Paying for sports packages

ON-FIELD results are not necessarily a pre-cursor to financial success for the football teams and codes competing for market share in Western Australia. The Dockers might send its fans barmy every season, yet it always makes a buck. And then there’s the Western Force, which looks as financially fit as any club despite a lean debut year. With Australia’s biggest Super 14 club membership of 21,000, the Force drew an average crowd of 28,424, the second biggest in the nation. It also attracts $3.5 million a year in sponsorship. All that, the Note notes, has fuelled RugbyWA to a projected revenue for 2006 of $22.4 million and a forecast profit of almost $1.9 million. So, not surprisingly, the rugger is out to make season 2007 even more successful. The Note got its little hands on the Western Force’s corporate sponsorship brochure, which, we are reliably informed, is out there in the market. For seven games, the minimum package is a four-seat box for $5,800 before catering is included. And top of the wozza is the 24-person package, which sets the sponsor back a cool $52,600, again before food or beverages. Right in the middle of all this, though, was the offer that caught the Note’s attention. Western Force reckons its Black Swan Bar is a unique offer at $28,700 for 10 people – a cost that includes cocktail food and drinkies. Seven games, 10 people; even your average prop could work out what that comes to per person.