Hawthorn to sell WestWaters Hotel and 90 pokie machines to help fund $100 million Dingley training base
Hawthorn will put 90 pokie machines and WestWaters Hotel on the market to help fund its plans for a $100 million base in Dingley.
Hawthorn
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Hawthorn wants to join footy’s pokies exodus and sell off 90 of its money-spinning machines.
The Herald Sun can reveal the Hawks have made the big call to put their WestWaters Hotel in Caroline Springs up for sale, including 55 per cent of their 165 gaming machines.
The venue is expected to sell for between $25 to $30 million which will be used help build the club’s new $100 million training base in Dingley.
Slashing its pokies is a significant step away for a club which has topped the league for gaming revenue across its two venues in recent years.
In 2018-19 punters handed over $24.7 million in total at Hawthorn’s WestWaters and Vegas at Waverley.
Carlton ($17.8 million) and Essendon ($11.1 million) also rake in significant amounts from gaming.
AFL clubs have come under searing public pressure to wean off pokie money due to the huge toll they take on families in the community.
One Hawthorn fan confronted president Jeff Kennett over the club’s pokie machines at the club’s annual general meeting late last year, urging the club to part ways with them.
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Western Bulldogs was the last club to club to exit the gaming industry last year, following North Melbourne, Western Bulldogs, Geelong, Collingwood and Melbourne.
Melbourne’s gaming licences will expire in 2022 at the Bentleigh Club.
In 2017, AFL chairman Richard Goyder said he “hates” football’s ties with pokies and believed they were a “real problem”.
The league has subtly encouraged clubs to cut ties with the gaming machines but conceded the process would take years.
“The reason I’m concerned about it is … most of the profits from poker machines come from problem gamblers,” Goyder said.
While Kennett has publicly defended the club’s pokie machines, the Hawks have been working to diversify their asset base in recent years in preparation for the WestWaters sale.
A lot of the money made from the WestWaters machines has been reinvested back into the hotel and entertainment complex, including 100 accommodation rooms.
It means the club is confident the move to part with 90 machines would not have a big impact on its balance sheet after 23 years of profits, including a $2.15 million surplus last year.
Hawthorn chief executive Justin Reeves said two years ago the club was aiming to “diversify its revenue streams”.
“In 2018 the club focused strongly on taking an innovative approach to our operations, to ensure our financial sustainability” Reeves said.
“Our current business plan, Dare to be Different, underpins this line of thinking and guided our decision making as an organisation.”
The Hawks are currently raising funds for the construction of the Kennedy Community Centre.
The facility is expected to be complete by 2022 and include two football ovals, men’s and women’s changing facilities, a major community centre and indoor basketball and netball courts.