RandomGuy. Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 1 hour ago, David1979 said: I'm not going to even comment on the vast majority of the Wild Sheep sports proposal, simply because what they're proposing isn't anything of a surprise really. It's not groundbreaking stuff. And it isn't the real reason behind their proposal. All the talk of passion for the club, and so on? A front. Anyone can see that. Their plan for the club is so bad that it doesn't take a business mastermind to see that very little thought has went into it. What is important, and should be highlighted is the wording used in the small print (isn't that always the case in matters such as these?) Let's look at that: "And for the purposes of clarity, we are not looking to “take over” the Club by purchasing additional shares beyond the shares outlined in our proposed deal. We are willing to place covenants against further share purchases by Erik and Courtney Barmack, as we wish to remain a minority shareholder." Erik Barmack’s recent statement indicates that he and his wife, Courtney, have no plans to purchase additional shares directly. However, this doesn’t rule out the possibility of acquiring shares indirectly through a shell company or a third party. This happens all the time in business. Such indirect methods could still allow them to gain control or influence, effectively sidestepping the intended minority shareholder status. Not being funny but it's been clear since he mentioned Caledonian Braves that his intention is to create endless amount of shares and sell slice by slice to Americans like they do, all while the Well Society either fold or are slowly forced out as they shrink against that growing tide. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thisGRAEME Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 1 minute ago, Swello said: Has the model of paywalling run of the mill pressers and post match interviews ever worked anywhere? I always assumed that it just lowered engagement with the majority of your fans that won't pay extra... It feels like an old model that was tried (Club TV) and then quietly died out. No. There was a platform called Dugout which morphed into Onefootball. It was owned and operated by some of the biggest clubs in Europe and had the intention of becoming the channel for football on socials. Unfortunately the channels for football social media already exist, in twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and now tiktok. They had genuine world exclusives on it (from memory PSG announced Neymar signing on there?) access to players and club behind the scenes stuff. Ultimately, they pulled away from it and morphed into something different because convincing users that they need another channel is very very hard, and the content ended up being replicated on regular social channels because that's where people are. I'd also suggest that people are far more savvy in terms of giving up their data now than they ever have been, so unless you have a compelling reason to do so, they won't. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swello Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 4 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said: Dugout read that as "dugmeat". I've been on here too long. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camer0n_mcd Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 43 minutes ago, Busta Nut said: That bloke is a moron. All the worst c***s in the Motherwell fanbase supporting this deal. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fat_tony Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 14 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said: No. There was a platform called Dugout which morphed into Onefootball. It was owned and operated by some of the biggest clubs in Europe and had the intention of becoming the channel for football on socials. Unfortunately the channels for football social media already exist, in twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and now tiktok. They had genuine world exclusives on it (from memory PSG announced Neymar signing on there?) access to players and club behind the scenes stuff. Ultimately, they pulled away from it and morphed into something different because convincing users that they need another channel is very very hard, and the content ended up being replicated on regular social channels because that's where people are. I'd also suggest that people are far more savvy in terms of giving up their data now than they ever have been, so unless you have a compelling reason to do so, they won't. 100% all of this. Engage with your audience where they are instead of trying to force new, walled off channels on them. Most marketing platforms these days let you communicate cross-channel, delivering content to people on the right channel for them at the right time. But getting the most out of it takes planning, a consistent view of your customer data, and most importantly, a skilled team of people to make it all work. Someone said a few pages back (apologies, I forget who) that there's nothing majorly new here that wasn't considered when we had Allan Burrows and a highly enthusiastic and engaged comms team in place. All of this falls apart unless we have the people at the club who can create the content and manage the systems involved. I don't have objections to most of the "ideas" on offer but I still don't see any reason why it needs to come at such a high cost for such modest investment. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazylegsjoe_mfc Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 40 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said: I don't doubt this at all either, plus loading yet further expectations on the already overworked and undervalued media team to create "exclusive content", which in reality will be the same content already made, but kept on a different channel to the detriment of the existing channels that already exist. I personally don't think there's much scope for us to grow on a global scale anyway, but surely if that's an aim, putting content behind a paywall is to your detriment. It would take a lot for me to be engaged in the content of a provisional team on the other side of the world I had no obvious tie to for free, never mind paying a fiver a month for it. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
witchfindergeneral Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 I only go on this thread when I'm at work and swear everyday it's said the thread is *hot* Anyway I see Barmack is snooping currently, has he posted anything recently? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StAndrew7 Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 1 minute ago, witchfindergeneral said: I only go on this thread when I'm at work and swear everyday it's said the thread is *hot* Anyway I see Barmack is snooping currently, has he posted anything recently? Nope. Still lots of unanswered questions, even after his big launch today. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
witchfindergeneral Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 21 hours ago, Doctor Manhattan said: As an anti-triskaidekaphobic he may well have chosen it himself, but it's still an unfortunate juxtaposition between the recent article where Kettlewell said he had every confidence in him as a first choice keeper, and this: Mind games from Ketts, our 13 may be just as good as this guy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BabyReindeer Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 13 minutes ago, camer0n_mcd said: All the worst c***s in the Motherwell fanbase supporting this deal. You’d think people who post xenophobic bollocks to their small but admiring audience would have the good sense to keep their profiles anonymised so that any violent psychopaths who happen to be passing (present company excepted, obviously) don’t know where they live. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 (edited) As I’ve said before my issue with *all this* (waves generally) has been the Executive Board. That hasn’t changed. I’ve had my doubts re: due diligence but off the back of the Barmack reveal and the responses from the likes of @thisGRAEME, @GrantRussell et al on Twitter a question that’s only just occurred to me is whether or not The Executive Board have actually sought any advice about these aspects that seem key to Barmak’s plan (IIRC he mentioned he had presented a deck to them early on) or have they simply looked at it and thought “Yeah, an app that no one will use seems a great idea” and do they genuinely not realise they had a market leading CRM system installed two years ago?! Dunno, I’d have thought second opinions in this area would have been pretty easy to come by. Edited July 5 by capt_oats 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rowsdower Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 Will the club put out a statement to say that EB has some good ideas (he hasn't) but we had already planned to do some of them anyway? An app and an expensive CRM, f**k me. Each of these things in isolation will cost a fortune to implement and maintain, with no chance of us making our money back on them in any reasonable timescale. Most cloud based CRMs like salesforce are in the hundreds of thousands annually, and any professional service contracts to maintain or optimize them would be just as astronomical. It has been mentioned a few times that the club already has a CRM, what's the deal with that? Are we hoping to get a volunteer or an intern to run it? Outside of this whole investment fiasco, we need to take a hard look at how our club is staffed. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rowsdower Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 1 minute ago, capt_oats said: ....... is whether or not The Executive Board have actually sought any advice about these aspects that seem key to Barmak’s plan (IIRC he mentioned he had presented a deck to them early on) ...... The exec board: Ooh, a deck, WITH TRANSITION ANIMATIONS, AND IT HAS OUR BADGE ON IT! Bring in this business whizz post haste! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrantRussell Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 3 minutes ago, capt_oats said: As I’ve said before my issue with *all this* (waves generally) has been the Executive Board. That hasn’t changed. I’ve had my doubts re: due diligence but off the back of the Barmack reveal and the responses from the likes of @thisGRAEME, @GrantRussell et al a question that’s only just occurred to me is whether or not The Executive Board have actually sought any advice about these aspects that seem key to Barmak’s plan (IIRC he mentioned he had presented a deck to them early on) or have they simply looked at it and thought “Yeah, an app that no one will use seems a great idea” and do they genuinely not realise they had a CRM system installed two years ago?! Dunno, I’d have thought second opinions in this area would have been pretty easy to come by. The club had one of the industry-leading sports CRMs installed in 2022. I can't speak to how it has been used, if at all, but it was cost-effective. As I've said elsewhere, it was zero upfront cost. Without getting into commercial specifics, the annual cost was drastically less than is being proposed. The key is hiring staff to operate it. That's where you get the value from it. That is seriously all that's lacking here from the club in its present form. Invest a bit in people on the marketing side. You don't need to sell the family silver. 14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 Just now, GrantRussell said: The club had one of the industry-leading sports CRMs installed in 2022. I can't speak to how it has been used, if at all, but it was cost-effective. As I've said elsewhere, it was zero upfront cost. Without getting into commercial specifics, the annual cost was drastically less than is being proposed. The key is hiring staff to operate it. That's where you get the value from it. That is seriously all that's lacking here from the club in its present form. Invest a bit in people on the marketing side. You don't need to sell the family silver. Thanks Grant. I realise I’m very much preaching to the choir here but it seems absolutely nuts to me that the proposal revealed this morning would have been presented to the Executive Board and it simply be taken at face value with zero questions asked. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StAndrew7 Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 (edited) 3 minutes ago, capt_oats said: Thanks Grant. I realise I’m very much preaching to the choir here but it seems absolutely nuts to me that the proposal revealed this morning would have been presented to the Executive Board and it simply be taken at face value with zero questions asked. [sarcasm]Yes but remember these are seasoned businessmen with all the acumen you need to run a football club, so they absolutely understand everything that's put in front of them, at all times.[/sarcasm] Edited July 5 by StAndrew7 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joewarkfanclub Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 (edited) It has become increasingly obvious throughout this fiasco that the "real barrier" to succesful fan ownership of Motherwell FC has been the current Executive Board. I had wrongly assumed in the past that as experienced individuals/business people, they actually knew what they were doing. It seems I was very naiive/wrong in that regard. We need to vote this deal down. Vote in a new Executive Board. Re-visit assess any potential outward investment proposals. I think we would all accept that outward investment in the club would safeguard the clubs future and would be welcome. However, accepting this deal in its current form would be madness. Edited July 5 by joewarkfanclub 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrantRussell Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 6 minutes ago, capt_oats said: Thanks Grant. I realise I’m very much preaching to the choir here but it seems absolutely nuts to me that the proposal revealed this morning would have been presented to the Executive Board and it simply be taken at face value with zero questions asked. It's worth remarking that the installation of the CRM in 2022 came after a proposal to the board, which was accepted. It wasn't done solely at staff level - it was an investment that was approved by the executive board. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelmen Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 Just now, capt_oats said: Thanks Grant. I realise I’m very much preaching to the choir here but it seems absolutely nuts to me that the proposal revealed this morning would have been presented to the Executive Board and it simply be taken at face value with zero questions asked. I do think that McMahon is desperate here. He wanted, and might have paid for, the video, got to make that look a success. He wants to stand down, and on the face of it has done nothing to facilitate it. EB has come in with the least worst proposal with a few words of I will work with the society and he's approved it. This allows him to walk away safe in the knowledge he has left the club in a proper businessman's hands. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rowsdower Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 (edited) 9 minutes ago, steelmen said: I do think that McMahon is desperate here. He wanted, and might have paid for, the video, got to make that look a success. He wants to stand down, and on the face of it has done nothing to facilitate it. EB has come in with the least worst proposal with a few words of I will work with the society and he's approved it. This allows him to walk away safe in the knowledge he has left the club in a proper businessman's hands. The only real urgency here is McMahon's insistence on getting this done before he leaves, and his need for a "legacy" could tear the club apart. Like said above, this is deemed as the "least worst" proposal, and it is terrifying that some are fine with it in that regard, when there is no genuine pressure for the club to accept any terms for investment. Imagine three folk rocked up to your door and said they wanted to buy your house, with the best offer being half the market value, but you had to redecorate and build a conservatory. Then Imagine trying to persuade your landlord to accept the offer. Also no surprise that this offer is fine with the contrarian racists in our support. Edited July 5 by rowsdower 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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