TOUGH times require desperate measures, but even in the short term, the decision by the Carlton Football Club to adopt Telstra Dome as its new home ground back in 2004 seemed laden with treachery and long-term pain.

The deal solved a number of problems for both the Blues and the AFL — not to mention the Docklands venue itself, which, not coincidentally, was being managed prudently by Ian Collins, the man who still runs it but who then was also Carlton president.

The club was leaving Princes Park as a match-day venue for good, and the then dysfunctional Blues board was split between the MCG and Collo's Dome. Complicating the situation was a third party, the AFL, which seemed particularly keen to help the Blues clinch the Telstra Dome deal — so keen that a multimillion-dollar carrot was dangled as an upfront payment.

The payment would help solve Carlton's financial crisis, which involved a massive debt and a serious cash-flow problem. And the AFL needed to help Telstra Dome. Its initial offer to underwrite Carlton's move to the tune of $3 million had "win-win" stamped all over it.

But there are always losers in such deals and the biggest losers in this case were the Carlton fans. Last night, the Blues played their first of six scheduled home games for 2008 at Telstra Dome in front of a crowd that did not come close to the average it has achieved at three home games at the MCG this season. Yes, it might have been nice under the roof given the conditions, but six home games at Telstra Dome?

The current Carlton administration would much rather be at the MCG. Chief executive Greg Swann has said as much to Melbourne Cricket Club boss Stephen Gough and the fans have voted with their feet. The Blues, of course, cannot complain about the relatively poor returns they now get from Telstra Dome games because of the massive upfront money they received to go there in the first place.

Because the Carlton board and then vice-president Graham Smorgon pushed for the MCG and the decision-makers saw some sense, the initial plan of a 7-4 Telstra Dome-MCG home game split became 6-5, with Telstra Dome the Blues' official home venue.

Three of those five MCG home games have already been staged and Carlton's average crowd there has exceeded 63,000. Yes, Chris Judd can clearly pull a crowd, but remember this was not a team that was expected to play finals this season.

It is true that one of those games included Collingwood, but another was against Adelaide and when the Blues took on Richmond in round one, it was 15th versus 16th from 2007. Imagine how strong the already impressive AFL attendances for 2008 would if the competition had been true to its word, adopted a best-fit policy with Collins' then struggling Carlton and placed it alongside Collingwood at the MCG?

"We made an attractive offer to Carlton to come to the MCG," wrote John Wylie, the chairman of the MCG Trust, in 2004, after the deal was done. "Our efforts were, regrettably, in vain as the AFL took the position that it would not support, in its match-scheduling decisions, any decision by Carlton other than to relocate to Telstra Dome."

So keen was the MCG to lure the Blues that it even offered to sacrifice its then contractual right to a preliminary final, something the AFL had been pushing for and later succeeded in achieving. But the MCG was pretty much told at the time it would not be getting Carlton as a tenant club and that was that. The deal was done.

Collins would argue that the club was desperate for money but his conflicted situation further clouds what now seems a disappointing long-term agreement for Blues fans. Now that the Kangaroos seem determined to win a new deal and at least nine home games at the Dome, and the introduction of more teams into the competition promises more games for all venues, perhaps all parties can think again.

Collins might also argue that he tried on more than one occasion to lure big-time benefactors including Richard Pratt to the club during his time and had Pratt come aboard earlier, the Telstra Dome deal might never have happened.

Carlton's proud reputation was badly damaged during the end of the John Elliott era and the tough years that followed it. Remember when Princes Park became MC Labour Park for about $100,000 a year? But the Blues have cleaned up their act with dazzling results and because they have such a rich history, luring back supporters — a significant number of whom never left anyway — has not proved a problem.

But those supporters belong, at least for the bulk of the season, at the MCG. The AFL, despite its big part in the 2004 deal, now says any move to change it is up to Carlton and Telstra Dome. And as the AFL and Collins know only too well, even the best deals have ways of being broken.