THE BRISBANE Lions' on-field woes have extended off-field, with the club recording a net operating loss close to $2 million for the past year.

Declining crowd and membership numbers due to poor performance, and the final year pay-out of sacked coach Justin Leppitsch's contract were contributing factors.

The club also invested an extra $500,000 in its football department from the previous year.

The total loss was $1.78 million.

Chief executive Greg Swann said the club continued to work with the AFL to improve its financial performance.

"Off the field, we have done a large body of work in the commercial and membership areas to ensure that we are in a position to capitalise on the improved results that we expect will come with our new approach in football operations," Swann said.

"As a club, we want to become relevant again – that involves a lot of hard work and we are up for the challenge."

The Lions narrowly avoided the wooden spoon in 2016 and appointed Chris Fagan to take over from Leppitsch as coach.

Swann said despite the financial result, the club had extended the contract of co-major partner Vero by two years and added Camperdown Dairy International alongside them for three years.