Blue Fans, Where are you?

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Nov 8, 2007
11,742
16,708
Melbourne
AFL Club
Carlton
Before I start with my rant, I just want to make a few things clear, which you may agree or disagree:

I believe Patrick Cripps Should be Captain Now, not next year.
I believe Cripps is a better choice than Doc.
The Rebuild is going to take far longer than 66 games.
I'm not sure on Bolton.
I'm not yet sure on Stephen Silvagni's role as list manager, yet. While great at negotiation he keeps picking undersized Mids, and mature age players that have yet to prove there value. Just my opinion.

Anyway, Carlton football Club has 51860 members as I type this.

After just getting Rolled by Richmond in Round 1, there was only 28,000 at the Gold Coast (Home Game) game in round 2.
68,000 against Collingwood Round 3, I would bet at least 40,000 were Collingwood supporters.
28,000 vs West Coast Round 5
only 44,600 vs Essendon in Round 8
44,000 Vs Melbourne Yesterday

I understand that the team is not going great, we have had a lot of injury's, we lack depth and we have a lot of Kids in the team. But when Carlton needs your support the most, where are the diehard Fans, how can we ever expect Carlton to be a powerhouse if nobody is going to show up to the game.

Carlton needs every supporter they can get. There are a few other problems that the club is going to face in the short term, most of Carlton's revenue is Pokie Driven, the AFL is hell bent on removing all pokies from football clubs, this is why I believe Cain Liddle has been brought over from Richmond as he was able to help the tigers make a lot of revenue through Gyms. Where the blues will get there money from is anybody's guess.

Anyway, I have mentioned this issue in the past but I think it is even more relevant now and this is something that needs to be fixed by the club immediately. The Cheer Squad.
If you are a member of the cheer squad you get a reserved seat and guaranteed finals tickets should the blues make the finals. Now I'm not going to bag those who show up week in and week out, and make time to go down to the club to get the banner and other things sorted out, it is a thankless job. I'm going to call out those who don't show up, and don't put the time in. I'm calling out the empty seats I see at every single game. Yesterday I could see more than half the seats allocated to the cheer Squad were empty.

I thought I was looking at the Gold Coast or GWS Cheers squad, it was a horrible sight to see, Imagine how the players feel when they see the support the opposition is getting at the other end. North Melbourne are at the lower levels in terms of membership yet they can fill out 3 bays in there cheer squad, and they do everything big. Imagine how the players feel when they look up and see the pride and passion there supporters have, it just makes you want to try harder for the fans.

The club needs to make a complete overhaul to the cheer squad, 1st they need to eliminate the members who don't show up, they should be able to do this by looking at the memberships and being able to gather data of who goes to the game every week and who does not. They need to advertise to members and create youtube clips to get new members involved, send out an email to the members have a bbq on members nights, get the players to come and say hello. I'm sure they are doing some of those things already but they need to cut the dead wood (only in it for the finals tickets).

As a Carlton supporter I know what it feels like going to work and everybody even those who don't even like football bagging the s**t out of you because Carlton lost again. I seem to cop it every week, but if Carlton is to move forward you can't lose the faith. You need to show up to the game, even when we are losing, I love watching Cripps and Curnow and we have talent coming through, but this process is going to take a long time to change and it starts with the supporters.
TLDR.

Felt like we had more Blues than Melbourne supporters in the MCC area, so perhaps it's them who didn't turn up.
 

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CaptainCharisma

All Australian
Jun 23, 2011
924
2,673
Royal Parade
AFL Club
Carlton
I refused to go to R1 to watch Richmond unfurl the flag.

Been to R2 GCS, R3 Coll, R6 Dogs, R8 Ess, 9 Melb.
Only game I stayed home to watch was West Coast after the Norf in Tassie debacle the week before.

I don't think the Melbourne crowd was too unexpected. The Essendon one was terrible though.
 
I live 90 minutes (depends on the Monash freeway) from Melbourne and usually go to the home games, didn’t get there this week as I sprained my ankle.

I agree on some points magoo...it’s a tough time to be a Carlton supporter however we have won some finals etc in the last 10 or so years better than some clubs I wholeheartedly believe we are on the right track with this rebuild, hang in there get behind our club !

:carlton:
 
I refused to go to R1 to watch Richmond unfurl the flag.

Been to R2 GCS, R3 Coll, R6 Dogs, R8 Ess, 9 Melb.
Only game I stayed home to watch was West Coast after the Norf in Tassie debacle the week before.

I don't think the Melbourne crowd was too unexpected. The Essendon one was terrible though.
they were almost identical
 
Nov 11, 2005
28,888
35,176
Queensland
AFL Club
Carlton
Hawthorn v Collingwood, Round 1 attendance 58051. Combined membership somewhere between 140K & 150K. Carlton v Richmond Round 1 attendance 90151. Combined memberships somewhere between 130K & 140K. Membership numbers not much of a guide to anything these days. Significant effort has been put into attracting those supporters who may only attend a handful of games, or who live long distances from their club's games. This certainly helps to inflate the overall numbers.

Cheersquads generally seem to have reduced drastically in size. My wife commented last week on the small size of the Dopers' cheersquad. They are all a far cry from their numbers back in the '80s.
 
Sep 9, 2015
21,180
21,260
AFL Club
Carlton
I live in Geelong, involved in my local football club and Gaelic football club.

I always plan to get to 4-5 games per season when there's no clashes with the above.

When time in life is limited you generally won't pick the option that takes up half a day and leaves you feeling miserable.
 
I live in freakin Kalgoorlie and try to get to ONE game a year ...... I am a coach for the Mines Rovers local footy club ((Only reason I picked Mines was because Eddie Betts played there) on a side note .... Jack Darling's brother in laws are life members) ... my 10yo is a die hard blues supporter, goes to training wearing the latest Weiterbot Strip.

Already has the Dusty trademark fend off.
 

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RAPPA

Brownlow Medallist
Feb 20, 2008
15,756
31,760
Victoria
AFL Club
Carlton
Only games missed this year were rounds 4 and 5. Attend the games with no expectation other than a competitive fight, and generally leave with a prayer that the inclusion of some of our better players from injury would have caused a different result.
 

The Bighouse

Norm Smith Medallist
Jun 28, 2009
8,136
11,467
Perth
AFL Club
Carlton
I live in Geelong, involved in my local football club and Gaelic football club.

I always plan to get to 4-5 games per season when there's no clashes with the above.

When time in life is limited you generally won't pick the option that takes up half a day and leaves you feeling miserable.

You should at least get to enjoy a “home” game this week.
 
i flew in from far north queensland for Melbourne game .... seen hawk supporters at airport getting home from brissy as i was flying out .. that made me feel a little better..

Good on you for doing that. I'm from Brisbane and I don't have that opportunity at the moment.

I was just reminding people that our membership figure isn't just about Melbourne based members. We are strongly supported across Australia as well.
 
Aug 20, 2011
1,194
1,632
Keilor
AFL Club
Carlton
I watch most games at the local sports club. Takes nearly an hour each way to the G for me, then the time for the game. Too much time out of my week end with a 1 and a half year old and expecting another in the next month or so. Fair too say my footy going days are dwindling down for the next few years.

Still love the team, but just can’t commit the same time to watching, its just not that important in comparison.

#Notasdiehardassome
 

The Blue Baggers

Premiership Player
Apr 7, 2013
3,919
3,280
AFL Club
Carlton
Hawthorn v Collingwood, Round 1 attendance 58051. Combined membership somewhere between 140K & 150K. Carlton v Richmond Round 1 attendance 90151. Combined memberships somewhere between 130K & 140K. Membership numbers not much of a guide to anything these days. Significant effort has been put into attracting those supporters who may only attend a handful of games, or who live long distances from their club's games. This certainly helps to inflate the overall numbers.

Cheersquads generally seem to have reduced drastically in size. My wife commented last week on the small size of the Dopers' cheersquad. They are all a far cry from their numbers back in the '80s.

Agree , the Hawks allegedly have a massive membership yet their members area is half full @ best !!
 

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