The Greenock Morton Thread - It's Better Than Yours

[Cappiecat1.2]

1 hour ago, Buckfast said:

Our benefactor has built a hub and hospitality suites among other things that are raking loads of cash into the club now

 

35 minutes ago, Thumper said:

Yes. None of Ayr's capital expenditures hit Ayr's balance sheet. (On that note, neither did any of the assets thus generated, but that's a story for another day.)

No, that is the story.

[Thumper]

32 minutes ago, Cappiecat1.2 said:

No, that is the story.

If he goes in a massive huff and shuts the Hub in a fit of pique then the club is back to having to use the nearby bowling club for pre-match drinks. A pity but not the end of the universe. It would be a different story if he were giving the club large personal loans and pinky-promising not to ever call them in (or promising not to call them in while still alive).

[Branch Ton]

2 hours ago, Buckfast said:

Our benefactor has built a hub and hospitality suites among other things that are raking loads of cash into the club now, when he goes the infrastructure will still be there generating cash for years to come. Morton on the other hand will be hoping to raise their cash on the goodwill of the supporters and a few sponsors who could disappear at the drop of a hat.

None of that makes any sense from a tax efficiency perspective. Does Benny Factur own the hub and hospitality suites?How does the raked in monies get into the clubs hands? Is the club renting or leasing the units rent free on reduced rents and actually running  them as part of the trying to play football business?

[Buckfast]

The chairman paid for the hub and new stand with his own money, it would not cost the club a penny and any money generated from these would go to the club. He said at the meeting that the money he provided to build all this was not a loan and he didn't want a penny back from the club. If Morton have plans to do much the same then this can only be a good thing for your club going forward. How are Mortons plans going to be funded?

[Jives Miguel]

Why is our thread full of tramps from Ayr? 

 

[madton]

36 minutes ago, Buckfast said:

The chairman paid for the hub and new stand with his own money, it would not cost the club a penny and any money generated from these would go to the club. He said at the meeting that the money he provided to build all this was not a loan and he didn't want a penny back from the club. If Morton have plans to do much the same then this can only be a good thing for your club going forward. How are Mortons plans going to be funded?

 

I'm guessing that's why nothing has happened yet, funding.

We turned over a quarter of million profit this season so I'd imagine a large chunk of that will go towards it with the rest going to Dougie.

I presume we will lean on our main partner Dalrada too.

No idea what it will cost. Don't need anything fancy,Cove had a portakabin which would be ideal, sell beer before and after and maybe some easy food options, job done! Would imagine place would be jumping for a few hours before and after.

In saying that, would imagine the club would want something more like the Ayr hub so it can used away from match day to generate revenue.

 

 

[Branch Ton]

2 hours ago, Buckfast said:

The chairman paid for the hub and new stand with his own money, it would not cost the club a penny and any money generated from these would go to the club. He said at the meeting that the money he provided to build all this was not a loan and he didn't want a penny back from the club. If Morton have plans to do much the same then this can only be a good thing for your club going forward. How are Mortons plans going to be funded?

If I were you I’d be asking your guy to provide sight of the leases side agreements etc.

I see from note 28 of the accounts for Ashleigh (Scotland) Ltd that as at 31 March 2023 Ayr Utd FC Ltd owed that company £585k and that interest on that was chargeable albeit at 1.5 percent below base.
 

There was me thinking that it was Morton who owned you. 

Edited May 29 by Branch Ton

[Jamie_M]

Goalie coach away.

Maybe an experienced player coming in as player coach then?

[edinburghhonestman]

1 hour ago, madton said:

We turned over a quarter of million profit this season so I'd imagine a large chunk of that will go towards it with the rest going to Dougie.

What drove the big increase in profit? Your last published accounts for season 22-23 show a profit of £70k and a loss of £240k the previous season. I'd have thought gate receipts wouldn't have been that different.

[Chicken Soup]

How has this wilful delusion from Ayr fans made its way here? 
 

Spending way beyond your means in return for no success whatsoever isn’t a model I ever want us to return to. Something I’m reminded of while watching (and laughing) at what happens when that risk doesn’t pay off, in the example of Inverness. 
 

 

[wullieaufc]

“Spending way beyond our means” good to see you are all still raging a week after we took your best player

[Branch Ton]

24 minutes ago, wullieaufc said:

“Spending way beyond our means” good to see you are all still raging a week after we took your best player

Omg you’ve signed Lewis Strapp.

[Cowshed]

24 minutes ago, wullieaufc said:

“Spending way beyond our means” good to see you are all still raging a week after we took your best player

Did Ayr sign Oakley ?

[Sortmeout]

I mind Ayr fans told everyone that Keir McInroy couldn’t sign for them as he couldn’t do the commute from Fife (or wherever) to Ayrshire full time and he signed for Kilmarnock two days later.

[Thumper]

2 hours ago, Chicken Soup said:

How has this wilful delusion from Ayr fans made its way here?

It's the closed season, and people saw an ample fishing ground in a support suffering a near-complete meltdown over losing a striker to a club they'd comprehensively owned last season. Which is still continuing as whatever "Jives" is continues to take time out of his life to red-dot posts that show him up.

3 hours ago, Branch Ton said:

I see from note 28 of the accounts for Ashleigh (Scotland) Ltd that as at 31 March 2023 Ayr Utd FC Ltd owed that company £585k and that interest on that was chargeable albeit at 1.5 percent below base.

That's not the club's trading name, and it's over a year old. Definitely not saying that any such thing wouldn't be troublesome of course.

[madton]

3 hours ago, edinburghhonestman said:

What drove the big increase in profit? Your last published accounts for season 22-23 show a profit of £70k and a loss of £240k the previous season. I'd have thought gate receipts wouldn't have been that different.

Cup game against Rangers away, Scottish cup run to QF( 2 TV games and good crowds v Motherwell and Hearts), average crowd up a wee bit and our partner Dalrada pumping in considerably more money than the previous year, around 300k by all accounts 

We quite simply need to be sustainable year on year now. Don't have debt and apparently won't take any on so will be interesting to see how we cope if we go out cups early, don't pull an old firm game, finish near the bottom and worst case,  Dalrada walk away.( I personally hope they take over)

Fan ownership has been a tad fortunate with an away old firm game the last two seasons pulling in best part of 500k combined.

[ayrunitedfw]

1 hour ago, Branch Ton said:

Omg you’ve signed Lewis Strapp.

Soon

[Girth]

[Jamie_M]

5 hours ago, edinburghhonestman said:

What drove the big increase in profit? Your last published accounts for season 22-23 show a profit of £70k and a loss of £240k the previous season. I'd have thought gate receipts wouldn't have been that different.

We budget for at worst a break even position (because there's nobody to write a cheque or absorb any losses if we f**k it up) and base that on an expected 8th place finish. So anything above that is bonus (extra £65k per year for the last 2 5th place finishes).

This is the reason we run such a small squad,  can't and won't engage in auctions with rivals pushing up player wages and shop for waifs, strays, gambles and 40 year old egg botherers.

As Madton said, we were fortunate that we drew Celtic away last year and Rangers this year bringing in extra cash.

To answer your question though, the main drivers of increased profits this year compared to last year will be cup prize/tv money (£160k up on last year), league prize money (up £30k on last year), increased sponsorship (Dalrada increasing but also additional shirt sponsors) and the share of the bonus larger gates from the Motherwell and Hearts games.

[edinburghhonestman]

Thanks to @Jamie_M and @madton for the replies. I'm genuinely interested in how the fan owned model is going to pan out, particularly since we're behind some other countries with it.

I think you're right to be prudent in your financial planning as there's no-one to step in if you hit an unexpected bump. Given that, like them or loathe them, a cup game against one of the Old Firm really does change the numbers. We'll have one plus the money for Dipo in our next set of accounts which will more than make up for the loss of hospitality while we built the new stand.

It would be nice to see the fan owned model expand as clubs would typically run at a profit and you wouldn't see an ICT situation. I'd be interested to see who in the Championship runs at a profit  Morton, Ayr and Arbroath will have this season. ICT and probably Dundee United won't have. Be interesting to see the figures from the other 5.