Season Tickets + Resignation Confirmation

[IBM]

I am still sitting on the fence but we have till the end of the month at the reduced rate so there might be more news in the next two weeks.

Two club statements today so looks like Gordon Fyfe has got the password from Scot Gardiner todo the press release so there might be more soon 

[CaleyHedgehog]

25 minutes ago, IBM said:

I am still sitting on the fence but we have till the end of the month at the reduced rate so there might be more news in the next two weeks.

We've always bought our season tickets early at the reduced rate, but at present I feel that for the sake of £15, I would rather wait until there are a few more certainties.

[roby]

Why has an earlier post today by me been removed ?

[tm4tj]

Check if its in amongst the merged posts which might not be in chronological order.

My bad!

What did it say roby?

[Ken Ross]

43 minutes ago, IcyT said:

That’s fine, Ken - we all respect your view, I’m sure. However, many will not be in a position to throw £300 away as the case might turn out to be. Yes, Morrison and Gardiner out, and Kelty off, were original demands - plus better, watchable football would be a plus. But then the club raised administration as a real concern, noting they were seeking advice of an insolvency practitioner. So the goalposts will have moved for many. Now they also want a better understanding of where the club is going; what is the plan for survival. Would their season ticket money go towards the club or simply to its creditors in a winding-up.

Hopefully there is substance to this talk of “investors”, or is it just talk like so many times before?

I  can’t disagree with anything you have written and as we both know it will be up to the individual. Hopefully we have received a fee for Harper with maybe some add ons as well and this will help keep the lights on for a wee while.

In the statement it said the team will be highland based and allegedly consist of local talent so the plan for the future should be based around developing our own players and hopefully moving on the “stars” for fees. In the past too many have left with not a penny coming back to the club. Alan Savage has secured  the Academy for the foreseeable future so that would seem to be a plan coming together.

If David Witherspoon wanted to train twice a week in Inverness and keep fit with St Johnstone the other  3 days I would be open minded to that sort of arrangement for the right player.

 

[+DoofersDad]

The statement from the club today may not contain all we would like to hear and it may have the emphasis all wrong, but it brings much better news than we feared.  The most positive part of the statement is the reference to "hugely positive discussions currently ongoing with a number of potential new investors".  This suggests there are at least 2, and probably more, people ready and willing to put sufficient money into the club to save it from administration and that the discussions are pretty advanced.

It really is important to acknowledge that these kind of negotiations are usually very difficult.  Those willing to invest will not be wanting to throw their money into a bottomless pit.  They will want to put conditions on their investment such as who is on the Board of Directors and who isn't; what the football model should be; what the management structure should be; how the finances are structured; what the relationship with supporters bodies should be etc.  Crucially, they will want to know how much, if any, of the loans made to the club by the former chairman and other directors they expect to get back.  Different potential investors and the current Board will have different views on these topics and somehow, they need to reach a consensus which they are all happy enough with before new investors will commit.  I don't think the statement would have been released with such positive wording unless they were agreed in principle about the way forward.

It is encouraging that the Supporters Trust have been in dialogue with the club during this time.  However, just like any other party involved in negotiations, they need to respect the positions of others and be prepared to compromise.  Fans wanted the Kelty scheme scrapped: it has been scrapped.  Fans wanted the Chairman gone; he's gone.  Fans wanted the CEO out: he's resigned and if not quite gone, he's going.  It is therefore perfectly reasonable that the club and potential investors will expect the Trust to give them something back.  That something is what the Trust has put in their statement.  Yes the message is different from that made after the meeting in the Caley Club, but so it should be!  The situation is radically changed from then, and it has changed because people were rallying round the Trust to give a united message.  That message has been listened to and acted upon.  I think the Trust have been doing a brilliant job in what is probably the most difficult period in the club's history.

The potential investors may be willing to inject money into the club, but they probably don't have £500k sitting in a bank account.  They will need to liquidate some assets to release lump sums or perhaps they are only able to inject money in installments.  Meanwhile, bills have to be paid and staff need to be paid.  Clearly, sales of season tickets and merchandise will help the cash flow.  I fully understand the reticence many fans have in parting with money now.  We all have good reason not to trust the club and for some, the purchase of a season ticket is a much bigger commitment than for others.  Personally, I think it will be strategically good for some people to respond positively to the call to buy tickets and for others to hold back.  It will give the club the message that the fans are acknowledging the progress being made but that further evidence of progress needs to be demonstrated.  The message to the club will be that  the fans are giving you some money but you will get more money when more assurances are given that the club's future is secure.  The message to the fans effectively remains the same - it is a personal choice.

[cif73]

1 hour ago, DoofersDad said:

Personally, I think it will be strategically good for some people to respond positively to the call to buy tickets and for others to hold back

The only thing I disagree with in an otherwise truly excellent post. I think the time has come for fans, who love the club, who genuinely want a club around still to support, to renew season tickets and buy merchandise again. 

The club has been and still is in an existential crisis. It should be fully appreciated that It had suffered losses in several millions ... millions ... before Morrison and Gardiner had even entered the stage. It had been propped up by a series of benefactors who generously committed to equity in the main more than debt. Any informed reader of the publicly available annual accounts can decipher that fairly easily. 

To withhold while Gardiner is working his notice is utter foolishness. He has made mistakes but in the immediate / short term, we desperately need someone available / on hand who has had a central working knowledge of the organisation to facilitate the changing of the guard/restructuring phase. 

I, for one, will not stand by inactive and watch my club die. 

Season ticket renewed.

[buckett]

I just hope we are not being too willing to snatch onto what seems like good news, understandable after the series of disasters we've just suffered.

The story about potential investors isn't new - we've heard this one before.

The statement seems to be very cautiously worded, and still we're not clear about whether administration is happening or not.

It says a few things but I'm a little concerned about what it doesn't say.

Are they playing the Supporters' Trust??

Let's be optimistic. But cautious in our optimism!

[CaleyCiuin]

What has NOT been said……. Is the we HAVE new investors, we HAVE a team in place and we HAVE current / new manager in place to move forward. What is it our season ticket money is paying for. People are right to be cautious given the current and ongoing shambles !!!!!!

Edited Friday at 09:01 PM by CaleyCiuin

[+Fraz]

3 hours ago, Ken Ross said:

So Morrison has gone, Gardiner is going and Kelty is dead in the water. If I remember correctly those were the three main demands from the supporters in this forum and also the wider community. To get Ferguson out at this moment in time will cost a fortune that we just don’t have currently.
I too am frustrated that we don’t have all the information we could have but I also remember being totally misled by Gardiner and his pals when they announced plans and cash windfalls as facts long before they were signed and sealed, so if the board aren’t giving much away just now maybe just maybe they are waiting until the deals are done and signed and written in stone before they announce what’s happening .

If we don’t buy our season tickets and merchandise then we all know what will happen. I’d rather lose money trying to keep the club alive than have the money in the bank and sod all to do on a Saturday afternoon. 
Doubt I’ll make many friends with this but it’s way I see it.

 

If I recall most weren't asking for Morrison to go. Gardiner certainly and he hasn't gone, he's still there. I have asked the club how long his notice is and told that it's confidential . Kelty too once it was announced 3 weeks ago has gone yeah, but they deserve absolutely no credit for that as it was an absolutely ludicrous idea that if like any normal club had even a modicum of communication with their fans would know. Ferguson should walk for his abject failure and having the brass neck of being paid £240,000 in the Championship but then why should he when the custodians of our apparently skint club have offered that disgusting amount.

I won't be giving a penny until Gardiner is GONE and there are assurances that our accounts are in order and submitted. The fact that my season ticket is more expensive this year after relegation plus after their announcement which shows no accountability nor apology has not softened my view. 

15 year season ticket holder and I'm not rich enough to throw way £400 on a whim and have plenty things I could do on a Saturday afternoon between my coaching and family duties. 

[Ken Ross]

There were many calls for Morrison to go mainly because he employed , defended and trusted Gardiner.Gardiner will go and the details of his contract will be confidential as  would any contract covered by the notorious GDPR regulations. Nobody was giving the board credit for cancelling Kelty,.the credit goes to the pressure put on the board by the Trust , the fans and forums like this. I agree if Ferguson had any kind of morality he would be gone and his utter absence in all of this makes me wonder about what his future is. Someone earlier put forward that a drip feed of season ticket money might not be a bad thing to keep the board on their toes. I hope we are both satisfied sooner rather than later.

When and how you spend your money is entirely up to you .

[STFU]

22 hours ago, cif73 said:

The club has been and still is in an existential crisis. It should be fully appreciated that It had suffered losses in several millions ... millions ... before Morrison and Gardiner had even entered the stage. It had been propped up by a series of benefactors who generously committed to equity in the main more than debt. Any informed reader of the publicly available annual accounts can decipher that fairly easily. 

What you say is true but it's not the whole story.

Directors putting money in previously have done so to cover losses they were responsible for/willing to cover.  They knew they weren't getting it back and it never put to club at risk financially.  Other things did in earlier years such as Stadium costs, but people stepped in to remove that risk.  Whatever are thoughts on any of them protecting the club was always the priority.

Ross Morrison was different insofar as he was putting money in expecting (needing?) to get it back.  He is the first Director to put a charge in place to cover loans given.  It is those securities which are likely to be the biggest barrier to investment at the moment.

If he didn't have the money to burn and nobody else was going to cover losses then he should have been cutting costs and ensuring existing income streams were secure in order to get the club into a financially stable position.

Everyone knows what happened instead and it doesn't need going over again. 

Looking at accounts the club had next to no debt when he took the reins.  Now we have at least £300k of non-director debt and at least £1.5 million of secured debt.

[Yngwie]

Pretty fair summary I think, other than when he took over in the summer of 2019 we were already a bit of a financial basket case, losing huge sums in the Championship including a whopping £0.9m for 18/19. The club had debts of £1.9m at the end of 18/19 including £0.8m of loans from directors, and the accounts only met the going concern requirement because of formal commitments from shareholders to provide further loans.

He inherited a financial mess, kept us going with a very competitive team chasing promotion for several seasons, fell short, then left us in a worse mess, on and off the pitch.