear China is about money — and Port Adelaide needs “new money” to match the AFL’s big players.
“For an ambitious club as Port Adelaide, competing against significantly bigger and more financially advantaged opponents, it was clear we needed to play a bigger game,” Thomas said. “Our ability to provide the elite facilities and resources required to ensure long-term on-field success depended on it.”
The new deal at Adelaide Oval, doubling corporate sponsorship and boosting membership to record levels has lifted Port Adelaide from the AFL’s “welfare clubs” to middle ground on the league’s financial table.
“Financially safe, but not prosperous,” says Thomas. “We are capable of competing strongly, but perhaps not of consistently finding the edge that often means the difference between winning and losing in one of the most intense competitions in world sport.”
China — with its economic strength and opening for lucrative television rights — is the game changer for the Power.
“China provides the Port Adelaide Football Club with a uniquely powerful point of difference, not only in the AFL, but in Australian sport,” Thomas said.
“We have a new string to our bow. By attaching China, all of a sudden we have a compelling new case for attention not only nationally but internationally.
“China makes us bigger,” adds Thomas noting Port Adelaide is tagged as “the smaller of the two AFL clubs in a relatively small city”.
“We are more compelling as a (corporate) partner. China enables us to grow and support our all- consuming ambition to win premierships.”
Port Adelaide’s strong focus on football, adds Thomas, was highlighted by the “uncomfortable” meetings that followed the Power missing AFL finals for the second consecutive year. This started at 9am after the last AFL home-and-away game on the Gold Coast where Thomas, club president David Koch, coach Ken Hinkley and captain Travis Boak were locked in a confronting debrief.
“And the off-season continued to be uncomfortable — and so it should be when you don’t deliver,” Thomas said. “Port Adelaide in 2017 is about performance — and we expect a significant response.”
michelangelo.rucci@news.com.au