AFL revenue ladder ranked: Which clubs bring in the big bucks?

Oh what a difference a premiership makes!

Richmond’s 2017 saw it charge up the AFL’s ‘revenue ladder’ finishing fifth in the list of clubs ranked by income, and judging on the 90,151 attendance at the season opener last night and an AFL record membership of over 85 thousand there may be room for some growth yet.

The League’s top four clubs are Collingwood (2017 turnover of $77.7 million), Hawthorn ($71.5), West Coast ($71.0) and Essendon ($65.1).

Richmond sat just $2,000 outside the top four, while Greater Western Sydney was a long way adrift in sixth spot, turning over $42.6 million.

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The Hawks’ riches are built on the back of a massive sponsorship to play four games in Tasmania each year plus a huge, and controversial, take from gambling income.

The club gets over $20 million a year from poker machines at its gaming venues, a situation that led to president Jeff Kennett getting a serve from Port Adelaide chairman David Koch last week.

The Magpies and Bombers both bring in around $12 million annually from gambling.

“The AFL is pushing hard for the clubs to reduce their dependence on hospitality and gaming revenue, but it remains clear that certain clubs rely heavily on their corporate hosting and pokies revenue streams,” IBISWorld senior industry analyst Nick Tarrant said this week. “

"The three top clubs received the least funding from the AFL. In 2017, 29.4% of Collingwood’s revenue came from hospitality and pokies, with Hawthorn at 26.7%.”

While the Tigers also have poker machine licences, they are slowly fading them out as they build other revenue streams.

“Richmond’s increased revenue grew on the back of a 36% rise in home ground attendances, a 28.3% increase in sponsorship revenue and a full-year’s worth of revenue from Aligned Leisure, the club’s health and recreation business,” Tarrant said.

Merchandise and memorabilia sales went through the roof after Richmond’s drought breaking premiership win, exceeding $5 million dollars and roughly three times the windfall enjoyed by the Western Bulldogs the previous year.

The AFL’s most profitable club in 2017 was West Coast which cleared over $12 million.

Collingwood recorded the largest operating loss in the league, going $2.7 million in the red from football operations, but was saved by its gaming activities that had it well back in the black.

2017 AFL club revenue ladder