The Port Adelaide Football Club held its annual general meeting tonight at Alberton with over 500 Members in attendance.

 
Chairman David Koch highlighted Port Adelaide’s significant growth on and off the field in 2014 including the following key points:
 
  • 62% growth in home-game attendances to an average of 44,364 ranking 4th in the AFL
  • 33% growth in Membership to 55,750 equating to a 45% growth in Membership revenue
  • 27% growth in national television audience
  • 85% growth in corporate revenue
  • 42% growth in merchandise sales
 
Despite recording substantial growth in these key areas Port Adelaide recorded an operating loss of $2.5 million for the year ending 31 October 2014.
 
Mr Koch said a number of major factors impacted the result.
 
“First we continued to invest into our football program to enable our on-field resurgence to continue. Despite this increase in investment we still rank 12th in the AFL for football department spend so we were coming from a long way back,” said Mr Koch.
 
“We also wanted to hit the ground running at Adelaide Oval so we invested heavily into our game-day experience.
 
“As a result we achieved record home-game attendances but we didn’t receive the full return from our stadium deal for what our club and Members invested into it.
 
“And from a corporate perspective, despite the outstanding growth in revenue we were unable to attain our overall target for the financial year which also contributed to our loss.”
 
Mr Koch said the club is set to further improve its revenue streams from a corporate, membership and stadium yield perspective moving forward.
 
“The good news is that we anticipate a new stadium deal to be finalised soon which will allow us to get a fair return from Adelaide Oval from 2015 onwards,” said Mr Koch.
 
“From a corporate position, we expect to close that gap even further in 2015. Most of our existing corporate partners have committed for this year and we are likely to attract more major national partners soon.
 
“And in regards to Membership we have already surpassed 53,500 with a view of 60,000 Members for the year which will significantly improve our Membership revenue in 2015.
 
“Allowing for this growth I am delighted to announce that Port Adelaide is budgeting for a profit next year.”