Geelong to ask AFL for financial assistance as the club prepares to go $10 million into debt
Geelong will ask the AFL for financial assistance after forecasting a massive post-coronavirus debt from playing in front of empty stadiums. But the Cats still have their eyes on this year’s fixture.
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Geelong will ask the AFL for financial assistance after forecasting to be up to $10 million in debt by the year’s end.
The Cats will be one of a high number of AFL clubs to be seriously impacted by the coronavirus crisis, and particularly from the loss of revenue from crowd-less matches.
Geelong chief executive Brian Cook said his club was bracing for a huge financial hit.
“When I arrived at Geelong in 1999 we had a debt of just over $7 million and that’s equivalent today in my opinion of about $20 million,” Cook said.
“I think by the end of this year you’ll find some clubs, and we’ll be one of those, that could have a debt of up to $10 million.
“Mainly because there’s no crowds and for every home game we play without a crowd, we lose a million dollars we’d normally get.
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“You multiply that by 11 and it’s pretty easy to work out it’s going to be a difficult year.”
The highly regarded Cats administrator said his club would be forced to put their hand out to league headquarters.
“We think our cash flow is pretty good for a few more months yet, but by the completion of the footy season we’ll be asking the AFL for some assistance,” Cook said.
“How much we don’t know because we don’t know what kind of revenues we’re going to retain, although the early signs are pretty positive.
“Our members have been hugely generous in leaving their membership dollars with us in the early stages.
“I think it’s going to be interesting.”
Cook predicted it would take up to three years to get the Cats back to where they were pre-coronavirus.
“It’s the most challenging time I’ve had in football and mainly because we couldn’t prepare for this or plan for it,” he said.
Cook also reiterated the Cats’ desire to play all their home games at GMHBA Stadium once the season resumed.
“There’s no crowds so there doesn’t seem to be a reason why you wouldn’t play home games down at GMHBA Stadium and that’s where we come from,” Cook told Fox Footy.
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“There are no revenues apart from signage, which we’ll be able to maintain.
“But by and large this is the prime opportunity to play all of our home games in Geelong.
“It’s important to play all of our games down there and to try to take every game as a winning game.
“If we happen to do that against Collingwood then great, or against Richmond or Essendon as some of those teams haven’t been down here in 20 years.”
Originally published as Geelong to ask AFL for financial assistance as the club prepares to go $10 million into debt