CHIEF executive Peter Jackson believes Melbourne can return to making a profit next year, after a tough 2013.
Speaking at AAMI Park on Monday, when Melbourne announced a new three-year major sponsorship deal with Automotive Holdings Group (AHG), Jackson was confident the club could start to turn its fortunes around.
“We’ll be back in the black, in my view, in 2014,” he said.
“This appointment of AHG is on top of some other recent sponsorship appointments. We’ve got the Northern Territory on board with shorts and playing a couple of [home and away] games [and one pre-season match] up there – that’s a good financial deal for us.
“We’ve got New Age Caravans come on as the coaches’ sponsor and we’ve got some other sponsors in place from the previous years.”
Jackson said the club was starting to build some solid foundations entering 2014.
“I think we’ve got a good base going forward, something this club didn’t have at the beginning of last year,” he said.
“What’s really appealing about this arrangement is the nature of the company that’s come on board – an ASX 200 company with the Melbourne Football Club.
“If you look back and I’m not trying to be disrespectful [to previous sponsors, because] we value anyone that’s in partnership with the club – but to get a company of AHG’s stature involved with us, we know we can look forward for three years with stability and long term tenure.”
Jackson said the deal was substantial for Melbourne.
“Melbourne Football Club is where it is and it’s not going to be as substantial as some of the bigger clubs get. We know where we are in the competition,” he said.
“But it’s substantial for us in terms of stability and long term tenure and what we can do and we’re very grateful for that.”
Jackson said it was up to Melbourne to stand on its own two feet next year.
“I’m happy to say we got $1.45 million in 2013 and that was a $1 million grant and $450,000 matched dollar for dollar for any fundraising we did, which we managed to do,” he said.
“That all went into 2013 to restructure the club – we haven’t got any change out of that – and that all went into paying out contracts and undertaking a management restructure.
“The reality is we haven’t got anything from them (the AFL) for 2014 – it was a one-off grant and we’re back on our our again for 2014. We get support from the AFL like all clubs do, but we’re back on our own for 2014.”
