Morton Club Together Updates

[MCT Team]

3 hours ago, 9 Strathblane Crescent said:

Can someone from MCT explain what the ownership of club and ground now looks like under the new agreement? If the ground has been protected under this new agreement if, god forbid, the club runs into financial difficulty how does that work from a legal standpoint?

Is the ground being held by a separate company or does ownership of the ground now fall to MCT?

If so have we effectively separated the ground from the football club i.e. GMFC no longer own Cappielow?

That being the case does this dilute the value of shares in Morton Football Club given it no longer owns its only asset, its only worth being its registration with the SFA?

If the above is correct then it would be incumbent of someone to explain this to the 10% of GMFC shareholders who have been kept pretty much in the dark and should be approached to join MCT which would be to their benefit.

Got an answer for you which you can see below that hopefully explains everything you've asked.

The new company structure consists of three linked limited companies. A limited company is treated as a separate legal entity, and so although the three companies are linked, they are still three separate bodies.

The parent company is MCT Ltd - the same company that members have been contributing to. There is now a new mid-level limited company, which owns the stadium. This property company is 100% owned by MCT. The third company is Greenock Morton Football Club Ltd. That company owns the SFA and League registration and membership. 

Under this system, if the football club runs into financial difficulties, any creditors or administrator cannot get their hands on the stadium, as it is not an asset of the club. 

As a result, GMFC Ltd no longer owns Cappielow. However, it did not (from a practical point of view) own Cappielow before the takeover. At that point, although the club held title to the stadium, there were securities in place for the club debts which meant that, effectively, Golden Casket controlled the stadium. Currently, the stadium is owned by the membership of MCT.

The value of the remaining 10% of shares in Morton should not be significantly affected by the deal. It is true that they no longer own a share of Cappielow, but the write off of club debts is equal to or greater than the value of the stadium. As a result, the club’s balance sheet will have lost approx £2m in debt from one side and a £2m asset from the other. The overall value of the club has probably increased slightly (a £2m debt never looks good on a balance sheet), but the value of each share is so small that in practical terms there should be no real difference to the value of each share.

It is our intention to provide existing shareholders in the club with a full written resolution of the movements at the club as soon as we receive it from our solicitors. We anticipate that this will be circulated within the next few weeks.

[9 Strathblane Crescent]

18 minutes ago, MCT Team said:

Got an answer for you which you can see below that hopefully explains everything you've asked.

The new company structure consists of three linked limited companies. A limited company is treated as a separate legal entity, and so although the three companies are linked, they are still three separate bodies.

The parent company is MCT Ltd - the same company that members have been contributing to. There is now a new mid-level limited company, which owns the stadium. This property company is 100% owned by MCT. The third company is Greenock Morton Football Club Ltd. That company owns the SFA and League registration and membership. 

Under this system, if the football club runs into financial difficulties, any creditors or administrator cannot get their hands on the stadium, as it is not an asset of the club. 

As a result, GMFC Ltd no longer owns Cappielow. However, it did not (from a practical point of view) own Cappielow before the takeover. At that point, although the club held title to the stadium, there were securities in place for the club debts which meant that, effectively, Golden Casket controlled the stadium. Currently, the stadium is owned by the membership of MCT.

The value of the remaining 10% of shares in Morton should not be significantly affected by the deal. It is true that they no longer own a share of Cappielow, but the write off of club debts is equal to or greater than the value of the stadium. As a result, the club’s balance sheet will have lost approx £2m in debt from one side and a £2m asset from the other. The overall value of the club has probably increased slightly (a £2m debt never looks good on a balance sheet), but the value of each share is so small that in practical terms there should be no real difference to the value of each share.

It is our intention to provide existing shareholders in the club with a full written resolution of the movements at the club as soon as we receive it from our solicitors. We anticipate that this will be circulated within the next few weeks.

Thanks for that, I'm assuming that in time that Companies House will be updated with all the relevant detail concerning the three companies?

[MCT Team]

18 minutes ago, 9 Strathblane Crescent said:

Thanks for that, I'm assuming that in time that Companies House will be updated with all the relevant detail concerning the three companies?

It certainly will be

[MCT Team]

We've emailed round members and posted on our social channels that we'll be stopping the weekly updates now the takeover has gone through.

As and when we've got things to share we'll be doing that. Still here and on email at communications@mortonclubtogether.co.uk for any questions anyone has at any time.

[MCT Team]

In case you haven’t spotted this yet on the SLO’s social accounts, the club is arranging a Q&A session with the new GMFC board. It’ll be recorded and put out across club channels. There’s certainly appetite for a live, in-person event so I’m taking this as an action to make sure our first MCT event gives fans and members that opportunity to attend. 

If you have any questions you’d like to ask the club board, don’t hesitate to ask them directly to the SLO or ask them here and I’ll pass them over to him. 

[vikingTON]

On 10/8/2021 at 4:04 PM, MCT Team said:

We've emailed round members and posted on our social channels that we'll be stopping the weekly updates now the takeover has gone through.

As and when we've got things to share we'll be doing that. Still here and on email at communications@mortonclubtogether.co.uk for any questions anyone has at any time.

I have to say I don't understand why that decision has been taken. Unless the idea is that the club will be taking over the role of regular communication, it seems to me that MCT should still keep its members in the loop on a regular basis. Particularly if there is an ongoing drive for new subscribers to join as well as the (arguably tougher) task of convincing people to let their DDs roll over and not to chuck it.

The issue I have with an ad hoc communication strategy is that it is easy to let things slide when people are busy and there is no fixed deadline in place. This then snowballs and suddenly you have rumours growing arms and legs that wouldn't have arisen in the first place with effective communication - followed by an ad hoc rebuttal from MCT or the club anyway. We've already seen that play out a few times over the summer.

I appreciate that providing regular updates is hard and/or an annoying use of time, but simply scaling back the schedule of updates to a fortnight or even every month - and to view them as a chance to pitch what changes are being made and why they matter - seems a much more sensible response to that pressure. I also appreciate the engagement with the forum but the reality is that this is only a fraction of the fanbase and probably MCT's membership as well.

If GMFC will be taking up that task of regular engagement from now on then great, but I don't think now is the time to appear to be disengaging with the fanbase in any way whatsoever. Getting and keeping the fanbase on board through this difficult campaign is still a serious obstacle that this ownership model has to overcome in order to simply function, never mind flourish. 

 

[MCT Team]

11 hours ago, vikingTON said:

I have to say I don't understand why that decision has been taken. Unless the idea is that the club will be taking over the role of regular communication, it seems to me that MCT should still keep its members in the loop on a regular basis. Particularly if there is an ongoing drive for new subscribers to join as well as the (arguably tougher) task of convincing people to let their DDs roll over and not to chuck it.

The issue I have with an ad hoc communication strategy is that it is easy to let things slide when people are busy and there is no fixed deadline in place. This then snowballs and suddenly you have rumours growing arms and legs that wouldn't have arisen in the first place with effective communication - followed by an ad hoc rebuttal from MCT or the club anyway. We've already seen that play out a few times over the summer.

I appreciate that providing regular updates is hard and/or an annoying use of time, but simply scaling back the schedule of updates to a fortnight or even every month - and to view them as a chance to pitch what changes are being made and why they matter - seems a much more sensible response to that pressure. I also appreciate the engagement with the forum but the reality is that this is only a fraction of the fanbase and probably MCT's membership as well.

If GMFC will be taking up that task of regular engagement from now on then great, but I don't think now is the time to appear to be disengaging with the fanbase in any way whatsoever. Getting and keeping the fanbase on board through this difficult campaign is still a serious obstacle that this ownership model has to overcome in order to simply function, never mind flourish. 

 

Thanks for the really valuable feedback @vikingTON

It’s definitely about finding that right balance between what the club is doing or planning to do, coupled with what we then do and whether we over-communicate and annoy some people versus providing something for those that want updates even when not a lot is happening. While the regular updates were appreciated by a lot of members, we got some responses from some who didn’t want to be updated that regularly believe it or not. 

The intention isn’t to stop communicating, it’s just to not put something out on that strict weekly schedule. We’ll definitely have something to share from an MCT perspective in the next couple of weeks after a strategy session we held this week but there’s actions off the back of that that now need to happen to get us moving following all the recent changes. We’ve also got the club board Q&A coming soon too so from that high level perspective they’ll be things coming soon. 

But I do completely take your points on board and we’ll figure out something that works best to update members and fans. 

[The Bewilderedbeast]

Maybe a small thing, but we've heard about more people subscribing to MCT since the take over was finalised. However, the MCT website still shows the membership at 850 and has done since long before the finalisation.

There could be people out there who may well be thinking of joining and could be encouraged by seeing the membership rising.

Doesn't need to be done every day, maybe once or twice a month.

[irnbru]

18 hours ago, vikingTON said:

I have to say I don't understand why that decision has been taken. Unless the idea is that the club will be taking over the role of regular communication, it seems to me that MCT should still keep its members in the loop on a regular basis. Particularly if there is an ongoing drive for new subscribers to join as well as the (arguably tougher) task of convincing people to let their DDs roll over and not to chuck it.

The issue I have with an ad hoc communication strategy is that it is easy to let things slide when people are busy and there is no fixed deadline in place. This then snowballs and suddenly you have rumours growing arms and legs that wouldn't have arisen in the first place with effective communication - followed by an ad hoc rebuttal from MCT or the club anyway. We've already seen that play out a few times over the summer.

I appreciate that providing regular updates is hard and/or an annoying use of time, but simply scaling back the schedule of updates to a fortnight or even every month - and to view them as a chance to pitch what changes are being made and why they matter - seems a much more sensible response to that pressure. I also appreciate the engagement with the forum but the reality is that this is only a fraction of the fanbase and probably MCT's membership as well.

If GMFC will be taking up that task of regular engagement from now on then great, but I don't think now is the time to appear to be disengaging with the fanbase in any way whatsoever. Getting and keeping the fanbase on board through this difficult campaign is still a serious obstacle that this ownership model has to overcome in order to simply function, never mind flourish. 

 

Agree with this. A fortnightly update with a link to a feedback form to encourage members to contribute shouldn't be a big ask. 

Leaving it ad-hoc means that it's up to the comms person to decide what's important or not. All members might be interested in different things. 

Not sure what you use to email but having an unsubscribe option for different categories of mail could be an options, i.e. to weekly updates, events, all. 

6 hours ago, MCT Team said:

Thanks for the really valuable feedback @vikingTON

It’s definitely about finding that right balance between what the club is doing or planning to do, coupled with what we then do and whether we over-communicate and annoy some people versus providing something for those that want updates even when not a lot is happening. While the regular updates were appreciated by a lot of members, we got some responses from some who didn’t want to be updated that regularly believe it or not. 

The intention isn’t to stop communicating, it’s just to not put something out on that strict weekly schedule. We’ll definitely have something to share from an MCT perspective in the next couple of weeks after a strategy session we held this week but there’s actions off the back of that that now need to happen to get us moving following all the recent changes. We’ve also got the club board Q&A coming soon too so from that high level perspective they’ll be things coming soon. 

But I do completely take your points on board and we’ll figure out something that works best to update members and fans. 

Is there a reason there's not been any engagement with members ahead of a strategy session? Surely there needs to be input from everyone and not just the board. 

Edited October 15, 2021 by irnbru

[Madton]

No post match interview with Gus after Montrose, no pre match with Gus on Inverness. New owners, same old shite.

Thought half the new board were Marketing experts??

[MCT Team]

7 hours ago, The Bewilderedbeast said:

Maybe a small thing, but we've heard about more people subscribing to MCT since the take over was finalised. However, the MCT website still shows the membership at 850 and has done since long before the finalisation.

There could be people out there who may well be thinking of joining and could be encouraged by seeing the membership rising.

Doesn't need to be done every day, maybe once or twice a month.

An oversight following the switchover in individuals involved and the capabilities of the website. I've now been able to update it. Almost hitting 900

5 hours ago, irnbru said:

Agree with this. A fortnightly update with a link to a feedback form to encourage members to contribute shouldn't be a big ask. 

Leaving it ad-hoc means that it's up to the comms person to decide what's important or not. All members might be interested in different things. 

Not sure what you use to email but having an unsubscribe option for different categories of mail could be an options, i.e. to weekly updates, events, all. 

Is there a reason there's not been any engagement with members ahead of a strategy session? Surely there needs to be input from everyone and not just the board. 

One of the agreed actions discussed last night was bringing back the feedback loop that members can input into and we'll take to the club for answers on, so that's certainly on the radar. 

I'll explore whether that option is available on our email platform, thanks for that.

On your last point, it was an initial strategy session that we'll be sharing the output of with members once we've collated everything. At that stage, just like with comms around the deal and the community ownership prospectus produced previously, it'll be open for members to digest and provide any feedback on. 

24 minutes ago, Madton said:

No post match interview with Gus after Montrose, no pre match with Gus on Inverness. New owners, same old shite.

Thought half the new board were Marketing experts??

There has been pre and post-match interviews going out across the season so far, I'm not sure why there hasn't been anything this week unfortunately. This is a good example of the type of thing that can input into that feedback loop when it's reinstated. I'll raise this with the club and see why it hasn't been the case this week. 

[irnbru]

2 hours ago, MCT Team said:

An oversight following the switchover in individuals involved and the capabilities of the website. I've now been able to update it. Almost hitting 900

One of the agreed actions discussed last night was bringing back the feedback loop that members can input into and we'll take to the club for answers on, so that's certainly on the radar. 

I'll explore whether that option is available on our email platform, thanks for that.

On your last point, it was an initial strategy session that we'll be sharing the output of with members once we've collated everything. At that stage, just like with comms around the deal and the community ownership prospectus produced previously, it'll be open for members to digest and provide any feedback on. 

There has been pre and post-match interviews going out across the season so far, I'm not sure why there hasn't been anything this week unfortunately. This is a good example of the type of thing that can input into that feedback loop when it's reinstated. I'll raise this with the club and see why it hasn't been the case this week. 

The problem is sharing with members isn't community or fans being involved. It's a group doing stuff. It's being told, not contributing. There needs to be more engagement all of the time. Otherwise you've got animal farm in football form. 

[irnbru]

4 hours ago, MCT Team said:

 

One of the agreed actions discussed last night was bringing back the feedback loop that members can input into and we'll take to the club for answers on, so that's certainly on the radar. 

 

Also, why are we taking stuff to the club to answer? Aren't we all supposed to be the club and part of the same thing? Everything that's been said gives the impression that there's a hierarchy with people in an ivory tower who think it's fan funded rather than fan controlled. 

[MCT Team]

7 hours ago, irnbru said:

The problem is sharing with members isn't community or fans being involved. It's a group doing stuff. It's being told, not contributing. There needs to be more engagement all of the time. Otherwise you've got animal farm in football form. 

Of course we want more member involvement, but there’s also an element of the board has been voted by the members and there will be aspects where there isn’t always member involvement with decisions. If members believe there’s things missing in our plans going forward then that will be addressed and fed into it, absolutely. That’s where the member involvement comes in here in this example, just at a different stage of the process. The board has kickstarted the discussion and then taking that to members. 

5 hours ago, irnbru said:

Also, why are we taking stuff to the club to answer? Aren't we all supposed to be the club and part of the same thing? Everything that's been said gives the impression that there's a hierarchy with people in an ivory tower who think it's fan funded rather than fan controlled. 

This is one of the key points that needs to be clarified and explained much more going forward. MCT and the club aren’t one and the same, they’re separate entities. The club is community owned but not community run. MCT members own the club, there’s a majority of MCT representatives on the club board but it’s not these individuals who run the club on a daily basis. There’s staff at the club who do, led by the General Manager.

If MCT members and fans see things happening or not happening that they want to raise, MCT can take this to the club to find out why it is or isn’t happening. 

[irnbru]

6 hours ago, MCT Team said:

Of course we want more member involvement, but there’s also an element of the board has been voted by the members and there will be aspects where there isn’t always member involvement with decisions. If members believe there’s things missing in our plans going forward then that will be addressed and fed into it, absolutely. That’s where the member involvement comes in here in this example, just at a different stage of the process. The board has kickstarted the discussion and then taking that to members. 

This is one of the key points that needs to be clarified and explained much more going forward. MCT and the club aren’t one and the same, they’re separate entities. The club is community owned but not community run. MCT members own the club, there’s a majority of MCT representatives on the club board but it’s not these individuals who run the club on a daily basis. There’s staff at the club who do, led by the General Manager.

If MCT members and fans see things happening or not happening that they want to raise, MCT can take this to the club to find out why it is or isn’t happening. 

I get it's not community run on a day to day basis and don't expect it to be but if there's not any proactive engagement with fans and members and it's a case of 'let us know if you see anything you don't like' then it's no change from how things were run before. The community needs to be kept involved for this to be a success. 

[TONofmemories]

I see no change from before, tbh. Very much reactive like the old regime as opposed to proactive. 

[Toby]

On 10/14/2021 at 9:17 AM, MCT Team said:

In case you haven’t spotted this yet on the SLO’s social accounts, the club is arranging a Q&A session with the new GMFC board. It’ll be recorded and put out across club channels. There’s certainly appetite for a live, in-person event so I’m taking this as an action to make sure our first MCT event gives fans and members that opportunity to attend. 

If you have any questions you’d like to ask the club board, don’t hesitate to ask them directly to the SLO or ask them here and I’ll pass them over to him. 

This sending questions to the SLO that can be vetted, and replied to with a scripted answer is, quite frankly, a load of shite. You know it, I know it, and everyone else knows it.

There are some very important questions that haven’t been answered and are continuing to be blanked, and until such time as they are answered honestly, I’m afraid it’ll become harder and harder to trust the consortium that is spending the fans’ money to run their football club.

When will someone accept the responsibility for handing Gus a two year deal after scraping survival last season?

Who signed off the signing of a registered sex offender?

What risk assessments and checks were put in place before signing said sex offender?

Having presumably conducted the necessary checks, what conclusions were reached in order to be sure that said sex offender doesn’t pose a risk to anyone at Cappielow or in the wider community?

When will a certain board member address the allegations about his improper conduct at Links Park in May?

These questions won’t go away, but under this format of sending them to the SLO to be ignored, they’ll only bubble away, creating yet more distrust between the consortium and those who are putting their money in every month to allow these guys to live the dream.

[irnbru]

2 hours ago, TONofmemories said:

I see no change from before, tbh. Very much reactive like the old regime as opposed to proactive. 

As far as I can see there's been 2 interviews with anyone from behind the scenes totalling 5 minutes from the last 3 months (one from Graham Barr and one from Chris Ross). 

Surely it wouldn't be too much for the others to do quick interviews to discuss their roles so people are familiar with who they are and to have regular updates from someone on what's happening. 

As it stands it's all a bit faceless with little info coming which leads to distrust and rumours so something as simple as this would help everyone. 

I can see Chris has been posting match interviews on the website which isn't a very good use of his already limited time to run a club. 

[TONofmemories]

From what i gather the folk behind the scenes know absolutely nothing about running a football club, or football in general which is never going to bode well. Happy to be shown otherwise. 

The GM role was always going to be a hard task and the reality is hes probably doubling up on things like posting on the website which shouldnt really be under his remit. Be surprised if he hangs about for any period of time tbh, but that's just my own opinion. 

New era has a massive doom and gloom feeling about it. Folk aren't bothering, be it to attend matches or buy streams. It's over to MCT to fix that. 

They set the bar by awarding a 2 year deal to a guy that just about scraped through playoffs vs lower league opposition. 

[Guest capitanus]

5 hours ago, TONofmemories said:

From what i gather the folk behind the scenes know absolutely nothing about running a football club, or football in general which is never going to bode well. Happy to be shown otherwise. 

The GM role was always going to be a hard task and the reality is hes probably doubling up on things like posting on the website which shouldnt really be under his remit. Be surprised if he hangs about for any period of time tbh, but that's just my own opinion. 

New era has a massive doom and gloom feeling about it. Folk aren't bothering, be it to attend matches or buy streams. It's over to MCT to fix that. 

They set the bar by awarding a 2 year deal to a guy that just about scraped through playoffs vs lower league opposition. 

Gus McPherson has a proven track record of managing at this level, and his achievements in the game are respectable.  He may not be a universally popular choice, but a case can at least be argued for him. However, they set a very low bar by recruiting a convicted sex offender. 

Edit to add:  This has happened without our permission. They will do anything other than acknowledge that one.

Edited October 19, 2021 by capitanus