Collingwood CEO Gary Pert was delighted to be able to announce over the weekend that the Beach Hotel will now be able to operate profitably due to a drastic reduction to the rent.

For the last 14 months the club has been involved in a rent review process conducted by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. Collingwood proposed to VCAT that it was paying a non commercial rent, that made it impossible for the venue to ever be profitable.

VCAT agreed with the club’s proposal, and late Friday afternoon announced the rent would be halved from $900,000 per year to $450,000 per year.

VCAT also ruled that the rent reduction was valid from the day that the rent review was activated, which was around 14 months ago, and as a consequence Collingwood will immediately receive a backdated figure of over $500,000 for the overpaid rent.

Collingwood has previously announced to its supporters that the venue has already been sold for a sale price of $2 million, and this settlement is being blocked by the freehold owners, who are withholding their consent, but this will be resolved through a separate VCAT hearing which is underway.

Collingwood CEO Gary Pert said: “This tops off a near perfect pre-season for the club, with the Arizona training camp setting up the great on-field result with our NAB Cup Grand Final win.

“We have also reached a record membership tally, having already surpassed 60,000, which highlights once again the phenomenal passion and commitment of our supporters, and now we’ve finally got a resolution to the financial drain caused by the Beach Hotel.”