It might be the off-season, but for Perth Football League chief executive officer Andrew Dawe and his team, the real work begins now.
It might be the off-season, but for Perth Football League chief executive officer Andrew Dawe and his team, the real work begins now.
A week after the Toyota Men’s A-Grade grand final at Pentanet Stadium on September 14 between Trinity Aquinas and Kingsway, the league was hard at work planning for the 2025 campaign.
“People might not know, but the football financial year actually runs from November 1 to October 31,” Mr Dawe told Business News.
“So I guess we’re busily closing out this year’s financials and trying to understand where we think we’re going land, along with starting to work through next year’s budget.
“Obviously that budgeting process starts well in advance, but there are a lot of unknowns that probably make a fluid document at this stage of the year.
“We’re trying to predict where we’re going to land in terms of potential clubs and team numbers next year.
“At a board meeting last night, we discussed the fact of getting a couple of extra clubs into the league next year, which obviously has an impact.”
Mr Dawe said the off-season was also critical in terms of renewing sponsorship agreements.
“Some we’ve got we’re starting to see an uplift and some have unfortunately have not renewed,” he said.
“So we need to start to look at (this) – and this is obviously an ongoing process – as it impacts the budget.
“And from a football perspective, we’re planning.
“We’re not just a football administration business. I see us as a service business that services our member clubs.”
In July, the PFL underwent an extensive club consultation with its clubs in order to identify any potential concerns in and around the competition which could be improved.
Mr Dawe said the league would provide its findings from the discussions, along with potential fixes, to the clubs in November which would provide them an opportunity to further comment on the process.
Off-field, it was a successful year for the PFL, which enjoyed sustained success.
The league’s website generated 459,756 total page views, while streaming numbers of its awards night and finals matches were also strong.
Mr Dawe told Business News he was pleased with this season’s A-Grade men’s grand final at Joondalup, with the decider notching up 5386 (8110 across the day) recorded stream plays.
General admission for an adult at the gate on the day was $20, with free entry to those 15 years and under.
“We went out to tender for WAFL grounds to host the event,” he said.
“We had two elements to the success of the proponent – one, a financial element that they (WAFL club) contribute, but also we wanted to know what the qualitative aspects are.
“What you can deliver to make the event a more engaging one for people to turn up to.
“It was a competitive process and has traditionally been at Swan Districts Football Club (Steel Blue Oval in Bassendean) over the past few years, but this year we were at Joondalup.
“Again, they (West Perth Football Club) won a competitive process and offered the best atmosphere and engagement on the day.
“They offered things like food trucks, bouncy castles and kid zones in order to try and bring along more people.
“I think we ended up (crowd wise) around the 3,500 mark or close to for the day, which I think for us is a good outcome.”
The PFL CEO also praised event manager Natalie Archer for her co-ordination of the league’s awards night at Crown Perth, which aside from a massive audience, also achieved 6,296 stream plays.
