Suns strike back hard over AFL funding drama

The annual look into how much the AFL injects into the Suns brought with it the usual criticism – but Gold Coast aren’t happy.

TONY Cochrane says even the biggest pessimist can see Gold Coast have more than paid their way on the back of reports the AFL injected a record $27.5 million into the Suns last season.

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The Suns chairman hit back at critics questioning the club’s viability following the annual blowtorch turned on Gold Coast following the release of annual reports detailing the AFL’s investment in the Suns that has now gone beyond $250 million.

Cochrane said reports had failed to put into context the value of the club, overlooking the significance of the Suns to the current $2.508 billion broadcast rights deal, the inclusion of the salary cap every club gets in the investment and the futureproofing of the game in Queensland.

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“The very first point I would make is that every club gets the payments for the players that is circa $13 million (per year),” Cochrane said.

“Many make it sound like we get $27.5 million and everyone else gets zero.

Ben Ainsworth (right) of the Sun. (AAP Image/Darren England)

“The second is by adding a ninth game some years ago to the media rights deal, even the biggest pessimist would say that is worth $50 million per year to the AFL.

“In actual fact, the reality is that the Gold Coast Suns and GWS really don’t cost the AFL anything because the media rights from that extra game cover it. The AFL can wash their face clean.

“My third point is that it was a really smart business decision by the AFL to invest heavily in the northern states, including NSW.

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“Fifty per cent of the population lives in those two states and South East Queensland is the third biggest advertising market in Australia so it makes all the sense in the world to have a team in the growth corridor at the Gold Coast.

Matthew Rowell of the Suns. AAP Image/Darren England

“You only have to look back at the success of the junior programs too. If you go back 10 years there wasn’t even 30,000 participants in Australian rules in Queensland.

“Last year we had nearly 300,000 and we have the second highest number of females, second only to Victoria.

“The AFL Commission has done a superb job of investing in the future, we are the envy of every other sport including the NRL.

“The only issue we have in Queensland and the Northern NSW Rivers is that we don’t have enough fields, despite 25 being new ovals being made in the last five years.

“Success is our biggest problem, not failure, and we are going to become a successful footy club.

“The Gold Coast needs to get behind us and not put up with irrelevant people from Melbourne.”

Cochrane said Gold Coast were unique in the fact they are one of only two clubs, the other being Geelong, who run their own stadium while the costs of operating across large areas of the state were high.

“We have a huge number of support staff and some of the funding goes to offsetting the cost of the stadium because it doesn’t break even and probably won’t for another five years,” Cochrane said.

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Cochrane echoed AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan’s belief that the Suns weren’t ever going to be fold, declaring he had no concerns that another potential CEO in the future would have a different opinion.

“The investment was up to 25 years,” Cochrane said.

“We are not even at the halfway mark yet and the decision on what happens next will be automatic by then so we are firmly established.

“I have never met one person from the AFL industry, whether from clubs or from the Commission or AFL management, who has given me anything other than full encouragement that we are here forever.”

Cochrane is also confident the club’s struggles, having never made the finals and finishing last in 2019, would soon be over.

He said the ability to secure A-grade talent in Brandon Ellis and Hugh Greenwood, along with top draft picks Matt Rowell, Noah Anderson and more and the ability to re-sign 22 of its core players long-term showed the wheels of change were in motion.