Eagles beat Dockers off the field

The Eagles outperformed their cross-town rivals both on the field and off it in 2020, reporting this morning the club had made a profit of a little more than $73,000 last year.

While the Dockers reported a loss of more than $1 million for the COVID-ravaged season, West Coast was able to make a modest profit after making a series of dramatic cuts to expenditure.

The club also paid a $1.17 million royalty to licence-holder, the WA Football Commission, which reported a loss of $115,000 in 2020. Fremantle paid a $1.1 million royalty to the WAFC.

But the Eagles' result was a long way behind their performance in 2019, when the club reported a surplus of more than $8 million after generating $88.7 million in revenue.

Revenue fell to $43.1 million in 2020, with membership revenue suffering the most dramatic fall - from $26.5 million in 2019 to $8.1 million in 2020.

Corporate hospitality revenue was also heavily reduced, from $14.3 million in 2019 to $4.6 million in 2020. Sponsorship revenue was steady, at $7.9 million ($8.2 million in 2019).

But total cost of goods sold fell from $21.9 million to $9.7 million, offsetting some of the reduction in revenue.

Chairman Russell Gibbs said in his report the club had lost many employees during 2020, while those who remained had accepted a pay cut.

"We now look forward with hope to a more normalised season in order to provide our people with the best possible entertainment, interaction, connection and return on investment," he said.

"We know however there are still risks and we will again seek to handle these as best as we can if necessary. Financially we are aware that there will still be many in the community with difficulties and we expect our 2021 revenue to fall well below that of 2019, but we will continue to be prudent and conservative in order to deliver the required returns."

West Coast's annual report didn't detail how much the club received from the federal government under the Jobkeeper program, but most clubs received between $3 million and $5 million. Premiers Richmond claimed $10.8 million from the federal government, while Hawthorn and Geelong each claimed about $5.4 million. Fremantle received $3.4 million.