Premiership-winning West Coast Eagles the richest club in AFL
The move by the West Coast Eagles to Optus Stadium last year has been a financial bonanza for the defending AFL premiers.
The move by the West Coast Eagles to a new stadium has been a financial bonanza for the defending AFL premiers, making them the most profitable sports club in Australia.
Financial documents show the Perth club posted a $10.9 million profit from record revenue of $82.3m after a huge increase in corporate hospitality revenue and income from merchandise following last year’s grand final win over Collingwood.
West Coast has posted big profits in recent years, even after paying regular dividends of about $4m to the West Australian Football Commission, But additional earnings from the stadium meant its revenue surpassed the $82.1m recorded by financial powerhouse Collingwood.
The Eagles’ income included a $1.6m increase to $3.9m in merchandise sales as fans snapped up memorabilia after the grand final, well above the next-best AFL club, Geelong, which sold merchandise worth $2.4m in 2018.
“It’s been a wonderful move for us and really has surpassed expectations,” Eagles CEO Trevor Nisbett told The Australian. “But we have to make sure we don’t rest on our laurels and expect that to happen every year, given there was a lot of interest in us moving to the new stadium.
“We’ll have higher costs this year, we’ve got an AFLW team to come and also a WAFL team we’ll be running, so we would be thrilled if we achieved the same result. We’ve sold all corporate suites, but there are some open-air boxes still available that our team is frantically trying to sell.”
The Eagles’ corporate hospitality income surged from $9.3m in 2017, their last season at Subiaco, to $13.5m.
Mr Nisbett said the club’s merchandise income was only to October 31, and plenty of Eagles fans kept buying grand final keepsakes up to Christmas and beyond, meaning revenue would be recorded in this financial year.
He also said the Eagles were hoping for membership to reach 85,000 this year from a record 80,000 in 2018, but admitted “it is a hard to find a seat for them all in a 60,000-seat stadium. We do have members that still don’t turn up every match and do our best to get tickets out on the retail market during the week.”
While West Coast’s profit included $3.3m in development funding from government, the club’s operating profit was still bigger than any other AFL team result with government funding and one-off items stripped out.
The club’s strong financial result over the past few years means it will contribute $35m-$37m of the cost of its new $61.5m Lathlain Park training and administration facility, 7km southwest of the Perth CBD.
Almost all AFL clubs were profitable in 2018, while half of the 16 teams in the NRL at least broke even. The most profitable rugby league team is the ASX-listed Brisbane Broncos, which made a $2.07m net profit from $37m revenue, while grand final winners the Sydney Roosters recorded a $715,054 net profit from $30m revenue, achieved only after a $3.28m grant from the Easts Group leagues club.
Other big results for AFL clubs included Hawthorn, a $4.5m profit, and Richmond, which broke through the 100,000 membership barrier.
GWS Giants was the only AFL club to record a paper loss, of $1.98m.
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