The Magpies, who are now firmly entrenched as the No.1 sporting club in Australia, have confronted many of the problems being faced by their NRL counterparts and not only survived but thrived.

Improving corporate governance, relocating from their suburban heartland to a bigger stadium and better training facilities, and embracing the digital age have been significant developments in the transformation of a club with proud working-class roots to one with ambitions to rival global sporting giants such as Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund for committed financial members.

Pert said Collingwood aimed to achieve three major goals within the next three years::

* To win a premiership;

* To consistenly post profits of $15 million or more; and

* To have more than 100,000 members.

"We finished last season with more than 80,000 members and our goal now is to get to 100,000 members and then 150,000," said Pert, who played 70 games for Collingwood in a 233-game career between 1982 and 1995 and was named in the Fitzroy team of the century.

In contrast, South Sydney – the NRL club with the largest membership – had 27,392 members last year, while Brisbane Broncos had 26,366 members.

Collingwood also dwarf the leading NRL clubs financially, earning revenue of $75,238,531 million last year and announcing a net profit of $16,375,741.

The Broncos generated the biggest turnover in the NRL ($34,990,195) and posted a profit of $2.032 million, while Souths recorded a profit of $1.4 million from an income of $23.8 million.

The Magpies earned more money through the combination of memberships ($16,793,265) and marketing, merchandise and sponsorship ($19,650,141) than any NRL club did in total.

And that is not including their share of gate receipts from average home crowds of 55,487 at the MCG.

"Collingwood has always been a strongly supported club," Pert said. "We've also just announced a new sponsorship agreement with Emirates for a further five years, which will extend our partnership with them to 20 years, and we are fortunate to also have CGU, Westpac and Star Alliance as our other premium sponsorship partners."

The deals with Emirates and Westpac, which sponsors Collingwood's state-of-the-art training facility across the road from the MCG, are each reportedly worth $2 million per year, while Holden is another major sponsor.

In a wide-ranging interview with Fairfax Media before Saturday night's clash with Sydney Swans at ANZ Stadium, Pert gave an insight into how Collingwood became Australia's leading sporting club and why up to six NRL clubs – including Souths and Parramatta – are among those from other codes who consider the Magpies as a benchmark for success.

Membership and crowds

Collingwood has always had a big fan base but, since becoming CEO seven years ago, Pert has overseen an almost doubling of the club's membership numbers from 42,498 in 2008 to an AFL record 80,456 last season and they aim to reach the 100,000 mark in 2015.

"Building your membership and support for the club is really important because it creates resilience," Pert said. "We have been in conversations with several NRL clubs and I have noticed a shift towards membership and getting attendances up, which is something I really support because that is a strong growth area for sport.

"In the past, the NRL clubs were very good at generating revenue through their gaming and also through the big club operations but, very clearly from the conversations that are being had with us now, the key things they are focusing on are building membership and building the crowds coming to games.

"That is a good thing and what they are going to need to do is continue to invest in research and insights and understanding of what their supporters want from the experience of being a member of the club."

The Magpies have more than 15,000 members who live interstate, including about 1500 in Sydney.

"Our NSW supporters might only be able to see us play once per year when we come up here so we have a variety of membership packages to cater for the different needs of supporters," Pert said. "We expect to have about 7000 to 8000 NSW-based supporters at the game on Saturday night."

Digital media

Collingwood are set to follow the lead of Manchester United by becoming the first sports club in Australia to launch their own television channel in 2015.

The ambitious plan was inspired by the success of the Magpies inhouse production, The Club, which is broadcast on The Fox Footy channel.

Pert said details were yet to be finalised. "What I can tell you is that it will be 24-7 and available on multiple platforms," he said,.

The former Channel Nine Melbourne managing director and Austereo national sales manager believes the dedicated 24-7 channel is a way to further engage with AFL's largest social media community and the Magpies have invested $1 million building their own television studio.

"We need to be providing content onto our websites and onto media platforms where our supporters can hear first from the club about things like when players sign up or receive a message from the coach about how we are performing or me talking about breaking news that is significant for the club," Pert said.

"Giving them behind-the-scenes access to the players, whether they are at home or just taking about what they do when they are away from the club, is the sort of thing that helps connect your supporters to the club.

"There is no doubt that content is one of the key drivers of why our membership has grown and why people have retained that membership because they want that intimate access to the club and what is going on behind the scenes."

Stadiums and training

Collingwood outgrew Victoria Park as a home ground about 15 years ago and relocated its entire football operation in 2004 to a purpose built high-performance centre opposite the MCG, which has recently had a $30 million upgrade that includes a high-altitude room, a new football field, community centre, offices and training facilities.

However, the Magpies maintain ties with their suburban heartland and recently helped fund a redevelopment of the ground, which is now home to their reserves team in the VFL competition.

Pert said the Westpac Centre has been crucial to Collingwood's on-field success, which includes a premiership in 2010 and finals appearances every season since 2006, and not only enabled the coaching staff to get the best out of the players but helped lure others to the club.

"In an era now where we have now got free agency in AFL and players have got greater choice about where they play and where they play out their careers, a big part of their decision is the quality of the facility and the coaches, and access to medical and rehab as well as the sport science programs," he said.

"That is something we identified as a club five or six years ago and we set out to create an environment where we would be on the top of the list when it comes to times where players are making career choices like that."

Corporate governance

The Eddie McGuire-led Collingwood board went through the kind of governance changes that clubs like Wests Tigers are now considering more than a decade ago and boast directors with a diverse range of skills, including medicine, finance, marketing and technology.

"We have intelligent people with backgrounds in sport and business on our board," Pert said of the seven directors, who include 2002 Winter Olympics gold medallist Alisa Camplin, a former executive with IBM.

While on-field success is important, Pert said stability in the boardroom and the way a club was run off the field were vital to long term success.

"The aim of every sporting team is to win premierships, that is what the fans expect," he said. "But sponsors are just as concerned about stability and good corporate governance. If you can get that part of your business right, the rest will usually follow."

Despite their lofty standing in Australian sport, Pert said the Magpies were always looking at ways to improve and their staff have recently made visits to the likes of Barcelona and Manchester United to see how they do things, while they regularly share information with other clubs in Australia,

"We have had sporting teams from all over the world visit and look at out facilities and we do the same thing," he said. "We are happy to exchange information with other sporting clubs and we have had contact with at least six NRL teams, as well as others from soccer, basketball and netball."