Collingwood president Eddie McGuire has revealed that a major US sports franchise approached him about potentially buying into the club's ownership.
Introducing private ownership of AFL clubs, like in the NBA, NFL and Premier League, has been floated in recent months as the league looks to stream third-party revenue.
Speaking on Channel Nine'sย Footy Classified,ย McGuire said he swiftly rejected to the offer from the unnamed club.
โI was approached in the last 10 days by a major American sports franchise asking whether or not they could buy into Collingwood,โ he said on Footy Classified.
โThe answer was no because weโre a membersโ club, but they donโt understand the membersโ club over there. They go โwhat do you mean? Youโre not owned by somebody? How does this work?โโ
GWS has long explored ways to make up the revenue gap between itself and the other AFL clubs and is currently gauging interest from US investors themselves.
Giants chief executive Dave Matthews said all options had to be on the table right now in the financial fallout from the COVID-19 crisis.
โAs a young club our ticketing revenue and consumer revenue has a long way to go to get to the levels that other clubs enjoy,โ Matthews said.
โOver time weโve tried to work out how to make up that sort of revenue gap. Weโre very fortunate to have enormous support from coterie groups โฆ
โWe have a group called the M7, as you say thereโs some interest from the US in that group at the moment and thatโs probably amongst 25 individuals, thatโs probably a couple of million dollars a year.
โThey have backgrounds in US sport where there is private ownership models and it just leads you to think is there a possibility of participation or equity and some point.
โWe are in unforeseen circumstances and if thereโs opportunities to bring third party money into the game, I think theyโd have to be considered.
โBut thatโs not to say that weโre dwelling on it every day or that thereโs any proposals being exchanged, itโs just a discussion point.โ
