First and foremost, we would like to thank all the 35,000 members who have so far signed up in 2011 and joined our Club. We are very appreciative of your support and also urge all fans that have yet to join up to do so, especially before next week’s home Balfours Showdown.
We’re really looking forward to making AAMI Stadium a Power Cauldron for one of our marquee games of the season.
In recapping on the positive momentum I want to re-affirm with you some of the key aspects of our Club’s strategy that we have developed with the full support of the SANFL and AFL.
Firstly, we are very proud of our Club’s contribution to the South Australian Football economy and as Leigh Whicker stated at the time of the re-unification in November last year, the Port Adelaide Football Club will provide approximately $12M in profit to the SANFL over the next three years.
We are an amazing asset for SA footy and whilst we are hell bent on growing, we should all be proud of our contribution to SA football.
As I have shared with many of you before, our challenge is a revenue challenge, whilst always having a keen eye on costs.
We have a multi-pronged revenue plan, with short, medium and long term elements - we are making excellent progress, and not just on our medium to long term elements, but more recently on the short term elements also.
Mid last year, we had identified a gap financially in the short term, and we have been busy closing that gap.
We have some terrific momentum at the moment and are tracking well against all of our short term indicators and targets. The past six months have seen some significant achievements, including:
- Recreated One Port Adelaide Football Club, and this will add over $1M to our bottom line in 2011
- Integrated the Prince of Wales Hotel into our business, boosting our asset base by between $3-$3.5M and bringing our net asset position to a healthy $12M - in the top of half of all AFL Clubs
- Success of Business Ambassadors Group, which has generated in excess of $1.8M in new revenue for our Club, of which over $950k will be banked in 2011
- Corporate Partner Growth, we have grown our corporate revenue in 2011, with some terrific new partnerships with companies including Soaring Securities, Envestra, VIP Home Services and Transfield Services just to name a few
- Our total Membership is tracking well at 35,000 so far, which includes over 3000 new members in 2011. Again, it is fantastic that so many of our supporters have really got behind the Club this season
- Foundation Leaders Debt Reduction initiative - “Back in Black” , which is building serious momentum as we are rapidly approaching 100 Foundation Leaders who have been willing to get behind our Club and believe in where we are going, helping us pave that road to Adelaide Oval, and our next Premiership! Members and supporters are welcome to join us for what will be a very special night next Friday, click here for further details.
- Since 1870 - A Pictorial History of the Port Adelaide Football Club, is our fantastic new book launched last week, and the response and sales to this publication have been quite astounding and certainly demonstrate that the Port Adelaide spirit is well and truly alive. We have sold over 1500 of these books in three days since its launch!
From an on-field perspective, we have enormous confidence and belief in where Matt Primus and his coaching group are taking our young, developing team.
With a young group we are very mindful that we’ll experience both the ups and downs, and we thank you again for your patience and support - we look forward to sharing our journey with you.
So it’s business as usual at the Port Adelaide Football Club, but at the same time it is important to recognize what we are achieving at the present time, very much with the support of our members.
That said, we have an unprecedented sense of urgency about making every post a winner, and delivering against our plans on and off field as quickly as humanly possible. Keep doing your bit - we appreciate it, and we can’t wait to see you at our home Balfours Showdown on Saturday night, April 16.
Mark Haysman - CEO
mark.haysman@pafc.com.au
