Ditto for me. This would be a clincher for a lot of people. It's what made the old social club at PP so great and an MCC membership so enjoyable.

On loyalty programs, which i know are bit 90's but they still obviously work even in the lowest reaches of your local coffee shop....

I like the RACV loyalty program, the longer you're a member the bigger the discount off your membership. Very simple to put together, very simple to manage moving forward.

RACV start at Bronze, 5% discount if you've been a member for 5-9 years (i would start the discount at the start of the 4th year)
Silver, 10% if you've been a member for 10-20 years
Gold, 15% if you've been a member for 20 - 50 years
Gold 50, 20% if you've been a member for 51+ years maybe you can include a carlton flavoured zimmer frame as well....

When you reach these milestones, the club makes a big who hah about it with a visual letter showing the next milestones and the discounts that come with it....

You can add a "Bonus Buyer Points" scheme to it using membership bar code and scanner at Carlton Shop, social club bar (overlooking the ground of course ). For every $100 you spend you get $5-$10 worth of points to reclaim on something...

Could even have something as easy, and familiar to most who like a coffee, as every 10th beer free.....in the bar overlooking the ground of course...

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"I will rejoice in their anguish, delight in their failure and revel in our success"

We are Carlton, @#$%&! the rest !!!!!!

I find logging into to online shop & getting the discount a hassle, I dont think Ive once got the discount & have about 5 different logins & passwords that dont work.

With other sporting clubs I just put my member number in & the discount comes off at the checkout.

Probably pretty petty compared to many other issues raised but still, Its annoying.

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"Success Is How High You Bounce When You Hit The Bottom" - Kostya Tszyu

I think it would be great if there was an incentive to stay a member. 10 years + and you get first choice finals tickets 15 year + get guaranteed grand final tickets. What is the incentive to stay a member in the poor years.

Carlton like many more clubs care about money more I feel. Every year you hear stories of people who have been members for 50 years missing out on grand final. And then you have supports that have only been a member for one year but pay slightly more for there membership get a ticket before the loyal member.

I also hate the raffle ticket calls. I just advise the person calling to take me of the call list that seems to work but you have to do it very year.

How about a CFCTV membership category for those who don't go to games ?

That's what I'm talking about. Include the Northern Blues games and you have a package of value .... IMO.

I think that's a great post and really worth consideration by the Club. Sounds like you and I have a similar membership profile going back in my case to the early 70's.
I also love the way you didn't spell 'arse' 'ass'.
Let's maintain the Queen's English as long as we can hold out against the Americanization of Australia.
Because you spelt 'arse' correctly I won't point out that algorithms has an 'h' in it. Hehe.

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Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

Had the email felt the same as I had also re-signed within the first few days of being able to do so.

As for the raffle ticket sellers - I have had a few of these over the years but have always found the callers pleasant and non-pushy and once you say no thanks they're happy to get off the phone.

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I'm shocked to be sitting here

Having the Lygon st meet and greet on a day everyone can go to would help. Not on a work day, pointless.

BANG.

A real sense of belonging, and togetherness with the 'tribe' is what makes membership worthwhile. Offer this, and you don't have to worry and the nickel and dime stuff like nice caps and backpacks.

I understand it's very difficult under the current stadium arrangements.

Consider the interstaters.

I have lived and/or worked in every capital city since I finished uni in the late 70's.
Every city has a good Carlton following due to their support of the Premier Aussie rules league prior to the AFL: the VFL.

Carlton was a powerhouse in the VFL and has a great following in every state from the great era. Furthermore there are plenty of Victorians living interstate and many of those are Carltonians.

The Blues Cruise in Sydney 10 years ago was one of the best club events I have attended since the 80's. It was an opportunity for Carltonians to gather in the city and in the stands: solidarity. Another was the visit to Sydney by Murphy, Kouta and Stevens when Murph was recruited. Another beauty of an event was the Spirit of Carlton gathering at the Randwick Racecourse prior to the Sydney game at the SCG 2 years ago. The attendance was fantastic. The latter event made sure the Sydney game felt like a home game.

Connect an event like the abovementioned (attended by players and past players) with membership and I'm sure numbers will improve. Most important is for the players an away game in any other state will draw a good Carlton crowd to compete with the opposition supporters the home team will naturally attract.

As a mad Carlton supporter I have influenced many kids to barrack for Carlton. It all starts with the Baby Blues Pack and that becomes a Junior Pack followed by Silver membership. Some of those supporters will become die hard fans for the rest of their lives.

WE must creat a club which embraces their supporters and creates a compelling offer to turn that support into memberships. Sponsors take note of membership numbers and media exposure, so lets remember the memberships are not just about revenue raising, but also about raising the numbers attending Carlton games and spreading the word out in the streets.

It all starts with little steps. CFC need to make inroads into the intestate market. The AFL is a national competition, and Carlton have to think bigger than they have in the last 10 years.]

Carlton are playing 2 preseason games in Sydney this year. What's in it for the Carlton supporters based in Sydney? 2 years ago, many of us attended the training session and the next day watched the lads play with plenty of support behind them, without much encouragement from the club to do so. The club did not embrace its Sydney supporters let alone CFC members, when it was an opportunity to start something which will grow into the future: a sense of belonging....with a dash of hysteria...the beginning of a Carlton tsunami.

We are all part of the Casrlton family and Carlton is not just Visy Park and Lygon st, it is a national phenomena which spreads its tentacles in every city of Australia. There is good reason to suggest CFC needs to work harder on its brand interstate...its an opportunity not just an obligation.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Is it?

Are you saying there's nothing the club can do to create this aura for its supporters. I don't believe that is the case until someone tells me why it can't happen.

I want to turn up to all Carlton games and hang out in a Carlton area no matter where the game is played. CFC must make this happen.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Very difficult doesn't mean impossible, as I'm sure you know

The club, IMO, needs to decide what kind of club it wants to be and what kind of experience it wants to give its members and supporters, and then work single-mindedly and work like buggery to make that happen.

Very difficult to deliver, given (a) Etihad isn't really set up to provide that kind of club ownership of the stadium experience and (b) our deal with the MCG isn't a great one because Collingwood got in first and took all the red snakes out of the packet. But it can be done if the club deems it important enough.

This.
If you want to get full membership purchases from casual match attendees like myself who like supporting the club but lead busy lives and aren't interested in expensive reserved seats or turning up 2 hours early, then this is massive.

These days, for people like me it's not worth buying a GA membership anymore.
With upgrade costs, lost time trying to turn up early to get a decent seat, stuffing around with ticketek, etc, it just doesn't stack up.

I can't come to all home games, but when i do come, I want a decent seat.
If you reinstate the members only bays, that will be an instant winner.
You can charge me an extra $40 to $50 annually for access to that bay for home games. I will gladly pay. That should compensate for the upgrade premium that would otherwise be required due to high demand.

I realise that it may take considerable effort and negotiations to reinstate the members only bays, but it makes sense.
You can gladly charge me up to $240 to $250 for the membership package, and you will be able to resell my GA ticket to an Essendon* or Collingwood supporter for the games I don't turn up to.

Or you can lose me as a member, and i will just switch to a 3 game package at $90, or no membership.

Some people will say that it should be about supporting the club, but the harsh reality is that I can watch most games at the pub for free from a better seat than the Carlton GA membership offers me. I don't want to pay approx. $18-$25 for nosebleed seats above the point post where I can just barely see the action and aggressive Collingwood supporters are spitting bourbon on me.
Even just turning up for a few games that suit me and giving my cash to the MCG for a GA ticket seems to represent better value these days.

I couldn't care less about cheap nylon caps, website interviews, or free hotdogs.
I just want to get a decent view of the game without buying a reserved seat.
Maybe that's not possible, but I know there are a lot of other casual supporters like myself who feel that way, and the chances are the club is less likely to hear that sort of feedback.


I also see a lot of merit in the idea of some sort of loyalty bonus.

I also think that the A-league seems to be doing a great job with their members, and I think the AFL needs to pull their head out and help the clubs by giving them more flexibility to pursue similar innovative offers.

Great post. I'm not in the same position but can relate to all of this, as I'm sure many others can.

I just want to add my two cents to the loyalty bonus comment. Others have mentioned this as well. I'd like to think that being a member for more than twenty years, and at the top level for the latter part, would ensure I get - at the very least - tickets to the big one ahead of any Johnnies-come-lately who've waited until better times to join.

Further to that, fortunately I was already at the top level of membership when others were recently asked to upgrade or lose their seats, so I didn't have the dilemma of making that choice - surely a better way could have been found to accommodate new cashed-up members (as has been mentioned in other threads, I think).

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'People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.'
Soren Kierkegaard

Wouldn't that be 'Americanisation' in Australia?

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Never argue with idiots. They drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience!!!

After Monday and Tuesday, even the calendar says W T F .........
Visit http://fromthemoshpit.com/

Wouldn't that be 'Americanisation' in Australia?[/quote]

I thought that too, but maybe twas deliberate? You say potato, I say fries

Sorry, dodgy quoting on my part. Just getting the hang of this posting stuff.

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'People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.'
Soren Kierkegaard

Whatever it is...it is massively important

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Massive on Fridays only.

+1 for too many bloody hats. I just moved house recently. Reckon at the end of it, I threw out a boxload of Carlton hats, scarves and lanyards from eons ago. Shouldn't be too hard to work into the software a box that they've received a hat within the past X years. I understand the need to ensure that Carlton members are wearing gear that reflects our latest and greatest partners and sponsors, but Nike, Mars and Hyundai have been pretty much the status quo for a few years now.

The club should be commended for heeding the call to have interstate games shown at PP on the big screen. Hopefully they're tidy revenue raisers.

I think however there is potential to not only expand this idea, but also make the divide between these games being targeted towards families, and then also taking advantage of the number of Carlton pubs around Melbourne, to organise "official Carlton gameday pubs" also. The Great Northern and Percy's are obvious ones, as well as the pubs containing "our" pokies. I'm sure there are plenty of Carlton supporting publicans happy for the advertising on the website/mass emails, in exchange for discounted beers for members and maybe a pokie voucher or two on the night. Send down an injured player or an ex-Carlton great also?

I thought the Melbourne Stars did their season launch in Richmond very well also. Was well attended, organised and had a good vibe to it. Why not have a season launch in the city for one of our interstate NAB Cup games? Few beers, the game on a big screen, Carlton people, and of course a membership table.

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BLUES 2010: PAV AND JUDD = FLAGS. DOING IT FOR THE LOVE OF DICK PRATT.

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