Official Club Stuff 2018 Financial Results (links, rankings - now in post #2)

[Kwality]

Great result from Freo considering its poor on field run. Another $1.06m in to WA footy can only be good.

Not impressed by WA footys slow release on its results, poor form

 

[Rob]

It's been fascinating to go through Freo's annual report just to see the effect of the new stadium.
On the revenue side, surprisingly corporate income hasn't really changed much. Football revenue is signficantly up, but it's virtually all from membership and match day revenue increases - clearly a lot more individual tickets were sold, which would be expected given the limited capacity to do that at Subi. Most other things are roughly the same (slightly up if you want to be pedantic). But certainly the ability to generate football revenue would be as good as any other club (with the exception of West Coast who are daylight ahead of everyone).
IRT expenses, rent is up by a million a year. First time i've seen any actual figures on rent. Membership expenses are also up about 50%, but I reckon a lot of that is the one off extra cost of seating all the members. The million or so paid to the Suns for their home game would be embedded somewhere as well.
It's a reasonable result all things considered. Will be interesting to compare it to next year with all the expenses of moving taken out.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Rob re the gold coast game, didn't the venue operators buy the game from a then homeless Suns, rather than Freo and so that cost and associated income stream be in their books. That's how selling those home games in NT work.

 

[The_Wookie]

Rob re the gold coast game, didn't the venue operators buy the game from a then homeless Suns, rather than Freo and so that cost and associated income stream be in their books. That's how selling those home games in NT work.

Seems Freo paid for it.

Fremantle are bracing for a financial hit over their decision to buy Gold Coast’s home game and stage it at Optus Stadium on Saturday.

The Dockers bought the match off the AFL given Gold Coast’s home ground, Metricon Stadium, has Commonwealth Games commitments and isn’t available for football until June.

Fremantle must also pay to hire Optus Stadium.

It is believed Fremantle have forked out about $1.2 million.

Tickets for the match aren’t included in Fremantle memberships and discounted tickets have been offered to bolster crowd numbers.

The Dockers initially gave members the chance to buy their 2018 reserved seat, while the cheapest adult seats are only $25. Adult tickets include free entry for two children.

https://thewest.com.au/sport/freman...-from-taking-on-gold-coast-game-ng-b88792404z

While Freo was expecting a financial loss after reportedly forking out $1.2m to buy the game from the Suns – whose home ground is being used for the Commonwealth Games – it could prove worth the outlay if the Dockers are in finals contention at season's end.

http://www.afl.com.au/match-centre/2018/3/gcfc-v-fre

 

[Kwality]

The Gold Coast game, I'm not convinced Freo paid $all to get that game. Reckon Tourism WA would have had the purse open.

 

[The_Wookie]

 

[telsor]

The Gold Coast game, I'm not convinced Freo paid $all to get that game. Reckon Tourism WA would have had the purse open.

Perhaps, but I doubt the game would have generated enough tourism for them to justify a commitment on that scale. Cost of roughly half a million for *perhaps* 1000 visitors to a one off event doesn't seem like a particularly good investment.

 

[telsor]

GC's report this year was always going to be wonky due to the Comm Games, so overall, this seems like a good result.

Profit is good, and they're hardly the only club to pull a one off item out to get there, but the numbers seem a bit odd ($1.9M one off boost, but in note 14, the number only drops by $1.3M).

I'm also not a fan of having unpaid debts to the AFL sit in 'trade payables' for an ongoing basis, although GC are far from the worst for this (Brisbane and St Kilda are far worse).

 

[Kwality]

Perhaps, but I doubt the game would have generated enough tourism for them to justify a commitment on that scale. Cost of roughly half a million for *perhaps* 1000 visitors to a one off event doesn't seem like a particularly good investment.

Quite correct, however I've seen Tourism WA at work, i.e after $millions were spent in motor racing (Barbagallo Raceway upgrade) with Tourism WA nominally doing the marketing, and I'd say they dont get 'bang for the buck'.
The number of sports tourists to any one AFL game would not do much for the economy as a stand alone financial outcome, it'd have to be the rrepeatability factor: just my take, no numbers to support.
I know plenty of mates who come to Melbourne from WA & Tas for a weekend of footy, I'm partial to taking in a game in Adelaide or Sydney.

 

[Kwality]

GC's report this year was always going to be wonky due to the Comm Games, so overall, this seems like a good result.

Profit is good, and they're hardly the only club to pull a one off item out to get there, but the numbers seem a bit odd ($1.9M one off boost, but in note 14, the number only drops by $1.3M).

I'm also not a fan of having unpaid debts to the AFL sit in 'trade payables' for an ongoing basis, although GC are far from the worst for this (Brisbane and St Kilda are far worse).

Control - the whip hand at HQ. Not sure they need it though, the AFL guarantee would be sufficent if push came to shove.

 

[The_Wookie]

 

[Kwality]

I know Carl doesnt write the accounting standards.

 

[TigerTime_89]

AFL clubs make nothing compared to NRL clubs.

 

[NoobPie]

AFL clubs make nothing compared to NRL clubs.

Yeah, that's not remotely true

 

[weetert]

AFL clubs make nothing compared to NRL clubs.

 

[Kwality]

AFL clubs make nothing compared to NRL clubs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NRL_club_owners

Are you suggesting the NRL clubs own the very wealthy RSL clubs? See above listing.

 

[NoobPie]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NRL_club_owners

Are you the very wealthy RSL clubs own most of the NRL clubs? See above listing.

FTFY

 

[The_Wookie]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NRL_club_owners

Are you suggesting the NRL clubs own the very wealthy RSL clubs? See above listing.

RSL clubs?

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NRL_club_owners

Are you suggesting the NRL clubs own the very wealthy RSL clubs? See above listing.

The RSL clubs don't own NRL clubs. RSLs are different to Licensed clubs

The correct phrase is that the Leagues or Licensed Club (pokies) and the Football Club are usually closely linked but separate legal entities. It goes back to the 1950's when RSL and licensed clubs were legislated and they had to be separate entities from the sporting clubs - not just rugby league.

But the size of the licensed club and the grants they give to NRL clubs vary greatly across the NRL, partly due to jurisdiction issues, partly due to the relationship the two entities have, but also because of the expansion of different licensed clubs over time.

Panthers is a huge pokies, entertainment and accommodation organisation that are attached to the football club. Its why Panthers Group is usually ranked #1 or #2 biggest sporting club in Oz using 2 or 3 different financial metrics because of the way the licensed club expanded. At one point about 8 years ago, there were 14 licensed venues in the group across NSW, before they down sized.

South Sydney don't have a pokies licensed club, but South Juniors Licensed club (think now called Juniors) is a huge licensed club that had a strong link to South Sydney and provided development funds to junior clubs in the South Sydney zone. They provided some funding to South Sydney but I never understood the full set up.

Sydney Roosters and Easts Leagues in Bondi Junction are very closely linked, same board members, and last time I looked a few years ago gave the Roosters an annual grant of around $4m and had assets of around $75m to $100m.

So its not an easy comparison across clubs and its not an easy comparison NRL v ARL, but if you are comparing AFL clubs that own 100-300 pokie machines, the NRL club should be a combo of the Football Club + Licensed Club.

 

[Kwality]

Quite so on all fronts, my link was to allow TigerTime to do his own investigation.

 

[NoobPie]

Quite so on all fronts, my link was to allow TigerTime to do his own investigation.

The correct phrase is that the Leagues or Licensed Club (pokies) and the Football Club are usually closely linked but separate legal entities.

Quite so?

 

[Kwality]

Quite so?

Missed linking REHs contribution, spot on as usual.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Decided to look at Sydney Roosters and Easts Leagues given I spent a bit of time around Bondi Junction last decade, and the 2017 annual report for the licensed club said;

25 RELATED PARTIES
Parent and ultimate controlling party
The parent and the ultimate controlling party of the Company is Eastern Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club Limited, a company limited by guarantee incorporated in Australia.

They have their main licensed club and other land and buildings building independently valued in October at $81m but have it in the books at net of depreciation value of $48.2m and they have net assets of $68m.

In the Football Club accounts they have consolidated accounts and net assets of of $67m and the Football Club company has negative net assets of $(960)k. So the 2017 consolidated group is about the size of 2017 WCE and a lot bigger than 2017 Collingwood and Hawthorn when ranking by net assets. Revenue would be second only to Collingwood in 2017.

Of course the big difference is the share of football revenue vs non football revenue. Heavily weight to licensed club revenue over football, whereas most AFL clubs the majority of the revenue doesn't relate to the licensed club component. WCE dont have a pokies venue revenue.

That wiki page Kwality linked is wrong, Nick Politis does not own the Roosters, but just their wealthy long term serving chairman - around 25 years. For those interested in the comparisons.

Licensed Club's 2017 Annual accounts
https://eastsgroup.com.au/assets/images/Easts_Leagues_Annual_Report_2017.pdf

Football Club 2017 annual accounts
https://www.roosters.com.au/content...1afc179f28cb6773d/sr2017-annualreport_opt.pdf

 

[NoobPie]

I think from looking at a few annual reports, rugby league clubs would be lucky to achieve half of the football revenues of AFL clubs on average

The Roosters total revenue including a $3.2M grant from its "leagues club" still only had total revenues of $24.2M in 2017.

AFL clubs membership, ticketing and sponsorship revenues leave NRL clubs for dead

 

[Kwality]

AFL clubs make nothing compared to NRL clubs.

got any update on your take?