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Les Hutchison


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We don't have the fan base to survive on our own our average home gate is what 4.5ķ.

Our stadium is falling apart (my daughter was with me at the united game on Friday and complained a few times about water dripping on her head.

We will need to sell at least one player per season for a mimimum of 300k to top up the coffers and go on the squad we have just now there is no chance of that happening

 

OK maybe 2nd div within 5 years is a little pessimistic but IMHO we will not be able to survive without someone to subsidise us.

 

My mate who is a dundee fan texted me to say hope you enjoy your slide down the league. Only part time clubs are fan owned.

Part time clubs and most of the Bundesliga, but that's cool.

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What is the the magical number of 'fans' that we need to be able to 'survive'?

According to the article below the annual income target for the WS from members seems to be 240k, currently they seem to be receiving about 96k a year from the 1600 members the WS has so either the existing members need to double their contributions or we need at least another 1500 or so members to get anywhere near the target figure. Granted the figures may have been revised but it seems obvious that either existing members need to contribute more or the WS needs significantly more paying members than it currently has to give it a decent chance to succeed. The question is does Motherwell have another 1 to 1.5k supporters out there willig to commit to the WS i dont think we have.

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35838545

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You don't need a large home grown fanbase. SD Eibar are fan owned and have 10000 members from 69 different countries. Many joined when they were threatened with relegation from the Segunda the year they won it because they don't spend or earn enough.

 

I think the problem is Well Society have tried to stay too local.

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Our stadium is falling apart (my daughter was with me at the united game on Friday and complained a few times about water dripping on her head.

We will need to sell at least one player per season for a mimimum of 300k to top up the coffers and go on the squad we have just now there is no chance of that happening

 

My mate who is a dundee fan texted me to say hope you enjoy your slide down the league. Only part time clubs are fan owned.

You're being a bit pessimistic. Dundee for example have a worse stadium than ours - remind your mate of that. Even Celtic need to sell at least one player per year - ok the scale is somewhat different but they buy at say £1m or £2 and sell for £8m or thereabouts. I'm pretty sure all Scots clubs have to sell players to survive.

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You don't need a large home grown fanbase. SD Eibar are fan owned and have 10000 members from 69 different countries. Many joined when they were threatened with relegation from the Segunda the year they won it because they don't spend or earn enough.

 

I think the problem is Well Society have tried to stay too local.

 

I don't know if they're fan owned per se but Real Ovideo did something similar when they were close to going bankrupt. I remember Sid Lowe promoting them quite a bit. Actually, having just looked it up since the fan share issue someone's invested in the club and gained a controlling stake.

 

Edit: the point of that post was that people who weren't even fans of the club as such got involved. €1.93m of shares bought by 20,000 people from 60 countries without expecting any dividend or such. Here's the story: http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2012/nov/29/real-oviedo-spain-premier-league

 

Also, just for clarity, I'm not making a direct comparison here.

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According to the article below the annual income target for the WS from members seems to be 240k, currently they seem to be receiving about 96k a year from the 1600 members the WS has so either the existing members need to double their contributions or we need at least another 1500 or so members to get anywhere near the target figure. Granted the figures may have been revised but it seems obvious that either existing members need to contribute more or the WS needs significantly more paying members than it currently has to give it a decent chance to succeed. The question is does Motherwell have another 1 to 1.5k supporters out there willig to commit to the WS i dont think we have.

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35838545

So we need another 1500 fans to chip in a fiver a month to secure the future of their/our club?

 

Surely tae fuck that can be done?!

 

That's £1.25 a week! That buys you nothing nowadays.

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So just because I don't agree with the clique on here I am a doom monger. Jeez no wonder I stopped posting a while back. Everyone is entitled to their opinon if you don't like it don't read it

If you don't want your opinion discussed don't post it .

It works both ways.

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Reading Les's interview he makes a couple if very good points.

 

"A figure of 2,000 was my judgment and that is probably only required for two years. There are peaks and troughs in terms of cash coming into the club. You get TV money and SPFL money at various points of the year.

 

'So, what people have to do is build up that little kitty to help them through those lower points, and then, of course, get it back when money comes in.

 

'They don't have to think about putting money in for the next 15 years. That shouldn't be necessary."

 

So we don't need to keep 2000 paying member from now until the end of time. Just at a minimum enough to get that slush fund to see us through the peaks and troughs. Proving the business model is NOT to use WS funds for day to day running.

 

Also...

Are Motherwell close to break-even point now? Are more cuts needed?

 

'No, no. I'm not aware of any further trimming required.

 

'We have been prudent with the budget in terms of what we think is achievable on and off the pitch. The profit and loss would suggest that, in the next 12 months, the club will effectively break even."

 

That answers questions about are we breaking even or not.

 

I would say it is possible for this to work and has a decent chance of doing so. But there is still a distance to go and hurdles to overcome.

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Lets wrap all talk of being relegated if we do things right we can sustain top level football

 

Has to be done through developing players and striving to have the best youth set up in lanarkshire

 

Always has been alot of good young players in the area we just have to scout them

 

So im positive we will be in the scottish premiership in 5years same as we are now and have been for the last 30 odd years

 

Keep your heads held high

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So we need another 1500 fans to chip in a fiver a month to secure the future of their/our club?

 

 

Surely tae fuck that can be done?!

 

That's £1.25 a week! That buys you nothing nowadays.

I was basing the post on member paying at least £10 per month as per the quoted average payment, but i take your point though. I really dont think the money is the issue unless you are on a really tight budget, the problem is the lack of people wanting to commit to the club/WS on a regular basis.

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I was basing the post on member paying at least £10 per month as per the quoted average payment, but i take your point though. I really dont think the money is the issue unless you are on a really tight budget, the problem is the lack of people wanting to commit to the club/WS on a regular basis.

I agree.

 

£10 per month is a bit more of a commitment, especially on a low income, but £5 a month is surely doable and if enough folk do that and local businesses contribute more then it could be done.

 

The club are going to need to roll out the legends to promote this though. Faddy, Dougie, Tommy Coyne, Wullie P etc to persuade those who haven't signed up to get on board.

 

A sound business strategy and regular/clear communication would also help.....

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A sound business strategy and regular/clear communication would also help.....

Have to agree on this. I'd like to think that with the Society now being integrated into the club the communication will/can improve. Speaking personally it was reading comments from Alan Burrows that prompted me to (finally) sign up rather than anything directly from the WS.

 

That interview with Les addresses key questions and in truth you do have to wonder why those key points haven't been more widely represented (maybe they have & I've not been paying attention). Furthermore it's probably the first time I've read something about the project in a practical sense up until now it's really, to me, just been a sort of default "support fan ownership" chat.

 

Personally I'd say that if presented with evidence that the club has actually been making inroads towards sorting itself out ie: breaking even then it's a lot easier to persuade fans to get on board however from the outside looking in it has just seemed like a money pit which is clearly off-putting. If you think someone is just going to squander the cash then whether it's £5 or £5000 you'd think twice about enabling.

 

As much as you've had the narrative along the lines of "the fans need to step up" the club also have to do their bit and give the fans a reason to back them which isn't signing a 3rd goalkeeper and 5th striker. If the club can show that they're actually learning from their mistakes and addressing them and communicating that then it might help.

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