The departure of some of the ACT Brumbies' biggest names and highest-paid players helped pave the way for the club to record an unexpected profit for the third year in a row.
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The Brumbies will announce a "modest" profit believed to be more than $50,000 at the annual general meeting on Thursday night, bucking the trend of Australian rugby's woes on and off the field.
They will likely be the only Australian franchise to make money after a year of declining crowds and controversy as the Israel Folau saga dominated headlines and detracted from results.
The Brumbies got a financial injection from hosting a final and playing another in Argentina, helping offset the second lowest average crowd in the club's history.
But the biggest boost for the bottom line was the early departure of key players, who decided to retire from Australian rugby or move their careers overseas.
David Pocock and Christian Lealiifano (Japan), Rory Arnold (France), Henry Speight (Queensland) and Sam Carter (Ireland) were granted early releases from their contracts to take up other opportunities.
The five players chewed up a large chunk of the salary cap, but releasing them to other clubs changed their payment arrangements.
It eased some financial pressure on the Brumbies given they no longer had to pay for star players, but it was unexpected when chief executive Phil Thomson forecast the "harsh reality" of crowds impacting the financial position.
Thomson said the Brumbies' tightened their belt in several areas to achieve the profit after banking $57,000 last year and $14,361 in 2017, which was the first profit in six years.
"We're a very lean organisation," Thomson said. "It was a very challenging year for us in a very competitive landscape, to be where we've landed is a credit to everyone in the organisation who have got us to this position.
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"We've been very conscious of our spending within the organisation and put a lot of cost-saving measures in place.
"We've also had the advantage of turnover of several senior players, which helped the bottom line late in the season. But that's a one-off, that won't happen every year so we have to keep working."
The Brumbies won the Australian conference this year and beat the Durban Sharks in a finals match in Canberra, but fell one game short of a grand final berth when they lost to the Jaguares in Buenos Aires.
The club had hoped good on-field results would convince fans to return to the stands after record-low average attendances last year.
But there was just two crowds of more than 10,000 - one for the NSW Waratahs clash and the other for the final - as rugby struggled to gain traction with supporters.
Professional rugby in Australia has been declining for several years and Super Rugby franchises have suffered from decisions by the game's top administrators.
But the Brumbies are also in charge of running community rugby, which experienced an 8 per cent bounce in participation numbers.
Thomson says the challenge is rebuilding the bridge between community rugby and Super Rugby to create trust and excitement.
One of the biggest challenges for the Brumbies next year will be getting fans to commit to attending early-season fixtures, with round one to be played in January for the first time in Super Rugby history.
The Brumbies will play their first three games of 2020 in Canberra as coach Dan McKellar attempts to fill the void left by Pocock, Lealiifano, Carter and Arnold among others.