SUNS BURN CASH

Gold Coast squanders handouts as Tassie waits

THE AFL pumped a record $27.5 million into the embattled Gold Coast Suns last season — the biggest distribution ever handed out to a club.

By contrast, while the Gold Coast burns millions of AFL dollars, Tasmania has to prove its economic and financial credentials before its case for entry into the big league is even heard at AFL House.

Tasmania’s AFL Taskforce will meet with the AFL for the second time later this week to discuss the business case released last month.

Documents filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission reveal Gold Coast’s membership and ticketing revenues slumped by more than $2.1 million in 2019 to just $5.1 million.

Merchandise sales totalled a paltry $243,983 as the Queensland disaster club finished the year with 18 straight losses. Sponsorship and “supply rights income” at the Suns climbed slightly from $6.5 million to $7.7 million, but funding from head office accounted for 63 per cent of the club’s total revenues.

While the Suns struggle for traction, the case for a Tasmanian AFL team attracted 64,000 pledges of support via the United We Stand website and the state's business case a 19th team (Tasmania) would add additional value overall to the AFL via increased broadcast rights. The AFL has ploughed in excess of $250 million into the league’s 17th franchise since establishing it in April 2009.

But AFL boss Gillon McLachlan — a key figure behind the club’s creation — declared on Friday that he believed the sun would never set on the AFL’s Gold Coast experiment.

“Well, they’re forever in my mind,” McLachlan told Nine newspapers.

“At some point, there’ll be someone else here and they may have a different view, but these clubs were established with generational decisions and there is not one person in this building who has any intention of, or has a different view to that.

“These are generational decisions. Therefore, for as forever it can be, for as far as forever it can be, without, you know, nothing in this world is guaranteed, but as close to that as I can have.”

Gold Coast has never played finals and was handed a monster rescue package at the end of last season, including an unprecedented three years worth of priority picks, including the first two selections in November’s national draft and the opening pick in the second round.

The Suns were also gifted Darwin as a regional academy, giving them exclusive access to the Top End’s best talent — without having to match bids on draft night — and can sign up to 10 rookies, up from the standard six.

The Suns signed just 13,649 members in 2019.

Cash-strapped St Kilda received the most of any Victorian club — $20.6 million.

Powerhouse clubs like West Coast, Richmond and Collingwood received base distributions of $11.5 million.

Greater Western Sydney is yet to report to ASIC.

The Suns received $23.7 million in AFL distributions in 2018 and $24.7 million in 2017.