WITH the Carlton Football Club surpassing 80,000 members, CEO Cain Liddle has issued his challenge to Bluebaggers ahead of Saturday night’s game against Port Adelaide.

In an email to members last night, Liddle confirmed that the Club’s membership base had reached the landmark for the first time in Carlton history.

Ahead of Saturday night’s return to the MCG, Liddle was hoping for a sea of Navy Blue in the crowd — and to give Port Adelaide a taste of what Carlton has received whenever it has travelled to Adelaide Oval.

“I feel like I’m constantly asking, but if I can ask all of our members who can get there when we play Port and Brisbane, it’d be massive for us,” Liddle said.

“Every time we rock up to Adelaide Oval against either Port or Adelaide, you tend to have 40,000-45,000 screaming South Australians.

“I’d love to give a bit of that back this week and get 40,000-odd Carlton supporters screaming at the game, because our players really do feed off that energy.”

When the Club released its strategic plan - The Carlton Way - in 2018, the Club outlined its objective to increase from just over 50,000 members to a lofty 100,000 by 2023.

On the back of a COVID-affected year in 2020, Liddle said that even the optimist in him was surprised at how much the Club’s supporter base had gotten behind Carlton by way of its membership increase.

“To grow 30,000 in a few years is probably a bit faster than I thought was possible,” he said.

“At the end of 2018, we set out with a five-year plan that had some pretty lofty targets in it. One of them was to increase from 50,000 to 100,000 members and I’m really pleased to say that we’ve just gone beyond 80,000 members.

“To all of our members, all fo the support that we received last year and this year has been absolutely incredible. We’re so appreciative of it.”