Oz Stadiums Post Losses

Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium hosted major concerts and had a bumper Australian Football League season, but its operator Stadium Operations took a $17 million loss during the 2009 calendar year, according to the Australian Financial Review.

The venue hosted 80 events and made revenue of $66.81 million.

CEO Ian Collins said that while other major stadiums have government funding, that’s not so at Etihad Stadium. The same goes for Stadium Australia Group, which runs the ANZ Stadium in Sydney and recorded a loss of $4.1 million last year.

The AFR said that Queensland’s stadiums received $70.6 million worth of funding from the Qld. government.

But the government-run Stadiums Queensland, which runs eight venues, made an operating loss of $23.7 million last financial year