Unity Short/Medium/Long Term plans

[The Old Dark Navy's]

From the Unity website, I haven't seen a lot of discussion about their plans and some of their plans have not been mentioned on their site, ie mortgage company and influx of 25k sponsors within the next couple of months.

http://www.unityatcarlton.com/shortmedtermgoals.pdf

Short and Medium term Goals
Short term Goals
- Restore pride and respect to the carlton football club

1. Launch of the Anthony Koutoufides Club - a corporate style family friendly match day facility.
2. Concerted corporate revenue drive targeted at lapsed corporate sponsors as well as identifying and
signing of new ones.
3. Review of Club administration, to ensure we have the "best" people in the appropriate roles.
4. Continue to give full support to the Football Department to allow the best possible results from our young
talented team.
5. Call on volunteers to assist the Club in a membership drive to ensure we reach at least 32,000
members in 2007.
6. Considering a life (20 years) membership with an aim to get at least 1,000 members paying
$8,660 for 20 years, normally $9,660 for a premium adult 17. (This is a suggestion by Carlton members.)
7. Commence stage 1 Elite training facilities.
8. Continue planning program for stage 2 PP redevelopment.
9. Repayment of AFL loan.
10. Look at further opportunities with our the banking to reduce costs.
11. Look at the merchandise stores and see how each store are trading. Improve all aspects of the business whilst
focusing on 4 Key strategies. Increase Sales, Improve Gross Margin (gross profit) Optimise Expenses or
reduce expenses and stock management.
12. Rejuvenate the cheer squad with uniforms, banners and club support.
13. Re-connect with our country Victorian and inter-state members.

Medium term Goals
- Secure and Successful

1. Finals Football
2. Review of Club Laverton, and look at all opportunities.
3. Explore and implement other non - football related revenue sources.
4. Completion of the Elite Training facility.
5. Complete stage 2 Carlton Community Centre consultations and planning.

Long Term Goals

1. Debt Free
2. Develop the Carlton brand throughout Australia, focusing on AFL states/territories at first maximising the
opportunities that come from being one of the most heavily supported clubs in Australia

Any questions phone 1300 662 742 or email: info@unityatcarlton.com

A fair bit of rhetoric here and padding out which is par for the course all round but still annoying.

Of the short term goals, I find some value in:
1. The Kouta Club
2. Lapsed corporate sponsors - about bloody time
5. Volunteers in a membership drive
6. Life memberships (20 years) for a $1000 saving
8. Planning for Stage 2 development - god I'd like to see this a viable project
9. Repayment of AFL loan - okay this is fluff but Smorgon committed to doing this ASAP as a matter of priority. Supposedly will be done with half of the $3m worth of credit notes being taken up. Bring it on.
11. A long hard look at the business operations of the merchandise stores.
12. Rejuvenate cheer squad - on the surface a big who cares, but the effect on match day might add some passion.
13. Reconnect with country and interstate members - have been crying out for better value memberships for interstaters.

3,4,10 don't mean a lot. 7 is only the commencement of facilities.

Of the medium goals:

2. Club Laverton - more gaming would be handy.
4. Elite facilities complete - woohoo
5. Consultation complete for stage 2 development - this will be a big step

1 and 3 are more fluff.

Long term goals:

1 and 2 are pretty obvious but again pretty light and fluffy.

Why wasn't the completion of stage 2 a long term goal? Because it is tied to the consultation process, therefore not a given.

Would love to hear something about the Harrison/Moulton/Fried initiatives being talked about.

 

[OZBomb]

It'd be nice if we had another truly organised group to run against the unity ticket so we could compare and contrast. At this point the only option I see is to vote for Unity, by default, otherwise we get more infighting bulls*** for months.

It sucks, and I'll be certainly taking that into account whenever these white knights decide to get off their duff and challenge.

 

[HBF]

It'd be nice if we had another truly organised group to run against the unity ticket so we could compare and contrast. At this point the only option I see is to vote for Unity, by default, otherwise we get more infighting bulls*** for months.

It sucks, and I'll be certainly taking that into account whenever these white knights decide to get off their duff and challenge.

Must say that I tend to agree Oz. I just don't see the point in changing the board just for changing sake, although I do think a couple of the board members could be in a bit of trouble come voting time.

 

[btdg]

Most of those are good - but there is one blatant mistake in there that stands out to me:

6. Considering a life (20 years) membership with an aim to get at least 1,000 members paying
$8,660 for 20 years, normally $9,660 for a premium adult 17. (This is a suggestion by Carlton members.)

Whilst its a good suggestion, the execution as stated above seems to be hopelessly flawed mathematically. Paying $8660 this year is NOT the same as paying $483 per year over 20 years - in fact, it represents paying a huge premium on the membership. Considering I'm prepaying by 20 years - 20 years adds up to a whopping amount of interest, even on $483 per year.

Basically, I work out it costs you about $1400 more (or a 15% premium), factoring in very simply interest charges (5%) and a 3% rise in the cost of memberships per year. And thats based on the membership cost increasing at the rate of inflation - which unity don't consider in their account. Based on their flat rate, it ends up being closer to $6000, or nearly 60% premium on the price of a membership! Who would pay that - probably the same people willing to donate $10,000 to the club, but thats not many people... Its pedantic to pick up on this, but that sort of basic mistake, even in a pre-election statement is not a good indicator of future board performance...

 

[Mike & Dan]

You are right btdg. This is an idea that has been pitched to the club a few times by one of the M&D writers (and also discussed in a Talking Carlton thread called 'Revenue Raising Initiatives' like the one begun in here), but not at that price. It was instead pitched at about $6,500, but it has had many different tenors ie 10 years, 20 years or life membership.

The original idea was to pre-sell 1000 life memberships but it seems some life members thought this took away from their prestige. So some 10 and 20 year ideas were put together but at much lower $ amounts.

It really depends on the total debt figure as well. The idea was that 1000 members could repay all the debt, but at the higher debt levels there's a bit of a 'gift' required to make it work.

Perhaps the Unity person misunderstood one of the numbers; regardless, the door has been opened and hopefully we can sit down with them and explain it abit better.

M&D

 

[HBF]

^^^It's a good comcept and one that should be looked at further. Perhaps they just need to re-work the numbers slightly.

 

[btdg]

My issue is not so much with the actual idea itself, but the question of why anyone would vote for a group with such a shaky understanding of financial logic, given the precarious state of affairs our club is in.

I would have thought 'fiscal understanding and knowledge' would be criteria #1 for any prospective board ticket?

 

[mediumsizered]

My issue is not so much with the actual idea itself, but the question of why anyone would vote for a group with such a shaky understanding of financial logic, given the precarious state of affairs our club is in.

I would have thought 'fiscal understanding and knowledge' would be criteria #1 for any prospective board ticket?

I would have thought that the Chairman of the Smorgon Group, a joint owner of the Spotlight group, a merchant banker, a financial planner, among others would probably have a better understanding of financial logic, than say a dispute resolution officer, a marketer & a political advisor.

 

[Dramoth]

what about the international members?

Do they rate a mention or not?

I am sure that trying to get people interested in the club overseas would be a big step to bringing more money into the club. As well as things like cheap tickets if the club is touring in the country where the member is living and the like.

 

[AndyWalkersGirl]

Fiore & Liittman

Did any any one else hear this interview on SEN Last night I was only able to grad the end. But what I gathered is there are 4 together and Smorgan is taking every avenue to block these guys from getting a free hearing.

Not allowing them to contact details of carlton voting members which is fair enough due to it being a breach of the privacy act. In the constitution it states they are also ineligible to use these details. Which they already have.

The votes wont be tallied so they will be completely unaware who has voted for who ect and wont be able to make an appeal

They said they wanted to replace smorgon and his left wing and they stated that the 3 new members are great additions to the board and hold tremdous backgrounds they went on to say that they would like to build bridges with them in order to drive change

Completely out rageous we all will be unaware of what is on offer.

Appently SEN tonight will try and seek a response from Smorgan

Just read that on csc.

Blah. I want football back

 

[BlueBelle]

So Smorgon and his Unity team can use our details to send out info but the others can't? That's crap!