The Hawks, under the board of president Dicker, struck a deal that could be football's answer to Kerry Packer selling Channel Nine to Alan Bond – ie, it happens only once in a lifetime.
Hawthorn paid $1 and, in return, received the freehold on the entire oval and a portion of what is now the administrative buildings. Thus, the club gained millions of dollars of real estate – a freehold that gave the club serious assets on the balance sheet, a buffer for bad times and no rental costs – for nothing. The Hawks also bought the gymnasium at Waverley and receive a tidy return of about 8 per cent a year.