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It will be interesting to see how that plays out. One the meetings that the new owners appear to be planning on their first visit is with club volunteers.Quote:
Originally Posted by wonder88
How the relationship with supporters and volunteers is managed is likely to be something that the new COO Malachy Brannigan is likely to drive.
A lot of the volunteer spirit in LOI is a knowledge that you’re saving the club money in one way or another. It’ll be difficult to keep that alive with a consortium of multi millionaires running the show.
This is a very good point made above by Longfordian. Dundalk has quite a large amount of volunteers from the guys who sell the match programme/goal times to probably the person who opens and closes the gate and who turns on and off the floodlights. These are all hugely important parts of the club and the hope is they will be met and asked to continue.
The other area I was thinking of and one that needs to change and I don’t know if they are paid or not is security staff. The majority (not all) should be immediately replaced this season, the club needs a professional outfit in on match night.
When Arkaga came in one of their biggest errors was replacing many volunteers with paid roles. In some cases they paid volunteers for the same roles they had been doing for years and some of those never came back as volunteers when they left as they felt undervalued
Great point. John o Sullivan spoke about that in an article a few years ago. Inevitably, the volunteers are going to be made to feel worse in the long run no matter what happens.Quote:
Originally Posted by El-Pietro
From reading some of the above comments, one would think that Dundalk was not already privately owned company. Dundalk is a long established privately owned club. There have been countless private owners down the years.
Why should volunteers desert the club now? People have given their time to the club when it was owned by very unpopular owners. People realise that owners come and go, just like managers and players. Supporters are there for life.
[QUOTE=Longfordian;1950362]A lot of the volunteer spirit in LOI is a knowledge that you’re saving the club money in one way or another.
excellent point.. its the same for most sports, GAA, Athletics, Amateur Boxing etc etc
We were also privately owned pre Arkaga but Brian Lennox had a lot of goodwill built up in the community and was seen as a local guy doing his best. A lot of people rowed in behind that. Different story with rich outsiders, for us anywayQuote:
Originally Posted by White Horse
I hope for Dundalk's sale that in the event that things don't work out for them, that they are prepared for the Tsunami of " I told you so's" that will follow. I hope this is the benchmark for further investments both for them and the League as a whole, if it hopefully does all work out.
Many people will argue the league needs investment to move forward, I completely understand people having a negative thought. But to not even give it a positive thought I don’t get it. Yes they won’t be around for ever yes they’ll walk away possibly could leave the club a mess. But in the grand scheme of things no LOI club can turn down such opportunity. Yes there’s the chance you could get an Athlone type investment, but in reality that was lazy work from the FAI along with th board of Athlone, whom imo saw it as a get quick rich scheme and their club dealings to date have shown they don’t care what condition the club is in. There is every chance the owners could walk away a leave Dundalk in a healthy position. I suppose I know it’s a different scenario and very early to say it, but you just 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. It is the clubs aim to become self stainable. It goes without saying the two recent big takeovers the investors want to leave the club with their investment back plus profit. If that happens and both clubs are left in a self stainable position with a healthy core of fans even if it’s a case both a mid table not challenging for honors. Also the chance could be left completely, but I think it’s the worth the risk because you just don’t know what way it could turn out. Especially if the club turned down investment then took a bad turn months later. Personally I just think it’d be foolish of clubs to turn down investment, Bray turned down investment for the McGrettigans now look at the club. Another group in charge of the club after a get rich quick scheme not even trying to make the club better with every decision made, it seems as though it’s two steps backward for every step forward.
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.
Few LOI clubs have ever had a problem staining themselves.Quote:
Originally Posted by sulywaterfordfc
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by sulywaterfordfc
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.
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by micls
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?Quote:
Originally Posted by Nesta99
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)?Quote:
Originally Posted by Nesta99
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.
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?
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.
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ezeikial
So they could be closet Drogs fans and run ye into the ground.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ezeikial
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 ?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ezeikial
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by EatYerGreens
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.
You could also ask how someone could be against this investment despite knowing nothing about it.Quote:
Originally Posted by EatYerGreens
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.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EatYerGreens
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
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.
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.
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
For anyone that has a interest I think that Dundalk are streaming the meeting tonite I’ll put up the link later.
Dundalk new owners are addressing fans on their plans this evening at 7pm.
Broadcast live on youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/c/DundalkFCTV/live
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.
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.
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?.Quote:
Originally Posted by sbgawa
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.
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 leagueQuote:
Originally Posted by sbgawa
Oxomoronic?Quote:
Originally Posted by placid casual
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.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ezeikial
Predictable
Jeez. These guys sound like the most LOI investors ever. Spend for success and the rest follows. It's no wonder people are sceptical.
Hopefully for Dundalk it's their own money they are spending, not the bank's.