PORT ADELAIDE and the Crows will not be forced to pay more for their part in the SANFL despite a revenue crisis among the State league clubs.

SA Football Commission chairman John Olsen has blocked a move from the SANFL league directors to revisit the 2014 agreement that released the Crows and Power AFL licences on a 15-year agreement.

“A deal is a deal,” Olsen told The Advertiser.

That deal, signed on March 27, 2014, demands:

ADELAIDE pay the SANFL $11.326 million across 15 years to release their AFL licence — and $400,000 a year for an SANFL licence for the Crows reserves.

PORT ADELAIDE pay the SANFL $6.985 million across 15 years for its AFL licence — but no SANFL licence fee. This in recognition of the Magpies (now the Power AFL reserves) being one of the State league’s founding clubs from 1877.

The SANFL league directors want the Port Adelaide model in the SANFL to be a direct replica of the Crows with a $400,000 licence fee.

But Olsen and SANFL chief executive Jake Parkinson told The Advertiser the repeated comparisons between the Crows and Power agreements are flawed.

“Adelaide pays a licence fee — and has use of a facility (Football Park) free of charge,” Parkinson said.

“Port Adelaide does not pay a licence fee — and plays (SANFL) out of Alberton Oval.

“There was a complex formula used to settle on the release of the two AFL licences (previously owned by SANFL). It is even for both clubs. It balances out.

“The deal was thrashed out three years ago. We are now two years into a 15-year agreement. And that point was made to the league directors (on Tuesday night). A contract is in place — and it will not be revisited.”

The SANFL pact with the Crows and Power has returned to the league agenda — on the directors’ urging — as the financial squeeze continues on the State league clubs. This was highlighted last week as Glenelg revealed a $3.2 million debt with club president Nick Chigwidden bringing into question whether the Tigers could survive to the 2017 season.

The financial pain across the SANFL also has cast a shadow on the SA Football Commission with six nominations for two vacancies. The commission elections will be at the league’s annual meeting on March 15 and sit for the first time as a new panel on March 29.

Olsen insists the agreements with the Crows and Power will not be revisited. But the search for new revenue streams to ease the pressure on the SANFL clubs will remain on the commission’s agenda.

“Some clubs are making year-after-year losses — we have to face up to that,” Parkinson said.

“We have to grow revenue. But we also have to look at the cost base. Not to take resources out of clubs, but there may be ways (to share costs) so that every club does not spend on the same thing eight times over.”

Parkinson noted the hope some SANFL clubs had of building cash reserves on gaming revenue had slipped.

“The SANFL club pokies are competing with other venues,” Parkinson said. “Gaming revenue is down — and will continue to come under pressure.”

michelangelo.rucci@news.com.au