AFL COMMISSION chairman Mike Fitzpatrick has announced another year of record growth in virtually all aspects of the game.
According to the latest annual report figures which were sent to club presidents this week, the league recorded:
- record revenue of $285m in 2007 – up 34 per cent from $225 million in 2006.
- record profitability of $26 million in 2007 before distributions to reserves and the Future Fund.
- record total distributions of $176 million with record distributions to AFL clubs of $125 million – up $29 million on the previous year.
- profitable results from 15 out of the 16 AFL clubs - up from 12 clubs in 2006 - with aggregate club profitability of $22 million, more than $10 million more than 2006.
- record investment of $36 million in game development across Australia, supporting a community network which consists of 2600 clubs which field 11,600 teams each week in 269 leagues.
The AFL also had a record year in terms of the growth of the game with increases in all key areas of the game including:
- record attendances at Toyota AFL premiership season and finals games of 7.05 million – a jump of 4 per cent. Based on the average attendance per game for the premiership season and finals in 2007 (38,107), average attendances for AFL games are the second highest of any major football code in the world behind only the US NFL (67,738).
- record attendances for the Toyota AFL home and away season of 6,475,521, despite 10 games being played at limited-capacity venues such as Launceston, Carrara, Manuka Oval and Marrara Stadium and capacity at the SCG being affected by reconstruction work.
- record club memberships of 532,697 – up by 2.6 per cent on 2006.
- record participation of 638,000 players – a rise of 9.8 per cent or 56,989.
- record NAB AFL Auskick participants of 161,159 – a rise of 9.4 per cent.
Fitzpatrick said 2007 had been a great success with more industry collaboration and an on-field game that was second to none.
"Geelong certainly set the standard on the field but the game itself has gone to a new level with the quality of the game being as good as we have ever seen," Fitzpatrick said.
"I want to pay tribute to our AFL clubs and our Australian football supporters for helping to achieve a record year in attendances, memberships and participation."
Fitzpatrick also released the details of the executive packages for 2007.
He said a three-year remuneration agreement had been concluded last year with CEO Andrew Demetriou and that his 2007 package, including salary and significant performance bonuses, totalled $1.4 million. The 11-man executive team were paid salaries and bonuses totalling $4.5 million.
Fitzpatrick said a review by the AFL Commission’s remuneration committee found that the AFL needed to pay competitive market salaries to stop other sports and industries poaching its top executive talent.
"The AFL is Australia’s largest sporting organisation and Andrew and his team lead an organisation that generates $285 million in revenue but also sets the agenda for a wider football industry that generates more than $3 billion a year in economic activity and employs the equivalent of 9500 full-time jobs," Fitzpatrick said.
"We are in a very competitive marketplace and we have seen that other sports are prepared to pay well to secure our top talent but the Commission has determined that a significant portion of the annual package is bonus-based and only paid on reaching agreed key performance indicators. With considerable growth in revenues, memberships, participation and other key measures, our team has performed well.
"Since Andrew took over as CEO, he has brought stability to the management team while the AFL has increased participation by 22 per cent, revenue by 67 per cent and our other key measures are at record levels.
"In our 150th year we have a big strategic agenda that we are working on and Andrew and his team have already started the preparatory work on the next television rights deal."
