Very true, but how many of those have been a member for a very long time and contributed over $1800 directly to the club coffers last year alone? My guess would be not many. I'll continue to go to the footy, support Carlton etc...but as for my money...that's going elsewhere.

Many reasons.

* I have another form of membership.
* I'm disenchanted with the reactive nature of the club which starts at board level and permeates throughout its staff.
* I don't agree with the direction of Carlton FC's most important asset - the brand.
* The club doesn't listen to its members despite telling you it does.
* The club wants control of everything and has no idea it alienates supporters in doing so.
* The club doesn't need your money the way you think it does. Clubs have convinced supporters that they need you as one of 40,000-50,000 to remain viable, but this simply isn't true.

So that's it in a nutshell. There's other reasons, but they're a little petty even though they all add up.

I used to be one of those people that believed you weren't a real supporter unless you were a member. That's no longer the case.

I know it's comparing apples with oranges due to all the different packages that each club offers, but to compare with a few other clubs:

Collingwood 49,334
West Coast 41,691
Hawthorn 40,800
Essendon* 30,000
Richmond 26,039
Geelong 23,800
Carlton 23,187
Melbourne 20,623
Bulldogs 18,229
Kangaroos 17,035
Port Power 15,217
St Kilda 14,390
Sydney 12,200
Brisbane 11,202

Total now 24,066. Not sure if that was at Friday or there are still more to count.

The cut off date for reserved seat holders to keep last seasons seats must be coming up soon.
Usually the cut off date is mid December but it was extended this year due to the poor way they tried to explain why they were trying to get more money out of some of us for the same deal.