Fans Q&A

[irnbru]

It was a chance for folk to ask questions, suggest things and build general discussion.

 

The panel welcomed any suggestions.

 

Shame you're so anal about things and chose not to attend on the basis that the club website wasn't updated.

Regardless of people's opinions on what's been said I thought Crawford was pretty sincere, honest and open to change. He's clearly looking to get rid of the club but won't put it at risk so cutting budgets is his only option. He was also pretty firm on remaining full time which was a positive.

[bob_the_builder]

What in the name of **** have Hawke and the Raes been up to to make such a colossal mess of everything? I get that times are tough and all that, but bloody hell...the scale of incompetence is astonishing.

 

tbf to Crawford, he's only been running things for 5 minutes. Its widely known Dougie made the decisions and his word was final. Things changed dramatically when Dougies shares were distributed among GC and that well is essentially now boarded up.

Hawke however may have a harder time justifying his role in the club, the turnstile fiasco is his legacy

[vikingTON]

Do those stats include season ticket holders who aren't actually there? I know of a good few people who aren't at Cappielow when there's a game on yet have a season ticket. 

 

Yeah because that never happened in any other season when the team had nothing to play for and people were chucking their toys out of the pram over it: yours in particular have been all over the place for months. The straightforward facts show that our core support is still there and has if anything been getting slightly bigger over time. Which is why we haven't had a three figure support for any home league game since 2013/14 - a regular enough occurrence before then. 

 

And in any case, it doesn't really matter whether season ticket holders are going to every game in February or April - the club already has your money. That's why promoting season ticket use is one of the best strategies that the club can have to ensure its financial stability. Getting them to sign up again is the trick of course, but plenty of Scottish football clubs have done that every other season. 

 

Attendances will be be at an all time low next season when hardly anyone goes out and gets a season ticket to support this utter mess of a club. 

 

 

Really? An all-time low? So you think that average attendances are going to suddenly drop by fully 700 per game next season in the same division - quite probably with two derbies with the spoon-burners included - just because you don't like the way things are going? That they'll be 400 per game less than the absolutely ****ing stinking 2013-14 campaign? No bother then. 

 

It's pretty much certain that season ticket sales will be down this season from the current, record high in the club's history, but to claim anything like the above is over the top pish. And while a season ticket is a big enough financial commitment for people to make that they can't be hectored into doing it, the financial predicament of the club has now been set out quite clearly. I'd like to think that most season ticket holders would like to show their solidarity with the club at this fairly bleak moment and the club will get more renewals than recent performances and results on the pitch would merit. 

[EanieMeany]

tbf to Crawford, he's only been running things for 5 minutes. Its widely known Dougie made the decisions and his word was final. Things changed dramatically when Dougies shares were distributed among GC and that well is essentially now boarded up.

Hawke however may have a harder time justifying his role in the club, the turnstile fiasco is his legacy

.

 

For the first part, Crawford was hardly an innocent by-stander. He's had an active role in the club the whole time; secondly, the redistribution of shares is a red herring. He must have known that that was going to happen and he must have known, like the rest of us did, that Rae Snr didn't have long left so to sell three year plans was an out and out con. It's not close to an excuse for anything, not after the way he gave it the big 'un in the summer.

[cmdc]

.

 

For the first part, Crawford was hardly an innocent by-stander. He's had an active role in the club the whole time; secondly, the redistribution of shares is a red herring. He must have known that that was going to happen and he must have known, like the rest of us did, that Rae Snr didn't have long left so to sell three year plans was an out and out con. It's not close to an excuse for anything, not after the way he gave it the big 'un in the summer.

 

I think it was sincere and, at that time, it was within Crawford's gift to make that promise. But when the owenership of Golden Casket changed so did the dynamic at the club. Crawford isn't in control of the flow of money from GC to Morton in the way that DDF was or even in the way that Crawford was between DDF stepping down and his passing. People have said, like you above and I think PortTon, that they must have expected this to happen, and I can understand why. But I don't get that impression at all - the impression I get is that the way DDF's estate was distributed took people by surprise and led to a protracted dispute about Morton's future under GC.

[TONofmemories]

Shares split between family members, presumably with little interest in Morton. I can kinda see why 

[EanieMeany]

I think it was sincere and, at that time, it was within Crawford's gift to make that promise. But when the owenership of Golden Casket changed so did the dynamic at the club. Crawford isn't in control of the flow of money from GC to Morton in the way that DDF was or even in the way that Crawford was between DDF stepping down and his passing. People have said, like you above and I think PortTon, that they must have expected this to happen, and I can understand why. But I don't get that impression at all - the impression I get is that the way DDF's estate was distributed took people by surprise and led to a protracted dispute about Morton's future under GC.

He surely must have had some idea of how it was going to pan out, unless he thought he was going to be sole benificiary. It can't have come as a complete surprise and Dougie's days were clearly numbered so to be shouting about three year plans is either dishonest, misguided, imcompetent or a mix of the three.

 

If you're relying on a guy in his late 80's staying alive, that's not a plan, that's just stupid. If you're serious about such things, you should have some sort of understanding of what happens next.

[cmdc]

Shares split between family members, presumably with little interest in Morton. I can kinda see why 

 

That's my understanding. I think, in fact, that the preferance of some almost immediately was to cut the club out entirely and Crawford had to push back against that because he thought that would be the death knell. The compromise seems to be that Golden Casket can retain the club until a suitable (i.e. not a Scott-type) buyer can be found but that the level of support will be much reduced (they will still cover small losses, it seems, but nothing to the extent seen in the past). In and of itself an ambition for the club to be free-standing isn't a bad thing nor is the ambition to make space in the first team squad for graduates from the youth academy - and this probably will make it more attractive to any prospective buyer - but its the shock of having to do it in one go that has the potential to do some damage. We'll see.   

[vikingTON]

I'm not sure why it has taken anyone by surprise - it was never going to get handed down to Crawford intact like some noble estate from the middle ages. 

 

GC's interests were always going to diverge from the club's at this moment; the task is working out how the two can be prised apart with the minimum of damage occurring to GMFC. 

[TONofmemories]

I'm not sure why it has taken anyone by surprise - it was never going to get handed down to Crawford intact like some noble estate from the middle ages. 

 

GC's interests were always going to diverge from the club's at this moment; the task is working out how the two can be prised apart with the minimum of damage occurring to GMFC. 

If Crawford is to be believed, prizing the two apart should be fairly straight forward in that he's not going to let that debt be a blocker for any potential sale. 

[cmdc]

He surely must have had some idea of how it was going to pan out, unless he thought he was going to be sole benificiary. It can't have come as a complete surprise and Dougie's days were clearly numbered so to be shouting about three year plans is either dishonest, misguided, imcompetent or a mix of the three.

 

If you're relying on a guy in his late 80's staying alive, that's not a plan, that's just stupid. If you're serious about such things, you should have some sort of understanding of what happens next.

 

You'd like to think so, but there's an awful lot that is out of the control of beneficiaries. It's hard to say though without knowing the details. I don't really know precisely how it got to this position I just had a strong sense that it wasn't the position that anyone expected to be in.

[vikingTON]

If Crawford is to be believed, prizing the two apart should be fairly straight forward in that he's not going to let that debt be a blocker for any potential sale. 

 

There's no chance of them getting that back and you'd expect that they'll be willing to just bail out in terms of pricing the club as well. Keeping hold of a fairly dysfunctional football club that you're not even interested in running is hardly sound policy from GC.

 

We'll need to see what happens to the ownership of Cappielow and the adjacent car park land as well though. That needs to be kept on the club's books if at all possible, as once it goes to either GC or some private investor as part of some quick-fire deal the club's fate is pretty much out of its own hands. 

[cmdc]

Did the funding of the youth academy come up at the Q&A? Crawford's interview with the 'tele talked about cuts across the club, which I presumed to include the Academy (though I guess there might be some limits there imposed by Project Brave criteria?) so it would be interesting to know the extent of support for the Academy if we are to make space in the squad for more of its players.

[TONofmemories]

Can't disagree there. 

 

Crawford kept saying that in order to sell the club they need to be able to display a better financial position, so i guess that goes hand in hand with cost cutting. 

 

I do however struggle to see how the model will work and believe we'd be far better trying to capitalise on the increased prize money. He said himself that we lost out on circa 300k of money last season as a result of falling down the leagues. Add to that, if the product is as shit as it is just now we wont be able to attract more folk through the gates which was the other thing he asked for. 

 

It seems to me that a lot of the things proposed will be cancelled out. 

[TONofmemories]

Did the funding of the youth academy come up at the Q&A? Crawford's interview with the 'tele talked about cuts across the club, which I presumed to include the Academy (though I guess there might be some limits there imposed by Project Brave criteria?) so it would be interesting to know the extent of support for the Academy if we are to make space in the squad for more of its players.

Not really sure why it should be. At the last Q&A, Warren admitted that Morton only contribute about 50k of an overall 200k (approx - cant quite remember) yearly running cost. Above that, cutting the youth budget contradicts the new model. 

[cmdc]

Can't disagree there.

 

Crawford kept saying that in order to sell the club they need to be able to display a better financial position, so i guess that goes hand in hand with cost cutting.

 

I do however struggle to see how the model will work and believe we'd be far better trying to capitalise on the increased prize money. He said himself that we lost out on circa 300k of money last season as a result of falling down the leagues. Add to that, if the product is as s*** as it is just now we wont be able to attract more folk through the gates which was the other thing he asked for.

 

It seems to me that a lot of the things proposed will be cancelled out.

I guess the problem with that is that GC now won’t underwrite the risk that we could push the boat out on the budget and, as with Falkirk recently and even our own recent history, still miss out on the prize money.

[TONofmemories]

Then we're going to be stuck in the "let's hope its enough to keep us up" situation. But will still moan about not enough folk coming and paying to watch Morton. Loss of revenue contributing to a struggle to meet this break even target. 

[cmdc]

Then we're going to be stuck in the "let's hope its enough to keep us up" situation. But will still moan about not enough folk coming and paying to watch Morton. Loss of revenue contributing to a struggle to meet this break even target.

Quite possibly - maybe even likely - but I suspect the view of GC will be that that’s Morton’s problem.

[EanieMeany]

Then we're going to be stuck in the "let's hope its enough to keep us up" situation. But will still moan about not enough folk coming and paying to watch Morton. Loss of revenue contributing to a struggle to meet this break even target.

It's a balancing act for sure, and sadly I have no faith at all in Rae and Hawke managing to pull it off. Next season has all the hallmarks of a disaster already...

[cmdc]

It's largely moot in any case because we'll overtake Ayr and Dunfermline over the next five games and the momentum going into the play-offs will carry us into the top flight.