Carlton aims to clear $10 million debt

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/c ... 6277553480

All positive stuff right? Maybe. Maybe not. The one thing we can all agree on here is that we want Premiership success for the Carlton Football Club...but for mine - there's a little too much inference to membership...some mightn't hear it - but all I hear from the Carlton spokespeople is 'Help us get out of debt - buy a membership' ...but best case scenario, the club will pocket about $6-7 million from memberships. Absolute best case.

The eradication of debt in the short-term is not happening through membership. It's down to one man, and one thing only. Electronic Gaming Machines...or pokies. Pokies provide the clubs with a substantial and reliable income stream, independent of competition from other Victorian clubs, unlike sponsorship or membership. This year, thanks to Bruce Mathieson, Carlton expand the number of pokies it operates from 60 to 260, and increase its share of the pokie revenue from $2.5 million to an estimated $13.6 million. About $3.5 million more than its nearest rival Collingwood, who will pocket $10 million in pokie revenue. We have 70 more pokie machines than Collingwood. 190 more than Richmond.

I'm fine with Stephen Kernahan saying "We would like to clear most of our debt in the next three to five years," ...but don't be so naive as to think that Mum and Dad supporters will be the ones who are paying off the debt - and don't pressure them to do it either. The clubs' debt won't be paid off due to success on-field either. The reality is that we aren't a Collingwood. Our membership numbers won't go past 60,000.

Many of you will be blind to the problem. As a condition of the redevelopment of Visy Park, the club agreed with the local council that they would not have any pokies on the premises. So the areas we have them in are Hoppers Crossing, Richmond, Williamstown and Laverton. The club is now one of the 10 largest pokies operators in Victoria. But if pokies in the venues now operated by Carlton perform at roughly comparable levels to last year, the maximum player loss figure for Carlton venues is likely to be in the range of $40 million p.a....

Yes - we all want Premiership success....we want our football department spend to be as high as it can be as that's the competitive advantage (until the day it is capped)...But the question needs to asked - at what cost to society?

Do you want to put a per capita loss by team supported measure to that?? I'm sure those figures can be provided in plain "black & white" if you like.

Tipping that we wont be the biggest on that measure.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

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That's hardly the point, although somewhat amusing.

I do admit that a reliance or acceptance of long-term pokie revenue doesn't sit too easy with me.

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This has been done to death before Doc. It will be a 10 page synopsis on the morality of the club generating income from pokies.
People make choices, you decided not to buy a membership I decided to buy a membership. People make decisions about smoking, drugs, alchohol, drink driving etc. etc.
I like the work the club does in the community i.e. players visiting sick kids, going to schools etc. etc. perhaps they may help you sleep better at night

That's not a club initiative. That's a requirement of the ALFPA under the CBA.

People who can't afford to gamble shouldn't.

People who want to gamble and lose their money are fools.

Fools and their money are soon parted.

Sits OK with me.

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I'm shocked to be sitting here

In typical TC fashion - the point is more than two-fold and you're missing the other points.

Ok the club only performs what it is forced to do in the community and nothing else. You know it is not true but what the hell.

The question is, if we don't do this, someone else will. Better the revenue comes to us than to an organisation that is solely in the gaming business.

In an ideal world, once our debt is reduced/wiped, perhaps this reliance could change, still won't stop people losing money at these venues.

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Between our dreams and actions lies this world

What do you want me to say? It's off topic. Carlton has been gifted a get out of jail free card by Bruce Mathieson. I'm fine with that. I'm probably the only one on this forum to have spoken to Bruce about this. I'm fine with 'striking while the iron's hot' because I think enfoced change is on the way that will prevent what Carlton and Collingwood are doing.

But do the club keep having to pull the wool over everyone's eyes? Increasing membership to 50,000 and clearing club debt are mutually exclusive.

The pokies revenue growth will be put towards funding the ever growing football department expenditure and the increased membership revenue will be used to eradicate debt.
All fixed.

Football department spending shouldn't be growing that rapidly from here on out unless we're mindlessly following sporting trends instead of researching our purchases.

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I'd suggest they might want to do it the other way around...but each to their own. Care factor minimal where that's concerned. How many think that due to dwindling pokie revenue rather than rapidly growing pokie revenue - some clubs will feel the financial burden too much in the next three years....fall way behind...lose sponsorship...etc etc...and sink?

The AFL can't prop up North Melbourne / Melbourne / Richmond forever...and if it weren't for Bruce Mathieson - we'd be right with the aforementioned clubs. As it is Carlton is still receiving $$ from the AFL's Competitive Balance Fund.

I am just trying to help Doc sleep at night.
Jimmae we would be at least 2 million behind the Pies in football department spend and they have pokies.

Evil Empire Carlton STRIKES AGAIN!

I can't wait till they find the sweatshops and the fake charities the club has going.

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dane's trolling again

There is no doubt that we should be working on ways to diversify our revenue stream, this needs to be driven from Board Level.

If we get some all embracing motherhood statement from the Board prior to the release of our next Financial Accounts that our "Revenues" have increased by X% - I will in the words of Terry Wallace "Spew Up".

I would prefer a statement along the lines of that whilst our revenues have increased due to our gaming venues coming on line - this has been invested in the following revenue creation areas:

- membership growth
- investment in the "Northern Blues" brand
- investment in merchandise & leisure wear

etc etc.

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"Hence you will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks"?

Winston Churchill

so Doc, where would you like the extra revenue to come from?

Perhaps we are paying our players too much - the AFL on the whole that is. Or are we not receiving enough from the media deals? Better stadium deals would help.

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Nice post AGRO...nice to see someone gets it.

We are getting the same amount as Collingwood and less than Essendon* from 2012 - 2016.

again with the northern blues, sure fire $ winner there

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Between our dreams and actions lies this world