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.
