The AFL has released the official club membership figures for 2007 to June 30th and Carlton has the second highest membership of the Victorian Clubs with a record 35,431 members. This is an increase of 23.2% on 2006, the biggest increase of all the clubs and is far greater than the increase of 2.6% across all 16 clubs.

“This is a real credit to Carlton people who have supported the club in record numbers this year. Our membership is very important for our future and to the record numbers who have made a commitment to the Carlton Football Club in 2007 we say thank you very much,” said Carlton CEO Greg Swann.

In 2006 Carlton’s official membership at the end of June was 28,756 and this was only the 6th highest of the Victorian clubs. Last year Collingwood, Essendon, St Kilda, Geelong and Richmond all had more members than Carlton. In 2007 Collingwood is the only Victorian club with more members than Carlton with Collingwood increasing their membership numbers by 1.4% to 38,587 in 2007. Carlton’s increase by 23.2%, to 35,431 saw the Blues total membership leap ahead of Essendon (32,759), St Kilda (30,394), (Geelong (30,169) and Richmond (30,044).

Importantly for the future of the Carlton Football Club the Junior Membership numbers in 2007 (8,410) are the third highest in the AFL. The 16 AFL clubs membership tally of 532,412 in 2007 is a record for a season.