Hull City owners to take majority stake in Dundalk?

[pineapple stu]

You'd imagine they'd all be unlikely to be around next season

[Nesta99]

2 years of Daryl Horgan won’t be cheap for staters

Supposedly his wages are 'sponsored'. Figures freom last season are shocking and imo shows how those owners put in as little effort as fans to raise revenue. More than a 50% fall in sponsorship being the headliner for me. Now unless that was due to a very big sponsoship deal coming to an end it smacks of not following up un sponorship form the locality, but commmunicate the issues and maybe people would have stepped up. Gates were down significantly also and player costs up though not massively year on year. Ok cash in the bank, almost .5mil to 70k. Qualifying for Europe still would have left a big hole unless we went to a PO round. Im sure these figures were available to BA and more significantly the FAI under licencing and passing the current years projected budget.

[Another Bohemia]

Simple economics also suggests they have player contracts to honour.

Players agents usually build in release clauses for relegation. No whether those players want to activate that clause and if they would garner any interest from other LOI teams is the question.

[oriel]

Read a very good interview in todays Irish Sun with Dermot Keely on Dundalks troubles and launch of his new book. In it he mentioned that in 94/95 season at some stage they were only getting 200 fans in Oriel at matches and somehow won the league! Must have being very difficult times being a Dundalk fan that season

That was for one game v Cobh at the start of the season and it was around 400 not 200, also moved to a Sunday.


However for the final game of the season, granted it was a long shot as needed Derry not to win, and Shels not to win either, when Dundalk beat Galway to win the league, only 1,500 were there.

[Kiki Balboa]

That was for one game v Cobh at the start of the season and it was around 400 not 200, also moved to a Sunday.


However for the final game of the season, granted it was a long shot as needed Derry not to win, and Shels not to win either, when Dundalk beat Galway to win the league, only 1,500 were there.

From my understanding... the 90s was the darkest of dark times for the LOI.

The great Shels team marked a revival - which crashed again at the end of the celtic tiger.

Just a side note... the Paul Cook Sligo team did so much for the way the league played football too. Probably one of the understated pioneers of LOI for me.

[A N Mouse]

Genuine question.

Is there a situation where Dundalk somehow stay up on the field but are refused a premier license?

Could be someone objecting to proposed debt repayment? Or result of irregularities in previous process?

[oriel]

Oh I would say that's very possible, sure how could it not be?

New group are ensuring the ship is afloat until end of season, then the debt needs to be tackled, I would say there are only two options then.

1/ New group with assistance of the bid that didn't get it (seems to be Donal Greene - Slovakia based but ex player) pays off or does deals with all debt. Possible chance of PD licence, but I wouldn't be surprised if refused.

2/ No deal to be done on the debt, and its immediate SCARP, and FD regardless.

[oriel]

From my understanding... the 90s was the darkest of dark times for the LOI.

The great Shels team marked a revival - which crashed again at the end of the celtic tiger.

Just a side note... the Paul Cook Sligo team did so much for the way the league played football too. Probably one of the understated pioneers of LOI for me.

Early 90's economically Ireland was in a terrible state, actually add in all of the 80's too. Remove rose tinted Italia 90 glasses, those of age, and skip to 1991, I think it was the highest modern day unemployment figures with 21 or 22% not having jobs. I don't think it was around then, but that would have immediately triggered a bail out like we got in 2008-09?, just as well Celtic tiger started around 96 or so, as we were heading into the abyss.

I worked in UK for 4 years early 90's, I'd say 1 in 3 of my school year all ended up leaving the country around that time, so we had far less money and less people spending, paying into a football match was a choice many just couldn't afford.

[nigel-harps1954]

The circus continues, as in his first week, the new owner can't pay the wages.

[Nesta99]

Its a deferral supposedly based on the fact the the takeover was only completed yesterday. Expected really while transfer of bank accounts to authorise payments has to be done. Stiil it does look at face value as more messing.

[oriel]

The circus continues, as in his first week, the new owner can't pay the wages.

Players offered to defer wages even before the deadline had come into play on Monday.

This is not a case of 'can't pay' its more the situation where he has been upfront with the players, held a meeting and told them this week won't be paid but they will be fully paid up to end of October, and back dated for this week, probably in the next salary sent.

To be fair today is only the second full day of the takeover, that said the optics admittedly do not look good on the headline story.

[Another Bohemia]

Players offered to defer wages even before the deadline had come into play on Monday.

This is not a case of 'can't pay' its more the situation where he has been upfront with the players, held a meeting and told them this week won't be paid but they will be fully paid up to end of October, and back dated for this week, probably in the next salary sent.

To be fair today is only the second full day of the takeover, that said the optics admittedly do not look good on the headline story.

I'm reminded of a quote "when you look at someone through rose coloured glasses, all the red flags just look like flags"

I'm not saying it's unreasonable to have some delay in payment when there's a sudden change of ownership but keep in mind it's already been noted that they are looking for other investors and speaking with the consortium they beat out for ownership. As fans I hope ye just keep the fundraising efforts going in the background because whether these lads have their hearts on the right place or not money is needed in the end to keep the show on the road.

[oriel]

No rose tinted from me, I fully accept DFC are still in the fight of their lives.

We have come off life support that's all, but still in a critical state. Honest interview here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyEKXwj76Tc

[Nesta99]

There could be a bit more in the tank than is being said, talk about viability as a call for fans to show that it is, **** or get off the pot stuff. A home game this week would have been ideal as both a guage of committment from the fanbase and some cash in for immediate costs. Should be the same next week but would have been good to see the impact of the scare immediately. Maybe the first thing that could be done is release tickets for next week for sale and see how many will be through the gates. Less than 3k and its done, it should be like last game winner takes all type attendance ie sold out. Then its looking at season ticket sales for next season imo should be considered before eason end, and all the various other initiatives being scarambled to put together over the closed season.

[Longfordian]

What does viable mean in this context though? At its current level? As a LOI club on a much lower budget? I'd imagine, as is the case with a lot of clubs, that the former isn't going to be viable without someone putting a lot of money in every year. The latter is probably viable if there's a deal done on the debts.

[Nesta99]

Viabe = being able to exist in any form so bottom of Div 1 as a starting point.

[Longfordian]

If your owners agree with that then you should be OK whenever they sit down to assess things. If the players and Revenue are paid then the other creditors should be amenable to doing a deal to allow the club to continue even if they're paid over a longer term.