Frazzie

What's the thought behind the 50p? Frazzle

Am I not right in saying that the 'Fir Park Club' that was owned by MFC was part of the Main Stand? I'm not really sure. However, I think it would be a good bit of business by the club if they bought the existing premises given that there's not a lot of room for expansion of the stadium. I think they did try in the not too distant past, right enough. Frazzle

You're right, Neil. All the buzz and excitement is quickly fading away, and even my desire to go is now wilting given all the inconvenience it's caused with work and suchlike so far. However, I don't think we should give them the balloon unless we take the costs involved out of their share of the gate. I know they're a cuddly wee pub team, but we've got to look after our own shop first. It's hard enough on us that the last couple of weeks training/preparation has been disrupted, but for us to lose out financially aswell wouldn't be fair. Frazzle

I think the chances of it being playable at 9am then not playable at noon are slim to none. I would say the noon inspection is only if the 9am one is again 'inconclusive'. Frazzle

I didn't really mean that whatever we donated had to physically have our badge on it, but the particular stuff he was asking for wouldn't even have been suitable for a photo opportunity. I can understand the viewpoint that, as the Motherwell Supporters Trust, we shouldn't be declining requests from the club, but I think the line has to be drawn somewhere. But please, be assured that there is some significant MST investment in the club forthcoming and should be confirmed and publicised shortly. Frazzle

This is going no further, either publicly or privately. I've already wasted more time than it's worth on it and I'm now washing my hands of this debate. It's unfair to attempt to engage in a battle of wits with an un-armed opponent. Frazzle

I thought the site and the football team were seperate anyway? Because if the football team have enough money to sponsor three MFC players a season then they wouldn't be asking us for £200! For what it's worth, FirParkCorner FC, as a football team, through our own fundraising (not through randoms having a whip-round) and similar things, have put a four figure sum into Motherwell FC each of the last three seasons, and have also given four figures to charity over the past twelve months. This is without a penny in hand-outs or grants. Given that the MST also commit to supporting the local community aswell as MFC, that is how I could justify putting Trust money into the Corner. Frazzle

I don't want this to become a tittle-tattle between two football teams. We've been there before and gets us nowhere. The three points I made are all completely true, but that's not what we're discussing here. Frazzle

Just spotted that other edit from Brazilian there - Aye, you're right that one of the key functions of the Trust is to support the club, but it's also important to us that Motherwell fans know we're doing it. John Porteous asked for us to purchase items that were very expensive (about £3500 if memory serves me right) and that would never be seen by anyone. I think for that level of investment, it's not unreasonable to want to be able to give something that will be seen with our badge on it. We've provided various pieces of training equiptment (goalposts, etc), but when you start talking about thousands of pounds, it's only reasonable that we should be recognised for it. Frazzle

I'm not for a second saying that you have guys playing for you that don't support Motherwell - I don't know many of the guys in your team so couldn't possibly comment on their alliegances, but we have more players than you and they're all Dossers, therefor... However, that's irrelevant to what we're discussing here. I only used that to point out that I could justify using my position in the MST to benefit FPC but have chosen not to do so, which shows I can leave my FPC hat at the door when Trust matters are involved. Frazzle

In reply to your edit - I absolutely agree. It's not fair that to play for a football team, you have to sign up and pay money to a completely unrelated organisation. I also agree that sponsorring the WTFC, or anyone sponsorring anyone for that matter, should be about promoting your organisation/company/whatever, but that's not happening in this case. How many new members do you think MST gains by people hearing that Matts team is called WTFC? A round figure, I bet. As I've already said, I'm not against sponsorring the team in theory - but the current situation is pointless. Frazzle

I think I've answerred that with my previous post. The only reason I felt I should post was because it was me who 'ignored' the pms. I wouldn't want my colleagues to take the flak for my shortcomings, so I thought I'd put that point straight. Unfortunately, it has snowballed from there. As I've said, I don't want to discuss this much more as it won't do anyone any favours, but I have no agenda against WTFC and would be happy for the Trust to negotiate a more suitable sponsorship deal than the one currently in place, even if it means spending more money on them. Frazzle

Sorry to repeat myself, but there's no agenda on my part. If there was, the MST would be throwing money at FirParkCorner FC and I could easily justify it as we: a) Have more Trust members in our team than WTFC does. b) Have more Motherwell supporters in our team than WTFC does. c) Give more money to Motherwell FC than WTFC does. However, from a Trust point of view, it wouldn't make sense to do that for the same reasons as it doesn't make sense to give money to WTFC - I don't think that the non-MST members in FPC would join up if the Trust did sponsor FPC so there's not enough benefit in it for us (MST). We also declined a request from John Porteous last season as it was too much money for not enough return. As much as we want to support the club (and WTFC for that matter!) there has to be some sort of return from our point of view. To be honest, Onthefringes, I'm surprised you're having a pop at me aswell because when we spoke about this before I thought we had discussed it reasonably and understood each others point of view. Frazzle

On the contrary - you're completely right! Frazzle

Don't think there was anything confidential about that message, to be fair. He did sign it with his real name which I decided to leave off the post. Besides, it was that particular poster who brought the private discussion into the public domain. I do love how constructive you are when you post. You're a real asset to the forum... Frazzle

There's no pot-shots coming from me. It was one of the WTFC who decided to start a public slanging match with us. Last seasons funding was granted when I was on the board. I was absolutely behind it at the time, and it was me who proposed it at the meeting when you had given me the letter. As far as I was aware, that was done and dusted and you had the money in the bank. This thread is the first time it has been raised with us that the cheque hasn't been received - that's a matter for our treasurer, nowt to do with me. The pm I received from Ballso read: "Alright mate Just noticed in the WellBoys thread that the next MST meeting is on Wednesday of this week. Can I ask you to raise the issue of sponsorship for WTFC at the meeting. I believe that you currently contribute £200 annually to our running costs and would like to enquire whether this is still available? " To me, that's a seperate request for more funding. Hee-haw to do with a cheque going missing. So I'd ask you to get your facts right if it's all the same to you. Before this rumbles on any further, I'm not in the slightest bit interested in having a public argument with you - it won't make either of us look big or clever. You've already made me fully aware of your level of integrity in private so I don't intend wasting any more time with you on this petty nonsense. Frazzle

I don't hold any agenda with regards to FPC/WTFC when I'm discussing matters relating to the Trust. I don't understand how you can possibly attempt to take the moral high ground when you are publicly criticising an organisation who throws money at you year after year for no return. There's every chance that you'll still get your funding - all I said was that I won't be supporting it personally. Despite it being a worthless agreement to us, I supported your previous request as I didn't want there to be any conspiracy theories (I know MJ loves them) about myself and Phil being on the board, but now that you're biting the hand that feeds, I'd be against wasting any more money. It's one thing when you don't give us anything in return, but when you attempt to publicly undermine us and further damage our reputation, I don't see why we should be held to ransom by you. Frazzle

I didn't ignore your pm. You must've had three or four replies from me. I don't think you're in a position to be criticising us when you've basically requested something for nothing from us. On the subject of breaking promises, the agreement when your team was formed was that the Trust would support the team financially on the understanding that your players were all Trust members. I could be wrong but I don't think a single member of your team is currently a member, despite the continued financial support from us. I'd call that a broken promise. Your request will be considerred this week, but given that it's basically throwing money into a black hole from our point of view, I'd be voting against it and make no secret of that. Frazzle

It would be great to be able to sustain a full hoop on the shirt every season, but financially it's not possible. Celtic, for example, bring out a near enough identical strip every season and the hordes still buy it. When you're working to a public of (absolute maximum) 10k people, then you need to change it a bit and, over the past few seasons, I've been happy with the variations. Also, it's more expensive to produce a hoop all the way round as I was looking into it for FPC FC. As much as I agree with the comments about the canary yellow, I am also not absolutely keen on the late 80s/early 90s amber shown in the other photo. Even though that was the Motherwell I was brought up watching and all my favourite players wore that shade, I prefer the 'middle-ground' amber that we have now. Frazzle

Anything that Americanises (or is that Americanizes?) football is a bad thing in my opinion. We invented the sport firfuxake. Frazzle

Ditto. Frazzle

As much as it would be a better experience for everyone if we played in Inverurie on a saturday then had St Mirren here during the week, it would not be in the slightest bit convenient for me. Like the poster above, I have a very flexible work, but not a flexible girlfriend (oohh err) so the only date I could not make would be saturday, February 7th. Sods law no doubt will dictate that's when it will be played, and if that's the case then so be it. Frazzle

Claret and amber has been completely bastardised by Motherwell over the years, to be fair. I like the shades that we play in just now but I strongly doubt the Dulux colour chart would have them down as claret and amber. I bought the 1991 cup-winning retro strip the other week and was surprised to see just how orange it was! Frazzle

See you there. Frazzle

Oh well. Can't really complain, I suppose. Frazzle