New owners at dundalk

[micls]

There is absolutely zero chance we would vote to accept an investment like this. Outside investment is certainly one way to go about things, but it's not the only way. Clubs can turn down this sort of investment.

Now, the clubs circumstances will decide whether that's a good call or not. But to claim no club could or should turn down a similar opportunity is nonsense.

[Charlie Darwin]

It is the clubs aim to become self stainable.
Few LOI clubs have ever had a problem staining themselves.

[oriel]

look at Powers ownership at Waterford. Took over when the club were getting 200 through the gate with the community and local businesses had no interest. Less then a year later the town is buzzing about the club, averaged over 1,500 in the first division, sold by all accounts 500 plus season tickets for the forthcoming season, along with a big sponsorship deal. Not to mention local businesses are getting involved sponsoring match’s/ballboys/the match ball etc. there are positives to take from it.

Important point here is this would be expected of the majority of clubs when you are winning most weeks and top of the FD, crowds generally come out for this as everyone likes to see a winning run. The hard part will be to maintain that in the huge step up that is the PD, a few poor results can see crowds reduce significantly. Waterford have got some good players in, but its still a new team and might take a while to gel in. A 10 team PD will make it even harder if any side is on a bad run.

On the Dundalk takeover it appears the new owners are due to come and visit the club and meet with the staff, players, and all paid and unpaid volunteers in the next week or so, hopefully their plans for the season ahead and further will be released then.

[Nesta99]

There is absolutely zero chance we would vote to accept an investment like this. Outside investment is certainly one way to go about things, but it's not the only way. Clubs can turn down this sort of investment.

Now, the clubs circumstances will decide whether that's a good call or not. But to claim no club could or should turn down a similar opportunity is nonsense.

This is the key point! I dont think Dundalk supporters would back(if we had a say) outside investment with so many unknowns either if we didnt have the fly in the ointment that is Oriel Park. Everything else about the club is pretty decent these days but we couldnt have done a whole lot with our ground without significant outside investment. The need for a lot of prizemoney sapping work on infrastructure at the club would sway us toward the 'take the calculated gamble' choice.

If we had a Turners Cross standard ground I think you'd find a lot more worry going on tbh even if that is a slightly odd thing to say. Would Cork fans, considering their difficulties with Arkaga even consider a new investor if they had a dilapidated ground that was unlikely to progress much for the forseeable future unless investment was considered and that this was significantly holding the club back overall?

Turners Cross as it is is why I believe that proportionately European prizemoney has left Cork in a stronger position than Dundalk or will. They money is already spent if attained by Dundalk on trying to do sh!t with Oriel; Cork have significant choice on where money can be invested that will strengthen the club overall - not playing catch up with creaky facilities, and with CL to come and the parachute in to EL this season too. It exciting timespotentially for LoI and I am glad that we are in the mix!

[Ezeikial]

This is the key point! I dont think Dundalk supporters would back(if we had a say) outside investment with so many unknowns either if we didnt have the fly in the ointment that is Oriel Park. Everything else about the club is pretty decent these days but we couldnt have done a whole lot with our ground without significant outside investment. The need for a lot of prizemoney sapping work on infrastructure at the club would sway us toward the 'take the calculated gamble' choice.

If we had a Turners Cross standard ground I think you'd find a lot more worry going on tbh even if that is a slightly odd thing to say. Would Cork fans, considering their difficulties with Arkaga even consider a new investor if they had a dilapidated ground that was unlikely to progress much for the forseeable future unless investment was considered and that this was significantly holding the club back overall?

Turners Cross as it is is why I believe that proportionately European prizemoney has left Cork in a stronger position than Dundalk or will. They money is already spent if attained by Dundalk on trying to do sh!t with Oriel; Cork have significant choice on where money can be invested that will strengthen the club overall - not playing catch up with creaky facilities, and with CL to come and the parachute in to EL this season too. It exciting timespotentially for LoI and I am glad that we are in the mix!

Are you making an assumption that the new owners are going to upgrade the stadium?

[osarusan]

Turners Cross as it is is why I believe that proportionately European prizemoney has left Cork in a stronger position than Dundalk or will. They money is already spent if attained by Dundalk on trying to do sh!t with Oriel; Cork have significant choice on where money can be invested that will strengthen the club overall - not playing catch up with creaky facilities, and with CL to come and the parachute in to EL this season too. It exciting timespotentially for LoI and I am glad that we are in the mix!

How confident are you that the new investors will spend money on Oriel, rather than just playing home European games elsewhere (above whatever level Oriel can host them)?

If the new investors are willing to spend a chunk of money to upgrade a ground they don't and won't own, that would be a very good sign for the club, and something they are hopefully pushing for as hard as they can.

But pre-investment Dundalk earned however many millions they did a couple of years ago, and I don't think that much of it at all went into ground development.

[sbgawa]

Dundalk supporters have no choice in the matter the club has been sold by the current owners.
Regardless of what promises the new owners may or may not have made to the guys selling they will make the calls from here on how they spend the money.

While I do enjoy slagging the Dundalk lads about Oriel , how bad is it really? a few grand spent on the away end and some toilets for the ladies to use and bobs your uncle .
If they decide to spend a fortune on the ground well and good but I would be surprised.
Some Corporate facilities to encourage sponsors and local businesses will probably give a return on investment but how many more people will show up to sit in a better class of plastic seat?

[Ezeikial]

There have been absolutely zero commitments made publicly by the new owners on any aspect of their plans

At this point we know nothing of their intentions.

[Nesta99]

Are you making an assumption that the new owners are going to upgrade the stadium?

Are you assuming they are not? You said it yourself that we knw nothing of their plans. It doesnt change a whole lot of the gist of my post above that there is likely to be greater support for a takeover even with the unknowns, in hope that the issues with Oriel will be addressed, if Oriel Park was up to scratch then there would be a lot more speaking out against the takeover imo, being content with the status quo.

[redobit]

There have been absolutely zero commitments made publicly by the new owners on any aspect of their plans

At this point we know nothing of their intentions.

So they could be closet Drogs fans and run ye into the ground.

[EatYerGreens]

There have been absolutely zero commitments made publicly by the new owners on any aspect of their plans

At this point we know nothing of their intentions.

Which makes the support (albeit qualified) of almost all Dundalk fans on here rather strange. How can someone support an 'investment' that they know nothing about ?

[colonelwest]

Which makes the support (albeit qualified) of almost all Dundalk fans on here rather strange. How can someone support an 'investment' that they know nothing about ?

Bolded being the salient point glossed over. Rather than pull an immediate Maude Flanders; most of us with a modicum of sense, given the investors business history and proven involvement in the game, are cautiously optimistic and are taking a wait and see what they say/ see how it goes etc approach to it. With reservations of course, given the history of how investment in this league has always gone over the years. Nothing that has been said about the takeover by those involved raises any alarm bells so far nor is it absolute pie in the sky guffery that's been heard before in other similar situations.

Also, supporters, to put it absolutely bluntly, have sweet FA say in who Andy & Paul sold to nor the running of the club under their tenure, Gerry's tenure or the new Peak6 backed regime either to name a few since the Trust went into hibernation. DFC is a private business and I, amongst many others are delighted that Andy and Paul took us to where we are from the club being on it's knees and that they managed to buck the trend and make a few bob for themselves in the process. They're fans themselves and have taken the club as far as they can given they have a full time business to run as well as the club during their tenure. They did their due diligence and in their opinion did their best to make sure the Peak6 backed consortium aren't a pack of con men or spoofers & were the right people to take the club forward. The proof is in the pudding on that of course and we'll find out over time.

On the Trust front, hopefully it'll come back into action and work together with the new owners while boxing off a discretionary membership fund or something along those lines. The problem there though is history has proven that we can't get a couple of thousand people to pay into the trust initially never mind long term, fair play to Cork/ Rovers who do, but that simply wasn't an option and the interest wasn't there from the support outside of the hardcore when we did nearly go belly up at the end of Gerry Matthews tenure and we were goosed until Paul and Andy stepped in when the bailiffs were closing on the gates.

[Yossarian]

Which makes the support (albeit qualified) of almost all Dundalk fans on here rather strange. How can someone support an 'investment' that they know nothing about ?

You could also ask how someone could be against this investment despite knowing nothing about it.

As you have said, almost all Dundalk supporters have cautious optimism about this takeover, and whether we are for or against it, we have no say in it.

[Bunny Kelly]

Which makes the support (albeit qualified) of almost all Dundalk fans on here rather strange. How can someone support an 'investment' that they know nothing about ?


Supporters taking a positive viewpoint about their clubs future, how is that strange, are fans not supposed to be biased towards their own team?

No one knows the new owners intentions but I'd imagine Dundalk fans would have trust in the previous owners, that were willing to put their own money up to save the club not too long ago, that they wouldn't sell the club to any cowboy. If it was the Bray boys making this deal I'd understand the scepticism

I know it's the league of Ireland but is a bit of optimism not allowed

[sbgawa]

Peak 6 are a different league to previous investors in LOI. Ffs they also are involved in Bournemouth and Roma. This is far more likely to be game changingly positive for dundalk then negative.

[Charlie Darwin]

I would have thought the main thing Peak6 will bring to the league could benefit every club. A lot of the difficulties the league faces are down to infighting and the FAI being able to exploit that to keep everyone in line. Dundalk's owners aren't coming into the league to rob Bohs' footballs when they aren't looking - they'll be looking to get proper payment for TV games, be properly represented in discussions with the FAI, etc. Rovers have a CEO now and Cork are being run by people with real business smarts so it won't be so easy for the FAI to divide and conquer.

[Dundalk daz]

Meeting arranged for Sunday nite at 7 o clock between representatives of the new owners of Dundalk fc and fans. So should be a little clearer with regards to there plans

[Dundalk daz]

For anyone that has a interest I think that Dundalk are streaming the meeting tonite I’ll put up the link later.

[White Horse]

Dundalk new owners are addressing fans on their plans this evening at 7pm.

Broadcast live on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/c/DundalkFCTV/live

[outspoken]

Didn’t like what I heard tbh. Their plan is success and more success on the field with Oriel on the back burner. Any work they talked about on Oriel sounded more like patch up jobs. I mean think about it, let’s say they want to build a brand new Oriel how many millions we talking? They’ll more than likely never see that money back and we know for a fact they are about profit so why would they want to build a new Oriel or do major redevelopment? They were asked if they’d take dividends and side stepped it by saying wel reinvest in the team so we can become the dominant club in ireland but never said no we won’t take dividends. I just hope Dundalk can crack Europe on a regular basis or this isn’t going to end well.

[White Horse]

I don't share the same view.

I didn't expect any sensible owner to immediately invest a lot of money in Oriel Park. Personally, I think the previous owners wanted out as expectations of a big investment in the stadium grew to the extent that they knew was not deliverable without huge additional investment by themselves.

What club in Ireland has built a UEFA category 3 stadium? Tallaght is the only category 3 club stadium in Ireland and that is municipally owned.

This is playing out as I expected. Dundalk will have a higher budget as the proceeds from the Europa League run is invested in the operational budget. The owners want to dominate the league and try to get into the Europa League again. There will probably be some improvements in Oriel, but nothing drastic.

[sbgawa]

Dissapointed to hear they aren't spending millions on oriel park. Looks like we are competing for second place from now on

[placid casual]

Dissapointed to hear they aren't spending millions on oriel park. Looks like we are competing for second place from now on
F##kin hell mate, you talk some rubbish. You sure your a Hoops fan?.
Dundalk won't run away with league because of this, it just means their manager is under pressure to deliver Europa league group stages qualification in the next 3 years, 4 yrs max. Players decent enough to get you consistently to that level do not turn up in LOI en masse. Good luck with that Spock.

[sbgawa]

They dont turn up .........Unless they are paid of course, ..........now I wonder do the new owners have any money.......doh

[sbgawa]

They dont turn up .........Unless they are paid of course, ..........now I wonder do the new owners have any money.......doh

I do get the pressure on kenny though hence I put him as first to be sacked in my predictions.......more likely though they strengthen further either now or in July and win the league

[Ezeikial]

F##kin hell mate, you talk some rubbish. You sure your a Hoops fan?.

Oxomoronic?

[White Horse]

In the midst of a lot of platitudes and backslapping, the strategy behind the investment was made very clear last night.

Mal Brannigan (New CEO): You can say that Dundalk is a small football club, or you can actually say that it's a European football club that's competing in Ireland and we want it to be a football club that plays constant European football, year-in, year-out. That's the ambition.

Fred Spencer (investor): Our priority is to build a first class football side. We will look at infrastructure in the longer term. But if we don't have a good first team side on the pitch, there's nothing after that. In time, it (Oriel Park) is something we are willing to turn our attention to but our immediate priority is to win the league and success in Europe.

Mike Treacy (investor): The plan is to win and re-invest and win and build some more. We do want to build great infrastructure...we are going to leverage our success and make this not just the best club in Ireland, but the most dominant club in Ireland.

[sbgawa]

Oxomoronic?



Predictable

[Mr A]

Jeez. These guys sound like the most LOI investors ever. Spend for success and the rest follows. It's no wonder people are sceptical.

[osarusan]

Hopefully for Dundalk it's their own money they are spending, not the bank's.

[El-Pietro]

So its the Shels model? Could be worse, they didn't promise a fancy new 20k stadium on a green field with hotels and additional revenue streams.

[micls]

It does clarify stuff a bit. They're looking for short term return from European success as expected. It's an interesting one. They seem to have the connections and funds to bring in a higher quality player. The real question will be how long will they wait for success, if they have to. Bad start to the season, what would happen with Kenny? Will Kenny be OK with the Ceo making the call on players? What will they do if they get knocked out of Europe early this year and don't win the league? Obviously if they bring in a few players, win the league this year, and continue to strengthen we could be looking at short term domination for them. It's never worked in the league before, but there's no specific reason is couldn't. If these guys are patient

[White Horse]

So its the Shels model? Could be worse, they didn't promise a fancy new 20k stadium on a green field with hotels and additional revenue streams.

We don't know yet where the money is coming from. If it is borrowed money, it is the Shel's model.

If it is from the 2016 Europa League prize money, it is something new. Rovers did invest their Europa League money in their subsequent budgets. However, the amount was much less.

I would have been more concerned if they promised everything, new stadium, massive budget etc. However, that doesn't mean I am still not concerned or nervous.

[Lim till i die]

If it's the Europa League Prize money being spent then it begs the question why the flip do Dundalk need these new "investors"

Were they incapable of spending money? Such is the rarity with which an Irish club finds itself with some?

"If we spend a couple of million a year more than anyone else in the league we should be dominant and have a decent cut off Europe" isn't exactly groundbreaking thinking. I would have thought it bloody obvious.

[sbgawa]

We don't know yet where the money is coming from. If it is borrowed money, it is the Shel's model.

If it is from the 2016 Europa League prize money, it is something new. Rovers did invest their Europa League money in their subsequent budgets. However, the amount was much less.

I would have been more concerned if they promised everything, new stadium, massive budget etc. However, that doesn't mean I am still not concerned or nervous.

I wouldn't worry about it being borrowed money , with the LOI history I don't think you will find banks looking to loan money and with no Stadium(Tolka, Dalyer , Miltown) there is no assets to borrow against.
The likelihood is the previous owners have taken the cash out (good luck to them they deserve it) and the new boys are funding a bigger budget and the CEO will try to develop the corporate side. ..............I wonder do the yanks realise how strong the GAA and Rugby are , as we all know the LOI is a tough sell.

[micls]

I'm not sure they care. The money is in Europe, not in filling oriel.

[EatYerGreens]

It does clarify stuff a bit. They're looking for short term return from European success as expected. It's an interesting one. They seem to have the connections and funds to bring in a higher quality player. The real question will be how long will they wait for success, if they have to. Bad start to the season, what would happen with Kenny? Will Kenny be OK with the Ceo making the call on players? What will they do if they get knocked out of Europe early this year and don't win the league? Obviously if they bring in a few players, win the league this year, and continue to strengthen we could be looking at short term domination for them. It's never worked in the league before, but there's no specific reason is couldn't. If these guys are patient

I wonder if the phrase "football people" was used at all during their pitch to explain who's involved in the club ?

Even if it was, these aren't people who are interested in football. They're interested in making relatively easy money, and have spied a potential opportunity to do so in Irish football.

If it doesn't deliver to the speed or extent to which they'd hoped, it is highly likely that they'll attempt to walk away. Given that there isn't exactly a queue of people looking to buy Irish clubs, the risk is that they literally just cut their losses and walk away, without anyone else picking up the reins of the club.

All the potential issues raised in this thread - a focus entirely on Europe, no stadium investment - appear to have been bang-on with the strategy being pursued. Because it's the obvious way to go if you're just in it for the cash. I can see Dundalk doing well out of this for a while but can't see if ending too positively if I'm honest.

[sbgawa]

with the Champions route to the Europa League (through the champions league) you are guaranteed two rounds at least .

If you win the first qualifying round of the CL and lose in the second you go straight to the 3rd qualifying round of the Europa league
win second lose 3rd you are into play off round#
win third lose fourth you go straight to group stages

Basically if you win two matches in Europe in the CL you are a play off round away from Group stages of EL.
All big ifs obviously but winning the league now guarantees two rounds of Europe at least, we should be winning the first qualifying rounds more years then not so winning the league can likely give 3 euro rounds most years.......
The trick is to WIN THE LEAGUE other wise you get 1 round guaranteed and have to win 4 rounds to get to the group stages...

[TonyD]

Even if it was, these aren't people who are interested in football. They're interested in making relatively easy money, and have spied a potential opportunity to do so in Irish football.

I can't help thinking that anyone investing in an Irish football club as a way of making money, especially "easy money" needs their head examined.

[colonelwest]

with the Champions route to the Europa League (through the champions league) you are guaranteed two rounds at least .

If you win the first qualifying round of the CL and lose in the second you go straight to the 3rd qualifying round of the Europa league
win second lose 3rd you are into play off round#
win third lose fourth you go straight to group stages

Basically if you win two matches in Europe in the CL you are a play off round away from Group stages of EL.
All big ifs obviously but winning the league now guarantees two rounds of Europe at least, we should be winning the first qualifying rounds more years then not so winning the league can likely give 3 euro rounds most years.......
The trick is to WIN THE LEAGUE other wise you get 1 round guaranteed and have to win 4 rounds to get to the group stages...

That's exactly it. This season the prize money has nearly doubled from UEFA. Cork will bank approx 800k between the CL tie and parachuting into the EL round then if they lose the CL qualifier. So lose both ties and you're still around 800k better off in the bank, go a round or two further in either the CL or the EL and you're quids in. It's harder to get to the group stages for the smaller league like ours so UEFA pumped the money up as a way of making it up to the smaller leagues to keep them sweet.

It's not as if the stand in Oriel was going to be demolished the day after they took over, as much as some were demanding it, that's not how the world works. Capital grant application for the next round isn't until nearly this time next year. As I thought would happen remedial stuff will get done this season; the puddle on the way to the shed, they said they'd see what can be done in the away end and are looking at temp stands for our EL qualifiers if needed so we can play them in Oriel.

A competitive team on the pitch leads to european football, european football leads to quids in from UEFA as mentioned above which, along with capital sports grants, can then be put into sustainable development of facilities. Tbf, I think it's fairly realistic approach from the new owners.

[pineapple stu]

When you own 25% of Bournemouth, 800k is peanuts though.

[sbgawa]

The key is to win the league though.
I don't think Kenny will survive not winning the league.

[outspoken]

The fact one of the new owners bought a team in Gibraltar would suggest dominating a small league in order to make a quick buck In Europe is the goal.

[Ezeikial]

While I am not reassured by most of what I heard last night, at least they were upfront about their intentions and priorities.

It is not necessary to look to Bournemouth or Gibraltar for any answers- simply watch the Q & A on YouTube

[EatYerGreens]

That's exactly it. This season the prize money has nearly doubled from UEFA. Cork will bank approx 800k between the CL tie and parachuting into the EL round then if they lose the CL qualifier. So lose both ties and you're still around 800k better off in the bank, go a round or two further in either the CL or the EL and you're quids in. It's harder to get to the group stages for the smaller league like ours so UEFA pumped the money up as a way of making it up to the smaller leagues to keep them sweet.

It's not as if the stand in Oriel was going to be demolished the day after they took over, as much as some were demanding it, that's not how the world works. Capital grant application for the next round isn't until nearly this time next year. As I thought would happen remedial stuff will get done this season; the puddle on the way to the shed, they said they'd see what can be done in the away end and are looking at temp stands for our EL qualifiers if needed so we can play them in Oriel.

A competitive team on the pitch leads to european football, european football leads to quids in from UEFA as mentioned above which, along with capital sports grants, can then be put into sustainable development of facilities. Tbf, I think it's fairly realistic approach from the new owners.

What incentive do they have to spend anything on facilities though, given that it would amount to money NOT spent on the team ?

[dong]

None.
This looks like a big pressure cooker brewing up for Kenny.

[colonelwest]

When you own 25% of Bournemouth, 800k is peanuts though.

When you own 25% of Bournemouth you're not making the decisions, have nothing to do with the running of the club and are purely getting relative peanuts in dividends on your ROI. Plus our new owners don't own 25% of Bournemouth. As far as I'm aware and can make out given the information out there, it's a a consortium seperate to Peak6 that has 2 people from that in it, along with several others including that Fred fella who used to be an agent who looks like he hasn't started shaving yet and his mate young Lando Calrissian whose name I can't think of :D who were at the meeting on Sunday.

https://www.insidermedia.com/insider/southwest/accounts-reveal-afc-bournemouths-premier-league-windfall

The latest figures from 15/16 I could find have Bournemouth only posting a pre tax profit of £3.4m, if Bournemouth paid a dividend, and there's no info that they did I could find at first glance, Peak6 would have gotten feck all in the grand scheme of things given the pre tax profit mentioned there. So theoretically they'd make more with full ownership of us plus having full control over the club and the decision making/ investment/ business side of things to do what they want getting revenue from other sources for example increased commercial activity, player sales etc. Whether they'll be asset stripping the club (the Casey's will always have the land) who knows but given their history and credentials that doesn't seem a likely path, could well be of course but time will tell.

Of the people involved we know about only Jordan and Mike whose now chairman of the board of the club are with Peak6. Peak6,who did put some investment in to back the bid, but from what's been said/ I've heard and what has been reported correctly in the media, Peak6 themselves don't have an ownership stake themselves as a company. The lads in the consortium are the stakeholders & put their own funds together either through venture capital from Peak6 and elsewhere, their own funds, robbed a bank for all we know etc.



What incentive do they have to spend anything on facilities though, given that it would amount to money NOT spent on the team ?

We're not going to be having Ronaldo up front with Messi tbf. Martin Connolly said we're now able to aim for a slightly higher standard of player and have better contacts abroad for getting players in etc and all that jazz. The budget for this season is similar to the last few seasons, probably slightly higher and due to the few bob we banked previously we can offer 2/3 year deals now, of which the cost of salary etc would be amortised over the lifetime of the players contract. That then potentially leads to us not losing our best feckin players for nothing every winter. As the lads themselves said it helps SK then that he doesn't have to build a new team every close season and gives that extra bit of stability on the pitch where there's progression and not wholesale changes to the spine of the team every year. They were never going to knock the main stand the day after they took over, never mind within the first few months/ year, despite what people were hoping would happen.

As I mentioned above on the misconceptions about BIG MONEY re: Peak6/ Bournemouth etc generally and also potentially future transfer fees, European money being massively increased yet again for the qualifying rounds, never mind making the group stage (which of course is the goal again). Even without making the group stage a tidy profit should in theory be turned by the club and the same can be said for any of the 4 clubs that get into Europe each year from the league.

What they said at the meeting was that basically without a decent team on the pitch competing for the league/ in Europe to draw the crowds in there's no point having a white elephant sitting there which is spot on to be fair & medium/ long term they'll look at what can be done. They did say they'll try and get Oriel sorted with temp stand so we can do the EL qualifiers in the town short term and sort the puddle! :D Capital Sports Grants applications for this year closed so it'll be this time next year anyway before the club could apply for funding (never mind get a planning application in, the notice period of a few months for that, get approval, draw down of monies, and breaking ground and getting the build done) and any business man or people worth their salt would be absolutely insane to not apply for capital funding for any improvements when the option is there.

It may sound like I'm cheerleading but I'm not, just there's a hell of a lot of generalities being spouted that are baseless/ misconceptions that are down to a lack of knowledge etc to be fair and a reasoned debate on all sides of the conversation is welcomed. I, of course, have big reservations on how this is going to go but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt initially but I'll 100% call BS on any BS that goes on. From what has gone on so far there's been little to none of that. So far!

As a former member of the Trust I, along with others, will be keeping a close eye on things and there's already things being looked at to revive that as a potential phoenix fund and I'll be involved in that again but we never had the numbers, nor the interest generally to to be able to do a Cork/ Rovers, even when the club was on it's knees before Andy & Paul came in.

[pineapple stu]

That's probably fair alright. I'd add that you can't entirely go off profit to judge an investment; there may be consultancy fees earned, for example.

That said, the Gibraltar link is weird. Are they planning on bankrolling a load of Spaniards in to get European success? A team needs a certain level of base income for an investment to make sense; you'd have to imagine a Gibraltar club don't have that.

The Rosenberg model is the attractive exit point for them, and you have to imagine some club is going to achieve it at some stage with the money washing around the game these days. The stone around the neck at the moment is the singular apathy of the FAI, and their big debts.

You'd have to imagine there's an element of looking to arrange and capitalise on transfer fees too - bring in a foreign player, let him shine in Europe, flog him on - although the LoI has an awful record in that regard.

[oriel]

The fact one of the new owners bought a team in Gibraltar would suggest dominating a small league in order to make a quick buck In Europe is the goal.

The quick buck will only be achieved if Dundalk make the EL group stages, and just how often is that likely to happen given we have had only two teams so far to have made it? And not to mention a total return of 4 points from the 12 games when the two teams got there, so even if a team makes it again it in the short term, a better quality squad will be required and remember there is a huge win bonus of 350k I think for each game.

CL is where the money is of course, but even though we were only a game away from that in 2016, the starting point now is a round more and much higher ranked teams will be joining on your route. I think even the EL will have higher ranked teams pre group stage compared to before, so its going to be very difficult for any Irish side to make it, and not just Dundalk.

It was a little disappointing though not to hear them speak of any redevelopment other than 'gradual improvements and including the away end' but at the same time, I`d rather hear that than pure b/s of promising the sun moon and stars and delivering nothing.

One of the owners suggested re-investing future earned Euro monies into the ground, but the priority was made clear, improving the squad further and same on the day to day admin running of the club.

[colonelwest]

That's probably fair alright. I'd add that you can't entirely go off profit to judge an investment; there may be consultancy fees earned, for example.

That said, the Gibraltar link is weird. Are they planning on bankrolling a load of Spaniards in to get European success? A team needs a certain level of base income for an investment to make sense; you'd have to imagine a Gibraltar club don't have that.

The Rosenberg model is the attractive exit point for them, and you have to imagine some club is going to achieve it at some stage with the money washing around the game these days. The stone around the neck at the moment is the singular apathy of the FAI, and their big debts.

You'd have to imagine there's an element of looking to arrange and capitalise on transfer fees too - bring in a foreign player, let him shine in Europe, flog him on - although the LoI has an awful record in that regard.


I did a bit of digging on my lunch in work there and from what I could find one of the consortium involved with our takeover went halvers on that Gibraltar club end of last year. From the below it seems to be a bit of a Glenn Hoddle Academy thing where they'll be taking lads who get released from the UK/ Spanish & their own league in over there, develop them and potentially move them on. I'd say that has little or no impact on ourselves. They play in the Gibraltaran (?) second division so they're not even in the Spanish league as well.

https://www.europapointfc.com/news/BREAKING-NEWS--American-Consortium-takes-controlling-interest-of-Europa-Point-FC

Rosenborg are the model alright, as has been said for Irish clubs for years. If, and it's a big if, we get to that stage over the next few years they could well just keep ticking over and not sell up as that level is probably as high as an Irish club can get barring doing a Leicester. Would have loved to have been a fly on the wall of our new owners meeting yesterday with Frank and Irene. I doubt given the US business mentality they suffer fools and all that. I'd be hopeful if it is all on the level and works out that it'd be a boost to the league as a whole as they'd definitely be pushing for increased tv rights, prize money, development across the league to make it a more commercially attractive prospect. Depends of course on whether they get the usual FAI response or not though. If it goes ok you never know, could possibly see similar happen to other clubs in the league which would only help improve the league as whole.

Could all end up going down in flames and it's hard as LOI fans to not immediately always expect the worst case scenario as we're all well used to it at this stage but initially so far with this for us there's hopefully a good chance it doesn't all go tits up.