Well done Surrey.....To play around with the words of a former US President...It's not what the Club can do for ME,it's what i can do for the Club!

You have reminded us of your special deal at Telstra,perhaps you might direct us to your PIE STALL!???

I haven't bought a membership early for the last few years because they consistantly f#$% up either mine or one of my mates. I go down to the club during the week of rd 1 and get mine and my mates handed to me so I can get it sorted then and there rather than wait in massive lines to tents outside the game. Maybe a few other fans have caught on.

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"We used to sit around and talk about how bad the game plan was." Anthony Koutoufides

What if they haven't? What if they've caught on to Surrey's plan, or the people Elwood knows?

btw, Denis is spelt with 1 'n'

_________________
"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent." Qui-Gon Jinn 15-05-2005

"there’s more chance of me becoming the full forward for the [Western Bulldogs] than there is of any change in the Labor Party." Julia Gillard 18-05-2010

Someone pointed out to me a few weeks ago our membership is always slow and I can see the reasons why people would wait.
The problems I've encountered I'll never get a membership through Carlton by mail again, so I wait till I know they have the cards produced.

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"We used to sit around and talk about how bad the game plan was." Anthony Koutoufides

Fair enough Game, I don't blame you for waiting.

Our membership normally is slow, but its further behind than last year at this stage and we had The Wizard Cup, a decent start to the season and 10 wins the previous year to give it a kick along as the season approached. We have none of that this year at this stage.

_________________
"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent." Qui-Gon Jinn 15-05-2005

"there’s more chance of me becoming the full forward for the [Western Bulldogs] than there is of any change in the Labor Party." Julia Gillard 18-05-2010

See Synbad, I agree with you on most of the above except the last point. But, we will agree to disagree on that.

It seems some want the current board members out, simply because they lack drive. See, I'm not sure you can say that. They have drive, they have ideas. But at the moment, we need to tread very carefully. We can't go around acting like marketing millionaires when we don't have enough cash to pay salaries.

Anyway (and this is not a reference to anything you have written Synbad) but some appear to be suggesting that because you are over 50, then you lack initiative. Garbage. I'd like to see Collo and Malouf go on for a few years yet because as we slowly gain our feet, I'd love to see what they can do without their hands tied behind their backs.

As for you Blue Vain, no I'm not a board member. I'm not an employee of the CFC. But I also realise that the only people that Collo and Malouf will trust enough to provide a true picture of the finances to, is to one another. Now, I'm not sure who you are, but if you bail up Collo at a function or where ever and you ask him "are we on the right track financially", well unless you are a member of the the AFP with a formal notice to disclose, he will tell you what you want to hear just to get you off his back. I can just see him now, "oh no, not another nutter approaching me about this". Can you imagine if he told you the truth. Man, you'd be on here in a flash spilling your guts.

As for going to the AFL for the handout in 2002? No, couldn't happen. I don't think the old board left a sqeaky clean set of books behind. It took the auditors a long time to piece it all together and every day, a new surprise was unearthed. Synbad said it correctly. Elliott ran the club as he ran his companies. And the NCA and ASIC don't prosecute you just because you have told a white lie or two. In reality, some have gone to jail for far less. He can count himself lucky.

The books, what there were of them, were a mess. Blue Vain - have you ever tried to audit a set of accounts that were put together with the intention to deceive? No, I didn't think so. To go to the AFL in 2002 for a handout could not have occurred. When you go seeking financial assistance, you need to open your books to the AFL auditors and I'm sure even if Collo could open them back then (if they existed at all and were capable of withstanding an independant audit), he sure as hell didn't want to.

I heard Jack say this morning that under his guise, the club only made one loss in 20 years. Yeah right, that was one paper loss by one set of books. Which set was that though? Set a, b or c?

He also made a couple of admissions about merging the blues with both North and the Saints. He admitted to holding talks with both Plympton and Casey but both fell through. Now, I wonder, if the club was so stable under his directorship, why was he shopping us around as far back as 95? Perhaps, we were financially screwed way back then and he was prepared to sell us all out to fix the finances back then?

http://carltonfc.com.au/default.asp?pg= ... eid=190929

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"You are being watched. The government has a secret system. A machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it." - Finch

Nice try Preacher but unfortunately I'm not a patsy like your good self.
Someone who comes on here with an agenda to sway opinion.

BTW, no I dont approach Collo and Malouf or gatecrash functions and hang on every word they say.
I only go when I'm invited.
Oh and while we're at it, he has a responsibility to tell me exactly what he's doing, as he does with every member.
And he does.
Its our money he's controlling. Me and every other member who put their hand in their pocket.

You're a relic of the past.
The days of telling the members nothing went out with Jack.
If that's how Collo operates, he should go the same way.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Would anyone accept selling home games to avoid accessing the Competitive balance fund

AFL eyes a more permanent return to the Gold Coast

Sheedy is already up there promoting the Bombers.

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,18255639%255E20322,00.html

I don't want to really buy into this debate but memberships and administrations aside, the fact that we haven't been able to attract a major sponsor in 3 years is pretty piss poor. You can only offer the success and "shame" of black Friday arguments for so long. Teams with crappy brands and a lack of success appear to have no problem agreeing to terms. Someone has to be accountable for this... memberships and a major sponsor are the backbone of any club whether it be AFL or your local comp.

I wouldnt be selling home games....we want a long term plan where we are not dependent on short term fixes, bandaid solutions or white knights throwing money at the club....that wont sustain us in the long term.
The white knight idea brings its own problems as Richmond could tell you with Clinton Casey who propped up the Tigers with his own dough and got his own people onto the board...I think we need a finance savvy operator in the Brian Cook mould who can go to banks, sponsors etc get advances on money and fix some of the problems.....remember reading in the Sun that Cook said they had to spend some money to make some money and that was the hard part in convincing sponsors like Ford and the banks and thats where you need a proper finance plan prepared by experts.
Maybe the club have done this but when you read 2.5 million dollar losses for 2005 after being in office for 4 years you have to wonder when its going to turn and if the plan they have is the right one...

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"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen

For as long as they exist. We won the spoon last year kerna. That's about the ultimate lack of success. This current board is the only Carlton board that has ever been in such a position - massive debt and shocking onfield performance. Name the last side to have the sort of run we have had between 2002 and 2005. We have been one of the worst performed sides ever. It won't change overnight. Elliott left the club like he left his own finances and the finances of any business he has been involved with - in an unholy; dishonest; disorganised mess. It will take years to fix. We are three years in to the repair. In another three we will be better on the field and stable off it. Collo is not ideal he has obvious weaknesses and great strengths. But why would anyone take on Carlton as it is unless they had our absolute best interests at heart. There's no glory in winning spoons and being a laughing stock. Elliott took over the most powerful, most wealthy, most innovative, most popular club in the country. He left us with the worst list in our history and the administration in ruins. Good work JE

gerry atric > john howard.

great speech.

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Formerly: Ackland the Wonderkid / Army the Wonderkid / quivering mess / molsey / Tony Lynn Fan Club

AGREE 100%

I REMEMBER SYDNEY'S SPONSOR... who was it.. QBE ... that's right. They stuck by them year after year early 90's when they had no exposure and were a laughing stock.

Surely CARLTON can attract a major sponsor... we were getting 45,000 people to our games up to mid-year. if this isn't exposure - i don't know what is.

I do my bit - i always go to dan murphy's and i nearly persuaded my wife to swap over to optus... next time i will persuade her... but ALL OF US have to write into the sponsors and let them know we value them.

SPONSORSHIP IS THE KEY.

Hear hear!

Swans have had the AFL pushing up for them since they sent them North, pumping money into them, making their life easier with concessions..like I said on the other thread its the national comp , TV rights and the AFL building a bigger empire...QBE have got plenty of TV coverage for their dollar....every second swannies a game on free to air in a decent time slot..nice marketing.....its TV footy now...

_________________
"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen

Slightly back on track for a second - I would like to understand the views of those who are saying we should have sought assistance back in 2002/2003 rather than now? Besides preacher's suggestion that the books were not of a state to understand, if we did not need the cash then, why would we ask for it? Beside the point that it would look more ridiculous then to get our cap fine back, it looks as though the strategy was:

* Settle the accounts / understand where we are
* Appeal to all fans / sponsors to come out of the woodwork given the time of need
* Perhaps use the plight of the club to support other long-term needs / views - move from OO for example. Slashing player contracts is another.
* Keep the AFL CBF up your sleeve in case you need it, as a last resort because of the damage to the brand.

It just seems as though we didnt need the cash at the time The CBF is a cashflow support mechanism for those Clubs without it. Its not like a balance sheet augmentation for those with weak asset positions - its to cover ongoing costs. When the costs got too high, the cashflow shortages would exacerbate. And that's whats happened, thus the request now. I dont know what the level of shortage is, how far off the budget it is, but theres no doubting Collo warned all of this - to me the issue is how far off track we may be. IF we only get 27000 members this year, how much further off track could we become...

I agree with those who say we could have done this a few months ago. I feel as though the huge flow of positive player press articles done by sportal and the Contributors has been undermined in this regard, I agree it could have been done better. But I fail to see why / how we could have gone for it in 2003.

And you call me mindless.
You think our membership will improve by moving from Princess Park to Gold Coast.

Yet at the same time, you are saying what a wonderful job Sheedy is doing promoting everything Red & Black.
How about we just concentrate on this point for a moment.
The man is a senile genius. He has the number one pick from 2006, young kids everywhere with future champs written all over them, international players, aboriginals and gun recruits like Heffernan and Camporeale. No negativity coming from windy hill.

THAT IS WHAT WE NEED.

He has a lot of members who pay his rather large contract so he gives them what they want each year...hope...agree he is a supersalesman.
re: Gold Coast....membership might not improve but the TV coverage would and thats what its all about these days...

_________________
"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen

Elwood we have just as much support.
We are not selling the club though. It's been doom and gloom for years now.

Positive spin will get me and the annoying little negative people buying memberships because we know we are moving forward and when we spend the day at the footy, well atleast walk away content, if not happy.

That is what I am saying. Membership $$$$$ is = to any sale of game. Selling our game interstate will NOT make members pay up. We might as well re-allocate to the GoldCoast and get all the free to air we can digest. Our supporters can sit at home in luxury then.
Is that what you guys want?