New owners at dundalk

**EatYerGreens** · 30/01/2018, 4:27 PM

Originally Posted by 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.

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** · 30/01/2018, 5:38 PM

Originally Posted by EatYerGreens

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** · 30/01/2018, 5:39 PM

Originally Posted by EatYerGreens

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** · 30/01/2018, 5:46 PM

Originally Posted by EatYerGreens

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** · 30/01/2018, 9:50 PM

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** · 01/02/2018, 3:12 AM

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** · 02/02/2018, 5:38 PM

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** · 04/02/2018, 10:18 AM

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

**White Horse** · 04/02/2018, 6:05 PM

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** · 04/02/2018, 9:24 PM

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** · 04/02/2018, 9:47 PM

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** · 04/02/2018, 10:30 PM

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

**placid casual** · 05/02/2018, 12:29 AM

Originally Posted by sbgawa

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** · 05/02/2018, 4:12 AM

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

**sbgawa** · 05/02/2018, 4:13 AM

Originally Posted by 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** · 05/02/2018, 8:46 AM

Originally Posted by placid casual

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

Oxomoronic?

**White Horse** · 05/02/2018, 8:55 AM

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.