Merch bonanza: Where the money goes from Magpies’ record flag windfall

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A full month before Christmas, Collingwood have already broken the AFL record for merchandise sales, with post-premiership merchandise reaching $11.5 million in retail sales.

Since the Magpies celebrated a thrilling grand final win over the Brisbane Lions, fans have splurged on everything from premiership guernseys, caps, coffee table books and can coolers, to Collingwood premiership meat cleavers and cuff links.

Collingwood skipper Darcy Moore, young gun Nick Daicos, and the premiership that has led to a Collingwood windfall.Credit: Marija Ercegovac

But while the Collingwood premiership has surpassed Melbourne and Richmond’s drought-breaking flags of 2021 and 2017 for club gear – those clubs were the previous highest premiers for retail merchandise sales – the club is not pocketing anywhere near the bulk of those sales.

In a breakdown of where the premiership merchandise revenue goes, this masthead can reveal that Collingwood receive 15 per cent of the merchandise sales, while the AFL takes 12.5 per cent.

In dollar terms, to date, the premiers have reaped approximately $1.73 million, sharing the same amount with Playbill, the national arts program and merchandise company that runs the process of selling official Collingwood gear, splitting the returns equally.

For Collingwood, though, that amount is really a net figure because they have outsourced the costs of selling the gear to Playbill, which also has deals with Hawthorn, Sydney and several NRL teams including the Melbourne Storm.

The merchandise and memorabilia bonanza comes as the Magpies posted a post-premiership profit of more than $6 million on the back of huge crowds and membership increases, which helped boost the club’s revenue by more than $15 million.

A source with detailed knowledge of the deal for retail sales of merchandise did not wish to be identified for commercial reasons.

Collingwood’s 23 premiership players also receive a return in signed premiership gear – such as the 2000 framed jumpers that the club is selling via memorabilia company SE Products. According to the company, the jumpers alone should net the players and senior coach Craig McRae $35,000-$40,000 each over time.

The players are only paid for the sales of merchandise/memorabilia if they have signed or contributed personally – such as allowing use of their image – to an item.

Under the terms of their AFL agreement, the players receive two-thirds of the 18 per cent that goes to the club after costs and the distributor’s take are subtracted.

Players do not benefit from retail merchandise sales of generic club products.

The Collingwood premiership players had a signing session, which started at 9am on the Thursday after the grand final and stretched until after 2pm. The Magpies have 2000 premiership jumpers signed by the whole grand final team and senior coach selling for slightly below $2500; the players and McRae automatically get $20,000 simply for signing and then two-thirds of the AFL’s 18 per cent share in the royalties.

The director of SE, Matt Davies, estimated that they should make $35,000-$40,000 each eventually from that item, and there are a number of others – such as framed and signed Bobby Hill photographs of his grand final mark – plus items featuring skipper Darcy Moore, Nick Daicos and Jordan De Goey.

It is important to separate memorabilia – such as that signed premiership team jumper and the individual player items – from merchandise sales. Memorabilia benefits the relevant players more than the club.

“Roughly speaking, most AFL clubs can make 25 per cent from those sales,” said Davies of club memorabilia.

The Magpies sold $1.8 million in online retail sales of merchandise in the 48 hours immediately after the grand final, compared to Geelong’s $600,000 in the corresponding period after their 2022 premiership, according to the AFL.

They sold $612,000 directly at the family day at their club base attended by tens of thousands on the day after the grand final – almost five times Geelong’s family day sales in 2022.

Nick Daicos, the club’s brightest and ascending star, sold the grand final jumper he wore at auction for $70,025, which did not beat the player record for a grand final jumper, held by Richmond champion Dustin Martin from his third Norm Smith Medal game in 2020 ($75,000).

Dusty v Daicos: The value of their premiership jumpers.Credit: Artwork by Nathan Perri

Daicos receives 80 per cent of the return from the jumper sale. The players are allocated at least two jumpers for the grand final. All 23 players’ jumpers have sold at auction, reaching close to $320,000.

“The club have been very good at allowing the players to commercialise the use of their name, image and likeness on the premiership product,” said Davies, who said the club wanted the players to benefit.

Davies confirmed that the 2023 Collingwood premiership memorabilia had sold more than any other club in history.

Surprisingly, Melbourne’s 2021 premiership surpassed Richmond’s 2017 drought-breaker for merchandise sales, despite the Tigers’ significantly larger fan base. The likely explanation, as Davies suggested, was that Melbourne’s flag was during the COVID-19 shutdown and many fans splurged online on items when they couldn’t attend the game.

Asked about the premiership merchandise returns, Collingwood chief executive Craig Kelly said the Magpies wanted to do better for fans – “without them, we don’t exist” – and to invest profits from their premiership in improved facilities, their men’s and women’s football programs and in community commitments such as “our Barrawarn Indigenous programs” and Magpie Nest program aimed at the needy.

The prospect of a Carlton premiership in the coming years would potentially see further records for merchandise given Collingwood’s arch-rivals also have a vast supporter base and the pent-up demand from a lengthy premiership drought and lack of success since 2000. The same would apply to Essendon with their army of success-deprived fans.

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