PARRAMATTA EELS - Pirtek Stadium, ANZ Stadium
PIRTEK STADIUM
Capacity: 20,700
Expenditure: Operational costs: $70,000
Revenue: Ticket sales: $58,000 (round one), $55,000 (round four).
Merchandise: $37,000 average a game (up from $17,200 in 2013)
Corporate: $80,000 (capacity of 800 at about $100 a head)
Signage: $120,000 a game
Profit: $220,000
ANZ STADIUM
Capacity: 82,000
Expenditure: Operational costs: $15,000
Revenue: ANZ Stadium: $175,000 minimum guarantee a game
Ticket sales: $0 (ANZ Stadium receives money from ticket sales. There is a profit-share agreement in place for large crowds that gives the Eels an incentive to drive crowds and commercial. That agreement came into play on Easter Monday.)
Merchandise: $21,000 average (For the Easter Monday blockbuster game against the Tigers, the club sold $50,000 worth of merchandise.)
Corporate: $80,000
Signage: $120,000
Profit: $381,000
Parramatta: The Eels are in the second year of a three-year deal with ANZ Stadium, with an option for another two years. They will play a minimum of two games a year at the Olympic Park venue with a guarantee of $175,000 a game.
A lucrative deal worth about $400,000 to play one game a year in the Northern Territory allows them to schedule nine games a season at Pirtek Stadium. The club needs to sell 4200 tickets (outside of its 12,500 ticketed members) a game to break even when playing at Pirtek Stadium, given approximately 55 per cent of ticketed members attend each game. The average profit per game at Pirtek Stadium is $220,000, well below the ANZ Stadium average of $381,0000.
The Easter Monday clash against Wests Tigers attracted 50,668 fans, allowing the Eels to activate a profit-share agreement with ANZ Stadium. The club earned about $60,000 more on Easter Monday than it normally would at ANZ Stadium. If the club switched its ratio of matches to nine games at ANZ Stadium and two games at Pirtek Stadium, it would benefit from an estimated $1.4 million growth in game-day profit.
Even if Pirtek Stadium is at full capacity, the club estimates the game-day profit will be $70,000 less than an average game at ANZ Stadium. Research undertaken by the club has shown the 5.30pm timeslot on Saturday evening is the most popular with the Eels fans.
