North Melbourne chief Carl Dilena says AFL clubs can break their reliance on pokies cash

NORTH Melbourne boss Carl Dilena says the AFL’s equalisation measures could eliminate the footy industry’s need for pokies cash.

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NORTH Melbourne boss Carl Dilena says the AFL’s equalisation measures could eliminate the footy industry’s need for pokies cash.

The Kangaroos have been free of gaming machines since 2008 while the nine other Victorian AFL clubs share about $90 million in pokies revenue each year.

North chief executive Dilena said the club’s stance not to re-enter gaming since shutting down an unprofitable venue eight years ago was key in attracting one significant sponsor — Powershop — and had been a factor in driving membership sales.

Dilena said it would be a “real challenge” for the industry to break its reliance on gaming revenue and the AFL had become “accepting of the position because of the financial windfall that is being generated”.

“The AFL is sitting with a lot of clubs with revenue generated from pokies and that probably eases the burden for the AFL overall in terms of the finances of the entire competition,” Dilena told the Herald Sun.

But he said the AFL’s major focus on reducing inflation in club spending could be the tool needed to remove footy’s dependence on the cash stream that has been linked to social and family harm.

“If you can get the inflation in the industry under control, it takes the pressure off generating massive amounts of new revenue,” Dilena said.

“So there is an indirect tool in there for them to do it, and to achieve it, and I think the clubs have bought into the concept of trying to get the club structure of the industry under control.”

He said North had been able to thrive in recent years without pokies money by bringing a “ruthless efficiency” to the business.

“We don’t spend any money (just because) it’s nice to spend — we reference every dollar back to return on strategic objectives or return on investment,” he said.

By doing so the club has reduced debt from $8m in 2007 to $1.5m and has banked four consecutive profits.

If you can get the inflation in the industry under control, it takes the pressure off generating massive amounts of new revenue.

Carl Dilena

Dilena addressed the circumstances in which the club became pokies free — and the notion that it could remain so because of handouts from the AFL.

“The club did have some poker machines at Etihad Stadium — a small setup there. It wasn’t profitable and the club exited those in 2008 … it wasn’t really core business, it wasn’t beneficial,” he said.

“And then post that it was (former CEO) Eugene Arocca (who) was very passionate about no pokies and World Vision’s Tim Costello became involved.

“There certainly were (opportunities to get back in) — there were some business people a bit frustrated that we wouldn’t go into them.

Dilena said the argument that the Roos could take a stance on pokies as a result of AFL funding was “illogical”.

“There are other clubs who get the same if not more than us (from the AFL) who do have gaming, so that refutes that argument straight away,” he said.

“And secondly, the money that we do get is really compensating paying off the mortgage at Etihad Stadium to a large degree — and it actually doesn’t go far enough to compensate for the inequities.”

Originally published as North Melbourne chief Carl Dilena says AFL clubs can break their reliance on pokies cash