Richmond set for bumper financial return from record membershipAustralian Financial Review
August 26, 2015AFL club Richmond is to post another million-dollar profit as its revenue hits $50 million for the first time, thanks to surging membership, television ratings and crowd numbers.
The club, which has not won an AFL premiership since 1980, is closing in its third successive finals campaign and has had a record amount of fans flock to its games in 2015.
Richmond's average attendance for all its home and away games before Saturday's 91-point win against Collingwood was about 48,000, making the club the most popular in the AFL this year. It also has about 70,000 members.
Those figures mean the Tigers are outdrawing popular clubs such as Collingwood, Adelaide Crows and Hawthorn, with its crowds up 28 per cent compared to last year.
"We've always had that latent supporter base but now we're giving them some constantly competitive football and we've got some captivating players as well," says Richmond CEO chief executive Brendan Gale.
Richmond's television numbers have also increased, the club being rewarded for its improving form on the field by gaining more high-rating Friday night matches in recent years.
The Tigers are currently the third-highest rating club on TV, after just Collingwood and Hawthorn, and two more prime-time matches are to come in rounds 22 and 23. Overall, Richmond's TV audience is up 8 per cent on 2014.
Gale says the club should record another good surplus in 2015, adding to its $1.3 million net profit last year and $3.3 million net profit the year before, making it one of the more financially successful clubs in the competition in recent years.
The club will, however, have to pay about $200,000 into the AFL's revenue equalisation model, which takes some money from the more wealthy clubs to be distributed to the financially struggling sides.
Revenue should reach a record $50 million this year, and could go higher if Richmond have a successful final series. "We obviously get a good distribution from the AFL, which helps, but we are up across membership, corporate hospitality and sponsorship," Gale says.
The club is also in the market for a new naming rights sponsor for its Punt Road training and administration headquarters, as ME Bank's current deal expires at the end of the 2015 season. "While we're are in a fantastic position in terms of branding [Punt Road is on one of Melbourne's busiest roads], I think what we are looking for from a potential partner is [someone who] wants to have a higher purpose with us than just being a footy club."
In those terms, Gale points to Richmond's Korin Gamadji Institute, an Indigenous training centre adjoining its facilities which the club helped establish and administer. The institute has provided vocational training for 2500 young Indigenous people since its doors opened about three years ago.
Richmond is also leading a movement to improve gender equality in both the AFL and sport as a whole. Gale says that while the club had been below the AFL average in terms of the percentage of female members, the situation is improving. "The growth that we've had, most of that has come from new female members."
http://www.afr.com/business/sport/richmond-set-for-bumper-financial-return-from-record-membership-20150820-gj3ikd
