Haysman confirmed a report in The Age that the club had requested financial assistance over the next three years from the AFL, in the vicinity of $1m per year.
Haysman said the request for AFL funding was about fixing short term issues, while the club worked on setting itself up for the long-term, from which it would emerge a “strong, robust, self-sustaining business”.
That long-term planning was about a new stadium deal with the SANFL, which Haysman said was the club’s “single biggest challenge”.
“We’ve got a really strong club, we’ve got the fundamentals of a good business but certainly we need our stadium deal to change for us to sustain our future on our own,” Haysman said at a packed media conference on Tuesday.
“So in the short term we may need some transitional assistance from the AFL over two or three years while we bed down a new stadium deal and see the benefits of that flow.
“No-one likes surprises so we have been working with the SANFL and the AFL on all of these matters so we can get them front and centre and everyone understands that we have some fundamental things that need to be changed for the future.
“The key is we need to get the economics at AAMI Stadium to stack up for us based on crowds of between 25,000 and 35,000 people, and outside of Showdowns they are the crowds we can expect to get and we have to face reality on that.”
Haysman explained the club’s stadium deal as needing to get the “right share of the pie”.
“That pie is what is generated out of the footy economy in this state which has been really well fostered by the SANFL over a number of years and both AFL clubs in this state have helped build that tremendously,” he said.
The stadium deal includes arrangements on revenue from areas such as corporate boxes, catering, car parking, sponsor signage, member ticketing, and staffing costs.
Haysman commended the work that had already been done with the SANFL.
“It’s fair to say (chief executive) Leigh Wicker and the SANFL have been terrific to work with on this,” Haysman said.
“They understand the situation and we’re really working together to get the right outcome for the Port Adelaide Football Club and for footy in this state.
“We’ve just go to give ourselves the time to work through it.”
Haysman said the current arrangement put the club as much as $3.5m behind other clubs who collect a lot more of the available revenue from their stadiums.
“If we were playing over at Subiaco, with the arrangements they have over there, then we’d be somewhere between $1.5m to $2.5m better off. If we were playing up in Brisbane with the sort of crowds they get, which aren’t far off ours, it’s somewhere between $2.5m to $3.5m better off,” Haysman said.
The Power made a $1.4m loss last year, its worst return since joining the AFL. Haysman said the club was budgeting for a break-even result this year but that would be reliant on the AFL funding. He expected a response from the AFL commission in the next six-to-eight weeks.
Responding to media suggestions the AFL would want to control the club’s spending, including limiting its salary cap in return for the funding, Haysman said the AFL respected the proposal put forward by the club.
“The important thing with the AFL is that they understand where you’re really at and you can communicate what your plans are for the long term for the club,” he said.
“We’ve mapped out for the next three to five years, here’s what the club looks like and where we think we’re going to be at, these are the key levers that are going to sustain us into the future, and these are the gaps we have in the short term.
“I think they respect what we put forward to them and how we handled it. They know we have a plan as well as some short term issues that need resolving.
“We manage our spending very well here. Our win to (amount spent in the football department) ratio is the best in the AFL so we’re a very efficient club. In terms of salary cap we manage that very carefully and we wouldn’t see that changing on the basis of this (AFL funding).
“We’re very innovative in a lot of areas particularly in technology and analysis of the game.”
Haysman said the club had previously relied heavily on corporate partnerships “to underpin the club” which was made far more difficult in today’s world financial climate.
“(Former CEO) John James and his team did a really good job of maximising that (corporate revenue),” he said.
“This is about taking the club to the next level given the climate we operate in now. Our job is to take us into the next phase of growth.”
Haysman also talked of the importance of the club’s 300,000 supporters becoming members. At last count, the club was at 24,057 members. The number is down on at the same time last year.
“Our memberships are down about 10 per cent at the same time last year in terms of revenue,” he said.
“This time last year we had been running our (television / radio) campaign for about a month but we’re about to start our advertising tomorrow (with a new television commercial and radio). We’re confident we’ll pull that 10 per cent gap back.
“I think based on the economic climate we’re in generally at the moment families may be taking a little bit more time to renew and we’ve seen in the past week a big jump in memberships so we’re confident.”
North Melbourne, Western Bulldogs and Melbourne all receive annual AFL hand-outs and Haysman said most clubs had received assistance from the AFL at some time.
“I think you’ll find most clubs during a period of their lives go to the AFL for additional support and we’re no different to other clubs in doing that,” he said, “maybe it has just become a bit more transparent to everyone as to where the club is really at.”
