Well done 2ndeffort, its paramount that every Carlton parent of this generation take a hand to ensure they "guide" their children to follow Carlton. It absolutely astounds me when I see families where the Father or Mother barracks for Carlton and the kids barrack for Essendon* or Richmond etc.

There should be no excuse. I had a bit of a problem with Agro Juniors as their Grandfather (wife's side ) was sending them down the Scum path - but hey everytime they wanted to go to the football, I had no problem taking them - to a Carlton game.

Even Jarred Waite actually barracked for Essendon* in his younger days, Im not too sure what Vin Waite thought of this - probably new we would get him under father/son.

But as I said its imperative that this generation of Carlton Supporters take a firm hand in guiding their children down the Blues Path, in particular during this period of downtime - otherwise we are in danger of withering on the vine like Fitzroy did.

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

Winston Churchill

I'm a product of a Carlton family, father ,uncles, grandfather, great grandad..all Blues men my son was dragged into the fold as well, even my wife...not so my daughter who went with the Bulldogs(liked the colours..thats women for you ) however I think we need some alternate routes for young people to find their way to the club as a lot of parents dont have the time with work/sporting duties with children to get to games. A lot of kids also follow trends.....successful clubs with trendy players, they also copy who their mates barrack for and with us having no success for a fair while means we are not a cool club to follow and dont have too many trendy name players up in the public eye.....we need some marketing guru to make us appealing to youngsters as well as obviously winning games to make us some champion players for the kids to follow......winning games isnt so easy but i think the club need to make more effort and spend some money getting some pro marketing expertise
to lift our profile amongst youngsters at school level.....get our young players out amongst the kids more and even train a few more of the players in the areas of how to sell the club.....a few kind words, a showbag full of goodies from a senior player to a youngster and you could have a supporter for life..charging newbie familes for a family day isnt the way to market the club or get parents to bring them along.....

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

Here is the greatest solution of all time:

CFC buy a pub in the city, between The G and the Dome. After each game you would potentially have 10,000 heading toward the pub - to talk footy, drink with their mates etc etc.

I know this idea will cop a hiding with the 'what money are we gonna use' to buy a pub... but just consider it for a moment.

We win, the pub is packed. We lose, the pub is packed. Reasonably busy pubs are a cash cow. Pubs with 10,000 members heading that way will make a killing! (And I know you can't fit 10,000 people in a pub!)

Make an incentive for members only, 30% off beers 7 days a week. If you we're going into the city for a beer off season, where would you go???

Think about it. Everyone here would be up for a beer especially at a CFC pub... Blue Beer - bring it on! Start a chain, franchise it, I'm sure there are plenty of people with a spare bit of cash who would be interested in an idea of this type - especially if its a first... the possiblilities are endless.

I actually hinted at something like this in my earlier posts.

We have floopin' Mathieson on the board, can't we get him to open a club or something...heck...

Think outside the confines of the box Collo and team.

Cut player payments down by $200K if that's what it takes to get a top flight marketing executive to come to us because regardless of what we do on the field, our finances won't improve unless we get proactive in promoting our club.

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"A good composer does not initiate. He steals."

- Igor Stravinsky

Fitzroy tried that one.

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This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

The Fitzroy pub or the Lions Den, as we termed it back then, was a source of regular revenue for the Roys. It generated cash flow. It was a more reliable source than the President dipping into his own pockets (remember that?), and more reliable than temporary sponsors.

Great idea
Blue Beer.

I might even buy a franchise and call it "Bondi Blue Beer" proudly sponsored by Carlton UB. That would get up the nose of Lion Nathan.
Pokies sponsored by Mathieson.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

did it?

I thought it ran at a loss.

I'll check with my sourse

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This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

think you lose 15/16 out of your potential punters - I'd have a knacker chopped off before drinking in a Bomber pub...

good thinking but!

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

Its not a bad idea....I think it at least shows some lateral thinking and has some sense of business nous too it...there would be different ways to go about part/owning or leasing a pub...with a lease you could try it and see if it worked but not over stretch the finances...well worth thinking about ....

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

Only if you weren't patronising it.

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

Winston Churchill

Dannyboy...it was The Champion Hotel in Gertrude st.

I remember it doing OK or at least in the early days. ..and it was doing OK as that was the impression I got when we sub leased it successfully for one night a week as a dance club; another source of revenue for the pub.

In those days there were no pokies. So times have changed, and pubs are more favourable today than they were pre pkies era.

Interested to find out whether they were making money at the time we sub leased it...as that was at the time the spirit of the Roys was sliding as was their chance of survival.

Nevertheless, as AGRO points out...that the pub game is all about patronage...and when you have patronage you have good cash flow and good margins.

You wouldn't need 10,000 to make it a success. There isn't a pub that could cater (legally) for a herd of 10,000 (figure quoted above).

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

I think a pub is a short-sighted solution. It looks like we are desparate, devoid of ideas and reinforces a blokey curlture. We need to concetrate on our core business and appear modern and professional to attract high quality sponsors and partners, and also to appeal to families.

If we can't make our core business of running a footy club work, in the most successful competition in the country, with the most media exposure in the country, why would we think that we'd run a successful pub.

This would be a distraction of the worst kind and seen publically as an admission that the Carlton footy club is as good as dead and buried.

Well they own or share the Laverton Club just near my house (20mins from TD). All supporters are welcome to come to my side of town

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Mjonc signing off at 8888

So to all the marketers on here. Would you say that on-hold and answering machine messages are the most simple form of marketing?

Well I do and I ask you all to call the following membership numbers after business hours and tell me the difference:

Carlton: 1300 727 981
Collingwood: 1800 467 437

For those who cannot be bothered listening, Collingwood promote special packages and upgrades etc etc, Carlton simply say leave a message after the tone. Collingwood even talk about quality assurance FFS.

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Mjonc signing off at 8888

Would you like to elaborate Steve? You don't think the phones would be the most accessible point of contact for supporters and possible sponsors? I don't know what you do for a living but Im sure when you put people on hold, they would either be listening to the radio or some marketing campaign.

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Mjonc signing off at 8888

Agree with you 100%. I was rolling my eyes at the club, not at your post...

I know I have gone on abou this before, but the marketing potential is big with the our two boys there, if handled right how many Irish members in Melbourne would you pick up????

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'Cause I'm J.U.D.D
I'm dynamite
J.U.D.D
And I'll win that fight
J.U.D.D
I'm a power load
J.U.D.D, Watch me explode

The boys are doing a telethon right now ringing up lapsed members.

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"We used to sit around and talk about how bad the game plan was." Anthony Koutoufides

Sorry then

Another idea i had. I drive past the new K&S Freighters site in Truganina/Laverton every day, why can't the club do a deal to have our membership slogan and number painted onto all the trucks? proud Sponsors of Carlton - Join Now - Something Blue - Call 1300 79 80 81 with Fev, Murph and JFK.

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Mjonc signing off at 8888