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Community Ownership


Spiderpig
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Now that John Boyle has signed over his shares and given up control of the club with the club moving towards community ownership will it be a benefit to Motherwell and take the club forward ? Giving the fans the chance to buy shares is a good idea as long as they are reasonably priced but will the ordinary fan have any real say in the way the club is run. There are probably thousands of ordinary shareholders at the moment but they have no real influence. True community ownership would have some sort of supporter representation on the board with a direct input to real decisions. This could be the chance for Motherwell to take the lead in Scottish football and the fans to get some return on their investment if it is organised properly.

 

 

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i think there are about 300 shareholders but boyle owns the vast majority of the shares. looking at the list of shareholders a great deal of them look as though they are people who have inherited them and i personally recognise the names of a few local people who i wouldn't even have thought were fans nevermind shareholders.

 

bolye owns around 200,000 shares which is well over 90%, a clear controlling interest. he says on the video on the official that his shares will be controlled by a mutualized company which people will be able to buy into in and the company will operate on a one person, one vote basis.

 

going by that then we should see a very democratic set up controlling the club. the big question is how much it will cost to buy in as that will determine how many people end up as owners.

 

it seems a bit mental but it looks like a totally democratic set up and the board will be appointed by the shareholders in the mutual company. i'm not sure if it will be an effective way to run an spl club but it will be extremely interesting.

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will the current board and shareholders not be given first rights on those shares (legally?)

 

and therefore all 90% will not go public??

 

he says on the video that the mutualzation process is under way already and there's no reason not believe that is a controlling interest.

 

the current board seem to be in agreement that this is the way forward and i seriously doubt that anyone actually wants to buy the shares off boyle.

 

it's all about how much it costs to buy and how many people do it. when we find out that we'll have a better idea how it will work.

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i can honestly see this being the beginning of the end.

 

Boyle's not an idiot. You can bet that there will be a provision in there that if the fans do something stupid there will be an option to refuse or, in the extreme, buy back the shares.

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I think it might work if we can all stick together and agree the way forward for OUR club. As far as I can see we already have a fan on the board ( Derek Weir) for a start. Been a season ticket holder for over 30 years so not a bad start.

Problems will start when 50% of our fans want one thing and the other 50% want another which alway happens with football fans.

From the outside it seems like the board and John Boyle have a long term plan for Motherwell which is probably the only option left to take us forward as a going concern. There is no one person willing to pump there millions into our club so let lots of people plough smaller amounts in. Makes sense in an ideal world.

The big question is how much would the average Motherwell fan manage to invest? £100 or £1000? I know if I said to my wfe I was investing £1000 into Motherwell she would question my sanity. Although I think she already does that to be fair.

 

 

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The big question is how much would the average Motherwell fan manage to invest? £100 or £1000? I know if I said to my wfe I was investing £1000 into Motherwell she would question my sanity. Although I think she already does that to be fair.

 

i think it will be closer to 100 than 1000. i think they will be looking to get a couple of thousand people to buy in which will make it easier for the board to operate than if it was only a few hundred.

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Barcelona seem to be doing OK. no reason why we can't !

 

All we need to get is a strong independence movement to get Lanarkshire declared an independent state, get our own national bank and then allow Motherwell to rack up eye watering amounts of money that will never be called in. Y'know, the Barcelona model. Its served Hearts well too.

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i think it will be closer to 100 than 1000. i think they will be looking to get a couple of thousand people to buy in which will make it easier for the board to operate than if it was only a few hundred.

 

100 x 2000 is only 200000. That will be swallowed up by our pitch and stadium in one season. Looks like we are screwed then.

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For discussion,

 

 

It will be interesting to see what price they put on the shares, too dear and a lot of people will be put off buying but if they are too cheap then the club wont get much long term value, which could see more shares having to be issued in a few years time to keep the club going. The big question is what is the current value of these shares and what would we be willing to pay?

 

 

Here’s a quick idea of what would be raised at the following prices,

 

 

£10 - £2M

 

£15 - £3M

 

£20 - £4M

 

£25 - £5M

 

£30 - £6M

 

£35 - £7M

 

£40 - £8M

 

£45 - £9M

 

£50 - 10M

 

 

With the size of our fan base, I don’t think that all the shares will be sold at the one time. I think that half will be sold first with the others being held in trust and sold in small lots - ie as birthday/christmas presents - or until we need the money.

 

Remembering that anyone buying these shares wouldn’t be buying them as an investment, personally I’d go for at least £50 – with the money raised not all being spent - and have the option to either pay up front or by direct debit over, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 years depending on how many you’re buying i.e. if you buy 10 shares the cost would be either £500 up front or £41.67 per month for 1 year (say £45 to cover costs) - maybe even say £23 per month over 2 years. 100 shares could be either £5000 up front or £45 per month over 5 years.

 

 

I’d also like to see a max. number of shares an individual or family group could buy to keep ownership of the club as broad as possible.

 

 

 

 

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For discussion,

 

 

It will be interesting to see what price they put on the shares, too dear and a lot of people will be put off buying but if they are too cheap then the club wont get much long term value, which could see more shares having to be issued in a few years time to keep the club going. The big question is what is the current value of these shares and what would we be willing to pay?

 

 

Here’s a quick idea of what would be raised at the following prices,

 

 

£10 - £2M

 

£15 - £3M

 

£20 - £4M

 

£25 - £5M

 

£30 - £6M

 

£35 - £7M

 

£40 - £8M

 

£45 - £9M

 

£50 - 10M

 

 

With the size of our fan base, I don’t think that all the shares will be sold at the one time. I think that half will be sold first with the others being held in trust and sold in small lots - ie as birthday/christmas presents - or until we need the money.

 

Remembering that anyone buying these shares wouldn’t be buying them as an investment, personally I’d go for at least £50 – with the money raised not all being spent - and have the option to either pay up front or by direct debit over, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 years depending on how many you’re buying i.e. if you buy 10 shares the cost would be either £500 up front or £41.67 per month for 1 year (say £45 to cover costs) - maybe even say £23 per month over 2 years. 100 shares could be either £5000 up front or £45 per month over 5 years.

 

 

I’d also like to see a max. number of shares an individual or family group could buy to keep ownership of the club as broad as possible.

 

 

 

thats not how it will work.

 

boyle won't be directly selling his shares. the mutual company will retain the shareholding and we will buy into that. there will be a set price for a buy in and if 500 people choose to buy in there will 500 shares and 500 equal votes. if 1000 people choose to buy in then it will have 1000 shares and 1000 equal votes.

 

i don't think they will be looking to raise a great deal of capital with this. the club will continue to be self sufficient.

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Not quite stuwell, people will definetly be buying 1 share.

1 share = part ownership of the club and a vote on every shareholder's poll.

 

Essentially, each person's single share will give them a voice in club... (and a warm & fuzzy feeling inside!)

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