Collingwood is reportedly interested in selling one of its home games interstate to “make a lot of money”.
The plan would see the Magpies, who last year drew the second-largest average home crowd (48,573) behind only Carlton, be paid to host a club for a home and away game in a city like Brisbane or Perth.
New CEO Craig Kelly is behind the idea according to Triple M’s Tom Browne.
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“I detected when I was up in Brisbane that Collingwood is interested – Craig Kelly, very commercial, their new CEO – in potentially taking one of their games interstate,” he said.
“You can call it selling, or getting money from it, it would be highly profitable. They’ve got a lot of supporters nationally.
“So if they married it up with an existing game interstate, for example you took a team up to Brisbane, played them there, then went down the coast and played the Suns. Collingwood could turn that into a two-week extravaganza and make a lot of money.
“They could also make a lot of money by taking a game to Perth. They are exploring that at the moment.”
Selling home games has typically been reserved for less financially successful clubs.
For example last year St Kilda sold a game against Port Adelaide to far north Queensland, then losing by a point in slippery conditions – arguably a turning point in their season as they went from 5-1 to missing the finals.
Along with Cairns the Saints have also sold home games to New Zealand and China but are 0-6 in those match-ups.
Melbourne sells a home game each year to Alice Springs, previously for financial reasons but now because it’s “culturally important”.
Collingwood reported a $7.3 million profit on revenue of $75.3 million last year.
