The extra revenue, earned through a restructured relationship with the League's drinks partners, will be distributed among the 18 clubs according to need.
It is the competition's first major step as it pursues its equalisation agenda with renewed vigour.
Under the deal no club will be worse off financially but the distribution of pooled revenue is expected to provide a significant boost to traditionally poorer clubs.
Clubs have agreed for the AFL to manage a restructured beverage model that splits drinks categories into subsets such as water, flavoured milk, carbonated drinks and soft drinks rather than having major sponsor Coca-Cola 'own the fridge' exclusively.
If clubs had grabbed a slice of the action for themselves – as they have wanted to for years - most of the benefits would have flown directly to already wealthy clubs, further exacerbating the revenue gap between clubs.
Clubs have agreed to the arrangement in order to see the benefits spread more equitably.
Wealthier clubs such as Collingwood, Hawthorn and the Eagles are expected, however, to continue to argue for transparency to ensure that their contribution under such shared revenue arrangements is recognised.
The additional money was not expected so soon as significant change to the current distribution model was not anticipated until 2015 when reviews to the existing agreement around club distribution were due to take place.
The AFL has previously admitted it needs to raise $15-18 million a year in additional revenue from 2015 in order to reach its equalisation objectives, so there remains much work to do.
The AFL is determined to ensure a 'League-think' focus and to stop inflationary spending among football departments.
The AFL will protect the traditional planks of equalisation – the salary cap and the draft – but has recognised they are insufficient tools to address growing evidence that club's overall spend on football is related to on-field success.
