WA’s sporting organisations are working to stay ahead of the curve and enhance their standing in local and national markets.
The West Coast Eagles remain one of Australian sport’s leading players in terms of financial performance.
Sustained periods of on-field success during the club’s 40-year history have translated into off-field wins due to the loyalty of the membership and supporter base.
Despite having an 11-80 win-loss record between 2022 and 2025, the club continues to post net surpluses, increase its membership and add to its sizeable bank balance.
Don Pyke-led West Coast posted a net surplus of $1.6 million in 2025, up from $675,924 a year prior.
As a result, the Eagles’ total equity reached $114.6 million as of October 31 2025 (behind only behind Hawthorn’s $145.3 million in terms of the Australian Football League’s wealthiest clubs).
The Eagles also finished second on the 2025 AFL membership ladder after attracting 107,079 members, up 3,581 from 2024. Collingwood led the way with 112,491.
Although its sponsorship and merchandise-based income streams dropped by $999,360 and $212,116, respectively, to $9.25 million and $2.9 million, the club still generated a record revenue of $96.75 million, primarily due to gains from its membership and AFL-sourced income.
Across town, the Fremantle Football Club increased its total equity from $20 million to $22.59 million as of October 31 2025, despite posting a reduced net surplus of $554,959.
Fremantle also generated a club record revenue of $83.6 million, while its total membership reached 65,681.
With support from key government and football stakeholders, FFC has taken steps to expand its administration and training headquarters in Cockburn, with the new facilities aimed to provide added resources for its AFLW program.
Full-court press
In January, businessman Mark Arena secured complete ownership of the Perth Wildcats following a successful fast-tracked divestment process with Craig Hutchison-led Sports Entertainment Group.
Mr Arena agreed to purchase the club for $40 million in July 2024 as part of a staged process to conclude with full ownership in 2028.
At the time, Mr Arena told Business News that complete ownership of the Wildcats would provide an opportunity for the club to advance a series of initiatives, particularly in the digital space.
The Wildcats lost a best-of-three series against the Sydney Kings during the National Basketball League semi-finals last month, but the Wildcats owner and CEO said overall he was pleased with how home games at RAC Arena were received throughout the 2025-26 campaign.
“I think it was really good,” Mr Arena told Business News.
“I think the Ignite Cup, the Wednesday night games, need some work from our side. We will include these games in our memberships, so there’ll be more games included.
“We are really focused on looking at more cost-of-living issues across the board.
“We’ve got no inflation increase on the membership pricing, but there will be an increase for the two additional games.
“I’m sure it will impact a little bit with some of the membership renewals, but I still expect it to be strong as it is every year.”
Although the club’s financial result for the 2025-26 season has yet to be finalised, Mr Arena said he expected it to be more favourable than that for the previous 12 months.
“I think those games [post-season] obviously helped with that,” he said.
“But I think, as well, just with me taking over, there was a lot of one-time-transaction-type costs. We did our rebrand as well, the new logo and everything around that.
“And I think from a business perspective, the Wildcats has the most revenue, compared to all other NBL teams, and that’s because of the huge amount of support that we have from folks in WA.”
The strength of that support is clear in terms of venue capacity and attendance.
During the 2024-25 playoffs, for example, the Wildcats’ home final against the South East Melbourne Phoenix was relocated from RAC Arena to Perth HPC in Mount Claremont due to a double booking with a Kylie Minogue concert.
At the time, Mr Arena made a statement on social media stating that there was a $470,000 difference in revenue between hosting the game at RAC Arena and Perth HPC.
Winning ways
Looking forward, Mr Arena is also hopeful the Wildcats can reach a significant off-court milestone.
“We believe we’ll be the first NBL team to hit $20 million in revenue,” he said.
“And that’s our goal in the next one, two or three years, depending on how long it takes to get there.
“If I was a betting man, [I’d say] one to two years. But everything we do there is going to be reinvested into the club, [which means] we can do more things in the community.
“I’m still doing this role [owner-CEO], and I have no intention of paying myself for the role. No intention to take profits out of the club.
“Because it’s about reinvesting and being the most successful club [we can be]. Obviously there’s that club DNA of a huge amount of community initiatives, school visits and things like that.
“So yeah, we’ll look to double down on that.”
From a state perspective, Basketball WA is aiming to build on a massive year for the NBL1 West competition.
Throughout the 2025 season, basketball fans viewed more than 12.2 million minutes of both men’s and women’s state league matches, up 21 per cent on the previous year.
Along with this, five Western Australian clubs, including the Geraldton Buccaneers and Cockburn Cougars, ended the year among the top eight most-viewed clubs across all NBL1 conferences.
BWA has held the NBL1 West grand final at RAC Arena for the past two years, with both events drawing crowds of more than 6,000 people.
BWA chief executive Fabian Ross said although the big day was a few months away, there had already been considerable interest in the event.
“The NBL1 West grand final became the most watched game across all NBL1 conferences for the fourth consecutive year, the broadcast more than tripling the previous national record, also held by us, from the 2024 NBL1 West men’s grand final,” Mr Ross told Business News.
“We’re working on making it bigger and better than last year, and that’s a huge ask given the great success of the 2025 grand final.
“We’ve had significant interest from partners wanting to be a part of this major WA basketball community event and have some exciting activations in the planning.
“Our NBL1 West grand final is the centrepiece of the league and we expect large numbers to attend and watch via the NBL1 and Kayo streaming services.”
In another major coup for basketball in WA earlier this year, Tyrone Thwaites – who had been working as BWA’s chief basketball officer – was appointed general manager of NBL1, based in Melbourne, ensuring a WA voice within a traditionally east coast-based organisation.
Quest for glory
Few people understand the framework of Perth Glory quite like chief executive Anthony Radich.
Before taking the top job in July 2022, Mr Radich held a variety of roles at Glory since its first game against UTS Olympic, at HBF Park in October 1996: volunteer, member, head of commercial and chief operating officer.
Mr Radich also spent time as the Perth Wildcats’ general manager of commercial.
He is keenly aware of the important relationship between the club and its members and supporters, particularly amid rising cost-of-living pressures.
Aside from the club offering a broad general admission-based membership, where supporters have flexible seat options, Glory also offers open-air corporate boxes on the eastern side of HBF Park from $67 per person.
For context, a typical one-off adult general admission ticket for a Glory home game is around $37.50.
“The east open boxes are sort of the entry level,” Mr Radich said.
“They’re a bit more geared towards your smaller type businesses. They’re eight seaters and it’s a value proposition.
“The downside with those boxes traditionally has been that you’ve had the sun straight in your face along that end of the ground. But because the vast majority, if not all, of our games have been in the evening it hasn’t presented the issue it has in the past.
“It’s an excellent value option.
“And yeah, look, we probably have to market it a bit better as well and more strongly to get that word out there.
“We’ve got a lot of inventory and that’s our challenge, but it also presents a wonderful opportunity for us.”
Aside from offering flexible ticket and corporate options, Mr Radich said the Glory was continuing to find ways to foster ties with different businesses.
“I think as a football and sporting club, you have to look at new and innovative ways to align,” he said.
“First and foremost, you’ve got to try and find an arrangement or alignment that best meet your partner’s needs.
“We’ve always liked to adopt a flexible approach to the way we partner with organisations.
“Whether that be bespoke activations in the social space … social is where you derive a significant amount of value now for partners, and it’s all about engagement.”
Stick to it
Weeks out from its 2026 season opener, Hockey WA announced it had signed a three-year naming rights agreement with TeamStar, a Cottesloe-based online sports management platform.
The governing body for hockey in WA is no stranger to TeamStar, having teamed up with the company last year to centralise and simplify club administration tasks, fixture management and team lineups.
Hockey WA chief executive Graham Reid welcomed the new development, which was designed to further enhance the competition.
“The feedback from clubs has been overwhelmingly positive,” Mr Reid told Business News.
“They’re seeing clearer, more consistent fixtures, improved communication flows and noticeably reduced admin time for volunteers.
“A lot of the manual tasks that used to consume hours are now far more streamlined.
“Importantly, clubs are optimistic about the future development of the platform, and we’re continuing to refine it with TeamStar based on real world feedback from those using it every week.”
From a high-performance perspective, the Perth Thundersticks – WA’s team in the national Hockey One competition – has also benefited from technology.
Prior to the 2025 season, Hockey One released its global pass digital platform, allowing hockey enthusiasts overseas to watch matches.
Mr Reid said the added viewership had raised the exposure of hockey in WA.
“The launch of the Hockey One global pass was a really exciting step for the Thundersticks and it absolutely broadened our reach, particularly in India, where the response was extremely positive,” he said.
“We received enthusiastic feedback from fans, partners and new audiences who were engaging with the Thundersticks brand for the first time.
“There’s definitely momentum to build on, and we’re looking at new opportunities this year to strengthen our international presence and continue growing our supporter base globally.”
In late February, the first sod was turned at the $163 million Australian Hockey Centre redevelopment project, located a stone’s throw from Hockey WA’s headquarters at Curtin University.
Mr Reid said Hockey WA was doing all it could to work with stakeholders to ensure the sport maximised benefit from the era-defining facility.
New league
During the past year, rugby league in WA has risen to arguably its highest point since early 1997.
On May 8 last year, Australian Rugby League Commission chair Peter V’landys, National Rugby League CEO Andrew Abdo and WA Premier Roger Cook announced a new WA-based franchise. The ‘marriage of equals’ between WA and the North Sydney Bears would enter an expanded competition from next year.
Following this announcement, the Bears made a series of key appointments, including longstanding federal politician Ben Morton as chair, rugby league immortal Mal Meninga as coach, along with former Seven West media editor-in-chief Anthony De Ceglie as chief executive.
The Bears have already locked in several important commercial ties with major businesses, including Budget Direct, Gage Roads, Cash Converters, SCA WA and IBM.
At grassroots level, NRL WA reported in March that, leading into its 2026 junior and senior seasons, participation rates were up by 17 per cent and 9 per cent.
A perfect union
In 2027, the eyes of the rugby union world will be focused on Perth, which will host the opening ceremony and match of the 2027 men’s Rugby World Cup.
Prior to this, the Western Force, led by Niamh O’Connor, are intent on maintaining their stewardship of the game in WA and connecting with community wherever possible.
In late-February, the club hosted its round two Super Rugby Pacific home game against the Blues at Arena Joondalup (HIF Health Insurance Oval), which attracted 5,131 spectators.
Speaking at the club’s 2026 season launch, Ms O’Connor said more had been asked of people across all areas of the club, and club officials had been heartened by the response.
