Smorgon Gone!!!

[Effes]

http://talkingcarlton.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=446092#446092

 

[mediumsizered]

Are you happy with the outcome MS?
I detect a bit of sarcasm in your post.

I'm disappointed Smorgon is gone. I would have been happy for him to no longer be president, but I think he had a lot to offer as a board member, not least his own personal wealth. To see Smorgon gone & Ari Suss elected, just reeks of vengeance against someone who may not have presented himself well, but was a Carlton man through & through.

I have no problems with Marcus Clarke's election to the board (I actually voted for him with the Unity ticket & crossed off Suss). Littman is a bit of an unknown quantity, but I am prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. It is a relief to see Diggins gone & I am also relieved that Fiore wasn't elected.

As I stated above, it is a board with a good cross section of skills & contacts, but I just think Smorgon would be a better contributor than what Ari Suss will be. It certainly puts to bed all the conspiracy theories about Smorgon controlling the election process & demonstrates that the Carlton Football Club is a democratic football club, nowadays.

 

[thylacine60]

Amazingly rapid progress considering I only handed my DCT vote in personally at midday today. While I was there I did what I suggest a few might want to do at some stage in the future. I went into the social club ground floor area and took a look at our cups. What a magnificent sight they are, solid shining silver, the best looking tropheys ever produced (apologies to Stanley Cup fans). That's our club right there folks. A history of pride and success - something other clubs used to envy and try to emulate. Go take a look if you can - last time I did was with my old man who is the reason I follow this mighty club. He's dead now - his first anniversary is on Sunday - but if he were alive today he'd say to me "what a lot of bull********, Carlton will never die". He had one word for me most times after we had just raced home from PP to watch us win again on the replay......................"Blues".

 

[gandaal]

Not necessarily.

Think about it. We have a fresh start. Anything can happen from here. One thing that won't happen is, we will not fold or merge or relocate.

A fresh start. With no President. With a board filled full of competing egos. With no plans for the future. With uncertainty.

Yeah its just great.

 

[westbrom]

Consider this.

Our finance officer warned that unless carlton did something drastic, or, the proposed redevelopment goes through we face losing carlton. The redevelopment was Smorgans baby, along with his business partners. With him gone so is the redevelopment. This leaves us in a situation where our only chance of survival may rest on a massive donation from the Pratts of this world or a miracle.

Not saying I wanted Smorgan in there, don't really care. The point is, with him gone, we now face extinction.

Now what are the chances that the finance officer was hoping to generate positive publicity for his plans and that it backfired. I am not convinced Carlton is going under unless they spend 67m upgrading PP, in fact I would go as far as to say I think it was pure propaganda from Rose. I think Smorgon had absolutely no idea how to run a football club. Remember there are far different rules to running a football club that is in a heavily governed environment than there are to running a business that has the potential to virtually monopolize trade. Smorgon has shown himself a good businessmen but he was a terrible President.

I am not at all disturbed by his disappearance in fact to the contrary I think it is a great move. I wish the elections had been held in 1 months time and there was more opportunity to generate a real rival ticket. Even his calling of the election at such a time smelt of self-conservation.

These changes are a good thing, I can only hope that it results in a more unified board that keeps itself out of the papers, unfortunately this means we should be seeing out the Pagan contract as well. The footy starts in a few weeks and it is time to get on with things. Carlton needs to start getting in the paper for it's football now.

 

[westbrom]

A fresh start. With no President. With a board filled full of competing egos. With no plans for the future. With uncertainty.

Yeah its just great.

my vote for optimist of the week...

By this comment there should never be change... Who says there are no plans for the future. Once the board meets it will solidify its plans for the next period of the clubs history and one should be able to expect that it will do so in a unified manner. Having been involved in board changes before I have generally found that fresh boards usually has renewed enthusiasm. It is reasonable to expect this will be that case at Carlton

 

[sherb]

Consider this.

Our finance officer warned that unless carlton did something drastic, or, the proposed redevelopment goes through we face losing carlton. The redevelopment was Smorgans baby, along with his business partners. With him gone so is the redevelopment. This leaves us in a situation where our only chance of survival may rest on a massive donation from the Pratts of this world or a miracle.

Not saying I wanted Smorgan in there, don't really care. The point is, with him gone, we now face extinction.

I honestly believe if we were indeed facing extinction, if it became that bad, we have a big enough supporter base to clear our debt.

 

[HBF]

Amazingly rapid progress considering I only handed my DCT vote in personally at midday today. While I was there I did what I suggest a few might want to do at some stage in the future. I went into the social club ground floor area and took a look at our cups. What a magnificent sight they are, solid shining silver, the best looking tropheys ever produced (apologies to Stanley Cup fans). That's our club right there folks. A history of pride and success - something other clubs used to envy and try to emulate. Go take a look if you can - last time I did was with my old man who is the reason I follow this mighty club. He's dead now - his first anniversary is on Sunday - but if he were alive today he'd say to me "what a lot of bull********, Carlton will never die". He had one word for me most times after we had just raced home from PP to watch us win again on the replay......................"Blues".

I'm sorry to hear about your dad thylacine.
I must say that I love going into the SC and having a look at out cups. After training on Australia Day, a few of us popped in there for a quiet one and we all stood there in awe of all of our success.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

It certainly puts to bed all the conspiracy theories about Smorgon controlling the election process & demonstrates that the Carlton Football Club is a democratic football club, nowadays.

That it does. I think all the hysteria bringers might want to retract some of that propaganda ... but won't.

I like the idea of a fresh start but am concerned by the loss of someone that could buy and sell the rest of the board if he so desired. I believed with job security he would have put in a nice tidy sum in the coming weeks but that won't happen now.

If the leakers are correct, then the money men will come out and write off our debt now that Smorgon is gone. If they don't I would like an explanation.

So yeah ... would be nice to have a dynamic leader in there but what happens to the redevelopment and the convertible notes that Smorgon and Rose were going to buy up?

As for the new president, for Lee to get it, would require Moulton and Harrison to cross the floor so to speak as Unity still have 8/12 directors and therefore more likely to elect one of their own. Is Newton the frontrunner in that case or will they all move away from the Smorgon line of thinking and unite completely?

 

[AlecDuncan]

good-bye, so long etc etc

Hurry up Colin.

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

my vote for optimist of the week...

By this comment there should never be change... Who says there are no plans for the future. Once the board meets it will solidify its plans for the next period of the clubs history and one should be able to expect that it will do so in a unified manner. Having been involved in board changes before I have generally found that fresh boards usually has renewed enthusiasm. It is reasonable to expect this will be that case at Carlton

I think the idea is that if there were plans, they would have been announced by the new guys. They didn't announce anything really.

Moulton and Harrison had an idea or two but Unity really hung their hat on the development which looks unlikely now.

 

[HBF]

I think the idea is that if there were plans, they would have been announced by the new guys. They didn't announce anything really.

Moulton and Harrison had an idea or two but Unity really hung their hat on the development which looks unlikely now.

Very unlikely I would say ODN.
Still, it should make the next few weeks pretty interesting.

BTW, were you able to ledge your votes ODN?

 

[westbrom]

Moulton and Harrison had an idea or two but Unity really hung their hat on the development which looks unlikely now.

Would be a bit rich for the board to announce definitive plans before the 1st board meeting as nothing can be announced without consultation with other board members...

To be honest I hope Carlton does not go ahead with the plans. 67 million is a huge gamble when it puts Carlton's existence on the line.

 

[thylacine60]

What do people think of the fact roughly only 2,700 of 4879 registered members actually returned votes (or were able to)?

 

[Silvagnis]

Democracy at work. The members have spoken, blame has been apportioned, now we move forward with the elected board. IMO, Greg Lee should be encouraged to stand for the presidency & hopefully elected with a unanimous vote. The new board has a good cross section of experience, although I'm not sure what an ex-political adviser can offer to a football club board. Now lets hope we can see some unity from the board & we can stay out of the papers, other than articles about our up & coming stars. With one particular person gone, we hopefully won't see anymore leaks in the future (other than when those disgusting toilets in the Pratt Stand back up).

Three weeks until the NAB Cup, eight weeks until the home & away season. I look forward to reading about football, football & more football.

That candidate standing down will benefit Carlton's future because he was a lame duck. Pity it didn't save Smorgon's bacon and if he's really a Carlton man, he'll put the money into the club regardless of tonight's result and show he believe the club has a future.

He will do that, won't he?

Hopefully that stage two development is dead in the water because it was a ridiculous plan and smarter people have questioned how it was going to make money.

 

[gandaal]

I think the idea is that if there were plans, they would have been announced by the new guys. They didn't announce anything really.

Moulton and Harrison had an idea or two but Unity really hung their hat on the development which looks unlikely now.

I have a general contempt for almost everyone involved in the recent election. Essentially DCT and Diggins ran on a platform of "Smorgan sucks and the clubs is a disgrace" and, whether they intended it or not they ran the clubs public image further and further into the mud. And Rose did something similar with his now infamous worse than Fitzroy comment. Putting there egos first without offering the any new plans for the future, or any financial backing to help us move the club forward.

When supporters of other clubs challange the board they run on issues, they offer alternative visions for the future, they bring with them high profile candidates for the presidency who actually want the job. What did we get? Diggins doing a bad Democrats impression screaming to the media every chance she got, the rest not much better, and it sickens me that we're likely stuck with this board until one of three things happen: the AFL take over, the club folds, or one of Pratt or Grollo or someone of similar ilk walks in and buys the club Gutnik style.

 

[Silvagnis]

Elliott had to go and he was also criticised using the "guilty party" line.

So what's wrong with doing that if it's on the money and Smorgon was a wet blanket President?

NOTHING.

This is just the beginning of the revival and it's not going to be the end of Carlton because we lost Dreamworld on Royal Parade and a bad President.

 

[mediumsizered]

That candidate standing down will benefit Carlton's future because he was a lame duck. Pity it didn't save Smorgon's bacon and if he's really a Carlton man, he'll put the money into the club regardless of tonight's result and show he believe the club has a future.

He will do that, won't he?

Hopefully that stage two development is dead in the water because it was a ridiculous plan and smarter people have questioned how it was going to make money.

Marcus Rose was not the leak. You know full well who was responsible for the leaks in recent months, thank goodness that person was dumped.

FWIW, Smorgon has already put in more money than we will ever see come from the personal funds of Suss, Clarke & Littman. Perhaps Smorgon was not the man for the presidency but his continued presence on the board would have been an asset in the coming years as we continue to try to erase our debt & make our club strong both financially & on the field.

 

[marcmurphy3]

Do you guys think some high profile supporters will come and wipe out our debt now that Smorgan has gone like has been said or do you think it is just a load of garbage?

 

[gandaal]

Do you guys think some high profile supporters will come and wipe out our debt now that Smorgan has gone like has been said or do you think it is just a load of garbage?

Garbage. Complete and utter garbage.

 

[Quigley]

Good luck with the new admin. From the outside looking in the new team has to be better than the one you just had. The whole debarcle would discourage anyone from wanting to be involved with the club.

As far as getting back to financial security I think that probably starts on the field. You start winning games you get more season ticket holders, more corporates become involved and suddenly the cash is rolling in again. Invest wisely whilst you are up and hopefully you can see off downturns in the future more easily. You have an interesting young list and hopefully with the board not causing distraction you can develop and get back to winning ways.

Good luck.

 

[AlecDuncan]

Do you guys think some high profile supporters will come and wipe out our debt now that Smorgan has gone like has been said or do you think it is just a load of garbage?

Oh yes, why of course indeedy!

At least we'll be able to put that rumour to bed.

 

[barone]

thanks mate, all the best for the season!

 

[thylacine60]

Good luck with the new admin. From the outside looking in the new team has to be better than the one you just had. The whole debarcle would discourage anyone from wanting to be involved with the club.

As far as getting back to financial security I think that probably starts on the field. You start winning games you get more season ticket holders, more corporates become involved and suddenly the cash is rolling in again. Invest wisely whilst you are up and hopefully you can see off downturns in the future more easily. You have an interesting young list and hopefully with the board not causing distraction you can develop and get back to winning ways.

Good luck.

Cheers Quigley.

 

[Fastback]

Very positive outcome for you guys, as someone mentioned before, democracy at it's finest and refreshing to see the Carlton members not buying one penny Smorgon had to offer. Smart.

Good luck going forward.