The most striking difference that Brian Cook identified between Carlton and Geelong was in how each club’s people barracked and in how the more extreme Bluebaggers dealt with victory and defeat.
“We’ll have 100,000 members soon ... we’re about 99 right now. That’s our uniqueness, we make from a financial point of view, that’s where we make the bulk of our dollars.” “There’s four of us, or five of us, that sort of high-drawing crowds, all just about 100,000 members – and how to create differences between those?”
The signature example of Carlton-driven deals was of Virgin, a club major sponsor, providing two full planes to fly CIB guests to Adelaide and PenfoldsCook observed that the Blues were netting about $5 million from non-footy income, $2 million to $3 million of which derives from gaming and that non-football business shaped as an area in which they stood out.