The evolving ‘real connection’ with fans is allowing Carlton to reclaim it’s powerhouse status

With its team surging on the field, Carlton’s army of supporters are helping take the club back to its all-powerful glory days. SHANNON GILL speaks to CEO Brian Cook about the changed approach of Blues fans.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - APRIL 20: Nic Newman of the Blues celebrates with fans during the 2024 AFL Round 06 match between the Carlton Blues and the GWS GIANTS at Marvel Stadium on April 20, 2024 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Brian Cook has seen the very best in football as the CEO in premiership success at West Coast and Geelong, yet the ferocity of the Carlton crowd roar was something he’d never experienced.

“First coming to Carlton, the noise that was generated in those first few home games in 2022, it gave me goosebumps, it still does in fact,” Carlton boss Cook tells CODE Sports.

“We had reached 81,302 members that year off the back of winning just 11 games in the previous three seasons - that was remarkable to me.”

The supporter base was never quite sleeping, but in 2024 the Blues are flying and its army is marching in numbers we’ve seen before.

The fans are leading a whole club revival.

Another 80,000 are tipped for Friday’s clash with Geelong, to add to the four 80,000+ crowds it’s played in front of so far this season.

Blues fans have been showing up in huge numbers this season. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

The Blues have played in four of the top seven attended AFL games this season, its average crowd and average home crowd in the home and away season are the best in the club’s history (up 7000 and 6000 per game respectively). It will likely take this season’s league lead from Collingwood on those numbers this weekend.

Most staggering is that stretching back to 2023, Carlton’s last ten games at the MCG have averaged 81,713.

“To average that MCG number for such a long stretch of time, that speaks to much more than just winning games of football,” Cook says.

“What it says to us, and Vossy has said this before also, our members and supporters have a real connection to the way their team goes about their football. “

Previously that connection was sometimes seen as a millstone when it came to making clear headed decisions to lift the Blues out of two decades of mediocrity. For a long time Carlton and patience were as compatible as oil and water.

“Passion in football can work both ways, depending on whether you are winning or losing,” Cook says.

Four of our opening 13 games in front of over 80,000 people.

With general public tickets sold out for Round 21 against Collingwood, it will mark the first time we play five home-and-away games in front of 80,000+.

We’ve said all along we’re #StrongerTogether: you’ve shown it 💙

— Carlton FC (@CarltonFC) June 13, 2024

“However what I’ve observed is a shift somewhat to our connection between our supporters and their team no longer solely dependent on one result on the weekend.

“I really want to credit our supporters and players for embracing that humility piece that our club has now started to wear, as a trademark we live by at Carlton.”

Excuse me, Carlton and humility?

“Pig’s arse,” as the most infamous exponent of Blues arrogance, John Elliott, would once say.

Yet this is the subtle reworking of the Blues on and off the field that coach Voss has been instrumental in, says Cook.

“We’ve lost games this year, we’ve won games but the belief and perspective has remained, there has been a level-headedness, an understanding of the bigger picture.”

“Whether that’s the excitement and athleticism of certain players, the combative and contest nature of others or even, which I love, the celebration of the role players in our team who are now getting as much love and adoration over the fence as the more senior players in the side.”

Brian Cook says Michael Voss has been instrumental in the change on and off the field. Picture: Supplied

Molehills, not mountains. Blue collar, not messiahs. People, not just performance.

It loses nothing on noise and passion, but it’s a very different approach to the Elliott-exceptionalism era.

That support has been converted into 100,000 members for the first time ever earlier this year, adding to what is a rapidly improving bottom line.

The mid-year resurgence of 2023 helped contribute to $23 million in revenue from its supporters through membership, gate receipts and consumer goods.

This year they’re on track to top that figure.

The last two years Carlton has only trailed the premiers of each season (Geelong 2022, Collingwood 2023) in retail sales of AFL merchandise. 

Aside from those irregular premiership spikes, Carlton fans are buying and showing off their colours more than any other club.

In 2021 the Blues became debt free and its $50 million facility redevelopment was completed in 2022.

The Blues membership reached 100,000 for the first time ever in 2024. Picture: Sarah Reed/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Innovation continues, just last week the club announced the imminent construction of a medical imaging centre on-site in partnership with Imaging Associates that will provide both football and financial outcomes in the future.

It’s all a far cry from the dark financial days in the early 2000s.

“Carlton is in a stronger position financially now, which is great and as we know you do need that to help you chase success,” Cook says.

“However, more importantly, we’re receiving feedback that despite this growth, Carlton people are feeling more integrated, more included, and a greater sense of belonging within their club.”

For all the historical stereotype of Carlton’s connection to the money of the top end of town, Cook believes the true strength behind the club’s re-emergence as a power is in the numbers and passion of its rank file fans.

“We still have a long way to go to become the football club we want to be, but that means more to us than any balance sheet.”

Originally published as The evolving ‘real connection’ with fans is allowing Carlton to reclaim it’s powerhouse status