CHAIRMAN Glen Bartlett says there was no pressure whatsoever from the AFL about ending its association with gaming.

Bartlett said “after careful consideration” and “a number of factors”, the board and executive decided to exit from the gaming industry.

“The club is in the strongest financial position it’s ever been,” he said.

“It enables us to make this hard decision and to transition the club, which has been reliant on gaming income to a club that is strong and stable, and will not be reliant on gaming income.

“It was not a decision taken lightly. We’ve been working on it for at least a couple of years – and there were a range of factors, including community sentiment, around operating gaming machines.

“We went to market and we obtained the best commercial outcome for the sale of Leighoak.”

Bartlett said a lot of financial modelling had been done to achieve this outcome.

“We’ve looked at this for some time,” he said.

“We make the best business decision for this footy club.

“There is a capital result in selling Leighoak … so to refocus on our core business and to grow the income, we felt it was best to set up this club, not just for now, but for the next generation of members.”

Bartlett said part of the reason behind opting out of gaming was to set the club up for the future.

“We want to set the club up for the next 10 to 30 years.”

“There are a range of options that we’ve looked at.”

Barlett confirmed 92 machines from Leighoak and 88 from Bentleigh Club would be relinquished.