Footy debt plea to Govt
WA Football Commission chief executive Gary Walton wants WA football to be debt free when it moves to the new Burswood stadium in 2018 after a State Government contribution help-ed the commission slash debt of almost $4 million last year.
The Government pitched in $3 million and renewed a debt guarantee on Domain Stadium, while the WAFC repaid $900,000, representing repayments for 2012, 2013 and 2014, to cut debt from $10.4 million to $6.5 million.
Walton said the WAFC would be expected to pay $300,000 in each of the 2015, 2016 and 2017 seasons, while it was hoped the government would erase the remainder of the debt before the shift to Burswood.
“By the end of 2017 we would want to be debt free and we would want to be hopefully building a level of reserve for the WAFC,” Walton said.
“But that is going to depend very much on what happens year by year. At the end of the day, the worst position we want to be in is neutral.”
The debt stems from the last development at Subiaco which was completed for the 2000 season at a cost of $34 million.
Under arrangements reached with the government of the day, football was to pay interest on $30 million in borrowings, while the State repaid the principle.
Several years ago the government pre-paid $15 million to reduce the debt from $25 million to $10 million, slashing the interest payments the WAFC faced.
Walton said a cash operating surplus of $650,000 in 2014 had enabled the WAFC to reduce the debt without getting “behind the eight-ball”.
“It lets us start with a fresh start in what we perceive to be a very challenging 2015,” he said.
“The cuts we made back in November, which included a number of redundancies, were recognising that revenues were decreasing and likely to decrease permanently and that the economy was not likely to get better and, in fact, it could deteriorate further.”
Walton said the WAFC would continue to try to find new revenue streams through different uses of Domain Stadium.
Its 2014 revenue had included money from hosting the Origin festival, the Fortescue Metals Group’s Christmas party, the stadium stair race and One Direction concert on February 20, which is believed to have generated more than $300,000.
Walton said the WAFC wanted Domain Stadium to host a Melbourne Cup function this year, using the recently upgraded video screen and sound system to broadcast the famous race.
“It is primarily around the use of the turf, the video screen and the sound system,” he said.
“We spent approximately $1.2 million on the video and the sound system and it gives us something new to attract content.”
Walton confirmed the WAFC preferred concerts at the end of the year to avoid turf quality issues like those following the One Direction concert — although the Eagles trained lightly on Domain Stadium on Tuesday afternoon and are expected to be able to use the ground fully by the end of the week.
“We seriously need to look at those events to provide additional revenue,” he said.
“We are out in the market for stadium concert tours, and the cycle appears to be changing where we are starting to see bands again wanting to do stadium tours.”
