You make some interesting points gun. Richmond should be proud of their membership figures over the last 4 years. Your club has done a great job however i firmly believe membership figures are a direct result of the teams success.
From 2005 to 2011 when Richmond failed to make finals your membership numbers lagged behind ours and you only reached 40k once usually hovering around the 30k mark. It must be noted though that we played in finals on 3 occasions during that period.
I wonder what another EF loss or missing the finals altogether would do to your membership base. As for our debt we all know a quick whip around at board level would reduce that debt to zero. No need to rattle tins on Royal Parade.
I think you are not really accepting the predicament your club is in currently and continue on the same line as most carlton supporters and members have for generations but with 1 important part that you fail to accept.
The quick whip around just gets you out of temp problems but doesnt really solve the real issue and thats the mentality that the whip around will resolve your problems of not being able to run a club in todays league thats not only successful on the park but off it as well.
Both Richmond and Carlton were in similar situations back when Kreuzer/Cotchin were drafted 1 & 2 and the 2 clubs took very different paths to their rebuilds , Richmond took their medicine and invested in the draft carlton went the bring in established player route with Judd,McLean,Warnock as well as having an incompetent administration and recruiting department which has been proven to be the case with 'fails in both coaching and admin appointments of the past 8-10 years and MM being the pinacle'
Richmond currently has a younger playing list than Carlton even after your club disposing of 15 players , Richmonds list is 1 of the youngest in the AFL and we have made finals the last 3 years all beit not winning but the list demographic indicates that Richmond will be a top 8 team for the next 5-6-7 years where as Carlton will be in the bottom 5 for the next 4-5 years at the least - So what does this mean you are saying.
The last 2 years has shown how much your club has fallen behind the 'Big' Clubs and with the fickle nature of the carlton supporters members its virtually impossible to see any growth in the membership numbers whilst clubs like Collingwood,Richmond,Essendon,Hawthorn will be pushing towards the 100,000 mark Carlton will be dwindling with the clubs like North,Saints,Dogs & Dee's
So the net result will be your club will be amongst the nomads/Minnows of the league as far as membership and financials are concerned as well as being on the bottom of the ladder for the next 4-5 years
I know which club i would rather be supporting as im sure you do as well but your pride will never admit to it and will just silently continue to burn and be envious deep inside.
Note: After the poor form of carlton and the way they conducted themselfs in not sharing gate in rnd 1 last year and still managed to make a massive loss their plight will be worse as they are not entitled to the gate at the rnd 1 game this year and there isnt a return game against the Tigers .
Brendon Gale should really contact Eddie McGuire and meet with the AFL to replace the 1st round game with a Collingwood v Richmond game which will be more suitable round 1 encounter and not let carlton have a blockbuster after their pathetic performance in being so short sighted with the gate last year.
Carlton is a mediocre club with mediocre players and barely afl standard these days