By Benjamin Millar
The Western Bulldogs have vowed to offload their remaining 65 poker machines within a year, tipping the proceeds into the redevelopment of Whitten Oval.
President Peter Gordon made the commitment at last Wednesday night’s best and fairest award night, noting that the club was tracking towards posting a record profit in 2018 despite failing to make the finals.
Mr Gordon said the club had turned its fortunes around since it was in receivership, leading to the fightback of 1989.
“We’ve come a long way since those days. In 1989 we had total earnings of just under $2 million, this year we will turn over more than $55 million,” he said.
“Our growth and our strength in membership over the past two years has been the biggest in our history … we are no longer shackled by crippling debt and this year we will deliver the biggest overall profit in the history of the club.”
The Western Bulldogs collected $6.1 million from poker machines in the 2017-18 financial year – $3.9 million from 30 pokies at Club Leeds in Footscray and a further $2.2 million from 35 machines at the Peninsula Club in Dromana.
Mr Gordon said a third successive profit of more than $1 million puts the club in a strong financial position to help it compete on the field, develop new training and club facilities and to move away from relying on poker machine revenue.
“We are moving over the next 12 months to sell our remaining gaming assets, and we’re going to use those asset sales as part of the capital recommitment to Whitten Oval,” he said.
The gaming revenue will be replaced with “healthier revenue streams” opened up by redeveloping Whitten Oval.
The state government annoued in April that it was gifting the Western Bulldogs Football Club a large parcel of nearby land that had been earmarked for residential redevelopment.
Mr Gordon said redeveloping the club’s spiritual home will increase seating up to 15,000 and make it one of the few preferred venues for women’s football in Victoria.
Construction will soon begin on women’s changerooms and an electronic scoreboard, while the masterplan for the redevelopment will be unveiled before the end of the year.
Mr Gordon also predicted a brighter future for the Bulldogs on the field.
“We believe in ourselves, we believe in our people, and we know that we will be back.”
