The $13,000 Carlton membership that opens doors to the rich and famous

Every AFL club has a network of influencers who make things happen through their wealth, fame or political connections. This is our series on the football world’s movers and shakers.See all 6 stories.

Melbourne businessman Scott Didier might not be the first, second or even third big-business name people think of when it comes to Carlton and their relationship with the big end of town.

But the boss of ASX-listed building services group Johns Lyng bleeds navy blue.

His company helped to redevelop Princes Park into Visy Park in 2008 (after winning a competitive tender process, he says), he’s hosted club fundraisers at his Templestowe home and even employs a number of former Carlton players including Stephen “Sticks” Kernahan and Dave Ellard, while Adrian Gleeson sat on the Johns Lyng board for 13 years until late 2024.

Scott Didier’s company built Visy Park, he’s hosted club fundraisers and even gave Sticks Kernahan a job. Credit: PENNY STEPHENS

Asked why he’s helped the Blues so much, Didier says he has gotten as much out of the club as the club has gotten out of him.

“We’ve been a major sponsor of Carlton for a long time … I like to contribute. I love footy and I love the environment,” says Didier as he sits down to chat with this masthead about the club at his company’s Doncaster offices.

“It’s also really good networking. It’s really good to meet people and share your interests, and it’s very good socially.”

“So I don’t know if helping is the right word, it works both ways.”

Carlton are not short on business power, or power players drawn from Melbourne’s rich migrant history and the city’s upwardly mobile working-class (and later middle-class) population.

The collective wealth of board members over the club’s storied history – investment magnates Jack, Sam and Graham Smorgon, Spotlight heir Zac Fried, pokies and pubs baron Bruce Mathieson, cardboard king Dick Pratt and family and corporate raider John Elliott (before his bankruptcy) – stands the club head and shoulders above all others on rich lists.

Carlton are also hugely popular in the corridors of power in Canberra and Spring Street, and among the Williams Street set of high-powered lawyers, barristers and judges.

While other clubs cling to the glad rags of their few rich supporters, Carlton have much deeper ties to business. In many ways, Carlton are business – and all the guts, glory, disgrace and redemption that comes with it.

There’s no better sign of Carlton’s business heft than when leading consultancy group boss and former PwC Australia chief Luke Sayers stepped aside in March as president after a scandalous social media incident. He was replaced by Rob Priestley, who along with being close to the Pratts is the chairman of the Australian arm of one of the most powerful investment banks in the world, JPMorgan (coincidentally, the bank has been a preferred advisor to Visy).

These relationships have helped fund the club, helped it avoid legal troubles and kept it front of mind for powerful decision makers.

Sometimes these connections have also helped to bring ignominy to the Blues, another recurring theme in Carlton’s storied history – the most recent of which is Sayers with his personal issues and the reputation hit of the PwC tax-leak scandal, where his oversight of the firm was questioned despite there being no suggestion he personally engaged in any wrongdoing.

Carlton might be best known for their blustering billionaires, but the club has also long found support in its quieter fans, such as Didier, who claim to seek little influence over club decisions.

Tony Gandel, son of property magnate John, is another such figure who is deeply tied to the navy Blues but is rarely publicly linked to the club.

Tony Gandel is a quieter figure around Carlton Football Club but from a family that is worth a cool $7 billion. Credit: Fairfax Media

The Gandels, like the Pratts, are stonkingly rich.

Led by octogenarian John, the family is worth $7 billion, thanks to a half-ownership of Chadstone Shopping Centre, itself worth a cool $3.3 billion, and a near $1.8 billion stake in national shopping mall owner Vicinity.

Two sources close to Carlton, who asked not to be named to speak freely, say Tony Gandel often attends the club’s headquarters and makes use of its facilities, including its gym.

He’s also been close to retiring players looking to go into business, including, notably, helping former captain Chris Judd set up his investment business Cerutty Macro Fund.

The sources confirmed that Gandel had, in the past, been sounded out for a board position but has declined.

“He prefers to keep a low profile,” one of the sources says.

It’s business figures such as Gandel and Didier – the former a wealthy Toorak heir who runs his family’s investment office, the latter a self-made man from Melbourne’s north-eastern suburbs – who are key drawcards for the club’s “Carlton in Business” program.

The networking extravaganza has proven popular with entrepreneurs who are looking to grow their businesses and larger companies – such as Virgin, Penfolds, Hyundai, Ampol and Fujitsu – looking to also build their networks and spruik their wares.

A full membership starts at $13,300 and provides access to the club’s facilities and an array of networking events, including a grand final luncheon and a spring racing carnival shindig in the ultra-elite private rooms away from the (relative) riffraff of influencers and journalists in the Birdcage at Flemington.

There are also frequent networking luncheons at Crown Palladium that bring together big business, investors and, importantly for the club, players.

It’s a way of showcasing to young, and older players, the ties that Carlton have to business and the opportunities that await after football.

It’s little surprise then that Tom De Koning has been duchessed at the past three events in the hope that the free agent re-signs with the club.

Business attendees, who asked not to be named to maintain relationships, said while the events were positive for the club, it could be hard to sort the wheat from the chaff.

One key member of Carlton in Business is MC Labour Group – a hugely successful construction industry services group and long-time sponsor of the club which was recently revealed by this masthead as being alleged to have gangland links and at the centre of an alleged rort on the Metro Tunnel. MC Labour denies these allegations and Carlton have stood by the group.

(Though if you want to see Carlton’s capacity to turn a blind eye or forgive their sponsors or backers, look no further than disgraced and now deceased doctor Geoffrey Edelsten – a man who spent a year in jail in 1990 for hiring a notorious hitman to assault a patient but still had part of the club’s facilities named after him.)

The club’s big business relationships have been crucial for fundraising events, particularly in tough times.

Late billionaire Pratt’s presidency is legendary, including his star-studded fundraisers at family home Raheen that brought in $1 million of donations to the club. He also famously provided a comfy job at Visy for star Judd, a highly controversial out-of-salary-cap deal the league quickly nixed.

Pratt, who was a director from 1985 to 2000 and returned in 2007 as president before resigning to face serious allegations about his business practices and battle ill health, had one main rule for his fellow board directors.

Anthony Pratt and sister Heloise Pratt in 2023 at the Met Gala in New York. Heloise Pratt has recently returned to the Carlton fold to much excitement. Credit: Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

“He was firm on this – no directors were allowed on the board just to get tickets or to get close to players or to lobby coaches. Directors had to help the club in ways that they could,” a source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, says.

“He would have spit chips over the Mathieson and Sayers bingle in the clubrooms,” they add, referencing the loud quarrel between now former director Craig Mathieson and Sayers at the end of the club’s bruising 26-point round 11 loss against Sydney in 2023.

There’s also renewed hope that the Pratts’ involvement in the club could soon make a spectacular comeback.

In recent months, Dick Pratt’s daughter Heloise Pratt, a fundraiser of significant renown and flair, has returned to the Carlton fold after an acrimonious split with her Collingwood-supporting husband, Alex Waislitz. While switching teams in Melbourne is usually a no-go, Pratt’s return is being quietly celebrated at the Blues, particularly as it is both Carlton’s gain and arch rival Collingwood’s loss.

Like the Pratts, Carlton’s late long-serving president Elliott also used his buccaneering spirit to lift the club’s profile and spirit, leading to the Blues’ most successful period.

Unfortunately for the club, Elliott’s taste for hard and fast deals and thin respect for red tape also flowed into Carlton’s culture, leaving the club nursing large fines from the 2002 salary cap breach and further tarnishing his reputation.

In more recent times, the club has benefited from a steady and impressive income stream delivered by one of its most influential figures, Bruce Mathieson.

Mathieson was instrumental in helping the club acquire 290 poker machine licences when the market was deregulated in 2012, and now his business, ALH Group, manages the venues for the club.

In the past three years alone, revenue from its hotels and gaming hustles has poured $60 million into the club’s coffers, making the club cash-flow positive and further strengthening its balance sheet. (Sayers also wins praise for his work in shaping up the club’s finances and helping to set it up for the future.)

Carlton’s powerbase, however, stretches beyond big business into the uppermost echelons of politics, particularly within the Liberal Party.

Ron Barassi with former prime minister Sir Robert Menzies in 1967.Credit: Bob Buchanan

Australia’s longest-serving prime minister Robert Menzies was a No.1 ticket holder and a lifelong “Bluebagger”. So was Malcolm Fraser, who famously hosted the 1981 and 1982 premiership teams at the Lodge, where the players pilfered silverware as mementos and a WAG known only as “Fabulous” broke her ankle. Elliott was also the Liberal Party president for several years.

More recently, from 2021 to 2023, the club’s No.1 ticket was then federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who is still a senior figure in the Liberal Party despite not being in parliament any more. For Frydenberg, his association with the club is familial and enduring.

“It’s a great club with a proud history, obviously it’s been quite a while since we won a premiership with expectations always high. There’s flags and then there’s everything else – it’s a pretty binary outcome for many supporters,” Frydenberg, now the head of Goldman Sachs in Australia, says over the phone in the midst of the hectic 2025 election campaign.

“There’s been a bit of turmoil at the club over the years but at the same time the Blues have given so much joy to so many, including my family. My kids are passionate supporters like their dad and their grandad. It was a real privilege to be the No.1 ticket holder and I still stay in touch with people at the club.”

Former federal treasurer and Carlton No.1 ticket holder Josh Frydenberg with son Blake, daughter Gemma and former Carlton captain Chris Judd.

On the other side of the aisle, now retired Andrews government attorney general and former sports minister Martin Pakula is also a leading political figure associated with the Blues.

“I have been to many president lunches, committee lunches ... I’ve been to Carlton in Business events, and it’s really good to be able to engage with business but they probably don’t resonate as much as sitting in the outer with your family and friends, complaining together,” says Pakula, who is now boss of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation.

“That said, I can’t do that as much as I like because I am often at those lunches.”

But Pakula admits he gains a certain type of (limited) influence by attending these lunches.

Martin Pakula will work for the AFL one day a week this season.Credit: Simon Schluter

“I may have on occasions shared my opinion about the club’s coaching decisions,” Pakula says.

“I may have also, occasionally, abused SMS messaging services during games. I have tried to behave, though it’s not like they make it easy sometimes.”

Both Pakula and Frydenberg hark from migrant families, many of which came to Melbourne’s inner northern suburbs, particularly Carlton, in the 1930s through to the post-war era.

These new Australian families backed the club and the sport to forge strong bonds within their neighbourhoods.

It’s a history that resonates for retired Federal Court judge Ray Finkelstein KC, who is sometimes seen at president’s functions when, he says, he can be bothered suiting up and is confident he won’t tear his hair out at the on-field performance.

“The Fink”, as he is widely known, was born in Germany to Polish parents, and after arriving in Thornbury as a young child, grew up as a Carlton supporter on the encouragement of a childhood friend.

Before becoming one of the country’s most revered judges, Finkelstein was a leading commercial barrister who worked on numerous AFL matters both for the league and various clubs. He has also provided quiet advice to the club on a range of matters.

But it hasn’t all been for good.

In 1997, when Carlton great and now board member Greg Williams was facing a career-ending nine-match ban for shoving an umpire, it was to the Fink that the AFL turned for help.

“That was the worst thing I did. I remember I told my children, who were still living at home at the time, and they were furious, seriously furious, that I was acting against Williams. They even asked me if I could throw the case,” says Finkelstein with a laugh. Finkelstein, of course, won the matter for the AFL.

All appears to be forgiven – the Fink received a letter wishing him the best on his retirement from the bench in 2011 from none other than Judd.

Former Federal Court judge Ray Finkelstein led the Victorian commission into Crown Melbourne.Credit: The Age

Finkelstein got a better shout out in 2023, when current captain Patrick Cripps delivered a video message lauding Finkelstein at the launch of the Finkelstein scholarship for humanitarian and Indigenous students to study law.

While Finkelstein is a bit cynical about how much Judd and Cripps had to do with writing their missives (given the obvious involvement of his friend, Pratt lawyer and Carlton fanatic Leon Zwier), he agrees that most Carlton fans don’t receive plaudits from the club’s captains, and it is a perk.

The key question is: can Carlton maintain these links with the younger generations of these well-connected families, and do the kids even care? The answer might be yes.

Year 10 student Nadav Leibler is a mad keen Carlton supporter. He is the son of leading corporate lawyer Jeremy Leibler, and the grandson of one of Australia’s best tax lawyers Mark Leibler – co-founder of law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler.

The young Leibler appears to be passionate about both the club’s off-field and on-field performance, seeing the two as intrinsically linked.

“When the president stepped down at the end of last year due to personal reasons, I was very concerned,” he says.

“And then at the start of the season a great Carlton player, Elijah Hollands, wasn’t playing for personal issues and again I was really concerned. Then there are other players having problems.

“It makes me wonder if there’s some sort of culture issue going on at the club, or something is happening behind closed doors.”

Leibler is too young to say whether he’ll follow in his father or grandfather’s professional footsteps, but his love of the club and his keen interest in the Blues’ culture as well as his family’s connections, bode well for Carlton’s future.

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