MELBOURNE Football Club has reported a statutory profit of $285k for the year ending 31 October 2014. The Club’s operating result for the year was a profit of $161k.

This result represents a turnaround of $1.9m from the operating result of 2013. The turnaround has been achieved through increased revenue and tight cost control.

Club revenue grew by $2.3m during the year. Key drivers of this growth include the increase in our membership tally to almost 36,000 members, a 28% increase in home game attendances and a full suite of Club sponsors. In addition, administration costs were reduced by $494k, whilst our corporate, membership and fundraising expenses remained constant despite the $2.3m increasing to revenue.

Melbourne CEO Peter Jackson said: “This is an encouraging result for the Melbourne Football Club, particularly considering the statutory loss of $3.1m in 2013. We have been able to right a ship that was floundering last year and it’s a reflection of the effort and capabilities of all involved. Importantly, this has not been at the expense of our football department expenditure, which grew by $892k during the year.”

“It’s particularly pleasing that the result was achieved without any significant additional normal funding from the AFL. Whereas the Club received a one-off grant from the AFL in 2013 to restructure the Club, funding from the AFL returned to normal levels in 2014. The restructure has allowed us to reduce costs and has clearly contributed to this result in 2014.”

Melbourne President Glen Bartlett said: “This is an excellent result for the Club in a year that has seen so many changes. This result is an important step for the Club and gives us stability and a strong foundation to move forward, but we still have a lot of work to do to take the Club to a position of strength.”

“I would like to acknowledge the work of the Board, and in particular the management team lead by Peter Jackson, who has worked very hard to grow our revenue, control costs and invest in the development of our football department."