Brisbane’s debt level is a noose around the AFL club’s neck, new chief executive Greg Swann says.
Swann, who was appointed on Friday, says he has already met with the AFL regarding the Lions’ debt.
“There’s some serious things that need to be done and done pretty quickly if we can,” Swann told Radio 3AW on Saturday.
“I think it will push out to about 12 million plus by the end of this year, so it’s substantial.
“The club had already been talking to the AFL before I got involved.
“There’s some steps in place, with some of the equalisation, I think there’s some help there even in paying the interest and things like that.
“The club will lose money this year and that has happened for the last few years.
“So first of all we’ve got to stem the bleeding. We’ve got to get that part right.
“Hopefully the first step is to get back to break even because I think it is forecast to lose two, two-and-a-half million dollars this year.
“We can’t keep doing that and survive. So we’ve got to stem that bleeding and then we can look to attack the debt.
“The AFL are aware of it and they’re very mindful.
“We’ve got to get this historical debt away because it is a bit of a noose around our neck.”
The former Collingwood and Carlton boss says he has urgent business in a market dominated by rugby league.
“It’s a Broncos town,” Swann said.
Swann is determined to lift the Lions’ media profile in the Queensland capital.
“We need to get our fair share,” he said.
“Hopefully it’s the good stories not bad ones which seems to be, I hear it’s been happening lately.”
Swann said Brisbane’s premiership coach and board member Leigh Matthews was influential in his move north.
“He was just brutally honest about where it was all at and just felt Brisbane needed someone who’s experienced,” Swann said.
Swann said he had enjoyed helping to rebuild Collingwood and Carlton during his time at those clubs and sees similarities with Brisbane’s situation.
“That was the thing that was probably the biggest attraction was the challenge,” Swann said.
Swann’s tasks will include assessing the viability of the proposed training and administration base at Springfield in Brisbane’s south-west.
The pedge
Guest
What many people forget is the lions are pouring crap loads of money into the social club at springwood. Once that is paid off the club will be able to improve it's financial situation quite a lot. The lions have lots of fans in brisbane. They are just bandwagoners. Like any team in brisbane when they are winning they are everyone's favourite. And yes I am a queenslander who has grown up playing the game since the age of 5.
alicesprings
Guest
20% of players or 19 out of the 96 players invited to the combine from NSW/ACT & QLD…it all bodes well for the draft for the team from the northern states. Those academies are obviously working.. Imagine what the 2020 draft will look like..imagine say 40 players from the northern states getting drafted..thats when we can truly call it a national game. One can only dream.
TomC
Roar Guru
Sort of relevant: An interesting development today with the announcement of the 96 players invited to test at the national draft combine: seven of them are players on whom the Lions have bidding rights - five through the academy, two through father son. It probably gives some context to the efforts by rival clubs to reign in the drafting concessions. You'd imagine about four or five of those players will get drafted, and under the current rules Brisbane could sweep up most of them. It certainly gives Brisbane a good chance at getting the most out of the next draft.
Bruce
Guest
Bam !! Gave it to me Gasper.......Wam !!!!! Another one from Flicka lol.........get on board folks we're gonna trash this place.....the big show's comin' to town, we're takin' over.......Kapow !!!! Tell me another story Gasper........what about a Grimm's Fairy Tale.....get Gilligan to read it......lol....make it about auskick....can't lose on that one......lol....lol....Shabam !!!!! Game over......Sydney captured.....Brisbane captured......next we take New York....lol....lol.....
Flick
Roar Rookie
Goosey brucey ignores those stories.
Casper
Guest
Bruce - how about he fact that the Suns get bigger crowds than the Titans. That's a good news story in SE QLD.
Bruce
Guest
Well said Flicka - now please give us a good news story about SE QLD - maybe quote Auskick numbers lol or memberships or ratings lol - it dosn,t have to be true - you know - one of those AFL head office stories to make us feel better lol...lol...
Flick
Roar Rookie
The AFL teams both have waiting lists for memberships, thousands of people on waiting lists, the rugby and soccer teams don't You can play soccer and rugby at the new stadium and they will, you cant play Australian football or cricket at a rectangular one.
fiver
Guest
But does anyone in Perth care about the soccer and Rugby teams? The new stadium may hold 60k but it's just another AFL ground, they still don't have a world class rectangular stadium.
Flick
Roar Rookie
Agreed, the crowds have been good, bar a couple and the club has been bad, bar a couple.
clipper
Guest
That's a bit harsh about Perth. Adelaide is quite small, so can't really sustain a lot of teams, but Perth have a Rugby team, Soccer team and 2 AFL teams, Brisbane has a Rugby team, AFL team, Soccer team and league team - same number of teams in the Football codes. Perth is also building a 60k multi purpose stadium, will seat a few more than anything Brisbane can offer.
TomC
Roar Guru
Yes Axle, Sportsfan and I are clearly deluded by our love for the club. We can't possibly hope to match your standard of objectivity and reasoned analysis. Back to reality, Sportsfan raises an important point when we talks about past administrations. The Lions were poorly managed for many years and it's entirely right that they feel some pain for that. The question is whether they have an equal chance to drag themselves out of that hole as any other club would be in the same situation, and I'd argue that they don't. Sportsfan mentions the recruitment of James Aish, but even now we really don't know if he'll be at the club beyond 2015. Honestly, I have sympathy for Victorian fans who are bitter about the preferential treatment. I still consider myself a Fitzroy supporter first and foremost. But the reality is that for ten years the Lions haven't received any meaningful additional support that's not available to clubs in heartland states, and look where we are.
Cat
Roar Guru
$12 mil isn't that much different from the debts Geelong, Collingwood, Hawthorn, Port and I am sure others have found themselves in and have found ways to get out of (or are in the process of getting out of).
Axle an the guru
Guest
I dont want to see Brisbane go to the wall and i dont hate AFL. All I'm saying is they have been in dept a long time now,its growing bigger every year and from a business point of view,its not good being 12mil in dept. if they come up with a workable plan to eradicate it fine,but no business can keep going with that sort of dept. i dont expect diehard supporters to agree with me,they are to passionate and think with there heart.
TomC
Roar Guru
I agree. Brisbane sports fans have a long history of turning out to see winners and shunning losers. All cities are like that a bit, but Brisbane probably more so than anywhere else in this country. But that's part of why the debt is so significant. As Swann said on the weekend, the only way to clear it is by increasing revenue, and the only way to do that is to get crowds up. And at the moment the club's off-field plight is having a crippling on-field impact. And the only way to address the off-field issues is to invest money in fixing them, which means going into more debt. Not an easy job.
fiver
Guest
Lions will be fine. Brisbane is a great city that values sporting diversity, unlike the backwards insular cities of Adelaide and Perth.
alicesprings
Guest
You need to get out of Victoria occasionally Bosk…its been a national competition to 30yrs.
alicesprings
Guest
but the lions are producing $43million in revenue each year…cut their spend by $3m/yr and that debts gone in 4yrs…a little perspective doesn't go astray hey?
SportsFanGC
Roar Guru
The one thing we can be grateful of is the Axle the guru has absolutely nothing to do with the running of the AFL or its future direction. If you think cutting a club loose, which resides in Australia's third largest city, is a good idea then you are delusional. Firstly, as someone that actually lives in Queensland on the Gold Coast and has attended nearly every Brisbane home game this year I can tell you that the situation on ground from a fans perspective is not as dire as everyone thinks. The Lions have a good following here and they also have respect (which would not have been the case in the early days of the club) from the general public. They are going through a tough patch and rebuilding so you cannot expect that people are going to turn up in 30K crowd numbers to watch them at the moment. The building blocks are there for future team success on field, they have a solid core of midfielders and recruited a couple of gems in James Aish and Lewis Taylor last year to complement a competent backline which they also bolstered through the 2013 draft. The worry is the forward line and I suspect that they will be targeting this area of the ground this year. The off-field stuff is the work of previous administrations. They have left the club were it currently sits with debt and they now have a proven operator in Greg Swann in charge
Alicesprings
Guest
You watch once brisbane start winning their ave crowds will be back up to 30k+ and the membership will return...typical bandwagon city..ranked only behind sydney. The crowds have been amazing considering they've been ordinary at best for the past 6yrs. Their debt is manageable...they're in a similar position to Geelong back around 10yrs ago. We all have short memories.