BLUES ROOTED!!
January 30th 2007 08:03
Blues: We're far worse than Fitzroy
30 January 2007 Herald-Sun
Mark Stevens
CARLTON is in a more perilous financial state than a dying Fitzroy and at risk of being merged or shipped off interstate.
That is the blunt assessment of the Blues' own finance director, Marcus Rose.
Rose, the mastermind of plans to redevelop Princes Park, said yesterday the club had to make significant changes to improve its income streams.
"Carlton's financial position is far worse than that of Fitzroy that was swallowed by Brisbane and sent interstate in the 1990s," Rose said.
"If the club does not make dramatic changes to improve its income generation, but continues to rely on the same things it has been doing, it runs the risk of either being amalgamated with another team or forced interstate by the AFL."
Described as a fantasy by its deriders, Rose said the $67 million redevelopment of Princes Park would wipe away the club's debt and remove it from the endangered list.
Rose, up for re-election on February 6 as part of president Graham Smorgon's Carlton Unity ticket, said the Blues now had no choice but to think outside the square.
Carlton Unity claims that the redevelopment and linked financial strategy will be outranked in size and boldness by only the AFL's $780 million media deal.
Rose said the struggling Blues' balance sheet showed $7.5 million in negative net assets.
"The club started the 21st century with more debt and liabilities than any other club has ever carried. Notwithstanding that the position has improved, its underlying financial circumstance has in effect proven to be intractable," Rose said.
"Carlton's position has reached the point where it can no longer be certain that the usual revenue-generating methods that it and the other football clubs have been employing will extricate it from its current and prospective financial circumstance.
"Membership, corporate sponsors, raffles, poker machines, donations and the like, as vital as they are, are unlikely to produce sufficient revenue, at acceptable margins, to guarantee Carlton's independence in the foreseeable future.
"Regardless of who comes to office following the election, if the club continues to do the same old things that it has been doing, and which are essentially being advocated by the rival tickets and candidates, the club, in my opinion, will not exist in its present form."
Fitzroy merged with the Brisbane Lions at the end of the 1996 season.
The Blues were a powerhouse in the same mid-1990s era, winning a flag in 1995 and losing only two games. Back then it was unthinkable that the mighty club would fall to the depths of the Lions financially.
The Carlton Unity ticket recently announced a proposed Stage 2 redevelopment as a key plank in its re-election campaign.
Planned to expand on the approved Stage 1 elite training facility, it would create a new community hub at Princes Park, initially to be known as Carlton Community Park.
The Stage 2 redevelopment also calls for the establishment of an investment company, CFC Investments, to develop and operate the new buildings.
"Once fully implemented, Carlton will be debt-free, it will receive future dividends and cash flow and see a significant enhancement in its balance sheet, which currently has $7.5 million in negative net assets," Rose said.
"I believe this strategy will secure the future of the club and its independence. It will re-establish the Carlton Football Club as the pre-eminent sporting organisation in the country."
Plans for Stage 2 will only go ahead if Rose and other members of the Carlton Unity ticket are re-elected.
"It will enable Carlton to reinvest in its football team by providing it with the infrastructure and resources, particularly in the sports medicine field, it requires," Rose said.
Rose said a series of negative factors had had an impact on the Blues in recent years.
The included a $1 million fine for salary cap breaches, expensive long-term contracts to leading players and maintenance of a deteriorating stadium.
30 January 2007 Herald-Sun
Mark Stevens
CARLTON is in a more perilous financial state than a dying Fitzroy and at risk of being merged or shipped off interstate.
That is the blunt assessment of the Blues' own finance director, Marcus Rose.
Rose, the mastermind of plans to redevelop Princes Park, said yesterday the club had to make significant changes to improve its income streams.
"Carlton's financial position is far worse than that of Fitzroy that was swallowed by Brisbane and sent interstate in the 1990s," Rose said.
"If the club does not make dramatic changes to improve its income generation, but continues to rely on the same things it has been doing, it runs the risk of either being amalgamated with another team or forced interstate by the AFL."
Described as a fantasy by its deriders, Rose said the $67 million redevelopment of Princes Park would wipe away the club's debt and remove it from the endangered list.
Rose, up for re-election on February 6 as part of president Graham Smorgon's Carlton Unity ticket, said the Blues now had no choice but to think outside the square.
Carlton Unity claims that the redevelopment and linked financial strategy will be outranked in size and boldness by only the AFL's $780 million media deal.
Rose said the struggling Blues' balance sheet showed $7.5 million in negative net assets.
"The club started the 21st century with more debt and liabilities than any other club has ever carried. Notwithstanding that the position has improved, its underlying financial circumstance has in effect proven to be intractable," Rose said.
"Carlton's position has reached the point where it can no longer be certain that the usual revenue-generating methods that it and the other football clubs have been employing will extricate it from its current and prospective financial circumstance.
"Membership, corporate sponsors, raffles, poker machines, donations and the like, as vital as they are, are unlikely to produce sufficient revenue, at acceptable margins, to guarantee Carlton's independence in the foreseeable future.
"Regardless of who comes to office following the election, if the club continues to do the same old things that it has been doing, and which are essentially being advocated by the rival tickets and candidates, the club, in my opinion, will not exist in its present form."
Fitzroy merged with the Brisbane Lions at the end of the 1996 season.
The Blues were a powerhouse in the same mid-1990s era, winning a flag in 1995 and losing only two games. Back then it was unthinkable that the mighty club would fall to the depths of the Lions financially.
The Carlton Unity ticket recently announced a proposed Stage 2 redevelopment as a key plank in its re-election campaign.
Planned to expand on the approved Stage 1 elite training facility, it would create a new community hub at Princes Park, initially to be known as Carlton Community Park.
The Stage 2 redevelopment also calls for the establishment of an investment company, CFC Investments, to develop and operate the new buildings.
"Once fully implemented, Carlton will be debt-free, it will receive future dividends and cash flow and see a significant enhancement in its balance sheet, which currently has $7.5 million in negative net assets," Rose said.
"I believe this strategy will secure the future of the club and its independence. It will re-establish the Carlton Football Club as the pre-eminent sporting organisation in the country."
Plans for Stage 2 will only go ahead if Rose and other members of the Carlton Unity ticket are re-elected.
"It will enable Carlton to reinvest in its football team by providing it with the infrastructure and resources, particularly in the sports medicine field, it requires," Rose said.
Rose said a series of negative factors had had an impact on the Blues in recent years.
The included a $1 million fine for salary cap breaches, expensive long-term contracts to leading players and maintenance of a deteriorating stadium.
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Pagan: You won't push us around
01 February 2007 Herald-Sun
Jon Pierik
CARLTON coach Denis Pagan has declared his young Blues won't be outmuscled in 2007.
After finishing last on the ladder in the past two years, Pagan said the rebuilding Blues were tired of being pushed around and had added crucial bulk over summer to ensure they could cope with the demands of elite football.
"For so many years, we have been physically mauled by the competition," Pagan said yesterday.
"We have been inferior in size, in power, in strength. We have made a real focus of that.
"We are not going to be outmatched by bigger, stronger sides now."
Maturing youngsters Jarrad Waite, Josh Kennedy, Brad Fisher, Andrew Walker and Marc Murphy have all filled out over summer, while the drafting of former St Kilda ruckman Cain Ackland and former Magpie Cameron Cloke have brought some added beef to the club.
Buoyed by now having nine players among the top 20 picks in recent drafts, including three No. 1 selections in Walker, Murphy and Bryce Gibbs, Pagan feels the Blues have a nucleus capable of building towards a premiership.
"Of a list of 43 we have got at the moment, including our rookies, there might be four or five who perhaps you could say are going to struggle to be in Carlton's next premiership," he said.
"That's what our aim has been -- to get some size, to get some strength, and get a list that is going to be striving and competing with each other to be successful."
Pagan said his players had been immune to the political unrest in the boardroom, and were focused solely on ending five years of misery.
South Australian Gibbs, taken with the No. 1 pick in last year's national draft, is set to be a central figure in the Blues' rebirth and will add much-needed depth to an outclassed midfield.
Gibbs is recovering from tonsillitis but is expected to play in a practice match on Monday.
Pagan, who has vowed to unleash an attacking game plan, said he had been impressed with Gibbs's attitude.
"The boy has a real composure about him and everything that I have heard about him, I have seen him (do) on the training track," he said.
"I can't see any reason why, without putting any expectation on him or pressure, why his play won't be compatible to where he was picked in the draft."
The Blues won't name a replacement captain for Anthony Koutoufides until after the NAB Cup, with Nick Stevens and Lance Whitnall the favourites for the job.
Whitnall will be eased through the pre-season after jarring his knee before Christmas. He has just resumed training.
Pagan praised Brendan Fevola for maintaining a professional attitude despite the controversy over his early departure from the International Rules Series in Ireland last year and a messy break-up with wife Alex.
Pagan said there was no reason why Fevola should not be considered for a leadership role, and hoped the Coleman Medallist would have more help up forward this year.
"There is a lot more talent through the door now. The platform is there, the skeleton is there," he said.
"We've got a strong spine, we have got a very tall and strong powerful base now, albeit a bit young and inexperienced."
Comment by Joe Blogg
Joe Blogg's Blog
manchesterunited
collingwoodfootballclub
SHORT ANSWER: Nup!
LONG ANSWER: It's just a game. It actually means nothing. And it is never ending. No sooner has a premiership been won then talk immediately shifts to next season.
Whilst I love laughing at them as they continually humiliate themselves both on & off the field it has more to do with their halfwit supporters who used to idolise Fat Jack Elliott as he screwed the Club he puported to love & everybody was to shit scared to challenge him.
Denis 'Poodle' Pagan is unquestionably THE SINGLE BIGGEST FAILURE as a coach at Carlton & the dickheads can't even afford to sack him!
It's funny.
That said, they're no different to Hey, Hey It's Saturday - I couldn't give a rats arse if they were gone tomorrow.