Motherwell FC - A Thread For All Seasons

[Welldaft21]

3 minutes ago, welldaft said:

Indeed. But could you not have been a bit more creative with your username

Haha should have went well dafty 

[well fan for life]

15 minutes ago, Busta Nut said:

So how does this work?
They buy out the Well society, who gets that cash?

Some laugh when the folk in charge take a leaf out the Salesforce CEO's book as they bail out with the cash. https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/salesforce-ceo-says-took-10-181554669.html

[Swello]

31 minutes ago, Busta Nut said:

So how does this work?
They buy out the Well society, who gets that cash?

This was touched on a wee bit at the AGM- not everyone that invests in a club like ours is necessarily is looking for shares/ownership. I can't imagine Motherwell is a business investment that makes sense if your goal is make a return but if it's a philanthropic thing then it might.

If someone really bought out the Well Society and it was then decided to wind it up completely as a result - then I assume the money should go to the members rather than the football club. 

 

[Handsome_Devil]

15 minutes ago, Welldaft21 said:

Who knows. Very good question tho

There are plenty shares kicking around to begin with and if the society sells a chunk I imagine it'll be kept for a rainy day or just handed to the club for certain projects.

[steelmen]

43 minutes ago, Swello said:

This was touched on a wee bit at the AGM- not everyone that invests in a club like ours is necessarily is looking for shares/ownership. I can't imagine Motherwell is a business investment that makes sense if your goal is make a return but if it's a philanthropic thing then it might.

 

Did we not have that a few years back where 'investors' where helping pay players transfer fee's in the hope that they would get a % back when we sold them?

Hutchinson was the perfect investor for us. Here is £1m pay it back when you can, while I am at it I will make a donation to X, don't need that back.

[Swello]

1 hour ago, steelmen said:

Did we not have that a few years back where 'investors' where helping pay players transfer fee's in the hope that they would get a % back when we sold them?

Hutchinson was the perfect investor for us. Here is £1m pay it back when you can, while I am at it I will make a donation to X, don't need that back.

We had some soft loans from specific well-off supporters to cover shortfalls and cash flow as I remember it - and we paid Boyle and Hutchinson back out of transfer proceeds rather than "normal" income.

I think there were occasionally tensions but Hutchinson did what he said he was going to do and facilitated the move to fan ownership, so aye - something similar would be fine. 

[RostokMcSpoons]

It's good to hear there are investors in the mix at this point.   I remember I was the tiniest bit (ok quite a lot) disappointed with Les in that he was (allegedly) mega wealthy and didn't want to throw some of his money around/away on the 'Well as a bit of fun or just a vanity project.   
But in the end the way he did it was pretty damned good for us - didn't get us back to unrealistic expectations or in to any long-term financial holes.

So, gotta hope there's someone out there who, while they don't necessarily chuck money at our problems, at least gives the club financial security if we have storms to weather in the near future.... which is of course eminently possible if the new manager search goes awry.

Hopefully those same people might make good additions to the board...  As the equivalent of being a Motherwell exile, I've always been a bit disappointed the club never really reached out to me effectively.  Plenty of times I've had money in my pocket to spend on Well-related merch etc, but apart from the usual emails from the club shop when there's a sale on, they don't seem very switched on to market stuff to directly to me.   (I'm a Well TV subscriber so I ought to be perfectly visible on their radar).  There ought to be more they can do on that front - quite an untapped market for income.

And of course the pakora stand MUST happen. 

[santheman]

17 minutes ago, RostokMcSpoons said:

It's good to hear there are investors in the mix at this point.   I remember I was the tiniest bit (ok quite a lot) disappointed with Les in that he was (allegedly) mega wealthy and didn't want to throw some of his money around/away on the 'Well as a bit of fun or just a vanity project.   
But in the end the way he did it was pretty damned good for us - didn't get us back to unrealistic expectations or in to any long-term financial holes.

So, gotta hope there's someone out there who, while they don't necessarily chuck money at our problems, at least gives the club financial security if we have storms to weather in the near future.... which is of course eminently possible if the new manager search goes awry.

Hopefully those same people might make good additions to the board...  As the equivalent of being a Motherwell exile, I've always been a bit disappointed the club never really reached out to me effectively.  Plenty of times I've had money in my pocket to spend on Well-related merch etc, but apart from the usual emails from the club shop when there's a sale on, they don't seem very switched on to market stuff to directly to me.   (I'm a Well TV subscriber so I ought to be perfectly visible on their radar).  There ought to be more they can do on that front - quite an untapped market for income.

And of course the pakora stand MUST happen. 

That's been one of my main criticisms for years that we dont market the club enough.

For instance I've never had an email asking me to consider increasing my monthly payment to the Well Society which I've done on my own accord anyway.

Loads of things that could be done to maximise income from improving the catering choices to some kind of weekly/monthly draw paid by DD or SO.

Maybe we should be looking for a Marketing guru instead of a CEO.

 

[Handsome_Devil]

38 minutes ago, RostokMcSpoons said:

As the equivalent of being a Motherwell exile, I've always been a bit disappointed the club never really reached out to me effectively.  Plenty of times I've had money in my pocket to spend on Well-related merch etc, but apart from the usual emails from the club shop when there's a sale on, they don't seem very switched on to market stuff to directly to me.   (I'm a Well TV subscriber so I ought to be perfectly visible on their radar).  There ought to be more they can do on that front - quite an untapped market for income.

I don't necessarily disagree but I don't know how much more they can feasibly get.

I pay for Motherwell TV plus myself and two kids in the WS - in exchange I get the majority of games on telly and potentially one lot of hospitality plus a handful (4-6, I forget since I'm not there often enough to use them) of regular tickets.

The TV deal is good value (£150/38), the society depends on being home but is only a little above/below break even. Which is fine - a return is nice, it's not why I, or any of us I suspect, do it.

That leaves the question of just what else they can offer the (relatively limited) pool of exiles who have enough to chip in without having enough to make much difference. 

I'd love there to be more, I just have no idea what.

Edited February 17, 2023 by Handsome_Devil

[YassinMoutaouakil]

9 hours ago, RostokMcSpoons said:

I asked my Grimsby-supporting friend about Ian Holloway.
He sat on the fence, I'm not really sure he's got a strong opinion either way...
 

 Jesus mate avoid like the plague. He systematically ruined our club, we went out the league and he potentially was getting into bed with a criminal with some dodgy money. Without a doubt the worst manager I've ever witnessed

 

Oh feck.

To be fair to Holloway, systematically destroying Grimsby would probably still suggest a degree of strategic planning that's been missing at Fir Park for about two years.

[Welldaft21]

6 hours ago, Swello said:

This was touched on a wee bit at the AGM- not everyone that invests in a club like ours is necessarily is looking for shares/ownership. I can't imagine Motherwell is a business investment that makes sense if your goal is make a return but if it's a philanthropic thing then it might.

If someone really bought out the Well Society and it was then decided to wind it up completely as a result - then I assume the money should go to the members rather than the football club. 

 

Apparently the guy leading it is in the USA this week meeting with investors. Wouldn’t think anyone from abroad would be in it for philanthropic purposes but the guy leading it is from EK and is known to support a lot of good causes apparently so he might not purely be in it for money

putting two and two together but poss could be some sort of US feeder type tie up they are trying to create. Who knows. Anyway something positive I suppose in the current situation or could be wide of the mark

will see what else I can find out 

[rowsdower]

Interesting.

Always interested to know what's in it for folk that invest in football teams. I get the whole sports washing thing with the super rich owners, and me when I win the lottery, but what do these relatively small consortia get from it? 

Will be interesting to see how the well society would fit with something like that. One of the biggest selling points of it is that it keeps us safe from bad guys buying us for bad reasons.

[Welldaft21]

2 minutes ago, rowsdower said:

Interesting.

Always interested to know what's in it for folk that invest in football teams. I get the whole sports washing thing with the super rich owners, and me when I win the lottery, but what do these relatively small consortia get from it? 

Will be interesting to see how the well society would fit with something like that. One of the biggest selling points of it is that it keeps us safe from bad guys buying us for bad reasons.

Me too.

Could be a vanity project, way to push US players getting a return that way, or a genuine interest in helping the club. there is Plenty folk out there who would happily assert strip a club or use them for personal gain in some form but I’m hoping given there’s a local involved that it’s a fan that has more of a genuine desire to help to the whole thing

[Welldaft21]

Back on the manager chat I would take mccann but I see it being kettlewell until the summer which I’m half and half about at the moment but prob more on the leaning of seeing it as a positive move 

[Al B]

Imagine it all fell through because someone leaked it on a message board that journos pull their stories from.

[thisGRAEME]

19 minutes ago, rowsdower said:

Always interested to know what's in it for folk that invest in football teams. I get the whole sports washing thing with the super rich owners, and me when I win the lottery, but what do these relatively small consortia get from it? 

They think they can make money.

I would say, more often than not, the smaller overseas wealthy guys look at football and go; these guys running it are idiots, I'm successful, I'm smart, I'll turn it around, make it successful and make profit either by the result or by selling on later.

This neglects to notice that football is the same as any other niche business and has foibles and ways in which it works and the thing that made you wealthy as a business guy are, almost entirely, irrelevant. 

[rowsdower]

20 minutes ago, Al B said:

Imagine it all fell through because someone leaked it on a message board that journos pull their stories from.

I don't think the papers would be interested in Beyonce buying motherwell.

[RandomGuy.]

20 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

They think they can make money.

I would say, more often than not, the smaller overseas wealthy guys look at football and go; these guys running it are idiots, I'm successful, I'm smart, I'll turn it around, make it successful and make profit either by the result or by selling on later.

See Mark Ogren.

Apparently he was going to sink money into United, and earn it all back within a decade by producing youth prospects they could sell for millions annually, while simultaneously building a squad thats competing in Europe.

He now seems to have pulled his funding as they stare relegation in the face, and if he completely pulls out the financial implications for United will be devastating. 

[Swello]

24 minutes ago, thisGRAEME said:

This neglects to notice that football is the same as any other niche business and has foibles and ways in which it works and the thing that made you wealthy as a business guy are, almost entirely, irrelevant. 

It's a fair bet that in any of their other businesses, they don't have to consider "Rickie Lamie loses his man at a corner" as a significant risk to their return on investment.

[thisGRAEME]

Agree with both, and it extends to all the American owners really.

Hibernian tearing up the structure, pushing folk out for a new regime, only to return to more or less the exact structure that they tore up having wasted two years and paid off two managers in the interim by failing them.

It's just not doing your due diligence/hubris that you're just smarter than these dumdums. 

If it was that easy, then everyone would be doing it.