Great post. And while it is true that your club didn't get out of pokies for ethical reasons, they chose not to get back into pokies for ethical reasons. And for that, they should be commended.
If a much smaller club can record profits without pokies, I don't see why Hawthorn can't.
Clubs like Hawthorn and Collingwood are in a perfect opportunity to diversify because they have very good cash flow from football operations, and they can diversify out into non-football investments without getting into pokies. Pokies is a relatively cheap investment, it generates a lot of money for the capital outlay if you deploy them somewhere prone to problem gambling. However, these clubs make enough money to look at other more legitimate investments.
I used to work in wealth creation, making rich people richer, and it was never about taking the cheap or easy option, those usually have finite or low ceilings. It takes money to make money, the more you have, the wider range of options you have. It is always the most desirable option to do what is ethical, make investments which help people rather than harm them.
Clubs want to diversify outside of football revenue because football is seasonal and the bills keep coming even when the season ends, clubs that are doing it tough tend to run into cash flow problems out of season. There are different types of investments, some are suited for improving cash flow, but do not have high profitability or high asset growth, others have relatively low or no dividend or distributions but have high asset growth. There are numerous options for clubs that wish to secure their future.
I suggested to our club that we should add a very minor investment surcharge to memberships and get the AFL to agree to adding it to the door prices as well which would go into a long-term asset accumulation investment, had our club done something like that in the mid 70s we would have had investments on the books in the order of $120-150m right now. Clubs do not look forward far enough ahead into the future, most clubs have their eyes focused too much on the short-term and there aren't many great short-term investment options.