Morton Club Together Updates

[vikingTON]

The far more pressing issue for MCT right now is whether they've inserted a break clause or two into the utterly ridiculous, two year deal they doled out to a 'manager', off the back of a worse league record last season than a fitness coach. 

[MCT Team]

Not an eventful update overall this week but the new MCT board met officially for the first time and there has been some movement again on the takeover. Have a read

Dear members,

Following on from our AGM last week we have had a lot of really positive feedback and messages from members about our progress, and also wishing outgoing MCT board members Graham Barr and Ivor McCauley well. We'd like to thank everyone who got in touch, it's always great to hear from you.

If there are things that you'd like us to raise with the club as well then please do get in touch. We've also had some members in the past couple of weeks getting in touch with us with suggestions and ideas they'd like to see implemented in future.

A reminder that you can email MCT with feedback or questions at any time to communications@mortonclubtogether.co.uk

The new MCT board met for the first time this week for an introductory discussion. As we said last week, there's still a lot of hard work to do to move Morton forward and make the club a success in the long term, and how MCT and our members contribute to that going forward. 

Takeover Update

We are now very close to the takeover being completed. In the past couple of weeks, since our last proper weekly update, the work has been continuing behind the scenes on both sides and there are now just a couple of outstanding points to resolve. 

Once the final documents have been signed, our members will be the first to know.

Again, thank you all for your patience while we've worked through the technicalities of the takeover. 

Club News

The past four league matches haven't gone to plan but the Championship remains as unpredictable as ever. The club has another huge match at Somerset on Saturday against Jim Duffy's Ayr United. We hope you enjoy the game if you're making it along.

The biggest update off the pitch at the club is that hospitality is now back open and is available for the next home match against Arbroath on the 2nd of October. Fans can email the club or get in touch via the enquiry form on the website.

Cheers all

[TheGoon]

There was a plan for those 4 league matches?

[TRVMP]

I am still very curious as to what these continued delays are with the takeover. We've heard about the taxman and we've heard about the land deeds. Is that all of it? Is it all just technicalities or are there points of negotiation? 

Given the number of times the Raes changed things during the pre-negotiations, I don't think I'm being too cynical in thinking there are substantive issues holding this up, and that they're trying to claw back more of "their" money. If it was still all down to the taxes and the land, I think they'd have said so. 

[MCT Team]

1 hour ago, TRVMP said:

I am still very curious as to what these continued delays are with the takeover. We've heard about the taxman and we've heard about the land deeds. Is that all of it? Is it all just technicalities or are there points of negotiation? 

Given the number of times the Raes changed things during the pre-negotiations, I don't think I'm being too cynical in thinking there are substantive issues holding this up, and that they're trying to claw back more of "their" money. If it was still all down to the taxes and the land, I think they'd have said so. 

Yeah we understand the frustration around the delays but since our weekly updates began a couple of months ago we’ve done our best to share what we can around what’s being worked on behind the scenes. The land deeds have been extremely complicated to tackle due to all of the changes to how those are registered now. 

There hasn’t been any changes to the details of the deal. 

[TRVMP]

2 minutes ago, MCT Team said:

Yeah we understand the frustration around the delays but since our weekly updates began a couple of months ago we’ve done our best to share what we can around what’s being worked on behind the scenes. The land deeds have been extremely complicated to tackle due to all of the changes to how those are registered now. 

There hasn’t been any changes to the details of the deal. 

I appreciate the update. That's good news. 

[9 Strathblane Crescent]

Can someone explain to me how the division of responsibilities between the club, GMFC, and the owners MCT actually works in practice. Who is responsible for what? When MCT eventually take over what is the role of MCT? As we now have the majority of GMFC directors MCT directors does this not conflict with the fan owned not run principle?

[MCT Team]

On 9/25/2021 at 11:39 AM, 9 Strathblane Crescent said:

Can someone explain to me how the division of responsibilities between the club, GMFC, and the owners MCT actually works in practice. Who is responsible for what? When MCT eventually take over what is the role of MCT? As we now have the majority of GMFC directors MCT directors does this not conflict with the fan owned not run principle?

How these relationships will work in practice going forward is one of the key areas we'd like to make sure fans are aware of in the coming weeks and months. 

The club board is responsible for club matters, of course. I'm sure there will be more comms from the club on this soon and as mentioned at our AGM, there's certainly a desire to hold a GMFC AGM. The principle of fan owned but not fan run remains, the hiring of Chris Ross as General Manager was key to this point. He carries out his role in overseeing club operations on a daily basis, managing staff, overseeing ticketing and hospitality, setting standards and putting processes in place to improve every aspect of the club. The GMFC board set out the overall vision and make decisions on some of these points of course, but don't carry out the tasks that align under all of it. While there's been a need for some individuals at board level to get more involved across some things over the past few months, that need isn't and shouldn't be there now that the GM has his feet under the table. Hopefully that makes sense but happy to try and clarify any further points. 

Yes there's a crossover in individuals across the GMFC and MCT boards, but they do remain separate entities with some differing aims, albeit some are also similar. 

When the takeover happens, MCT's goal does change somewhat, but not massively. We're still the vehicle for fans to pay monthly to contribute to the club, that has to remain. We'll still be encouraging as many Morton fans to become members and actually it's my desire to do even more on that than we've been doing recently. With the MCT majority on the GMFC club board, the overall vision for the club going forward should have a very MCT feel to it, with focuses driven by the work we've done over the past few years. We want to get even closer to the fanbase than ever before, we want to ensure the club is run in a financially viable manner, with good governance and structures in place, we want to drive as much commercial revenue as possible, we want to build deeper connections with the local community, celebrating the work that Morton in the Community do along with our youth and women's teams, we want to ensure our membership's views and ideas are heard, discussed and then implemented if they make sense to do so.

That's just a flavour of things, and like I said, there's some crossover between MCT and the club there, but everyone working together and pulling towards the same goals can only be a good thing going forward to make sure the club we all love is a success on and off the pitch. 

[HamCam]

That all sounds very positive but you still do not own the club and while we  have to suffer what we are watching on the park the danger is MCT will struggle to reach further into the fanbase. Giving the management team two-years contracts is also not the best example of operating in a financially viable manner.

[9 Strathblane Crescent]

43 minutes ago, MCT Team said:

How these relationships will work in practice going forward is one of the key areas we'd like to make sure fans are aware of in the coming weeks and months. 

The club board is responsible for club matters, of course. I'm sure there will be more comms from the club on this soon and as mentioned at our AGM, there's certainly a desire to hold a GMFC AGM. The principle of fan owned but not fan run remains, the hiring of Chris Ross as General Manager was key to this point. He carries out his role in overseeing club operations on a daily basis, managing staff, overseeing ticketing and hospitality, setting standards and putting processes in place to improve every aspect of the club. The GMFC board set out the overall vision and make decisions on some of these points of course, but don't carry out the tasks that align under all of it. While there's been a need for some individuals at board level to get more involved across some things over the past few months, that need isn't and shouldn't be there now that the GM has his feet under the table. Hopefully that makes sense but happy to try and clarify any further points. 

Yes there's a crossover in individuals across the GMFC and MCT boards, but they do remain separate entities with some differing aims, albeit some are also similar. 

When the takeover happens, MCT's goal does change somewhat, but not massively. We're still the vehicle for fans to pay monthly to contribute to the club, that has to remain. We'll still be encouraging as many Morton fans to become members and actually it's my desire to do even more on that than we've been doing recently. With the MCT majority on the GMFC club board, the overall vision for the club going forward should have a very MCT feel to it, with focuses driven by the work we've done over the past few years. We want to get even closer to the fanbase than ever before, we want to ensure the club is run in a financially viable manner, with good governance and structures in place, we want to drive as much commercial revenue as possible, we want to build deeper connections with the local community, celebrating the work that Morton in the Community do along with our youth and women's teams, we want to ensure our membership's views and ideas are heard, discussed and then implemented if they make sense to do so.

That's just a flavour of things, and like I said, there's some crossover between MCT and the club there, but everyone working together and pulling towards the same goals can only be a good thing going forward to make sure the club we all love is a success on and off the pitch. 

These are all good points you make but I'm more interested on how you intend to make these aims happen. It's all very well having these ideals but how do you intend putting them into practice. We need to increase our fanbase, how do you intend making that happen? We need to increase our revenue, how do you intend making that happen. What measurements will you put in place to judge whether the actions you take are successful? I'm not being negative here I just want to see the club being more successful year on year. Just as an aside ever thought of having a sponsors day at Cappielow where a company that already advertises at Cappielow can set up a stall, for example, to advertise their products and give out information straight to those interested fans as they enter the ground? That of course should include MCT. No harm in having a "sign up here drive" to try and increase membership.

[MCT Team]

27 minutes ago, 9 Strathblane Crescent said:

These are all good points you make but I'm more interested on how you intend to make these aims happen. It's all very well having these ideals but how do you intend putting them into practice. We need to increase our fanbase, how do you intend making that happen? We need to increase our revenue, how do you intend making that happen. What measurements will you put in place to judge whether the actions you take are successful? I'm not being negative here I just want to see the club being more successful year on year. Just as an aside ever thought of having a sponsors day at Cappielow where a company that already advertises at Cappielow can set up a stall, for example, to advertise their products and give out information straight to those interested fans as they enter the ground? That of course should include MCT. No harm in having a "sign up here drive" to try and increase membership.

The proof will be in the pudding. These things won't fix or resolve themselves overnight, MCT and community ownership is the long-term way forward for the club now. 

We know things certainly won't be easy on any of these points I mentioned and that you've highlighted as well, there will be ideas on what we should and could do from across the fanbase. They'll be things other clubs do or have done in the past that we can take for ourselves and they'll be things that clubs have never done before that we can hopefully try that tick a few boxes for us towards our overall aims. We'll get some things wrong and we'll try some things that won't work, not everything will be perfect all of the time.

We've gone from nothing to an almost 90% majority shareholding in the club in just over two years. That's just the start. I don't want to speak too much for others and speak on behalf of the club because I shouldn't, I know Chris Ross' career to date has been very focused on revenue generation so I'm sure he has plenty of ideas to add to the mix for the club. My aim from an MCT marketing and comms perspective is to make sure we're doing all we can to increase the membership, that's my sole focus. We need to be speaking to much more people, members and non-members, to find out their thoughts, why they have or haven't gotten involved, doing much more on a face-to-face basis at our home and away matches, and it was mentioned at the AGM as well about advertising in the Tele which I think is a great idea albeit obviously comes at a cost to us.

It's important we're asked these types of questions too and challenged on them. Drives us on to do an even better job.

[9 Strathblane Crescent]

2 hours ago, MCT Team said:

They'll be things other clubs do or have done in the past that we can take for ourselves and they'll be things that clubs have never done before that we can hopefully try that tick a few boxes for us towards our overall aims. We'll get some things wrong and we'll try some things that won't work, not everything will be perfect all of the time.

What are these "things" and when are we going to see them in action? It's alright talking about what you would do but until people see these "things" in action then we are not that much further forward. You have an army of volunteers, so I'm told, time to put them to some use and get these "things" up and running where possible. Fans want to see action and uncommitted fans still need to be convinced that MCT are going to make a difference compared to how the club has been run in the past. A lot are frustrated that not a lot appears to have changed, you need to change that perception if your to attract new members and lapsed fans.

[MCT Team]

1 hour ago, 9 Strathblane Crescent said:

What are these "things" and when are we going to see them in action? It's alright talking about what you would do but until people see these "things" in action then we are not that much further forward. You have an army of volunteers, so I'm told, time to put them to some use and get these "things" up and running where possible. Fans want to see action and uncommitted fans still need to be convinced that MCT are going to make a difference compared to how the club has been run in the past. A lot are frustrated that not a lot appears to have changed, you need to change that perception if your to attract new members and lapsed fans.

Of course I'd love to get to these things and put them into action. While we might have a group of dedicated volunteers, we're all split into different areas. For example, the current MCT marketing team is just me and I have a full time job at an English Premier League football club so I'm sure you'll understand that my immediate priority is to recruit some more bodies on the MCT volunteering side to help me out with what we'd like to do to get engaging with members and potential future members.

As I mentioned too, Chris Ross is now running the club on a day to day basis and it's now his responsibility to oversee and put in place some of the changes being made on the club side of things. I'm sure he'd take the time to answer any questions you had as well on this. 

[capitanus]

13 minutes ago, MCT Team said:

Of course I'd love to get to these things and put them into action. While we might have a group of dedicated volunteers, we're all split into different areas. For example, the current MCT marketing team is just me and I have a full time job at an English Premier League football club so I'm sure you'll understand that my immediate priority is to recruit some more bodies on the MCT volunteering side to help me out with what we'd like to do to get engaging with members and potential future members.

As I mentioned too, Chris Ross is now running the club on a day to day basis and it's now his responsibility to oversee and put in place some of the changes being made on the club side of things. I'm sure he'd take the time to answer any questions you had as well on this. 

That kinda beats Hayfever being the ticket booth guy at *checks notes* Exeter City I suppose.  However, there is the potential for a conflict of interest if we meet your lot in Europe.  

[dunning1874]

Takeover is complete!

[MCT Team]

Sorry I couldn’t reveal sooner, strict embargo!

Now the hard work properly begins! Thanks to all of you for your patience. 

[port-ton]

Cracking news! I've always wanted to be part owner of a shepherds hut. 

[Cappiecat 1.2]

Dear members,

 

We've done it! 

 

The deal is agreed, documents have been signed and Morton Club Together's takeover of Greenock Morton is confirmed.

 

Our football club is now officially community owned. You, our 850+ members, have got us to this point today and we can't thank you enough.

 

In just two years, from a standing start, we've gone from nothing to a 15% shareholding to now owning just under 90% of the shares in the club. Today's announcement marks that incredible journey and the contributions you've all made along the way, whether financial, time or just by supporting us and wishing us well along the way. 

 

Many of you bought into Graham McLennan's original vision for MCT and he had this message for the members.

 

“Since launch day, MCT has been about bringing people together.

 

Without our fellow MCT members and the ongoing efforts and support of so many people inside and outside MCT, the change already delivered at Morton and the opportunities created to continue to move Morton forward, would simply not be possible.

 

I will never stop being humbled, amazed and thankful to every single person who continues to come forward to support and help MCT and Morton.

 

We are all in this equally and together we will continue to work hard, openly and respectfully, as we all share a love for Morton and the community within which it operates, and always will.

 

We could say that we are now just arriving at the starting line of a new era, with an exciting journey ahead. Of course there are huge challenges to be addressed as we strive to achieve the best Morton possible, and power in people numbers has never been so important. By sticking together and continuing to welcome new members into MCT, I am confident that what Morton will achieve is potentially incredible.”

 

Fellow club and MCT board member, Gordon Ritchie, said:

 

“It has been a long road to achieve a result that met the needs of both parties - community ownership of Morton while protecting the future of Cappielow. We are delighted that MCT has come so far in its 30 months of existence. 

 

“As complex as the takeover has been, we are fully aware that the future management of the club will be equally challenging, but we are looking forward to moving Morton forward. We are grateful to every member of MCT who has supported us on this journey.”

 

The takeover, of course, sees Golden Casket end their relationship with the club. Outgoing chairman, Crawford Rae, wanted to share this with the club's fans.

 

"Graham McLennan founded MCT and put together a group of amazing people who between them have a huge wealth of experience. There is always strength in numbers but far greater strength is achieved with a collective goodwill which MCT delivers in abundance.

 

There is no better legacy for the Rae family than to afford the fans the opportunity of community ownership which is why we decided to gift MCT our majority shareholding as opposed to selling to a third party. The vision that MCT displayed to our family convinced us that community ownership was the best option for the future success of Greenock Morton Football Club and the right time for us to step aside.

 

The last 20 years has been a rollercoaster of emotions for every member of the Rae family, we have met some great characters and made many good friends along the way. We could not have done any of this without the undying support of the Morton fans who have been the backbone of our team. For their contribution we will be eternally grateful."

 

Stewart Farmer and Graham Barr have joined previous Greenock Morton Football Club board members Graham McLennan and Gordon Ritchie as the MCT representatives on the newly appointed club board. Nick Robinson and Alex Gray remain on the club board, providing experience and continuity. 

 

Again, we wanted to thank you all for your support and patience in us to get this deal over the line.

 

Saturday will mark our first official game as a community owned club, and it would be great to see many of you at Cappielow for the visit of Arbroath on Saturday to celebrate the start of this new chapter in the club's history.

 

If you have any questions at all, please do email communications@mortonclubtogether.co.uk

 

Thanks,

 

MCT Comms Team

[TRVMP]

Good stuff. The 30 month thing does put it nicely into perspective. No matter how you slice it, it's impressive. 

[DreamOakTree]

Great news! Well done to all concerned for the determination to push the deal through. Here’s hoping the positivity rubs off on the team and we start with a win on Saturday!