Robbed of the ability to accept credit cards, or roll-over Standing Order fans’ payments, by all accounts season ticket renewals at Newco Rangers has been considerably less than those of fellow lower league club Hearts.
Notwithstanding all of this, the Ibrox club’s remarkable PR people this morning published an article titled “Season ticket waiting list”! Waiting list!! Every word is priceless.
I’ve long maintained that anyone looking for a strategy in any of this was misguided but one thing you can be sure of, the lawyers will be giving advice on when to flush the club down the lavvy (ven.).
Newco have banked season ticket cash from a few thousand people, giving them a liability to stage football games until May next year. If they are unable to stage those games, they cannot spend, or continue to accept, that money. None of this was relevant before deadline day, but the extended deadline passed yesterday, so the club now have their primary indicator of how much income they will receive this financial year.
If the board believe they do not have enough income to finish the season, they must stop spending – and accepting – season ticket money, and ask the court to appoint an administrator. Despite the apparent inevitability of this, the board can roll the dice for a while yet.
They can reasonably claim to have an expectation thousands of more tickets will go before the season starts, or that the club can embark on another share issue, but in the meantime, they must continue to pay wages and other costs. Cash is king when you don’t have bank support and hundreds of staff will continue to earn wages over the summer months.
Wages and other costs will need to be met for May, June and July, before Newco’s biggest vat bill of the year becomes payable in the first week in August. Ticket sales would need to pick up incredibly in the coming weeks to see them through this.
I don’t expect administration this week. The club has cash in the bank, has a theoretical chance of turning things around and, as far as we know, is meeting all liabilities when due. The more likely time administrators would be required is when creditors cannot be paid on time.
There’s an interesting media angle on all of this. Graham Wallace is a hired professional, there to deliver a future for a football club in distress, no more and no less. Sections of the media compliant with ‘the rebels’ (cough) are now telling readers he has made several sackable offences.
It suits King & co if anyone with a modicum of competence to leaves the premises. This campaign is brutal, but remember, don’t go looking for a coherent strategy, there isn’t one.
Speaking to season ticket renewals
Saturday’s magnificent Scottish Cup Final had a fitting home at Celtic Park but the Celtic show only rolls on if you, me and tens of thousands of our close friends want Celtic succeed as much as Newco’s fans want their club to fail, by buying our season ticket.
The most important ticket deadline in football is THIS FRIDAY, 23rd May. Be there, or be less shamrock shaped. When it comes to supporters, faithfulness trumps loyalty any day.
After watching St Johnstone win the Scottish Cup, in what was a genuinely thrilling final on Saturday, you could not come to any other conclusion that this was a fantastic season for Scottish football. Celtic were irresistible in the league, Aberdeen and Dundee United resurged, Motherwell were again Best of the Rest, which is not quit the league title it could be, but still an achievement. I’m loving the game this way.
Congratulations to Atletico Madrid for achieving what seemed impossible only a few months ago. Congratulations also to Barcelona fans, who applauded the league winners in recognition of that achievement. There are some good guys in the game.
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Jobo –
Sounds like a plan.
GCT
I served my apprenticeship in Albion motors in scotstoun ( dry area )
With the yards surrounding us the pubs from yoker laid on free buses to ferry us up and back on a lunch break
Carnage every Friday
I would not have wanted to buy a vehicle produced on a Friday afternoon
Jobo
Remember to give us a weather update from Coventry
East Kilbride and Coventry in one day is some going btw … Ya big jet setter ;)
Jobo should be the next James Bond!
HH jamesgang
Jamesgang
Never saw a famous hoops shirt with the number 007 on the back ;)
Jobo O’Bond
Nabedie does it better!
No7CSC
;-)
Aff oot…
HH jamesgang
Frankmarker @ 0100
Big vic!!!!!????
Ahhh cheers. That one was doing my head in :)
TBJ
I could do wi a bus to take me to the pub after last night’s shift!
Bed first,methinks.
tbj,
Like yourself, I served my time at JBE in Clydebank and the drink culture was massive, pubs and clubs all around, little wonder that most of these old institutions now produce zero.
AR
Morning all. Apres le deluge of yesterday, it looks like we might get another downpour or two down here today. Current west of Scotland weather is rubbish.
Is there any news out of Govan that might mitigate this a wee bit?
I thought everyone who worked in the private sector where hard working concensus employees and it was on public sector that employed drunks and wasters
Well according to quotes I have read previously on cqn..
Anyway away to whistling kirk. O)
BT –
Centre Onw WAS the public sector, and I was talking the early 70s.
Government decide not to make public the results of an opinion poll they commissioned on the Scottish independence vote.
I wonder why?
Gct
I know my uncle was there and a mate from Hamilton. John Cunningham…
I started in dhss 1984…
Top of the morning to you all from a Haar covered Fife.
antipodean red
08:26 on 20 May, 2014
tbj,
Like yourself, I served my time at JBE in Clydebank and the drink culture was massive, pubs and clubs all around, little wonder that most of these old institutions now produce zero.
AR
…………………………….
Red, I worked briefly in the Klondyke shipyard in Greenock and when first started had to go to the main office in Port Glasgow to register some housing info one morning.
I had a mate from Fife who started in the Kingston yard at same time as me so, knowing his habits, I went to the nearest pub outside the yard gates and waited for him to arrive (it was about half an hour before lunchtime) and was amazed at the sight that greeted me.
About 5 barmen busy filling glasses of wine. Only two types light or red. Then they lined them up on the gantry and without exaggeration there must have been hundreds if not thousands lined up in their ranks. The light brigade and the brigada rose!
12.30 the doors burst open and a hoard of workers rushed in (my mate included) and proceeded to down copious amounts of wine.
My background in Fife was more used to beer drinkers and there were a few of these but mostly the guys were wine-drinkers.
The RN shipyard I served my time in had 4 or 5 official dockyard beer bars which opened for half an hour at lunchtime but they were nothing compared to their private peers in the wild west!
The ships floated though.
I will be supporting AM in the Final. My reason, as I’ve said on here before, is that, imo, they are the best FOOTBALL team I have had the pleasure of watching this season.
big nan,
I remember well, Brown’s in the Glen, I worked on the Ocean Alliance for a short time in the early 80’s and the guys used to go in to that pub before we started nightshift, the wine was on trays stacked one on top of each other waiting for the day shift coming out, Incredible!
AR
antipodean red
08:55 on 20 May, 2014
big nan,
I remember well, Brown’s in the Glen, I worked on the Ocean Alliance for a short time in the early 80′s and the guys used to go in to that pub before we started nightshift, the wine was on trays stacked one on top of each other waiting for the day shift coming out, Incredible!
AR
……………..
Sounds like the place.
Was about 1971/72 and IIRC a red sandstone building out of the yard and turn right?
Or maybe the shipyard offices were the red sandstone.
My memory aint that good and of course I was not averse to a wee swally myself which tends to blur recall!
IBROX HEALTH SCARE!!!
Sally McCoist is extremely worried about the catering contract at Ibrox.
According to an informed source, Sally said you have to watch out for the “Chinese Pies” :
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-27477601
A clip from todays Guardian,
Yaya Touré is considering leaving Manchester City this summer because he feels disrespected by the club, according to his agent, Dimitry Seluk.
Seluk’s complaints include the fact, he says, that no one from City wished Touré happy birthday at a club event in Abu Dhabi to celebrate the Premier League title win.
Its a hard life on £220,000 a week!
by ALAN PATTULLO
Updated on the
20 May
2014
00:35
Published 20/05/2014 00:00
1 comments
Print this
Normally owners of football clubs tend to bray about how much money they have put in, or, as is more often the case, lost. But Geoff Brown is not a normal owner. St Johnstone are not like most football clubs.
When the former chairman was asked yesterday whether Saturday’s Scottish Cup final success had been worth the financial investment, Brown, who made his money in the building trade, was firm and to the point.
“I have never put a penny into St Johnstone,” he said. “When I took over St Johnstone, we did a rights issue. That was in 1986. That was the only money. I have never put another penny into St Johnstone. It’s all been traded.”
Indeed, he is prouder of having managed to avoid bankrolling the club, thereby steering clear of the pitfalls suffered by others. If he has any complaint now, it is that son Steve, who took over the reins as chairman three years ago, spends too much time on St Johnstone rather than GS Brown Construction business. However, Brown admitted that he was glad to avoid the fall-out from Rangers’ financial implosion.
“It was absolutely brilliant to hand over to him when the crisis with Rangers occurred,” he smiled. “I kept saying to him, it’s a good job your father’s a good builder because you’re never there. He spends so much time at McDiarmid.”
The modern football world dictates this, but Brown believes that ensuring that a football club survives should not be too complicated. “I don’t see it being any different at all from what you would describe as a normal business,” he said. “You’ve got a product. You’ve got the sales. You’ve to sell or return and go on and do the same over and over again.”
Of course, clubs have not always been good at following such sound guidelines, hence the number of administration events in recent times. “I go back to having guys who were substitutes in St Johnstone’s team going away to Livingston for three or four times what St Johnstone was paying, which was absolutely crazy,” said Brown. “At the end of the day, they bit the dust.”
When Brown originally agreed to join the St Johnstone board, the aim, he recalled, was “first and foremost, to survive”. Weeks before he took control, St Johnstone had suffered a lowest-ever home crowd at their old Muirton Park ground, when just 466 turned up to watch a Second Division fixture versus Albion Rovers. Even the Perthshire Advertiser referred to St Johnstone as “one of the least regarded clubs in Scottish league football” at the time. A 5-1 home loss to Meadowbank on the opening day of the 1986-87 league season only served to support such a damning indictment. When a local businessman agreed to inject £100,000, the only sum he claims to have invested, it was not a moment too soon.
Brown demanded overall control. He is not a fan of doing anything by committee, particularly running a football club. “The one thing I don’t appreciate is the way certain clubs are going, trying to bring in supporters’ groups and all the rest of it,” he said. “When you look at the state of Rangers right now, no-one knows who the boss is and who’s answerable to whom. I just believe strongly that it needs somebody to hold the rudder.
“A provincial club is never ever going to make profits,” added Brown. “All you can do is try and run a business. If you’re seen as relatively successful, you roll the money on and do your best to try and improve everything – players, facilities, the lot. And that’s what we have done.”
The trouble with St Johnstone is that they have struggled to attract the crowds that their performances have deserved. Frustratingly for someone in the construction trade, despite building a modern stadium, the fans have not always come. “I don’t know if Perth will ever be a football city but it should give it a wee bit of a boost,” said Brown, who was at McDiarmid Park yesterday to place the Scottish Cup trophy in its special casing.
“When you consider that our last game [on Saturday] was to win the Scottish Cup, and our first game of the new season at McDiarmid Park is going to be a European game, I would like to think it [the Europa League clash] would be all-ticket and I would like to think it will be a sell-out. If it goes on from that, great.”
Frugal until the end, Brown is concerned about the draw for the Europa League qualifying round. Not because it might pitch St Johnstone against strong continental opposition. Rather, he is worried that the club will again find themselves out of pocket, as happened when they were forced to charter planes to places like Norway.
“The sad thing for the Scottish sides is that we are into Europe so early,” he said. “When we are looking for planes, we are competing with the holiday season so the planes are very, very expensive. Last year it was Rosenborg, and Turkey the year before.”
Even after just a few short minutes spent in his company, it is not difficult to see why St Johnstone have prospered over time, while other clubs who followed a more aggressive strategy of seeking to speculate to accumulate have fallen by the wayside. “Miracles will not be achieved overnight,” Brown told those gathered at a special meeting of shareholders in September 1986. If it means taking over 25 years to reach a peak like last weekend, then most of those who packed the streets of Perth would surely agree that this has been a satisfactory arrangement.
soukous
09:13 on
20 May, 2014
The EPL has the best marketing in the world even on the site which is the antidote to lazy journalism has a c*** EPL story they will be pleased
Big Nan
I never worked in the yards, but had several mates who did.
I remember a drinking tale of theirs from the late 70’s/early 80s Yarrow’s, when a fire broke out on board an almost completed warship.
As luck would have it, the fire started close to an area being used to store paints and flammable liquids and happened on the evening of the last working day before the Christmas break, when it might reasonably be assumed that a few workers might be tempted to have a wee libation or two, to help get into a festive mood.
With this in mind, management issued an urgent and stern warning the under no circumstances was drink to be brought onto the ship.
Well, the fire caused a ‘substantial’ amount of damage and, while clearing up the mess, it was apparent that a great deal of bevy had actually been consumed on board (the best part of a skip full of empties).
The polis were called and they began by rounding up all the workers on duty during the last shift before the holiday break.
Several hundred workers were contacted and questioned over the festive period (many at their local polis station) and it turned out the only 6 of the workers that fateful day had been drinking [sic].
They were sacked.
Of course, anyone could see that it was impossible to pin the blame for the incident on the 6 honest (or foolish) enough to admit to having had a wee tipple.
A strike was therefore threatened and the 6 swiftly re-instated …
FF
My friends in Celtic,
Ref last nights documentary :
Depressing, sad but hard-hitting. But also hopeful for the future.
We have no way of knowing what happened in a past murder. I do not know and neither do the CQN’ers who are gleaming their information from the official archives of the MSM. Sometimes local knowledge can differ from that. As we know.
What is important is that this is the reality for many in this area for generations. An area where the concept of raising pensionable age is irrelevant for so many, where deprivation was a birth right.
Very unfortunate for the rights of some, but nobody can but admire the determination seen. But this is the unfortunate price of progress
Celtic can be very proud in their integral part of the regeneration of this area. Giving hope and dignity to the people.
Celtic park will be a fitting venue for the Commonwealth opening ceremony. This is not by chance, this is due to hard work, co-operation and determination.
Celtic was mentioned as a memorial the other day. I am unsure of that, but a magnificent Celtic park can be a towering beacon of inspiration.
Finally bhoys & ghirls. For many the East end experience is a day at CP and maybe a tour of the Gallowgate pubs. Please do not be so judgemental of the people who have to live there 24/7.
HH, always in Celtic.
Folly Folly, yes it was part of the culture in my youth and industry accepted it.
Jimmy Reid wouldn’t have needed to stress “no bevvying” had it not been as you describe.
The navy whose ships I worked on issued strong navy rum to every man every day a ship was in commission.
This goes back to the days when the conditions were so bad for sailors that they had to be half drunk to accept them.
Unthinkable now that workers whose jobs were very dangerous and possibly hazardous to others would be allowed (facilitated in HM Dockyards) to take a drink or five at lunchtime.
Friday afternoons often passed in an alcohaze for me as an apprentice/young man.
Friday May23rd is the last day for ST renewals.
the pub in the glen was BROONS.
about 100 yards of red sandstone wall is all thats left of the front of the yards.
a new shiny b&q, and the goliath tesco now there.
progress in a way, but 30 years of deprivation to get to this point.
am voting yes.
Well I will be cheering on Real Madrid in the final I remember when I was a young lad watching them they had Puskas and De -stefano and many others in that great team.There all white strip seemed to glow and they played lovely football I think the final should be good watching two good teams with completely different styles. H.H.
The dry dock in yoker had the trays of wine … Beer and whisky lined up at lunchtime
But the yarrows team were in there fast so the Albion motors guys had to venture further afield
A pub down at the yoker ferry put on a bus … It was actually a yellow transit van which was christened the yellow submarine .. But within a year they had two coaches ferrying is down and back
A bell rang in the pub 10 minutes before the end of our lunch break .. We we’re allowed to take a pint onto the bus and leave the glasses in a box as we got off
Always remember one afternoon when they started showing adult videos while we were in … The cops walked in and told us all to stay where we were as they were taking our details for the court case .
We were all late back but I wasn’t worried about my gaffer shouting at me … Just in case my maw found out what I had been watching on a Betamax video ;)))
Dreich as chook in Aberdeen!
I see Van Gaal has been promised a £200M war chest. Will The Rangers match this so that Super Sally has a chance in the Scottish second tier?
Doc, Cowiebhoy,
absolutely raging about this march on saturday in the toon….where did the figure of £250,000 come from BTW to police this? An outrage is this is true….was planning to be up the town aswell with the wee man who always likes to wear his hoops…..they would spit roast us so they would if they saw us both with our ‘tic gear on!!!! What has Stirling done to deserve this nonsense on saturday? ragin…..
Gordon_J. 200 Million and they are up to there neck in debt before they spend that money how can teams like Celtic compete ? it is just not possible. I think money is ruining the game. H.H.
Gordon_J backing Neil Lennon
I always think any club who declare what they have to spend are foolish.
The price will rocket for every player they try and sign. £12m for Zaha? That puts the valuation of our players through the roof. Derk is better than Zaha. Forrest must be worth £20m.
LB
stirlingbhoy. The walk at the week-end was approved by the Council when you think of it they have been given permission to sing there vile songs and vent there hatred of Catholics.In this day and age it is wrong that this goes on but that is Scotland for you.H.H.
I’m not bothered who wins the ole ECL as long as it’s a good game.
Although they will have to play very well to come near the standard of play in the last Final to be played in Lisbon.
Mr Livi –
Please!…..
……………come on now, you must realise there is an un-written law in scoddish churnalism that quite klearly states any Celtic player will be touted at the earliest opportunity at the lowest imaginable rate or a rate NOT exceeding one million pounds below what the huns got for Alandhino Hutton.
FACT.
stirlingbhoy
Where in Stirling you from?
From Cowie myself. Have not heard a thing about this march.