Golden casket announce 2m loss

[Cet Homme Charmant]

Despite making a 460K operating profit, GC announced a 2m pound loss due writing off our loans. Of course, there were loans made by Dougie in the first place, but I think we should acknowledge that Crawford did the right thing by his auld fella, and give him some credit where it's due. 

https://www.heraldscotland.com/business_hq/23228483.greenock-morton-football-club-golden-casket-red-write-off/

 

[bob_the_builder]

While I’ll alway appreciate Douglas’ role in saving the club, I’m not going to extend much more appreciation to the Rae’s for writing off money that was essentially wasted after getting back to Div 1 (the long way) and were never in any danger of getting back without killing the club.

In writing that money off there will probably be substantial tax benefits so little will be paid on that 460k profit 

[Cet Homme Charmant]

Yeah, of course it was Dougie who ran up the debt in the first place, so you could legitimately argue that Crawford had a moral duty to write it off. But he obviously didn't have a legal duty to do so, and if he was a different guy he could easily have played hard-ball that could have even threatened our existence. But he chose to do the right thing by the club and the memory of his auld fella by writing off the dept and handing over Cappielow. Not everyone would have done so, though, and I think we should acknowledge that.

The 2m debt works out at an average of just over 100k per year, for the 18 years or so under Dougie's ownership. Not a negligible sum by any means, but probably only about 10% of our total annual turn-over (that's just a guess, could be wrong). But if you take into account that much if not all of these loans over the years were spunked away on lucrative contracts for jobbers, it does suggest that with more diligent budget management, we should be able to be financially viable without such loans. Especially if the commercial side generates more income to compensate for the shortfall, which does seem to be the case.

[bob_the_builder]

Maybe I’m being a bit harsh but yes looking back, the process of handing things over to MCT could’ve been harder than it needed to be so we should be happy for that.
Also, when I say the Raes, I should clarify I’m talking more of the extended family beyond Crawford.  I like to believe that Crawford wanted to achieve what his father couldn’t but had that opportunity taken away by others on GC’s board who had probably had enough of bankrolling Morton.

We shouldn’t also forget that it took a fair bit of negotiating before they agreed to hand Cappielow over too! Their original intention was to hang on to the ground which could’ve left us in a precarious situation if GC ever fell on hard times.

We also shouldn’t forget that Dougie was no mug looking to just waste his money.  GC most likely benefited not just from writing off those loans, but also from having Morton making losses every season and helping keep taxes on GC’s profit making side low.

It just riles me that so much money and potential was wasted over 2 decades when we are seeing now how relatively simple it is to run a football club well by MCT on a stringent budget 

[Cet Homme Charmant]

I think we have to bear in mind that Crawford is also responsible for GC and the 45 (presumably mostly local) people employed by them. And, I assume, any deal he came to with MCT would have to have been sanctioned by the GC Board. 

Of course we don't know the reason why the initial offer retained ownership of Cappielow with GC. Maybe it was, as Crawford claimed, to protect it from Administrators if the club was to fall into administration in the future. Or maybe it was to placate the GC Board. Who knows. But either way, in the end it was transferred to MCT, and he didn't have to do that. 

[HamCam]

If you look back in the accounts DDFR/the Raes wrote off significantly more than £2m. The most recent write off reflects what DDFR wanted/promised but you have to acknowledge there was no obligation on the family to comply with his wishes. Of course some of the money can be set against tax liabilities but to suggest this write off is anything other than a massive financial loss to the family is misguided. The frustrating issue for me is what a wasted opportunity. If DDFR had only been willing to entrust the running of the club to others rather than play football manager we should realistically have been in the top league.

[irnbru]

30 minutes ago, HamCam said:

If you look back in the accounts DDFR/the Raes wrote off significantly more than £2m. The most recent write off reflects what DDFR wanted/promised but you have acknowledge there was no obligation on the family to comply with his wishes. Of course some of the money can be set against tax liabilities but to suggest this write off is anything other than a massive financial loss to the family is misguided. The frustrating issue for me is what a wasted opportunity. If DDFR had only been willing to entrust the running of the club to others rather than play football manager we should realistically have been in the top league.

Aye, a lot of wasted money over the years. Although, to be fair, there was a lot of good times as well but looking back we should be in a better place with that type of backing. 

[vikingTON]

4 hours ago, irnbru said:

Aye, a lot of wasted money over the years. Although, to be fair, there was a lot of good times as well but looking back we should be in a better place with that type of backing. 

There really weren't, unless bottling promotions from the seaside leagues at Stranraer/Peterhead is your idea of good times. 

We managed one credible tilt at potential top flight football in 11 years, immediately before the taps started to get turned off and we got the 13/14 campaign as a result. That's the cost of not being even remotely ruthless enough with the players and above all the management who were not up to the required standard during the early years of the Rae era. 

[HamCam]

While it is over the top to describe the DDFR years as including "a lot of good times" we did have the odd moment. DFR providing the capital to avoid oblivion brought the support together, financing Alex Williams transfer gave some of the younger fans their first hero and the promotion with the win against Peterhead are good memories. Our problem is DDFR never built a sound business model to move forward it was one knee-jerk decision after another. 

[Cet Homme Charmant]

Yeah, I think it was Crawford himself who admitted that Dougie too often let his heart rule his head. I don't think anyone could doubt that everything he did was with the best of intentions, but the vast majority of his decisions and appointments were poor, to say the least. His biggest fault was his hubris, and inability to let others with more footballing knowledge make the big decisions. 

[vikingTON]

20 minutes ago, Cet Homme Charmant said:

 His biggest fault was his hubris, and inability to let others with more footballing knowledge make the big decisions. 

Jim McInally, Warren 'Iron Man' Hawke and Dossier Dave McKinnon were all guid Scottish fitba men, with an impressive depth of knowledge of the game based on their CVs alone. They were all charlatans in their own way though.

The real failing - and this is not a heart ruling the head move at all - was failing to plan a credible business model for the club. Rae believed that a midtable second tier Morton would be getting 4000 average gates by 'bringing a friend': there was no credible basis for this at all. Rae was a director at the club when were in just such a position for years and attendances were nowhere near that figure. There was no credible investment in other ways of generating revenue either - it was bring a friend or bust. 

While his intentions were mostly* benevolent, the conclusion of the Rae tenure is that a businessman owner proved to be incompetent outside of his specific wheelhouse. Nonsense forecasts and basic inefficiencies that wouldn't have lasted one week at Fort Matilda went on for ten years at Cappielow. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*The running up and writing off of losses up to the point where GC had flushed away any other significant shareholding - at which point the IOU book was set up instead - was a cynical and unnecessary assertion of total control IMO.  

[SassenachTon]

It doesn't matter how much £££££££££ gets thrown at a club. Without a top-notch manager who can motivate players to deliver week in/week out, without players who will respond to that leadership and deliver accordingly, without sound and cautious financial management across the board, without responsible and intelligent channelling of resources into the areas where it's needed most, without an 'on time/on budget' mindset stringently applied to everything club-related, without creative, imaginative and profitable commercial activity, without an 'everyone pulling on the same rope' culture from the very top down to the guy who volunteers to mop out the bogs, without proper engagement of the fan base etc. etc. etc ........................... it will all fail. Every single time. There are plenty of current examples out there as I write this - we all know exactly who they are - and we all know that the underwhelming pitch results are having fuck all to do with their bank balance.

The huge contribution from the Raes can't ever be understimated - and as Morton supporters, we owe them a considerable debt of gratitude. My sincere hope, however, is that the Dalrada involvement will be managed much more efficiently, professionally, cautiously, and most of all - productively. Taking the past few months as a yardstick - I'm confident that it will.

[TRVMP]

vT is 100% correct and when people say DDF's biggest "failing" was letting his heart rule his head they're doing the interview thing where they say their biggest weakness is their humbling sense of modesty. In reality while he obviously did love the club, his failure to properly blaze a trail for its future isn't a symptom of love but rather a symptom of neglect. If I say I love my pet dog but let it get obese and eventually die of bloat, you can't say my overfeeding it was because my heart ruled my head. You can say it's because for whatever reason I thought Rover and I above the basic requirements of healthy living. 

In other words his stepping in with the magic checkbook - with the full understanding that the money was owed from the club to the Rae family, by the way, and he's eminently quotable on that score - also isn't a sign of love but a sign of the dependent state he left the club in, one that's now very slowly being repaired only now that GC doesn't own the club. 

[quote]*The running up and writing off of losses up to the point where GC had flushed away any other significant shareholding - at which point the IOU book was set up instead - was a cynical and unnecessary assertion of total control IMO.  [/quote] 

Also 100% correct, and while it's appropriate to thank Crawford for seeing sense in the end, it's also permissible to ask what opportunities the club missed out on before MCT was formed due to that very rigid stance the Raes had for the better part of 15 years. Of course you can make the opposite case that by not having a fire sale we dodged a shyster or a Mileson. Either way, the fact that reality eventually intervened - against the wishes of several of Rae's acolytes in and around the club, mind you - should be treated *less* as something to be grateful for and *more* as something common sensical. They were never, ever getting "their" two mil back after the state they left the place in. 

[TRVMP]

2 hours ago, HamCam said:

While it is over the top to describe the DDFR years as including "a lot of good times" we did have the odd moment. DFR providing the capital to avoid oblivion brought the support together, financing Alex Williams transfer gave some of the younger fans their first hero and the promotion with the win against Peterhead are good memories. Our problem is DDFR never built a sound business model to move forward it was one knee-jerk decision after another. 

That's a fair point, though. I was lapsed between the late 90s and came back in 2002. Having Super Alex about really did bring a buzz to the place. Even John Maisano was - for the Third Division - a glamour player. 

[Cet Homme Charmant]

10 hours ago, vikingTON said:

Jim McInally, Warren 'Iron Man' Hawke and Dossier Dave McKinnon were all guid Scottish fitba men, with an impressive depth of knowledge of the game based on their CVs alone. They were all charlatans in their own way though.

The real failing - and this is not a heart ruling the head move at all - was failing to plan a credible business model for the club. Rae believed that a midtable second tier Morton would be getting 4000 average gates by 'bringing a friend': there was no credible basis for this at all. Rae was a director at the club when were in just such a position for years and attendances were nowhere near that figure. There was no credible investment in other ways of generating revenue either - it was bring a friend or bust. 

While his intentions were mostly* benevolent, the conclusion of the Rae tenure is that a businessman owner proved to be incompetent outside of his specific wheelhouse. Nonsense forecasts and basic inefficiencies that wouldn't have lasted one week at Fort Matilda went on for ten years at Cappielow. 

Yeah, I think that's a fair assessment.

While Dougie should certainly have left a lot of the footballing decisions to others more qualified, those he appointed who could make make these decisions were equally inept as he was. This, coupled with no clear business plan, led to important decisions being made on the hoof rather than as part of a pre-planned strategy.

I'm sure he didn't run GC in such an ad-hoc manner, which I think is what Crawford was alluding to when he said he let his heart rule his head. 

[Ton in Shawlands]

It's unfortunate, but we ended up with a culture at Cappielow where  incompetence seemed to be the norm in the Rae years, all papered over by the 'spending'. I remember posting probably 10+ years back about how long it had been since we actually punched our weight. For the money chucked away we should have achieved more. At least Gretna got to a final before imploding.

[capitanus]

When you look at what Hamilton Accies have done over the same sort of timescale, going from the third tier to becoming a fringe Premiership side, then a yo-yo club albeit one that's having a bit of a slump just now, it wouldn't have been unreasonable to expect a far better-run Morton to have had similar fortunes in that period.  Hamilton were nowhere to be seen in 2003/4 season up until the third quarter, then they were able to overtake Morton becoming one of the greatest (yet forgotten) beneficiaries of that seasons implosion by us. 

They may have had the advantages of getting big money transfer fees for a few players, they had better management and coaching, a bigger local authority who were willing to support them, they had better management off the park (even with Prince Benjamin's phone call) etc.

Overall, for £2m spent we have very little to show for it.

 

[capitanus]

On 1/5/2023 at 11:50 PM, TRVMP said:

That's a fair point, though. I was lapsed between the late 90s and came back in 2002. Having Super Alex about really did bring a buzz to the place. Even John Maisano was - for the Third Division - a glamour player. 

My lasting memory of him is that his agent was an absolute dick.  Every time he had a decent game he'd send out a press release trying to link him to another club.  When the sand dancer eventually got his big glamour move, he was shunted out to Stranraer.

[AyrshireTon]

5 hours ago, capitanus said:

When you look at what Hamilton Accies have done over the same sort of timescale, going from the third tier to becoming a fringe Premiership side, then a yo-yo club albeit one that's having a bit of a slump just now, it wouldn't have been unreasonable to expect a far better-run Morton to have had similar fortunes in that period.  Hamilton were nowhere to be seen in 2003/4 season up until the third quarter, then they were able to overtake Morton becoming one of the greatest (yet forgotten) beneficiaries of that seasons implosion by us. 

 

In my mind we need to go up this season because, with the exception of 83-84, seasons that end in a 4 tend to not end well for us.

[SpoonTon]

Something that has subsequently struck me about the whole "bring a friend" thing is that when we were averaging attendances in the upper 2000s, many of those attending were those friends. There were loads of guys that followed Morton for a few years over that time, who became fans in the early 2000s, coming along as friends of other Morton fans and then slipping away. I'm sure loads of fans still know many guys who want to come along for the big matches (who attended regularly back then). 

Loads of us were bringing friends back then, because they were attracted to the buzz about the place, but we were probably running at capacity in that sense (the percentage of core to floating fans was already stretched). What really worked for Rae initially was bringing that buzz back to the place - the signings of Williams then Weatherson, and the improvements to Cappielow made it easy to attract others asking to games. That was always going to be incredibly difficult to keep up, and impossible to build to the level that Rae hoped for. Ultimately, I think we ended up chasing short term fixes at the expense of longer term investment. And I don't think Rae ever saw any of the loans as something that would ever be paid back to Golden Casket directly from the club. In the end, I think Crawford directed GC towards doing the right thing.