HBF
Flying Scotsman
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2002
- Posts
- 156,555
- Reaction score
- 102,262
- AFL Club
- Carlton
Well, i'm back from the AGM, and here is my report on what happened tonight.
After battling my way through Melbourne traffic, I got to the club just after 6 and the place was abuzz with a lot of people around the SC, and quite a heavy media prescence. Noticed Chris Jones from Ch.9, but nobody else I recognised from the media.
Made my way into the SC and signed in, and made my way upstairs to the middle part of the SC, where Bluegal1983 had kindly saved me a seat, and took my seat. The place was packed, so much so that they had to have a live feed into the Burt Numa room, which was also full.
Before the AGM got underway, both BG and I noticed a few interesting onlookers. They were:
Ok, the meeting then kicked off the Stephen Kernahan introducing himself as the chair for the meeting, and then introducing the panel that would be taking questions. They were: Simon Wilson QC, Jason Reddick (Secretary), Michael Malouf (CEO) and Andrew Mansour (Returning Officer)
Andrew Mansour then introduced the remainder of the board, who were seated at a different table, right in front of the panel that would be running the AGM.
Simon Wilson then spoke in glowing terms of the Board members that have since resigned or who have not been re-elected since 2002. They are:
He mentioned a couple of times that the abovementioned gave thier time for the good of the club, and did so without any financial reimbursement. He asked the members for a round of applause, which was done by the 300-400 strong crowd.
Sticks then presented life memberships to Alan Reece ( a member since circa 1938, and he has seen every flag since. Made a great speech, and one that grew a huge applause from the crowd), Brendan Fevola and Matthew Lappin (Both for 8 years service to the club).
Sticks then went on to list the Carlton people that passed away during the last 12 months. Unfortunately I couldn't get their names down as he went through them quickly.
Michael Malouf then went through the Balance Sheet for the year ending October 2006, which was pretty much the same as appeared in the Annual Report that most of us would have received a copy of.
He then showed a sponsorship comparison between 2004 and 2007, and advising that we have a much healthier sponsorship network than what we did 3 years ago. Even though our sponsorship has been filled for 2007, the club still needs to work hard at getting more sponsors on board.
He then went through an analysis of the Cash Flow from 2004 to 2006. Showed that there was a $3.5M deficit in '04, compared to a $699K deficit in
'06, but that includes the $1.5M from the AFL, and when added back, leaves the club with a deficit of nearly $2.2M.
The club is hoping to get their cash deficit to $500K this year, which will include the $1.5M from the AFL.
During the last 3 years, the clubs debt has gone like this:
2004 - $6.0M
2005 - $6.2M
2006 - $8.2M
2007 - $8.5M (They cannot go any further than that!)
In Maloufs final slide, he listed 9 players that really show that we have embarked on a youth policy. The players that were listed were:
Simon Wilson then took some questions from the floor that JUST related the finances of the club that had just been discussed.
Q. Strategy to write down the debt in the next 2 years?
A. Need to return to a cash neutral position, and this can be done in part by getting more members into the club. Malouf also said that the difference between finishing 16th and finishing 10th is worth about $2M
Q. Now that Foxtel is going to show 4 games in 2007, will this have any bearing on our sponsorship?
A. Carlton are already down the bottom of the FTA coverage at the moment, so it is not going to hurt us any more than what it already is.
Not getting enough $10K to $50K sponsorships into the club, and that is one of the challenges for the Board.
Q. Top Tier Sponsorships - Are we getting the same as other Melbourne Clubs e.g. Collingwood
A. Just below average - Collingwood had 18M FTA viewers in 2006, whereas Carlton had 6-7M viewers. Malouf then pointed out the sponsorship that the club signed last week, and couldn't remember who the sponsor was.
Q. Are the club trying to promote the club in regional Victoria in an effort to generate more revenue?
A. No answer was really given here, but asked the gentleman to contact the club so they could talk to him further.
Q. Plan for the ground development - are they continuing (Stage II)?
A. The Board will look at it, and will make a decision on that based on the best interest of the club. Simon Wilson re-iterated it is still a proposal and any decision is still a long way off. He also re-iterated that stage 1 is totally seperate to stage II.
Then the panel spoke about the voting paper for clause 46(d), which is:
"No director of the club may remain in office for more than 4 consecutive terms of office or 12 years, whichever is the longer, such a period to be calculated from 12 Nov 2002, subject to the extension by ordinary resolution of the members" - This motion was passed with a huge majority
It was now time for the general Q&A from the floor. I wont go through every question, and questions about the voting and Redevlopment were asked more than once.
Q. Will Carlton ever play a H&A game at PP again?
A. No
Q. Will Stage II Proceed?
A. See previous answer
Q. Protocol of voting & tranparency. Need a more professional way of voting and not faxing it in.
A. The Board will look at the constitution and re-write these loop holes so there are better ways of doing it.
Q. With a candidate pulling out prior to the election, why wasn't there a re-election?
A. 14 candidates for 10 vacancies turned into 13 candidates for 10 vacancies. Votes for Marcus Rose just were not counted.
Q. On 2 occasions in 2006, opposition members were admitted into the free of charge for Carlton home games. Were we compensated for this?
A. Yes, but no figures were given out.
Q. Wants the Board to be honest - No more leaks to the press and why was the AGM not prior to Xmas like most of the other clubs?
A. Intended that the '06 AGM was to be held in December, however, auditing requirements prevented the club from doing this. The Board is aware that the members want the AGM in December, and this should happen at the end of '07.
Q. What will Stephen Kernahans role at the club be in '07?
A. Danced around the question and didn't answer it.
Q. Why didn't we go to the MCG for all of our home games?
A. No deal was offered from the MCG, and only TD put a deal on the table
Q. Where is the SC going to be based?
A. Kernahan Room at the TD
Seats outside the SC at the MCG - and going to be called the Captains Club.
Q. Does Pagan have the full support of the Board?
A. Yes
Sticks closed the meeting just after 8PM, and the whole crowd sang We are the Navy Blues.
On a side note, just wanted to make the point that I thought Simon Wilson spoke very very well tonight, and handled pretty much everything with aplomb.
That's it guys. I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have from the AGM.
After battling my way through Melbourne traffic, I got to the club just after 6 and the place was abuzz with a lot of people around the SC, and quite a heavy media prescence. Noticed Chris Jones from Ch.9, but nobody else I recognised from the media.
Made my way into the SC and signed in, and made my way upstairs to the middle part of the SC, where Bluegal1983 had kindly saved me a seat, and took my seat. The place was packed, so much so that they had to have a live feed into the Burt Numa room, which was also full.
Before the AGM got underway, both BG and I noticed a few interesting onlookers. They were:
- Lauraine Diggins
- David McKay
- David Glasscott
- Col DeLutis
- John Valmorbida
Ok, the meeting then kicked off the Stephen Kernahan introducing himself as the chair for the meeting, and then introducing the panel that would be taking questions. They were: Simon Wilson QC, Jason Reddick (Secretary), Michael Malouf (CEO) and Andrew Mansour (Returning Officer)
Andrew Mansour then introduced the remainder of the board, who were seated at a different table, right in front of the panel that would be running the AGM.
Simon Wilson then spoke in glowing terms of the Board members that have since resigned or who have not been re-elected since 2002. They are:
- Ian Collins
- Lauraine Diggins
- Bruce Mathieson
- Graham Smorgon
- Marcus Rose
- John Valmorbida
He mentioned a couple of times that the abovementioned gave thier time for the good of the club, and did so without any financial reimbursement. He asked the members for a round of applause, which was done by the 300-400 strong crowd.
Sticks then presented life memberships to Alan Reece ( a member since circa 1938, and he has seen every flag since. Made a great speech, and one that grew a huge applause from the crowd), Brendan Fevola and Matthew Lappin (Both for 8 years service to the club).
Sticks then went on to list the Carlton people that passed away during the last 12 months. Unfortunately I couldn't get their names down as he went through them quickly.
Michael Malouf then went through the Balance Sheet for the year ending October 2006, which was pretty much the same as appeared in the Annual Report that most of us would have received a copy of.
He then showed a sponsorship comparison between 2004 and 2007, and advising that we have a much healthier sponsorship network than what we did 3 years ago. Even though our sponsorship has been filled for 2007, the club still needs to work hard at getting more sponsors on board.
He then went through an analysis of the Cash Flow from 2004 to 2006. Showed that there was a $3.5M deficit in '04, compared to a $699K deficit in
'06, but that includes the $1.5M from the AFL, and when added back, leaves the club with a deficit of nearly $2.2M.
The club is hoping to get their cash deficit to $500K this year, which will include the $1.5M from the AFL.
During the last 3 years, the clubs debt has gone like this:
2004 - $6.0M
2005 - $6.2M
2006 - $8.2M
2007 - $8.5M (They cannot go any further than that!)
In Maloufs final slide, he listed 9 players that really show that we have embarked on a youth policy. The players that were listed were:
- Paul Bower
- Bryce Gibbs
- Marc Murphy
- Shaun Hampson
- Shaun Grigg
- Andrew Walker
- Simon Wiggins
- Josh Kennedy
- Jake Edwards
Simon Wilson then took some questions from the floor that JUST related the finances of the club that had just been discussed.
Q. Strategy to write down the debt in the next 2 years?
A. Need to return to a cash neutral position, and this can be done in part by getting more members into the club. Malouf also said that the difference between finishing 16th and finishing 10th is worth about $2M
Q. Now that Foxtel is going to show 4 games in 2007, will this have any bearing on our sponsorship?
A. Carlton are already down the bottom of the FTA coverage at the moment, so it is not going to hurt us any more than what it already is.
Not getting enough $10K to $50K sponsorships into the club, and that is one of the challenges for the Board.
Q. Top Tier Sponsorships - Are we getting the same as other Melbourne Clubs e.g. Collingwood
A. Just below average - Collingwood had 18M FTA viewers in 2006, whereas Carlton had 6-7M viewers. Malouf then pointed out the sponsorship that the club signed last week, and couldn't remember who the sponsor was.
Q. Are the club trying to promote the club in regional Victoria in an effort to generate more revenue?
A. No answer was really given here, but asked the gentleman to contact the club so they could talk to him further.
Q. Plan for the ground development - are they continuing (Stage II)?
A. The Board will look at it, and will make a decision on that based on the best interest of the club. Simon Wilson re-iterated it is still a proposal and any decision is still a long way off. He also re-iterated that stage 1 is totally seperate to stage II.
Then the panel spoke about the voting paper for clause 46(d), which is:
"No director of the club may remain in office for more than 4 consecutive terms of office or 12 years, whichever is the longer, such a period to be calculated from 12 Nov 2002, subject to the extension by ordinary resolution of the members" - This motion was passed with a huge majority
It was now time for the general Q&A from the floor. I wont go through every question, and questions about the voting and Redevlopment were asked more than once.
Q. Will Carlton ever play a H&A game at PP again?
A. No
Q. Will Stage II Proceed?
A. See previous answer
Q. Protocol of voting & tranparency. Need a more professional way of voting and not faxing it in.
A. The Board will look at the constitution and re-write these loop holes so there are better ways of doing it.
Q. With a candidate pulling out prior to the election, why wasn't there a re-election?
A. 14 candidates for 10 vacancies turned into 13 candidates for 10 vacancies. Votes for Marcus Rose just were not counted.
Q. On 2 occasions in 2006, opposition members were admitted into the free of charge for Carlton home games. Were we compensated for this?
A. Yes, but no figures were given out.
Q. Wants the Board to be honest - No more leaks to the press and why was the AGM not prior to Xmas like most of the other clubs?
A. Intended that the '06 AGM was to be held in December, however, auditing requirements prevented the club from doing this. The Board is aware that the members want the AGM in December, and this should happen at the end of '07.
Q. What will Stephen Kernahans role at the club be in '07?
A. Danced around the question and didn't answer it.
Q. Why didn't we go to the MCG for all of our home games?
A. No deal was offered from the MCG, and only TD put a deal on the table
Q. Where is the SC going to be based?
A. Kernahan Room at the TD
Seats outside the SC at the MCG - and going to be called the Captains Club.
Q. Does Pagan have the full support of the Board?
A. Yes
Sticks closed the meeting just after 8PM, and the whole crowd sang We are the Navy Blues.
On a side note, just wanted to make the point that I thought Simon Wilson spoke very very well tonight, and handled pretty much everything with aplomb.
That's it guys. I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have from the AGM.
