Port Adelaide CEO Keith Thomas says cost savings at club will be ‘immediate, pretty brutal’ as competition postponed

Port Adelaide’s 150th year was meant to be cause for celebration. Instead, the club is now set for “immediate and pretty brutal” cost savings after the competition’s shutdown due to COVID-19.

Port Adelaide chief executive Keith Thomas said the club would need to make “immediate and pretty brutal” cost savings to contend with the fallout of COVID-19. Picture: AAP/Mike Burton

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Port Adelaide chief executive Keith Thomas says cost savings at the club will be “immediate and pretty brutal” as it deals with its “greatest challenge” ever – the fallouts of shutting down the season due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Twenty-four hours after the AFL called the competition off until at least May 31, Thomas said “right now the club’s 150th (anniversary) is about survival”.

He said the Power had begun financial planning for two scenarios: a 17-game season being completed and no more matches being played.

Thomas believed having no further games this year would be a “dire situation” but he thought the club could survive it.

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Port Adelaide chief executive Keith Thomas has called the coronavirus pandemic the club’s greatest challenge in its 150-year history. Picture: AAP/David Mariuz

“I don’t think it’s fatal, I think that we will find a way, but it’s going to take everything we’ve got as an industry to pull ourselves through this,” Thomas said on FiveAA.

“We’re very determined as an industry to see the season through and we believe it’s possible, clearly it will be delayed.

“But 17 games in front of no people is a hard hit in its own right.

“Whilst the postponement is for two months, we’re preparing for longer and the reality is that the cost savings are going to be immediate and pretty brutal.

“That’s our situation and we’re up to our neck in it.”

Last weekend’s opening round was played in empty stadiums but the gravity of the global health situation hit home further across the league and at Port on Monday.

The competition was postponed for two months amid border closures by state governments, Power personnel returning from the 47-point win on the Gold Coast were asked to self-isolate for 14 days by SA Health, and social venues, including the Port Club and its Prince of Wales Hotel, were forced to shut.

As reports emerged of AFL clubs preparing to lay off staff to mitigate the financial impact, Thomas said Port would “try to get as many people through this in whatever way we can”.

He called the fallout from the coronavirus “without doubt our club’s greatest challenge in our 150-year history”.

“That’s going to require us to pull every lever that’s available to us, whether that’s reduced hours, special leave, annual leave, long-service leave, leave without pay, reduced salary – anything we can do to get our people through it relatively in tact,” he said on SEN SA.

Power players leaving the field after beating Gold Coast on Saturday night – a day before the AFL postponed the competition. Picture: AAP/Darren England

“The problem is we don’t have a great line of sight of how long it’s going to be.

“We’re assuming it’s two months but if it’s 12 months, it just accentuates the problem.

“We’re working in two-month blocks but who knows.”

Port had high hopes for this season, the club’s 150th anniversary, and had spent more than a year planning several major events that would now have to be postponed.

Among them was wearing its prison-bar guernsey in the Showdown on Saturday.

Thomas said the club “can’t dwell on the fact we’re pissed off we can’t do what we planned”.

“The reality is our 150th anniversary will be forever associated with this global health crisis,” he said.

Thomas praised the club’s members for their response to the crisis, saying there had “hardly been a murmur” about refund requests.

“The reaction from our people has been ‘we’re in this together, let’s stick together’,” he said.

“But we’re very mindful that every person will be going through their own circumstances as a result of this.”

Thomas did not travel to the Gold Coast on Saturday so did not have to self-isolate but said Port’s entire staff was now working remotely.

Originally published as Port Adelaide CEO Keith Thomas says cost savings at club will be ‘immediate, pretty brutal’ as competition postponed