THE BAD news continues for St Kilda with the club announcing a total financial loss of more than $2.6 million.





The Saints' bottom line was blown out by payouts to departing football department staff.





It is unclear whether those payouts included the sacking of coach Scott Watters.





The financial result is the for the year ending October 31 and Watters' sacking was announced on November 1.





After finishing 16th this season, the Saints had the Mad Monday dwarf-burning embarrassment and then lost star player Nick Dal Santo to North Melbourne.





Senior assistant coach Dean Laidley and high performance manager Bill Davoren are among those who have left the Saints' football department.





St Kilda had an operating loss of $1,198,587, but they said in a statement that depreciation, amortisation and interest blew that out to a statutory loss of $2,614,837.





"Losing our first two matches of the season unfortunately saw membership stop abruptly at 32,748 which was 2705 members short of our 2012 figure," president Peter Summers said in a club statement.





"With a 16th-place ladder finish, many other match-related activities experienced sizeable negative movement, which is not uncommon when team performance falls away as it did for us in 2013."





Apart from lower membership, the Saints' match returns, merchandise sales and events revenue were all down.





Their AFL dividend dropped by $250,000 and there were also start-up costs for the Saints Marching Fund foundation.





"Importantly, the result also includes one-off termination costs in the football department which occurred late in the financial year," Summers said.





"Without these one-off costs, as well as the foundation establishment costs, the loss before depreciation, amortisation and interest would have been in the order of $495,000.





"Whilst still disappointing, this number is well under the extreme numbers that have been circulating and reported in some quarters in recent times."





Summers added that there were reasons for optimism in a tough year, noting the success of their Anzac Day match in New Zealand and nine players making their AFL debuts.





Summers said the trade period was successful and they had their strongest draft position for more than a decade.





"We are confident our emerging talent will provide a solid foundation for future success," he said.