Clubs set to swing axe with pay cuts

SWEEPING pay cuts and cost-saving moves will be made at all 18 AFL clubs as early next week.

But a universal 20 per cent wages reduction offered by the league to the game’s 850 players will not be imposed on football industry staff. Clubs will instead have freedom to make savings of millions of dollars in ways they see fit.

Almost all AFL industry employees will be impacted. Some club staff may be asked to reduce their working hours or in worst-case scenarios will be temporarily stood down.

Modelling for the industrywide cuts was discussed in a telephone hookup of club bosses and league chiefs yesterday. The game’s 18 senior coaches have already volunteered a 20 per cent wages cut.

Players accept that they must also take pay cuts, but the AFL is yet to provide details to the AFL Players’ Association.

The AFL’s primary focus until yesterday was on staging Round 1 matches to guarantee the flow of revenues into the game. The league is also yet to detail the extent of pay cuts to its own army of staff at AFL House, including its 12-person executive.

The size of AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan’s salary is not publicly disclosed.

Clubs receive quarterly or monthly dividends from the AFL depending on their financial situation.

Docklands Stadium — football’s fully owned private asset — has emerged as another potential financial saviour.

Selling or borrowing against the Docklands venue, once the crisis passes, could help cover an estimated $500 million in industry losses if the season is abandoned. Top commercial real estate firm CBRE valued the Docklands site at $1.3 billion four years ago when Collingwood president Eddie McGuire was pushing for it to be demolished and replaced.