Battle ... James Hird has his own legal team. Source: Scott Barbour / Getty Images
ESSENDON will be forced to increase its $5 million debt to pay for skyrocketing legal costs as it fights a charge of bringing the game into disrepute.
The real winners from the legal battle are the lawyers working for the AFL and the Bombers, with some estimates suggesting the eventual combined legal cost could reach $4 million.
The AFL has retained Minter Ellison, while Essendon and James Hird are using separate representatives.
The cost of the fight would escalate if Essendon takes its battle to the Supreme Court, where barristers and senior counsel who charge as much as $10,000 a day would be needed.
If the club is found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute, it could also face a multi-million-dollar fine from the AFL.
The Bombers are also protecting lucrative sponsorships with Kia Motors and True Value Solar, with large companies increasingly demanding get-out clauses for controversies.
AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou this year called Kia to give it what he called "code perspective" and assure it the Dons were complying with the AFL-ASADA investigation.
The Bombers had already warned their fans the club could take on some debt to bridge a funding shortfall for its high-performance centre at Melbourne Airport.
Essendon said in its annual report last year it had secured $19 million of $25.5 million funding for the centre.
But "as a result of the likely capital shortfall the club will take on a manageable amount of debt to complete construction by the middle of 2013".
The club reported a $401,429 profit last year and at that time forecast it would pay down its debt by 2015.
For the first time in many years Essendon finds itself owing a significant sum - about $5 million - due almost exclusively to the Melbourne Airport development.
Hird has hired Ashurst industrial law expert Steven Amendola, human rights lawyer and QC Julian Burnside, veteran spin doctor Ian Hanke and has been advised by barrister friend Nick Harrington.
Linked to Essendon are QC Jack Rush, leading criminal lawyer Tony Hargraves, and communications firm The Shannon Company.
Essendon and the AFL will be using their legal representatives to potentially broker a deal and run the case before the AFL Commission, but lawyers will hit pay dirt if the case goes to court.
Legal experts said a standard pay structure meant if a barrister or senior counsel charged $10,000 a day, their hourly rate would be $1000.
One of Essendon's coterie groups is the Law Dons, a legal group of Bomber supporters formed by judge Tony Howard in 1999, so it has no shortage of legal experts among supporter ranks.
The Bombers recently projected a profit in a series of figures provided to AFL chief executives at a two-day conference in Creswick - one of a minority of clubs to be able to do so - but acknowledged potential fines and legal costs were yet to be factored in.
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