Muirfield investment?

[caley100]

Nothing has been heard from Muirfield Mills, or the club for that matter regarding the proposed 6 figure investment for quite a while now, and i have been wondering why!

Was all the posturing and so called positive vibes coming from DS just a piece of ' P R ' and did he really encourage new investment? anyway look like the deal is dead and although Orions further sponsorship is welcome it will be used for the day day to day running of the club, not in any way to develop the club from its in reality, poor state.

When i say poor state i can see us no further forward than when we first gained promotion to the SPL and returned to Inverness for our home games, the catering is amateur, the shop is an eyesore, the training ground is a rough field next to the sea 14 miles away from the stadium, whilst it is very prudent to live within our means and not to fall into financial meltdown like some other teams surely we need to create a more professional club and try to increase our fan base.

The crowd on saturday scraped over 3000 which is the lowest league game crowd i have seen there, fair enough the weather played a part in this, and January is always a tough month for most of us, however the trend is decreasing attendances for us and i'm sure the club have seen this.

This season has seen our squad hit by injuries like no other team in the SPL has ever had, long term, short term, recurring injuries its must be so frustrating for the management to plan round this, we will be putting out a pretty makeshift team against Celtic on saturday with Williams not available, Billy Mackay out, Dorran out as well add to this our other players out, Golobart, Shinnie, Hogg, its a crazy situation.

It made me wonder if our poor training set up has anything to do with this problem, we train on a pretty rough field at Fort George with no showering or toilet facilities whatsoever, does this cause an extra strain on the players?

One would think with our chairman being the main land developer in the highlands he might provide some land slightly nearer the stadium to give the team a more professional training set-up, or is the club in the middle of an ego battle and further investment for ICT is not in the plan?

Edited February 2, 2012 by caley100

[ict123]

Yaaaaawwwnnnnn!

[CaleyD]

I believe the (potential) investment is a bit more involved than just throwing some cash into the club and discussions are still ongoing.

Can't argue with your assessment of the clubs progress (or lack thereof), but not convinced that the training facilities etc we use are the cause of the injury glut. Most of our injuries have been caused by heavy challenges and stuff during games and some of them have been things like shoulder injuries and stuff which are just freak scenarios. I actually believe that pampering players too much can cause more problems than expecting them to rough it a little.

Kenny Cameron is club Chairman, and as far a I am aware he is not a land developer....even if he was I don't think it right to just expect him or someone else to just hand over land. Given how much ICT have done to put Inverness on the map, it might be more appropriate to suggest that the City themselves do something to assist the club with a better training surface that's slightly closer to home and has some basic facilities.

[caley100]

Yaaaaawwwnnnnn!

Past yer bedtime sonny?

Anyway, i meant DS Don not Kenny, KC is doing a good job.

What about Muirfield mills though?

[robbylad]

A bit of a glass half empty kind of person, are we?

[caley100]

Nah, not normally, just a supporter wondering where the club is going, not much to ask!

[Tichy_Blacks_Back]

Who or what exactly is 'Muirfield....Mills'?

[Sorted]

The $64 million question?

Is it our very own Craig Whyte? Is it the new Vladamir Romanov? Could we have our very own Roman Abramovich? The options are endless........

Rather than (as usual) having a quiet wee pop at those who are actually involved in the club surely we should be seeking answers from those who want to be involved in the club? Whether we like all that has happened to date or not, the fact remains that all of those involved in the running of our club since inception have taken us from league entry to the SPL within 10 years where we have remained for all but one season. Appreciate not everything in the garden is rosy but for me, it's far from shabby!

Lessons should be learned from the experiences of Hearts and Rangers.

So who are Muirfield Mills and what are their commitments?

If I have missed the announcement I apologise.

[Alex MacLeod]

Muirfield Mills is, I believe, the consortium of America based Inverness exiles who were puting together a six figure deal with conditions. I think the conditions may be the stumbling block in the deal coming to fruition.

[caleyboy]

Believed to be a group of former Inverness Royal Academy pupils (Cade Rats to those of us who attended the old High School) fronted by Richard Smith (their local representative who has been spotted in the Director's Box during the last few games). Hear there are some 'personality clashes' involved so who knows if it will ever happen. If it were old High School boys involved, considering our perceived lack of brains, it would probably been done and dusted by now.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

A bunch of owd Jeggies who are rite up the erse of the housebuilder and have put a Dick at the front. The yanks are also Caddie rats but are the ones with the dosh but also carry a threat.

[Alex MacLeod]

Johndo, you could invest some of you massive pension in the club and take over control of the board.

[caleyboy]

Word has it that they want big R on the board and one or two may not be too keen on the idea.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Johndo, you could invest some of you massive pension in the club and take over control of the board.

I have a wife, children and a grandchild to support = plus the tab at the local.

[caleyboy]

I wonder if we have the money yet. Smithy seems comfortable in the black seats and I haven't seen Sandy Catto for a while.I still feel it strange that £250k buys so much power?

Edited March 1, 2012 by caleyboy

[+DoofersDad]

I wonder if we have the money yet. Smithy seems comfortable in the black seats and I haven't seen Sandy Catto for a while.I still feel it strange that £250k buys so much power?

£249,999 more than Craig Whyte paid.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Best feckin post on the boardroom power struggle investment rumour yet.

[caleyboy]

But does anyone know if we have their money yet?

[caley100]

Bingo....

Muirfield Mills will not hand over money till they are offered shares, and as we have not heard, the deal looks none to clever at the moment.

Mind you, what the feck do we matter, we are just supporters....

Edited March 4, 2012 by caley100

[Alex MacLeod]

The question is.......................was there ever serious investment on offer or are a group of people trying to buy control of the club? A figure of £250,000 was bandied about but that amount would only cover the shortfall on our running costs last season. Gate reciepts give us approx £950,000, based on this seasons average gate of 4,200 and an average price of £15.

The cost to operate the club in 10/11 season was over £3.5 million. Gate reciepts make up a quarter of this so a lot of income has to be gained to balance the books.

Personally I dont see a one off quarter million payment for control of the club being in the long term interest of the business. I'd like to see the sort of investors who can put a decent, competitive team on the field that would be challenging mid to top half of the table year on year. Sadly the people with that sort of cash are in very short supply.

[caley100]

Cast your mind back, when this so called investment was announced, DS was all for welcoming new money and fresh idea's for the club, the sum was £1/4 m from a new group calling themselves Muirfield Mills.

Hardly any time goes past and Orion come up with a renewal of sponsorship for the sum of........ £1/4 m

Now Muirfield Mills is consigned to bar chat in Dallas or Hong Kong or wherever! did DS use this threat of outside investment to flush more money out of Savage?

DS has a stranglehold over ICT is not willing to let anyone else play with his 'toy'

[+DoofersDad]

The one group of people with money we don't hear being talked about investing money in football clubs is footballers. With the kind of pay they are getting they should soon be accumulating enough to make a big difference to a small town team.

On MOTD yesterday they were talking about the value to Arsenal of Van Persie and saying that they would probably need to offer in the region of £200,000 a week for him to stay. They said that this would disrupt the wage structure and if they did that, other established 1st team squad players would be looking for £140 - 150,000. A player investing those sort of sums sensibly could be set up very comfortably for life within the year. They could then have plenty spare to put back into the game.

Wishful thinking, I know. Lining the pockets of the motor manufacturers and pandering to the materialistic whims of their trophy WAGs is far more important then giving something back to game that gave them their fortunes.

As for the mythical Muirfield investment which is going to help secure the future of this club - it is just over one week's pay for Van Persie! Such contrasts sum up for me what is wrong with the world game these days.

[Ten4]

doubt if any wise rich people will be wanting to part with there cash in the debacle that is scottish football

this season rangers going bust

last year the refs going on strike

poor quality entertainment

why would anyone want to invest a lot of money?

[+bughtmaster]

DoofersDad, I fully agree with your sentiments on footballer's wages and lack of giving return to football.

The time to cap football wages is long overdue, pay 'win' bonuses at reasonable levels to give incentives yes, or for bringing on new incentives for investments in the teams they play for, or in providing youth training and encouragement.

Most get their money far too easily Time they gave their supporters something back!!!!

A capping system would be of considerable help to all clubs and cut down the Prima Donna factor so many have.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

One word - oneupmanship.