I'll toss you for it.

With all due respect Synbad, please see my post above.

One question, and one question only....

When was the last time you paid to be a Carlton Member?

What is this princesS Park you speak of?

Membership does not equate to being a suporter.
Neither does blindly following the Pied Piper.
Synbad may well answer this down the thread but I will answer for myself.
I was last a paid up member in 2012. I've been a paid up member for almost all of the years since the 1980s.
I was responsible for several new members signing up after the salary cap fines which almost saw the club go under and I continued to pay and pay through the years after that, even though I live in Mexico and rarely got to see a game. Maybe one a year except when I was in Australia for the season, when I might have got to two.
I have taken the pilgrimage to PP various times in recent years when on Melbourne and suffered the issues mentioned above in the shop. Once they couldn't find the key to the cabinet where the flags were and after an hour I just left. Last time, Chris Yarran was gracious enough to give us a few minutes of is time for a family photo but he was the only player in the building as far as I could tell. I found my name on the members wall, (more cash donated to the club) and had my pic taken with my daughter in front of the 16 cups and Jezza's photo with my 8yo, born 11 years after the last one was won.
I have watched the club turn into an old boys club with the members and supporters getting less and less access to everything club-associated and watched their futile attampts to turn around the on field debacles. BUT every week I sat up in bed at 2:00 in the morning and listened to the 3AW live stream and then when it came available the piirate stream and then when IT became available I paid the annual fee to watch the AFL approved stream.
Then three things happened.
Essendon** got busted and in the ensuing two years, the AFL has done everything in its power to get the club and the players off or get the punishment redced as far as possible and MY club did nothing along with the other 17 to force the issue. Gutless.
I was in Tassie and my granddaughter, who has been the recipient of Carlton jumpers and stuff from me ober the years, came back from a trip to Bellerive Oval with a showbag of stuff from the Hawtorn footy club who have a promotion presence on the ground in Hobart and presumably in Launceston. Frantic calls to the club and local Carlton people in Tassie who are sort of in touch with the club got no meaningful response. Gone are the days when David Parkin, Steven Kernahan, Mil, Kouta and a few other players would go to Tassie to rub shoulders with the pleb supporters from Carlton. Not the Hawks do it and guess what? Carlton, who along with StKilda had the biggest supporter base in Tassie with Hawthorn third, is now a pariah in Tassie with Hawthorn a runaway winner and St Kilda and Carlton languishing behind. If North plays there and markets itself in the South of the state, they will end up in front of us as well.
The third thing was when I received a call from the company charged with ringing up members who had not renewed and inviting me to sign up for Hawthorn. Oops, she said. I meant Carlton. Bang!
So what did I do?
I stopped paying the club for delivering nothing. Synbad and I rarely agree but I am with him on this one. The footy is a product and we are the purchasers. If they want us to pay top dollar they have to put in the effort to deliver a product worth buying and that isn't just memberships. It's integrity and bonhomie. If someone goes to PP and the players are there they should get the chance of a photo and a rub on the head for the kids, just like the good old days. My 8yo loves Chris Yarran. he's the only player she recognises on the team because he smiled at her and let her have her piccy taken with him. He would no doubt have been bored witless like the staff in the Carlton Shop but at least he pretended he wasn't.
So I am not a member any more but don't tell me to flower off because your definition of a supporter involves your particular criteria. I've followed and supported this team since before the golden era. Since before Barassi. 55 years of going, listening, watching, paying and trying to convert my family and kids. And criticizing.
But according to your definition I'm not a supporter.

And there are tens of thousands of people out there just like me.

Maybe Synbad is one of them.

To me the loss of Princes Park as the home ground is a big thing.

No real home ground now.

Membership does not equate to being a suporter.
Neither does blindly following the Pied Piper.
Synbad may well answer this down the thread but I will answer for myself.
I was last a paid up member in 2012. I've been a paid up member for almost all of the years since the 1980s.
I was responsible for several new members signing up after the salary cap fines which almost saw the club go under and I continued to pay and pay through the years after that, even though I live in Mexico and rarely got to see a game. Maybe one a year except when I was in Australia for the season, when I might have got to two.
I have taken the pilgrimage to PP various times in recent years when on Melbourne and suffered the issues mentioned above in the shop. Once they couldn't find the key to the cabinet where the flags were and after an hour I just left. Last time, Chris Yarran was gracious enough to give us a few minutes of is time for a family photo but he was the only player in the building as far as I could tell. I found my name on the members wall, (more cash donated to the club) and had my pic taken with my daughter in front of the 16 cups and Jezza's photo with my 8yo, born 11 years after the last one was won.
I have watched the club turn into an old boys club with the members and supporters getting less and less access to everything club-associated and watched their futile attampts to turn around the on field debacles. BUT every week I sat up in bed at 2:00 in the morning and listened to the 3AW live stream and then when it came available the piirate stream and then when IT became available I paid the annual fee to watch the AFL approved stream.
Then three things happened.
Essendon** got busted and in the ensuing two years, the AFL has done everything in its power to get the club and the players off or get the punishment redced as far as possible and MY club did nothing along with the other 17 to force the issue. Gutless.
I was in Tassie and my granddaughter, who has been the recipient of Carlton jumpers and stuff from me ober the years, came back from a trip to Bellerive Oval with a showbag of stuff from the Hawtorn footy club who have a promotion presence on the ground in Hobart and presumably in Launceston. Frantic calls to the club and local Carlton people in Tassie who are sort of in touch with the club got no meaningful response. Gone are the days when David Parkin, Steven Kernahan, Mil, Kouta and a few other players would go to Tassie to rub shoulders with the pleb supporters from Carlton. Not the Hawks do it and guess what? Carlton, who along with StKilda had the biggest supporter base in Tassie with Hawthorn third, is now a pariah in Tassie with Hawthorn a runaway winner and St Kilda and Carlton languishing behind. If North plays there and markets itself in the South of the state, they will end up in front of us as well.
The third thing was when I received a call from the company charged with ringing up members who had not renewed and inviting me to sign up for Hawthorn. Oops, she said. I meant Carlton. Bang!
So what did I do?
I stopped paying the club for delivering nothing. Synbad and I rarely agree but I am with him on this one. The footy is a product and we are the purchasers. If they want us to pay top dollar they have to put in the effort to deliver a product worth buying and that isn't just memberships. It's integrity and bonhomie. If someone goes to PP and the players are there they should get the chance of a photo and a rub on the head for the kids, just like the good old days. My 8yo loves Chris Yarran. he's the only player she recognises on the team because he smiled at her and let her have her piccy taken with him. He would no doubt have been bored witless like the staff in the Carlton Shop but at least he pretended he wasn't.
So I am not a member any more but don't tell me to flower off because your definition of a supporter involves your particular criteria. I've followed and supported this team since before the golden era. Since before Barassi. 55 years of going, listening, watching, paying and trying to convert my family and kids. And criticizing.
But according to your definition I'm not a supporter.

And there are tens of thousands of people out there just like me.

Maybe Synbad is one of them.

Membership does not equate to being a suporter.
Neither does blindly following the Pied Piper.
Synbad may well answer this down the thread but I will answer for myself.
I was last a paid up member in 2012. I've been a paid up member for almost all of the years since the 1980s.
I was responsible for several new members signing up after the salary cap fines which almost saw the club go under and I continued to pay and pay through the years after that, even though I live in Mexico and rarely got to see a game. Maybe one a year except when I was in Australia for the season, when I might have got to two.
I have taken the pilgrimage to PP various times in recent years when on Melbourne and suffered the issues mentioned above in the shop. Once they couldn't find the key to the cabinet where the flags were and after an hour I just left. Last time, Chris Yarran was gracious enough to give us a few minutes of is time for a family photo but he was the only player in the building as far as I could tell. I found my name on the members wall, (more cash donated to the club) and had my pic taken with my daughter in front of the 16 cups and Jezza's photo with my 8yo, born 11 years after the last one was won.
I have watched the club turn into an old boys club with the members and supporters getting less and less access to everything club-associated and watched their futile attampts to turn around the on field debacles. BUT every week I sat up in bed at 2:00 in the morning and listened to the 3AW live stream and then when it came available the piirate stream and then when IT became available I paid the annual fee to watch the AFL approved stream.
Then three things happened.
Essendon** got busted and in the ensuing two years, the AFL has done everything in its power to get the club and the players off or get the punishment redced as far as possible and MY club did nothing along with the other 17 to force the issue. Gutless.
I was in Tassie and my granddaughter, who has been the recipient of Carlton jumpers and stuff from me ober the years, came back from a trip to Bellerive Oval with a showbag of stuff from the Hawtorn footy club who have a promotion presence on the ground in Hobart and presumably in Launceston. Frantic calls to the club and local Carlton people in Tassie who are sort of in touch with the club got no meaningful response. Gone are the days when David Parkin, Steven Kernahan, Mil, Kouta and a few other players would go to Tassie to rub shoulders with the pleb supporters from Carlton. Not the Hawks do it and guess what? Carlton, who along with StKilda had the biggest supporter base in Tassie with Hawthorn third, is now a pariah in Tassie with Hawthorn a runaway winner and St Kilda and Carlton languishing behind. If North plays there and markets itself in the South of the state, they will end up in front of us as well.
The third thing was when I received a call from the company charged with ringing up members who had not renewed and inviting me to sign up for Hawthorn. Oops, she said. I meant Carlton. Bang!
So what did I do?
I stopped paying the club for delivering nothing. Synbad and I rarely agree but I am with him on this one. The footy is a product and we are the purchasers. If they want us to pay top dollar they have to put in the effort to deliver a product worth buying and that isn't just memberships. It's integrity and bonhomie. If someone goes to PP and the players are there they should get the chance of a photo and a rub on the head for the kids, just like the good old days. My 8yo loves Chris Yarran. he's the only player she recognises on the team because he smiled at her and let her have her piccy taken with him. He would no doubt have been bored witless like the staff in the Carlton Shop but at least he pretended he wasn't.
So I am not a member any more but don't tell me to flower off because your definition of a supporter involves your particular criteria. I've followed and supported this team since before the golden era. Since before Barassi. 55 years of going, listening, watching, paying and trying to convert my family and kids. And criticizing.
But according to your definition I'm not a supporter.

And there are tens of thousands of people out there just like me.

Maybe Synbad is one of them.