Commercial Activity

[EanieMeany]

1 hour ago, bob_the_builder said:

Why?  Why is it such a stretch to simply believe a lower half, fan owned Championship Club can't stretch it's budget to up an employees wage during a cost of living crisis and said employee rightly just exercises his right to go somewhere else for a better wage.

Seeing as the Imrie rumours turned out to absolute pish and the club has actually made half decent improvements in a lot of areas of the last year I can't understand why we continue to have the incessant knicker soaking from the fan base.

Good luck to Chris in all his future endeavours, he did a good job while he was here!

Not paying a decent wage to a CEO is something that raised plenty of eyebrows on here at the time the job was advertised, and with good reason.

Anyway, the simple fact is that paying a fairly low wage is not going to work particularly well if it means somebody is going to leave after just over 6 months in the job and I think it would wise for the board to review the finances and try to increase the salary for the CEO position. It's probably unlikely that there's many particularly great candidates available for the wage on offer and for the size of the job involved, and there's probably also not a huge number of people in Ross' position, i.e. somebody with a bit of experience in other roles and ready to move into that kind of position for the first time, which means the chances of getting somebody good are reduced and if we do, they'll probably not hang about long either.

There's been a turnaround in the club's performance for sure, but at this point it's still just about getting the basics in place after decades of neglect. It's not going to be easy at all to move things forward if we're not able to attract or hold on to people who are up to the job.

Edited May 12, 2022 by EanieMeany

[Jamie_M]

45 minutes ago, EanieMeany said:

Not paying a decent wage to a CEO is something that raised plenty of eyebrows on here at the time the job was advertised, and with good reason.

Anyway, the simple fact is that paying a fairly low wage is not going to work particularly well if it means somebody is going to leave after just over 6 months in the job and I think it would wise for the board to review the finances and try to increase the salary for the CEO position. It's probably unlikely that there's many particularly great candidates available for the wage on offer and for the size of the job involved, and there's probably also not a huge number of people in Ross' position, i.e. somebody with a bit of experience in other roles and ready to move into that kind of position for the first time, which means the chances of getting somebody good are reduced and if we do, they'll probably not hang about long either.

There's been a turnaround in the club's performance for sure, but at this point it's still just about getting the basics in place after decades of neglect. It's not going to be easy at all to move things forward if we're not able to attract or hold on to people who are up to the job.

So now you think it IS just about the financial package and moving on to something better rather than something more sinister like you said before?

[bob_the_builder]

49 minutes ago, EanieMeany said:

Not paying a decent wage to a CEO is something that raised plenty of eyebrows on here at the time the job was advertised, and with good reason.

Anyway, the simple fact is that paying a fairly low wage is not going to work particularly well if it means somebody is going to leave after just over 6 months in the job and I think it would wise for the board to review the finances and try to increase the salary for the CEO position. It's probably unlikely that there's many particularly great candidates available for the wage on offer and for the size of the job involved, and there's probably also not a huge number of people in Ross' position, i.e. somebody with a bit of experience in other roles and ready to move into that kind of position for the first time, which means the chances of getting somebody good are reduced and if we do, they'll probably not hang about long either.

There's been a turnaround in the club's performance for sure, but at this point it's still just about getting the basics in place after decades of neglect. It's not going to be easy at all to move things forward if we're not able to attract or hold on to people who are up to the job.

But wages weren't the issue suggested by you or the poster you quoted.  The club being "a shambles" is what you feared the issue was.  So I ask again why?  Why do you think, currently as things stand, Chris left because he thinks the club is a shambles?  Besides the well documented issues with the ticketing website (which is pretty much out of the clubs control) what has occurred recently that points to a shambles within Morton.

I disagree slightly on the wages issue too.  If we managed to get Chris in on those wages then the salary must be in some way appealing.  I'm pretty certain a club like Morton with no big financial backer will constantly be reviewing finances but if there's simply no room to manoeuvre in terms of offering an increase then of course there's an issue with skill retention.  Sadly, football is by far not the only industry facing these challenges.  My own industry, the railway, is currently struggling with this just now thanks to the pandemic.

[gmfc_craig]

2 hours ago, gmfc_craig said:

gmfctickets website currently under maintanence and should be back up and running by 2pm. Hopefully they are sorting the issues mentioned above.

Website back up and running but still have same issue! Unbelievable! 

[port-ton]

17 minutes ago, bob_the_builder said:

But wages weren't the issue suggested by you or the poster you quoted.  The club being "a shambles" is what you feared the issue was.  So I ask again why?  Why do you think, currently as things stand, Chris left because he thinks the club is a shambles?  Besides the well documented issues with the ticketing website (which is pretty much out of the clubs control) what has occurred recently that points to a shambles within Morton.

I disagree slightly on the wages issue too.  If we managed to get Chris in on those wages then the salary must be in some way appealing.  I'm pretty certain a club like Morton with no big financial backer will constantly be reviewing finances but if there's simply no room to manoeuvre in terms of offering an increase then of course there's an issue with skill retention.  Sadly, football is by far not the only industry facing these challenges.  My own industry, the railway, is currently struggling with this just now thanks to the pandemic.

Agree with most of this but Chris was brought in under a lesser role and promoted from within to the position of CEO and left in less than a year. Would we receive any viable candidates for an external advertisement for a CEO role on the same wages? I don't know but I'm not convinced we would. 

I do think the club is in a hard place though as if the money isn't there then the money isn't there and if that's the wage bracket they're working in for a CEO then we will get what we pay for most likely. If his replacement brings as much to the table as Chris did in his short time then I'll be happy. 

[EanieMeany]

1 hour ago, Jamie_M said:

So now you think it IS just about the financial package and moving on to something better rather than something more sinister like you said before?

I don't think the club is a shambles, no, but I do think it was unlikely that Chris was going to be here long one way or the other especially with the low wage on offer. I should have highlighted that part in the quote, so apologies for any confusion from that.

As it is though, the club may not be a shambles but it's not in the greatest position either, although I don't necessarily think that that will be why Chris has moved on, apart from that  it's not a great stretch to think that there will be more appealing opportunities available for anyone who ticks all the boxes as a standout candidate. Changing the CEO a couple of times a year is not a strategy that's likely to lend itself particularly well to transforming the fortunes of a stagnant football club, although one would assume there will be a clear remit from the board about what they expect the person in the job to be achieving.

I think there's an awful lot of questions about the viability of the ownership model and whether it's going to be capable of anything other than treading water at least in its current form, and if no obvious answers appear to those questions over the coming months then the question of how secure is the MCT project as a source of funding may present itself. Are people going to keep paying up for more of the same on top of expensive season tickets? This is a big, big summer for the club and a lot rests on what happens in the near future.

Edited May 12, 2022 by EanieMeany

[HeidTheBaw]

3 hours ago, gmfc_craig said:

gmfctickets website currently under maintanence and should be back up and running by 2pm. Hopefully they are sorting the issues mentioned above.

Thanks Craig, will try again shortly 

[vikingTON]

1 hour ago, EanieMeany said:

 

I think there's an awful lot of questions about the viability of the ownership model and whether it's going to be capable of anything other than treading water at least in its current form, and if no obvious answers appear to those questions over the coming months then the question of how secure is the MCT project as a source of funding may present itself. Are people going to keep paying up for more of the same on top of expensive season tickets? This is a big, big summer for the club and a lot rests on what happens in the near future.

What is questionable about the viability of the ownership model? It is owned by a fans' organisation and there are no debts beholden to anyone.

There are certainly valid questions about the viability of full-time football and about the viability of a club business model that so heavily relies on matchday revenue, but those are club issues, not ownership issues. They were there when GC was busy writing indefinite and near club-killing IOUs to itself (which curiously received a fraction of the concern from the fanbase in any given season than the current regime), and they'll still be there if the mythical, dreamboat outside investor rocks up at Cappielow tomorrow as well. 

[TaunTon]

29 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

What is questionable about the viability of the ownership model? It is owned by a fans' organisation and there are no debts beholden to anyone.

There are certainly valid questions about the viability of full-time football and about the viability of a club business model that so heavily relies on matchday revenue, but those are club issues, not ownership issues. They were there when GC was busy writing indefinite and near club-killing IOUs to itself (which curiously received a fraction of the concern from the fanbase in any given season than the current regime), and they'll still be there if the mythical, dreamboat outside investor rocks up at Cappielow tomorrow as well. 

We watched the Rae's run our club to the point of irrelevance with barely a word being spoken by half the fan base. Now because there are questions about how tough things are we are hearing that the Rae model might have been a better idea. 

This is going to be hard and anyone who thought it was going to be a stroll and that mistakes and missteps would never happen need to adjust their expectations. 

[dunning1874]

Club have confirmed that streaming will continue for overseas viewers only, with full matches available the next day for anyone in the UK.

Season tickets will include access to both:

https://www.gmfc.net/tontv-livestream-update/

[Alibi]

What's an "international" season ticket?  Is that just a matter of using a VPN or do you have to provide an overseas address?  And can you use such a thing at the turnstiles if you are "visiting" Scotland?

Edited May 13, 2022 by Alibi

[port-ton]

Very Perfect News. 

[Jamie_M]

43 minutes ago, Alibi said:

What's an "international" season ticket?  Is that just a matter of using a VPN or do you have to provide an overseas address?  And can you use such a thing at the turnstiles if you are "visiting" Scotland?

Poorly worded. They clearly just mean season ticket holders who are overseas rather than meaning there is a specific thing as an 'International season Ticket'.

 

Production will be different so still likely to be scaled back (no Gerry and Andy).

Edited May 13, 2022 by Jamie_M

[Ton in Shawlands]

7 attempts & counting to pay to renew a season ticket so far....starting to think I'll end up wasting a Saturday morning catching a train from Glasgow to get to Smiths for this.

[Madton]

1 hour ago, Ton in Shawlands said:

7 attempts & counting to pay to renew a season ticket so far....starting to think I'll end up wasting a Saturday morning catching a train from Glasgow to get to Smiths for this.

Can you not just phone up and do it over the phone with Brendan?

That's what I've done last few years.

[Ton in Shawlands]

Madton,

During Cappielows office hours I'm at work in an open plan office, so no privacy & where private calls aren't allowed.

My best bet is Smiths.

[vikingTON]

4 hours ago, Madton said:

Can you not just phone up and do it over the phone with Brendan?

That's what I've done last few years.

Can GMFC not just have a fit for purpose website to deal with one of their largest sources of income with minimum fuss - what with it not being 1995 anymore? One that would also make better use of Brendan's time than having to duplicate the paperwork and sort out every single nick made by the club's process in the first place? 

 

 

[Madton]

2 hours ago, vikingTON said:

Can GMFC not just have a fit for purpose website to deal with one of their largest sources of income with minimum fuss - what with it not being 1995 anymore? One that would also make better use of Brendan's time than having to duplicate the paperwork and sort out every single nick made by the club's process in the first place? 

 

 

Not arguing with that, it's a shambles.

Just making the TiS aware you can renew over the phone, saving a trip to Smiths.

[TONofmemories]

Only 150 season tickets punted. Really shit numbers. 2 weeks to secure. Hopefully come pay week we shift a few more.

[vikingTON]

16 minutes ago, TONofmemories said:

Only 150 season tickets punted. Really shit numbers. 2 weeks to secure. Hopefully come pay week we shift a few more.

Compared to what benchmark? And two weeks to secure... what exactly?

The club are right to starting the ST drive as early as possible in the close season. This time last year we had only just secured our league status though, and there's no great incentive for people to rush into getting one now.