Bullshit!!!.... they get something out of this too....

Weve just been softcocks ...

Look, the AFL have already given us 3 million to leave PP and its gone into the black hole....

If we dont have a business plan and create a business (AND WE HAVENT SO FAR) that money means @#$%&! all!!!....
The quickest way to make a dollar is give a flower a million dollars...

We have no plan...We didnt have a plan... we have just portrayed ourselves as being pathetic so the AFL help us out...

If we had a fair dinkum plan and still needed help i could swallow this.. but all we have done is be pathetic .. and its left a bad taste in my mouth.

Fancy putting our hand out now for priority picks and asking the AFL to take pity in us.. when we didnt do what every other club in our position was doing when they were the rules for EVERYBODY...!!!

Theyre just [REDACTED]!!... im so angry at their pathetic, insipid, feeble attempts .!!!

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

worst company in Australia

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Love Cricket? Love me

Blues to receive $1million injection.



@#$%&!!

Were not getting given 20 million?????????

Look after doing sweet fa for a few years and on our knees begging the AFL help us out we get the one million North and Co get...
Great!!!...

And im sure they will do a deal to take Princes Park off our hands and if we win more than 4 games we wont get a second round priority pick.. and we still wont have a business plan to go forwards...

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

A million is nothing...look at the TV rights deal money..the AFL are swimming in it yet offered us peanuts like the other beggars...North and the Bulldogs..dont kid yourselves that the AFL need a strong Carlton..
Thats not bending over to help a superpower rebuild itself...thats covering the debts for this year only and fullfilling their obligation to allow us to keep trading. Cant blame them really, we blew 4 million..I wouldnt be throwing money at a basket case company with no plan on or off the field and with a board that cant get its act together.....if it was a private business you would appoint a receiever and wind it up....its a shambles....maybe Adrian Gleeson can add something in his role as a financial planner....this crap will drag on like the war in Iraq has....we will be begging for another million next year.....and so on...

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

So what youre saying is we need a clear exit strategy?

Look you cant go put all your eggs in the AFL and still look credible..
Thats just crazy!!!!

They have to roll up their sleeves... go find themselves picks and shovels.. and work.

No more going to board meetings scoffing party pies and looking at each other nodding their collective heards then getting up into their cars and going home ... until the next meeting.

There are no real work horses on that board... no real visionaries... no movers and shakers... just a bunch of guys that are happy to be on the carlton board... (the newies and Big Bruce are excluded)the others are just imposters

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Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil....... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Synbad i think you just dont get it.......... we need to start winning games and playing finals then you wills see this club turn around simple as that.

So why not vent your anger towards a football department that let our list plummit to where it is now with no depth, no skill and no pace.

Winning games = a healthy Carlton football club its simple as that.

The current board i feel have done some great work like i mentioned in another thread this current board have

• sold all of our sponsorship, first time we have had a ball sponsor for some time infact the first time we have sold all of our sponsorship for some time

• Ground sponsorship deal with MC labour park

• Introducing the sunday home games Indesit kick it with Kouta which also gets around to primary schools to help promote the club and footy

• They held the first business luncheon on friday which has not been done before, 350 business men attended which will help bring mor corporate sponsorship ie selling corporate boxes to our home games

• The Carlton shop on Faraday street

• are currently talking to CUB about some kind of sponsorship or corporate deal

• welcoming back past players to the club. 4 past players get invited at every home game luncheon hosted by the president

• Changing the best and fairest award to the John Nichols medal

• embracing new supporters of the club like the Grollos and Fahours of the business world and not living in the past (pratt and the likes)

• feasibility studies which have indicated that a community redevolpment of Princess Park will not be commercially viable

• have offered Princess Park to Grocon as a possible development and they declined the offer so therefore the best option is to sell the lease to the AFL

I agree we cant become AFL dependent..that will only lead to a ticket to the Gold Coast or Sydney...and agree we need some hard workers but that initial debt we have of 7 million or whateva the true figure is needs to be paid off so we can get our head above water and let the hard workers do their stuff....I was dissapointed that Daniel Grollo wont be joining the board...we dont seem to able to land the big fish..whether it be Grollo Fahour, Fitzpatrick....even Pratt.....is it they dont want to work with the present board or the typical excuse...we dont have the time?

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

Good point, woof. Thing about the sitch with us is for some strange reason we have had 30,000+ memberships for the first time in hostory over the last 4 years.

That's an example of people coming back to help the club they have supported for so long. That's also why our attendances have stayed relatively high during this time, too. Problem for us and the AFL is this is starting to get boring and Carlton supporters around the country are either not turning up, or are tuning out.

We're still better than the haks kangas, dee and dogs but will drop below 25K next year on the performance so far. That's a major concern for the club and the AFL as they will have to bale us out to a much higher price in 12-18 months.

If I had been a part of a consortium that just committed $780m to this product, I'd be very shaky in the knees. You need all supporters to have hope and see a competetive team play - otherwise they will slowly lose interest and the next TV deal will be 20 bucks.

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end of message

I saw someone in there once...



Funnily enough I don't give a rat's how we extricate ourselves from our current situation - beg, borrow, steal...

Actually not steal - enough penalties already.

I just want it fixed ASAP.

The league wants to give us $6 million for the lease? Great - take it.

Pratt wants to stump up $7 million to get rid of the board? Great - take it.

Smorgon wants to save his arse by outbidding Pratt? Great - take that too.

Worrying about whether a handout from wherever it comes might mean that any future premiership is somehow tainted is fairyfloss garbage. I don't see too many Brisbane fans complaining about their three flags because there were salary cap concessions/Chris Johnson/etc. Don't see too many West Coast fans complaining that their flags weren't worthy because they got handed a state side when they entered the competition either.

This competition isn't at all fair or even. What it provides is a platform for clubs to reach the top in whatever manner they can.

Don't take handouts?

@#$%&! that. Pride's what got us into this shit.

The only plan I'm interested in is to take what we can - get back up as fast as we can and then learn from the mistakes.

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

3 votes to GWS.

Peoples, if someone doesn't come in with $4 - $6 mill we are rooted. Winning games, new commiteemen etc etc won't fix it. It is absolutely impossible for us to dig our way out of this hole ourselves.

We are bankrupt. A mill from the AFL will pay Kouta.

There is only one man who can save this club from folding/relocating.

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I support Carlton, Fulham and I'm an accountant - my mate calls me a 3 time loser.

I'm still laughing.....

I kinda of agree...take what you can get to clear the debts but then
we have to be making the money ourselves rather than being like the Kangaroos and in the soup line each year.

Its getting the hardworkers at board level with a decent business plan that seems to be our problem....as Synbad suggested its been more about scoffing pies than fixing problems....

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

I walked past the Carlton Shop last night and there's a sign on the door that says they're closed Monday and Tuesday (can't remember whether it was this week or last week) for stocktaking.

How long does it take to count up to 50?

I hope Valmorbida's giving them the space for free because if we're paying any more than $5 a week for that site we'll be losing money.

The presentation of the shop is probably doing us more damage than good even if it were possible for them to make a profit (which it isn't).

Looks like one of those picture retailers who used to move into the empty shops on Swanston St back in the early 90s (the ones with photos of chimps on the toilet etc). Here today - gone tomorrow. Not eactly the kind of image you'd want to portray to the community.

Shocking decision.

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

Popped in there last Friday to buy a jumper (woollen) for the little guy (as he refuses to wear anything but the match jumper to games and he'll bloody freeze.
I thought it was alright ..... plenty of stuff, good service etc....

Only problem...parked at one of those crappy old meters...only take 10, 20 and $1.... Put in about 30c as that's all I had that matched ....which was 9 minutes...came out and bingo! had a ticket....gotta love it...the most expensive article of clothing that I've ever bought.

Anyway ...as I said the shop was fine...lady in there tells me they are busy on training days (?)...people must stop in after a bit of excitement??
I'm sure the Blues are paying next to nothing (if not nothing for the rent) and I think the exposure in what's seen as our "supporter heartland" is good.

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“Every single element of the Club has to be the best in the league, meticulously and methodically, and only by doing this will we be elite and challenge for number 17.”
Greg Lee

Thats the problem with all the negative publicity, the petitions and the people withholding buying a membership in protest.

Next season we're going to have copycats who want to join in sending a message to the board and we will drop below 25k members. I hope the board are budgeting for that.

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"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

I can't agree Bill.

Can you imagine Collingwood or Essendon* opening such a scummy shop? Eddie would freak.

If the business is doing best from the dregs of the few who turn up to training then it's not exactly travelling well. I own a retail business in Carlton and have a fair idea of what it takes to make money out of it. They wouldn't even be covering the wages in there at the moment.

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

Not so sure GWS - sure it looks a little second rate - but earlier this month when I was at the hospital for the birth of my boy, I'd walk past it each day to get a coffee or 3 and there were often people in there. Then my birthday was a few days later, while we wre still in hospital, and all I got was crappy Carlton stuff from that store. I think the molsey clan made sure that the shop was cashflow positive for the month of May.

I agree that they aren't making a packet. I just think it's good to have a presence in what's viewed as our heartland. Not sure why it's so scummy? (But hey I'm no retail guru!)

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“Every single element of the Club has to be the best in the league, meticulously and methodically, and only by doing this will we be elite and challenge for number 17.”
Greg Lee

Did anyone actually read the article?

It's just another example of doing things in a half-arsed manner. Looks like a $2 shop. Cheap fitout - actually no fit out - just a few generic clip-lock wall units (just like Dick Smith Electronics) and a few "bargain bin" type baskets with stuff in them.

If you want to present a business/company/footy club as cheap and nasty then that's how you'd go about it. It works for businesses that are based on discounting but the Carlton Football Club is [REDACTED] if that's what we're basing our image on.

There's nothing wrong with the position and if it's cheap or rent-free then great. It's just that neither of those things excuse the execution. Just another example of the club not being willing to invest in making things work. By going for the conservative/scrimping route all you do is shrink your appeal and in that way I think it's doing damage.

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb