2022 Club Financial Results

[The Educator]

Fascinating. We often wow the likes of West Coast and others generating around $100M in revenue. Then a club like Penrith generate $152M. Gaming and the Panthers Club etc. however, Richmond generate $30M of its revenue from Ardent Leisure. Horses for course. It certainly intrigues and puts a microscope on how much revenue clubs need, the margins they generate on non operating revenue in the context of supporting their footy operations.

It really isn't a like-for-like comparison. League's clubs are mini casinos with the football club as effectively a controlled entity by the casino / "leagues club". You can't look at the Leagues club's turnover and say "wow, that's a big football club" like you clearly can do with West Coasts turnover

Richmond's "Ardent leisure" operation might turn over a bit of revenue and there are a handful of clubs that still have relative (to NSW Leagues clubs) small pokies operations, but it is not the same thing.

 

[The_Wookie]

I think the NRL 2019 and 2020 revenue figures should be the other way around.

Also, I am trying to work out what the "total reported" figure is? It seems to roughly include the NRL amount....but if it has then the next figure should be net of the NRL distributions no (i.e. smaller)?

NRL figure isnt in the total reported, neither is the QRL and NSWRL.

Its why the line underneath says |inc NRL - dist). Its the total club amount + NRL HQ total - HQ distributions which are included in club revenues.

 

[The_Wookie]

It really isn't a like-for-like comparison. League's clubs are mini casinos with the football club as effectively a controlled entity by the casino / "leagues club". You can't look at the Leagues club's turnover and say "wow, that's a big football club" like you clearly can do with West Coasts turnover

This is kind of true for some, but not for others.

Entity	Parent Entity
NRL	ARLC
Brisbane	ASX Listed - Brisbane Broncos Limited
Canberra	Leagues Club - Queenbeyan Leagues
Canterbury	Football Club - Canterbury Bankstown DRLC Limited
Cronulla	Football Club - Cronulla Sutherland DRLC Limited
Gold Coast	Private ownership
Manly	Private ownership - Penn Group
Melbourne	Private ownership - Valimanda
New Zealand	Private ownership - Autex Industries
Newcastle	Leagues Club - Wests Group Newcastle
North Queensland	Leagues Club - Cowboys Leagues
Parramatta	Leagues Club - Parra Leagues
Penrith	Leagues Club - Panthers Group
South Sydney	Private ownership, Member Co
St George	Part Private/Part Leagues Club - WIN, St George Leagues
Sydney	Football Club - Eastern Suburbs DRLC Limited
Wests Tigers	Football Club - Western Suburbs DRLC Limited

Richmond's "Ardent leisure" operation might turn over a bit of revenue and there are a handful of clubs that still have relative (to NSW Leagues clubs) small pokies operations, but it is not the same thing.

 

[The Educator]

NRL figure isnt in the total reported, neither is the QRL and NSWRL.

Its why the line underneath says |inc NRL - dist). Its the total club amount + NRL HQ total - HQ distributions which are included in club revenues.

Well I remain none the wiser about what is included in the "Total Reported" figure.

Have you included some kind of estimate for the clubs that don't report?

 

[The Educator]

This is kind of true for some, but not for others.

Entity	Parent Entity
NRL	ARLC
Brisbane	ASX Listed - Brisbane Broncos Limited
Canberra	Leagues Club - Queenbeyan Leagues
Canterbury	Football Club - Canterbury Bankstown DRLC Limited
Cronulla	Football Club - Cronulla Sutherland DRLC Limited
Gold Coast	Private ownership
Manly	Private ownership - Penn Group
Melbourne	Private ownership - Valimanda
New Zealand	Private ownership - Autex Industries
Newcastle	Leagues Club - Wests Group Newcastle
North Queensland	Leagues Club - Cowboys Leagues
Parramatta	Leagues Club - Parra Leagues
Penrith	Leagues Club - Panthers Group
South Sydney	Private ownership, Member Co
St George	Part Private/Part Leagues Club - WIN, St George Leagues
Sydney	Football Club - Eastern Suburbs DRLC Limited
Wests Tigers	Football Club - Western Suburbs DRLC Limited

Yep, I assume most or all of the entities called "leagues clubs" are like that (i.e the football club is an auxiliary entity to the Leagues club). Some of the ones that are called football clubs are probably still like that (i.e Western Suburbs).

Newcastle and Canberra are both operated by Leagues clubs with completely different names!

Actually, Newcastle is probably the entity more than any that demonstrates the absurdity of these comparisons. Some Leagues club in Newcastle bought the Knights franchise in 2017. Now the Knights themselves are apparently a $150M a year football club?

Nah, it's still just a $30M a year NRL club just with a different owner

 

[The_Wookie]

Well I remain none the wiser about what is included in the "Total Reported" figure.

Have you included some kind of estimate for the clubs that don't report?

No thats literally why it says total reported, and not total estimated.

 

[The Educator]

No thats literally why it says total reported, and not total estimated.

If that's the case you definitely need to double check your formulas

 

[The_Wookie]

If that's the case you definitely need to double check your formulas

Ill take another look

 

[Bjo187]

Yep, I assume most or all of the entities called "leagues clubs" are like that (i.e the football club is an auxiliary entity to the Leagues club). Some of the ones that are called football clubs are probably still like that (i.e Western Suburbs).

Newcastle and Canberra are both operated by Leagues clubs with completely different names!

Actually, Newcastle is probably the entity more than any that demonstrates the absurdity of these comparisons. Some Leagues club in Newcastle bought the Knights franchise in 2017. Now the Knights themselves are apparently a $150M a year football club?

Nah, it's still just a $30M a year NRL club just with a different owner

I agree, the wookie has done a great job collating all the data, but I think the way clubs report their financials makes it very difficult to figure out how much a particular club makes. Especially when you realise some clubs are including pokies, resturaunts, government funding that sits in the bank account for a year. It means some tiny clubs have double the revenue of some huge football clubs.

I would love to see a table of all the AFL clubs and all the NRL clubs and how much they bring in off the actual footy club side of things only, for comparisons sake ( ie. sponsorship, merchandise, membership, attendance).

Something else interesting out of all this was the AFL's decision to start the suns instead of using the Southport sharks. Just looking at the sharks financial report for 2019, they brought in 40 mill in revenue, the suns this year on their own brought in 40 mill. Now if you combined the two (ie. if they built the club off the back of the already established sharks) they would be bringing in around 80 mill per year in revenue you'd think, which makes them bigger than Collingwood in an annual revenue sense.

It must have been extremely tempting for the AFL to go with that option, as they could have poured millions more into other things to help the club like promotion and development. An odd decision really, despite knowing the reasons they started a whole new brand there, I don't think it outweighs the cultural and financial clout the already established sharks would have provided.

 

[The_Wookie]

If that's the case you definitely need to double check your formulas

turns out it did need some tweaking. Thanks.

 

[dave10]

It really isn't a like-for-like comparison. League's clubs are mini casinos with the football club as effectively a controlled entity by the casino / "leagues club". You can't look at the Leagues club's turnover and say "wow, that's a big football club" like you clearly can do with West Coasts turnover

Richmond's "Ardent leisure" operation might turn over a bit of revenue and there are a handful of clubs that still have relative (to NSW Leagues clubs) small pokies operations, but it is not the same thing.

I didn’t mean it that way. I agree. These clubs are big entities backed by these enterprises. Point I was making is each club is a separate economy. It just puts a spotlight on the makeup of their business models and clouds loose judgements about clubs with huge turnover as being superior and mightier, which is often viewed as an implied metric when looking at the off field performance of AFL Clubs.

 

[The Educator]

No thats literally why it says total reported, and not total estimated.

I didn’t mean it that way. I agree. These clubs are big entities backed by these enterprises. Point I was making is each club is a separate economy. It just puts a spotlight on the makeup of their business models and clouds loose judgements about clubs with huge turnover as being superior and mightier, which is often viewed as an implied metric when looking at the off field performance of AFL Clubs.

The reality is, you will never get standardised breakdowns across codes that itemise revenue categories in a perfectly comparable way.

You can certainly use reason though to fill the information gaps though.

 

[The_Wookie]

 

[The_Wookie]

 

[Kwality]

Commentary on $ distributions to the clubs:

'St Kilda received over $24 million in AFL funding last year — more than $10 million more than AFL power club Hawthorn.
The league’s annual general report containing the exact breakdown of AFL funding was released last week, showing Gold Coast ($28.276 million) and GWS ($27.486 million) were given the most AFL support.

The league’s variable funding system ensures clubs are on an equal footing and takes in their strengths and weaknesses as well as historical disadvantages and club fixturing.

The league says clubs receive different accounts taking in “different supporter base sizes, differing commercial arrangements with stadiums, the financial impact of the fixture and access to income from non-football related businesses.”

West Coast was handed the smallest distribution of $12.7 million, followed by Hawthorn ($13.5 million), Richmond ($14.5 million), Fremantle ($15.39 million), Essendon ($15.503) and Collingwood ($15.59 million).
Of the Victorian clubs, St Kilda was followed by North Melbourne $21.02 million, Melbourne ($20.18 million), the Western Bulldogs ($20.03 million) and Carlton ($17.9 million).'

Good to see the AFL paying down the Saints debt, although its not reported that way:
'St Kilda was able to knock another $2.5 million off its debt which now sits at $7.015 million.'

HOW MUCH DOES YOU CLUB GET?​

AFL variable funding for 2022 season:
Adelaide $15.397m
Brisbane Lions $22.590m
Carlton $17.918m
Collingwood $15.594m
Essendon $15.503m
Fremantle $15.387m
Geelong Cats $16.876m
Gold Coast Suns $28.276m
GWS Giants $27.486m
Hawthorn $13.563m
Melbourne $20.186m
North Melbourne $21.023m
Port Adelaide $17.840m
Richmond $14.552m
St Kilda $24.479m
Sydney $18.088m
West Coast $12.733m
Western Bulldogs $20.032m

 

[My_Username]

Commentary on $ distributions to the clubs:

'St Kilda received over $24 million in AFL funding last year — more than $10 million more than AFL power club Hawthorn.
The league’s annual general report containing the exact breakdown of AFL funding was released last week, showing Gold Coast ($28.276 million) and GWS ($27.486 million) were given the most AFL support.

The league’s variable funding system ensures clubs are on an equal footing and takes in their strengths and weaknesses as well as historical disadvantages and club fixturing.

The league says clubs receive different accounts taking in “different supporter base sizes, differing commercial arrangements with stadiums, the financial impact of the fixture and access to income from non-football related businesses.”

West Coast was handed the smallest distribution of $12.7 million, followed by Hawthorn ($13.5 million), Richmond ($14.5 million), Fremantle ($15.39 million), Essendon ($15.503) and Collingwood ($15.59 million).
Of the Victorian clubs, St Kilda was followed by North Melbourne $21.02 million, Melbourne ($20.18 million), the Western Bulldogs ($20.03 million) and Carlton ($17.9 million).'

Good to see the AFL paying down the Saints debt, although its not reported that way:
'St Kilda was able to knock another $2.5 million off its debt which now sits at $7.015 million.'

HOW MUCH DOES YOU CLUB GET?​

AFL variable funding for 2022 season:
Adelaide $15.397m
Brisbane Lions $22.590m
Carlton $17.918m
Collingwood $15.594m
Essendon $15.503m
Fremantle $15.387m
Geelong Cats $16.876m
Gold Coast Suns $28.276m
GWS Giants $27.486m
Hawthorn $13.563m
Melbourne $20.186m
North Melbourne $21.023m
Port Adelaide $17.840m
Richmond $14.552m
St Kilda $24.479m
Sydney $18.088m
West Coast $12.733m
Western Bulldogs $20.032m

I'd just like the AFL to be clearer about why they give a lot of this money.

“different supporter base sizes, differing commercial arrangements with stadiums, the financial impact of the fixture and access to income from non-football related businesses.”

Supporter base sizes...yeah, that's debatable, but I suppose it's the core of balancing the competition.
Stadiums...they could really just put out a spreadsheet with this...Stadium X offers the best deal for clubs, so compared to that, if you play at stadium Y, you get an extra $500 per game, and if you're at stadium Z you get $250K per game. (The AFL's deals with the MCG and Docklands might be an issue here)
Fixture...again...Friday night is 'premium' so they get $0, while Saturday night gets $X and Sunday twilight gets $Y.....Some adjustment for local issues like time zones might apply, but you'd have the core of it pretty simply.
Access to non football income...again, shouldn't be too tough to be open about, although the AFL mightn't like admitting that a lot of it is because of AFL competition. ( e.g. you can't get that sponsorship because the AFL has a sponsorship with a competitor and there is a non compete clause).

I know they couldn't spell out all of it, but they could be a lot clearer.

 

[Rob]

I'd just like the AFL to be clearer about why they give a lot of this money.

“different supporter base sizes, differing commercial arrangements with stadiums, the financial impact of the fixture and access to income from non-football related businesses.”

Supporter base sizes...yeah, that's debatable, but I suppose it's the core of balancing the competition.
Stadiums...they could really just put out a spreadsheet with this...Stadium X offers the best deal for clubs, so compared to that, if you play at stadium Y, you get an extra $500 per game, and if you're at stadium Z you get $250K per game. (The AFL's deals with the MCG and Docklands might be an issue here)
Fixture...again...Friday night is 'premium' so they get $0, while Saturday night gets $X and Sunday twilight gets $Y.....Some adjustment for local issues like time zones might apply, but you'd have the core of it pretty simply.
Access to non football income...again, shouldn't be too tough to be open about, although the AFL mightn't like admitting that a lot of it is because of AFL competition. ( e.g. you can't get that sponsorship because the AFL has a sponsorship with a competitor and there is a non compete clause).

I know they couldn't spell out all of it, but they could be a lot clearer.

They could, but choose not to. There's a reason for that - it's virtually entirely discretionary.

 

[The_Wookie]

 

[The_Wookie]

 

[The_Wookie]

 

[The Educator]

Looks pretty much precisely in line with what we were told about the renegotiated Covid deal

 

[Bjo187]

Looks pretty much precisely in line with what we were told about the renegotiated Covid deal

I actually find the AFL financial report pretty transparent and honest, which you usually wouldn't expect from them.

 

[The_Wookie]

I actually find the AFL financial report pretty transparent and honest, which you usually wouldn't expect from them.

AFL reports are the gold standard for information as far as sport is concerned.
Cricket isnt bad.

 

[The_Wookie]

Finally GWS report is in. Cant upload due to server issues at the moment

 

[The_Wookie]

also received the AFL Concise Report