Bays Lotto

Why is this Bays Lotto initiative important?

The Club has recently updated our Strategic Plan for the 2025 – 2028 period. As part of our stakeholder engagement process, two fundamental priorities became evident:

1. Connection – increasing our connection with each other internally at the Club and more broadly with our families, members, fans and local community.
2. Sustainability –improving our financial stability, on-field success and succession planning, the quality of our football programs, the long-term welfare of our people, our relationships with our community and driving innovation.

We are committed to giving our players every opportunity to not only play in a premiership each year, but also provide the best environment, the best coaches, best equipment, best infrastructure and utilise the best technology we can afford.

As a Club, we want to continue to win flags and maintain our most successful era in the Club’s history. This doesn’t come cheap and with all our footy club costs going up in price every year, we need your support.

For example:

• Playing guernseys – we are now purchasing multiple sets of guernseys for our men’s and women’s teams each year (traditional black, away strip, Indigenous & recently ANZAC Day, which now cost over $32,000).
• IT costs (eg: Champion Data, Huld, Arc, GPS etc.) was costing $67,000 in 2022. We are now investing over $125,000 in 2025 to support the development and performance of all our teams.
• Medical expenses – tape, medical supplies, player insurance costs etc. have all increased significantly in recent years.
• Venue costs – all profits from our venue go directly into funding our football department. Costs including wages, food and beverage cost of goods, electricity, insurances, repairs and maintenance etc. have all increased significantly in recent years.

This is why we’re launching the Bays Lotto – to directly increase funding to our football programs and sustain our Club.

While the Club has enjoyed great on field success winning the 2023 and 2024 men’s League premierships, we want to be able to financially sustain the Club well into the future.

In order to continue to win flags and maintain our most successful era in the Club’s history, we want to have the latest technology at our fingertips, as well as the best equipment and infrastructure.

In addition, a key component of our 2025-2028 Strategic Plan is to achieve sustainable financial performance to support our long-term growth.

Rather than relying primarily on revenue from our venue, The Glenelg Club, to fund our football programs, we are diversifying our revenue streams with the Bays Lotto concept one of several new key initiatives that will aim to financially stabilise the Club moving forward.

Unlike some other SANFL Clubs that enjoy the profitability of having large, multi-site hospitality venues in prime locations to help fund their football departments, we don’t have the same luxury. Instead, we rely on the great work we do producing great football results to attract a great supporter base, which in turn invest into the Club.

In 2020, the Club had total debts of about $2.5M. Currently, this sits at $900,000. Reducing our debt has been a great achievement but continues to take a lot of hard work and diligent financial management.

After the City of Holdfast Bay recently agreed to waive 50 per cent of the $1M debt, we are in a much more financially sustainable position. However, with principle and interest payments outstanding, we want to protect the quality of our footy programs and our great culture to drive ongoing on-field success. This is why the Bays Lotto fundraising initiative is a critical new concept that will diversify our revenue streams for our football department, with funds raised going directly towards our men’s, women’s and junior programs.

We want to maintain the quality of our footy programs and keep the great momentum we are building in our men’s, women’s and junior programs and therefore, the money we raise from the Bays Lotto will maintain the investment into the resources we currently have.

In addition, Bays Lotto funds will also contribute to various capital projects around the Club.

The main aim of the Bays Lotto is to diversify revenue streams for our football department with funds directly benefiting our men’s, women’s and junior programs.

We continue to work with the Council and SANFL to prioritise and fund other capital projects at the Club, while also continuing to seek to partner with external stakeholders to raise critical funds to upgrade and develop our facilities.

Yes. All funds raised through the Bays Lotto will go directly towards our men’s, women’s and junior programs. Other fundraising activities support various areas within the Club, but this one will directly benefit our players. This is why we’re launching the Lotto – to directly increase funding to our football programs and capital projects to help sustain our Club.