“I THINK this is the story of the year for me around our football club.”
In a year like no other, the ability and willingness for Carlton’s membership base to pick the Club up has brought about results which - when the pandemic hit - weren’t seen as possible.
However, Carlton CEO Cain Liddle knows that the hard work is far from over.
In a member-exclusive update released on Monday night, Liddle - interviewed by lifelong Bluebagger Andy Maher - said the Club was a in a position to accelerate quickly out of the Covid-19 situation.
He put that down to the sacrifices of Carlton’s stakeholders: “our members, our corporate partners, our staff and our players”.
“With everything that got thrown at them personally, particularly those that are down here in Victoria… for as many of our members to stick with us that did, we just couldn’t be more appreciative,” Liddle said.
“We’ve said a couple of times that it just felt like the members picked us up, put us on their shoulders and carried us forward. That’s been a great outcome and a lot of the data I’m looking at behind the scenes just confirms the commitment that our members have shown.”
The commitment from the Club’s members had Liddle forecast that Carlton could be on track to hitting 80,000 members next year, while also emerging from 2020 with a breakeven financial result.
Admitting that “in March, I couldn’t have seen that being possible”, Liddle said that there could still yet be bigger challenges around the corner which the Club had to be mindful of.
“I want to be really clear: it’s been a really challenging year,” he said.
“It’s a great signal that our members have identified that, because there are some serious challenges looming from an economic perspective as we move out of Covid, particularly here in Victoria.
“While I’m really ambitious about our membership and our numbers, there are some significant financial challenges that we need to be really careful of and manage the business in a really prudent way.
“The fact that our members have showed such great commitment gives us great confidence that we’ll be in a position to get through this and come out the other end bigger and stronger than when we first started.”
With a potential breakeven financial result in 2020, Liddle said it ensured the Club wouldn’t be going into an increased debt position from this time last year.
Liddle also provided updates on the Masterplan, fan access in 2021 and much more in the 20-minute interview. Carlton members, be sure to check your email inbox from last night to watch the full chat with the CEO.
