Take your mates

Be good if the club had a campaign to 'take your mates' to the footy (or your mum, your girlfriend her friends their boyfirends etc). If every member took one paying mate to a home game (doesn't matter who they barrack for or even if they like footy) then that's 30,000 extra paying customers. The club could make a big deal about it and get people to submit photos of themselves and their mates at the footy so we could try and out do each other. Organise ten mates, get their money, buy the tickets the day before the match so they can walk straight in, go to the pub before hand and buy the first round. It's a little thing but if every member tried for a few home games to organise a group of paying mates we really could add 10,000 + to our crowds each home game which is $100k in ground receipts. There's 1m+ per year in ground receipts from people who may not have normally gone. And a few of the less interested mates or their little bros etc might end up seeing the light and converting to the Blues.

One of the positives to come out of the current crisis is that it has shaken a lot of us out of our torpor, and made us think seriously about doing something to help.

Great idea, gerry.

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Princes Park - always was, always will be.

Can you come up with something Danny can do, Gerry?

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Surely he could hire a couple of she-male hookers to take along.



Top idea Gerry. Simple, easy to implement, and effective. Maybe we could have Take a Mate day, say for a home game against Freo or Port - all members who bring a mate could get a free little Carlton token of some description.

Could end up garnering more supporters and members for the future from one small token.

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Richard Pratt - A Carlton legend.

Yeah maybe you could offer a competition...........get photographed with your mates and if your photo turms up on the big screen on match day you win:
- Entry into the rooms after the match
- A signed football for each person in the photo
- a slab of beer???????????

Other than that.................I really like the 'GenerationBlue' idea that has been going on for the last couple of years but i think it needs a big Revamp....................ESPECIALLY because keeping that age-group of fans has become more important that ever before.

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"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit"
- Aristotle

I really hope someone from the club is paying attention here.

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"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent." Qui-Gon Jinn 15-05-2005

"there’s more chance of me becoming the full forward for the [Western Bulldogs] than there is of any change in the Labor Party." Julia Gillard 18-05-2010

Teriffic idea Gerry... Something relatively simple, that can be easily executed - and there are a number of ways that it can benefit the club. You should whip up a proposal, or even just a simple e-mail explaining the idea - I reckon now's a pretty good time to jump onto this *start of the season*, since Carlton is *albeit the wrong reasons* pretty prominent in the media at the moment *at least the sponsors are getting a good run *... I sure that quite a few opposition supporters are curious as to if Carlton are going to come out in '07 firing or not... get 'em along to a match!

Not a bad idea Gerry.....Its probably been tried but I would target junior footy clubs and try and organise discount packages for teams to come along, give them the showbag routine etc. The Melbourne Tigers do it for junior basketball clubs, and the Dragons were even targetting schools, with some nice deals and freebies.....
Some kids have never been to the footy before and I like the idea of getting them interested when they are young and still choosing sports, heroes etc....
Essendon* were very good at attracting junior members and retaining them as adults....

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

Attracting the kids was something I asked a few of our board members in their Q&A's. Lauraine Diggins was the only one who addressed it, she said Col Kinnear started a junior prgoram so she would talk to him about it.

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"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent." Qui-Gon Jinn 15-05-2005

"there’s more chance of me becoming the full forward for the [Western Bulldogs] than there is of any change in the Labor Party." Julia Gillard 18-05-2010

if we play like last year those mates will be lost real soon

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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!

Ok..I posted this on TBV a few years back as an idea/"initiative" and I'll repeat it again. Mind you, I think all of these ideas are good....I think the problem is the current board/staff are just not getting on with the job of getting on with it...(if you know what I mean).

OK...here's how it works...remember...this isn't my idea...it's someone elses...has beeen tried and it works!

OK...certain matches are designated "promotion"...matches.
(similar to AFL's heritage/rivalry/community? rounds)
At these...you have a "promotion"...
Basically it's a giveaway. Usually a sponsor....black stamp on your ticket and pick up your freebie.....

Simple isn't it.....

I can hear you now..."so what?..like you'll get an extra crowd for a free mars bar or heaven forbid a blue M&M??"

BUT how does it really work.....

Well some bits are obvious some are not.
Firtsly...at the fixture att the beginning of the year the "Promotional" games are marked.
Let's look at the Seattle Mariners (who I follow in the MLB)
http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/schedul ... m=4&y=2007

In the legend and in the calender (April 27th) you'll see a [*] signifying promo game (in this case against Kansas (how many people from Kansas are going to make it to Seattle???) ....sort of our Freo.

Also if you click the promo you'll see it's an Ichiro* (see below) Bobblehead....




Ok..note the number of fans...the fact that there is a series of them etc. and the sponsor (Fox Sports Network).

The sponsors get behind these because they are "targetted"

Another "promotion" (that I was at) was a free glove to every junior member .....Slazenger (I think) had just gotten into making baseball gloves. Seriously these $50 gloves were given to every junior member that came into the ground....how busy do you reckon the membership booth outside was
....and how instantly popular in the school yard do you reckon the new :must have" gloves became.....mind you they were probably being made for about $2 in China...so for the cost of ONE TV commercial, these things had instant penetration into the market...exclusivity (as these kids got them before anyone) Club gets heaps of new members (albeit junior) and I'm sure they "pay" the club for the promo or "access" to the members to boot.

Different sponsors want different things. I know for a fact these things started as getting a few sponsors dollars and who cares about the freebie and quickly moved to "high quality" freebie that make the sponsors look good and drag people to the games.....

I'm happy to talk to anyone about what I know about these...

Now
*Ichiro -

Let me tell you a story ...see if it sound familiar...
This kid was recruited from Japan...no expectation..doubts as to whether he would make it. He's been good..not necesarily great..but good, but almost instantly became a cult figure in the US (well Mariners supporters)...so the club thought we'ld better pitch some mercahndise (Shirts with Ichiro on the back and with Ichiro in Japanese on the back) and see about trying to sell some into Japan. Last I heard from some die hard supporters, the club probably couldn't drop him (which they don't want to) from the team because of the marketting revenue alone....so which is the first bobblehead..Ichiro of course...(wonder if the Japanese love those cute little things...I'm betting there's a container ship on its way over as we speak.)

Any ideas as to wether we could do anything similar...

(Kevin Bohane may wish to contribute...)

Now...risk to club with nay of these venture = just about zero...possible return ...well Not billions but can be quite a lot.

I know it's still not "outside" the traditional footy revenue stream...but it is thinking outside the square...


...oh and most importantly...it works

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“Every single element of the Club has to be the best in the league, meticulously and methodically, and only by doing this will we be elite and challenge for number 17.”
Greg Lee

I'm a big fan of getting Fev to do the rounds of a few primary schools, wowing the preps through grade 2's with a few 65m torps and then handing out a bunch of complimentary junior memberships. Kids go home, force the parents to take them to see the Fev, bingo bango, a new generation is born.

Great to see another Mariners fan here Billc3!

Ichiro is my favourite player.

Also think the promotion idea has merit, easy enough to implement. Matter of fact one of the things CFC should be doing is researching what sporting clubs in the U.S. do to raise revenue.

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|♥♥♥♥♥♥| http://www.blueseum.org |♥♥♥♥♥♥|

No probs JArusa...I'll happily volunteer to spend a season at SAFECO to do some "research" so long as the club gets me an airfare and somewhere to stay ....

actually spent some time at Wrigley Field also...

So why Ichiro? I thought any Aussie would be a Blackley fan (especially Melbournians )

I like Ichiro too...but then again I was there with the whole Ichiro recruitment/debut thing.

So where are Stephen and Mark when you need them......

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“Every single element of the Club has to be the best in the league, meticulously and methodically, and only by doing this will we be elite and challenge for number 17.”
Greg Lee

there still are some idiots, who will only go to the footy if there team is going well.... If the actual blue supporters won't go, how do you get friends to come?

I usually go to the footy with an Essendon* supporter, he even got a membership last year.

He supports Carlton more than Essendon*