Melbourne will keep selling a home game a year to Alice Springs despite being in the best financial health the club has enjoyed.
The Demons recorded the biggest operating profit in the club’s history – $3.5million – a year after their drought-breaking flag.
Chief executive Gary Pert said that the club had decided to continue playing games in the Northern Territory for cultural reasons despite no longer needing to sell the games for the financial help.
Kysaiah Pickett, James Harmes and Toby Bedford celebrate during Melbourne’s clash with Port Adelaide in Alice Springs in July. Credit:AFL Photos
Where they previously sold the games for the financial return they needed, now they want to sell the game for the non-financial benefit they glean.
“We will continue with the Alice Springs game,” Pert said. “It’s something that the players and the whole club understands, the importance of the work up there, and we have been playing there for a long time. We always give supporters a replacement home game to go to.
“When we played two games in the NT we needed to because we were in financial trouble, then we improved our financial position, and we cut back to one game.
“There is not a financial need now, but as a choice – we talked about it, and we involved the footy department as well – and we have no plans to stop playing that game. It’s something that we think is culturally important for the club. We are invested in that decision.”
Kysaiah Pickett celebrates one of his six goals in round 18 in Alice Springs.Credit:AFL Photos
This year’s financial result combined with last year’s strong $1.5 million profit meant that the club had offset the losses of two seasons that were hard hit by COVID-19.
The premiership saw big lifts in membership – a record 66,484 – sponsorship and corporate support. Merchandise also had a big bump with the club ordering record amounts of stock.
“People had not bought a lot for years and had to restock. Following the premiership we did the equivalent of four years of merchandise in months after the grand final, but merchandise has continued to be strong,” Pert said.
The club is debt free and, after the sale of the Bentleigh Club was finally realised in November, Melbourne has about $36 million in cash and investment assets.
The plan has been to use the money from the Bentleigh Club to create an investment future fund that delivers revenues to offset the lost gaming revenue.
Pert said that revenue from the future fund would only be used in lean years but not in periods like now when the club was making profits. Any money the future fund made in good years would be re-invested.
