Blue Vain wrote:
I dont understand your point ODN.
Both groups started equal, the difference is that one group had the knowledge, initiative and contacts to source the available funds.
It didnt fall in their lap. I would suggest a lot of time and effort has gone into sourcing the funds.
I accept that one group has the contacts to source funds while the other one doesn't. Never in question. I also believe that the side with the funds is more aligned to old school Carlton than the side that originally ousted Elliott is.
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I would suggest that is a major aspect of the business plan. Sourcing the funds to utilise.
If this is the case, then well and good. I actually asked this very question, whether the new ticket plan had them on a starting point of dire financial straits or otherwise. This was met with deflection, cryptic responses and putdowns.
I know that it takes planning to raise funds, of that I have no doubt. I don't think the raising of funds would be part of the plan to convince those bankrolling it of the viability of the plan. It would be akin to Pratt for example, saying 'show me how you are going to raise money to erase the debt, and I will give you some money to erase the debt.'
So in essence, this part of the plan is just going around to the prospective bank rollers and telling them who else will contribute if they contribute. We already know that a few wealthy supporters were prepared to contribute in order to get rid of the current board. This part of the plan just called for someone to organise it.
Wouldn't the real plan be ... how are you going to run the club once you are in power? We start you off from a cash positive situation, now you go and turn around our marketing, our staffing, our membership, our sponsorships etc. Would that be fair comment? Isn't that the plan that the people chipping in want to see? How do we know our money won't be wasted and we will be back in the red again sooner or later? So the new ticket propose a plan that involves more innovative and less conservative governance, because they are in a cash positive environment and don't have to worry about imminent collapse.
Now the current board are the great unwashed. Nobody wants a bar of them. They have presided over the worst period in our history and the fact that they inherited it has been glossed over by the fact that it is not getting better and may be getting worse. So they can't source funds. Nobody wants to put in. So their future plan is for more of the same, more belt tightening, more conservative governance, for they fear to loosen the belts is to take a risk that could cause that collapse.
So we really aren't talking about respective plans in going forward, not under the same parameters anyway. We are talking about the ability to source contributions and clearly the current board lose badly on this count.
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Dont underestimate the ability to source several million dollars. Heavens knows our current board did'nt go close to achieving it.
I don't and I am in fact grateful for it. Have never said anything different and have never claimed to be a supporter of Smorgon. It seems very likely however that
some of these contributors would have put in just to get rid of Smorgon first and foremost and because they believe in the new ticket as a secondary thought.
I think we are talking semantics here. If we look at these two sides as starting from the same point, being the current debt, the deciding factor is the ability to source money not necessarily what each side would do after they got the money, because that can not be gauged.
We might as well say 'Smorgon has no friends, nobody likes you nya nya nya nya nya' because that is what the money sourcing amounts to. Does anybody really think Smorgon hasn't thought to canvass people for money? Who does he turn to ... enemy 1, 2, 3 or 4 to get the door slammed in his face.
I could have all the ideas in the world but if I can't get someone to bankroll it, it looks like I have nothing at all. It's not always what you know, sometimes who you know is every bit as important. To the victor go the spoils.
Bring it on.