THE WESTERN Bulldogs will grow as much, if not more, than any other club in percentage terms over the next five years, president Peter Gordon predicts.
On the day the Bulldogs announced CEO Simon Garlick's resignation, Gordon told SEN he expects the Bulldogs to double their revenue – $37.5 million in 2014 – by 2020.
"We presented a plan to the AFL commission in December in which we demonstrated to them that we think our growth in the next five years in percentage terms is going to be as big, if not bigger, than any other team in the competition," Gordon said on Monday afternoon.
"We think just in revenue terms we'll probably double in size over the next five years with some of the commercial ventures we've got going at Edgewater (and) the Dromana Club, not only that but we're really revitalising the Whitten Oval as an oval for VFL footy and mass participation.
"The Ballarat opportunity for us, of course, is a big one as well, so this is a new phase for us and Simon's decision to resign provides us with an opportunity to look at our management and rebuild that as well."
Gordon said Garlick had been a "terrific servant" of the Bulldogs during his four-year reign as CEO and stressed he had not been pushed to resign.
"Simon made the decision to resign," Gordon said.
"He made it, I think, in a sober way, having had the opportunity to assess what he'd achieved and with us also looking at the question of, well, what's the next five years going to look like for us."
Gordon said the Bulldogs' next CEO would ideally have experience in the gaming industry given the club plans to run 70 poker machines in the upcoming Edgewater venue and already operates pokies at The Peninsula Club in Dromana and at Club Leeds in Footscray.
"Like it or not, the whole gaming industry is a big part of the AFL these days and one of the projects I inherited when I came back as president was this Edgewater project, which is a massive project and we'll be looking for someone who has got experience in those sort of areas," he said.
