Al B

I like Darren Smith, think he's got the potential to be a decent wee player at our level. Similarly I think Chris Humphrey has to do a lot more to become genuinely valuable to the team...he's nowhere near a starting place yet. In saying that though, Darren Smith would never even have spotted the ball Humphrey bent round the defender onto Jamie Murphy's chest at Tynecastle the other day...let alone have been able to execute it.

X = 10 bucks a pop + (end of season + good weather) x chance to clinch Europe. Find X. (show working). X = 10 bucks a pop + fans in a great mood x chance to clinch Europe X = Big Crowd x chance to clinch Europe X = Fucked.

If I wear my Motherwell top to 5's on Thursday, can I get put on the Official site if we win?

Read a bit about that Molde Stadium. It cost 25 million, and was financed, built and given to the club and the city as a gift by 2 of Norway's richest men as it's their hometown. When it was first built the lower tier behind each goal was left as terracing, but has since been filled with seating.

Giles in his best game for us so far I think. Looked like the player he was in the first few games of the season.

Indeed. I've got it all laid out as a proper business model etc somewhere using real figures, and could do a presentation on it if asked (ahem Dempster )...but no-ones bothered enough to listen. And THATS football's biggest problem.

I've spoken about it on a few threads recently, and went into detail in an almost business-plan style on the old welltrust site. In summary though...here's my thoughts. The main problem for me is that every single club is loathe to change on an individual basis, because no-one else is. They think that for Scottish football to change, it has to be done as a whole, on a huge scale. Thats the initial mistake that everyone is making. What's needed is a complete change to the angle of approach, and realising that what would benefit us most as Motherwell Football Club, is actually if we were the only one to do it, and then use that to our advantage. The main aspect causing the issues, is that the price is too high for the product you get...it's fairly simple. Scottish football as a whole see's this as a problem, but there's an opportunity for an individual club to see it not as a problem, but as an opportunity. A gap in the market if you like.... Any club seeing this opportunity though, then goes on to veto it because theres no guarantee that a price drop will bring their own fans back. Which is the secondary problem. Each club, when they look at initiatives...look at ways to bring their own fans back. Thats not what the gap in the market is...you're finding it, and then ignoring it. The opportunity has nothing to do with Motherwell tempting back Motherwell fans, or Killie tempting back Killie fans etc etc. The opportunity is a football club tempting back football fans. (note: im not saying converting fans to become fans of their club...im saying giving fans a reason to return to football). As far as home fans are concerned, drop prices too much and you don't make enough to cover the shortfall. Don't drop prices enough, and you aren't maximizing the potential of the opportunity. There is however, a pivot point at which the amount of money you take off the entry price, is balanced out by the amount of extra customers that generates. This relates to another problem....clubs veto this because they can't see themselves being able to attract enough extra people to make it possible to make any more money. That's probably correct....but it's also the problem. Stop trying to make more money. You're not looking for change to make more money...you're looking to make change to improve things. If you're looking for the pivot point where you can make more money from cheaper prices...you'll be looking for the rest of time, and thats why it has never worked. Look for the pivot point where you make the same total money from more people, and you'll find it pretty quickly. From a football point of view (figures obviously wrong just for ease of the example), its better to make £100,000 from 7000 people, than it is to make £100,000 from 4000 people. Same amount of gate money...but 3000 more people spending money within the ground over and above the entry price. As I touched on earlier, even at this stage the idea would be veto'd because "it doesn't matter how much you drop the prices, it won't lift the Motherwell core support by 3000". That's possibly correct. But.... This is where you need to think bigger, and realise something very obvious. That extra 3000 on the total gate doesn't come just from Motherwell fans. Remember the new goal that this revolves around...being the club that attracts football fans back to the game. The word Motherwell isn't even in there, and it's naive to overlook the importance of the role that visiting/away fans from other clubs can make to your own club. Again figures are just to illustrate the point, but if Hibs (for example), were to announce that for the next 3 years, adult entry into Easter Road will be £15 across the board, would you go? Im pretty sure i'd be making a point of it. Everyone has cut down away games and many don't go at all now, but a fair amount of those people would be earmarking Hibs Away as a definate at the start of each season. (Look at the amount of fans we take to Tynecastle with all their pricing initiatives, compared to the amount we take 10 minutes away from that in Leith). Hell that would encourage people who don't even go to home games anymore to attend a Motherwell game, even though it's an away fixture. So we adopt that approach and we corner the football fans desire to go to football to see their team (regardless of what team that is), and we pro-actively remove the reason why they currently dont. That way aside from the benefits to home fans, if you made the announcement that for the next 3 years Adult entry into Fir Park was £15, you would instantly become the away game of choice for fans of every club in the country. As soon as the fixtures were announced at the start of a season, every single SPL clubs fans would be looking at it saying "right where are the Motherwell away games...it's those, and then whatever else I can afford". Hey presto, very quickly you are looking at crowds of 6/7/8 thousand on a week-to-week basis...purely because you're not trying to make more money out of it. Find the pivot point. Same total profit from more individual customers. Bigger crowds (home fans and away fans), happier crowds (paying less individually), infinately better atmosphere as a result of those first two, and happier players as a result of those first three..... And all because you've taken steps to actually improve things, rather than trying to make money while dressing it up under the charade of improving things. Lo-and-behold....those extra people might just spend some money in the ground as well, and you end up getting the extra green that you wanted in the first place!!

Thing is though, Scottish football is bottoming out....the only two paths it can take now, is change...or die. If it dies, then it doesn't matter what we do as we'll die with it. If the powers that be are sensible enough to take the change path however...fans WILL come back. People are dying to go to football but at the moment it's not worth it and theres no point. Give them a reason to however, and the game as a whole in this country will see a resurgence. (relative obviously....im not talking about Motherwell v Killie pulling 12,000 people). As I say though...its either change or die for the game. Die, and it doesn't matter anyway, so that only leaves change. If that happens...we'd be foolish to have not speculated the possibility, and acted accordingly when we had the chance.

Just with the intention of giving my own view on the points you've raised, and not intended as a "picking at your points" response at all....

Thing is though, if your maximum capacity is 7-8000 as you're suggesting, you're not giving us a chance for you to be wrong because even if you are theres nothing we can do about it because theres no more room and we've shot ourselves in the foot by being overly cautious.

Why would any employee (not just Tom Hately), not be 100% correct in stalling on a new contract if their place of employment was a complete shambles, and absolutely affecting their ability to do their job (which I think even the most defensive of 'well fans now can't deny). "Im willing to stay but only if im working in conditions where I can do my job, and comparable to where I can get work elsewhere." Fair play to the lad if it's true.

Well if it's different you want, "The Wall" is what you can do with a little bit of imagination!! Currently being built in Qatar at a total cost of around 13 million quid (just a couple more than St Mirren Park!!), and a capacity of 11,000 (ideal!!)... Designed and built by MZ & Partners. Folk would come from all over the country just to look at it!

Fantastic post, and almost exactly my own opinion. Thing is also, it's not just home fans. If it was a blanket £15 for an Adult to get into Easter Road, would you go? Would your Motherwell-supporting mates go? Would your Killie/Falkirk/St Mirren-supporting mates go? Damn right. If your tickets were £15 across the board for an adult, not only would you encourage home fans back...but you would INSTANTLY become the away game of choice for every fan of every club that wants to attend football. All over the country you'd hear "I don't go to away games anymore, except Fir Park". Not only do you NOT NEED the other clubs to lower their prices in order to do it ourselves...you're actually using it to your advantage by attracting their fans!! Not from the point of view of trying to convert them to 'well fans...but simply as I said, making an away game at Fir Park the first one on your "to-do" list for the season. We'd actually BENEFIT from the other clubs keeping their prices up. If we're the only club doing it, then we're the only club that fans will go out of their way to visit. Fans are DYING to go to the football, not Motherwell fans specifically....just football fans. Someone just has to give them a reason to, and that could be us if we had the balls.

How long do you have to punch above your weight, before that becomes your weight?

Hum.... ...ped. 4-1 United.

Michael Frazer is about 3 or 4 inches taller than Mark Reynolds, and taller than everyone at the club bar Ruddy.

No, it's just a green and yellow bus...

Greg Strong and Andy Dow would certainly agree with you....

Mixing Ross Forbes with Yassin Moutaoukil, you'd get Giles Coke.

The "real" Nike wouldn't even look at a club like us, and their off-the-peg catalogue stuff doesn't come in our colours, and certainly couldn't have any kind of hoop or band.

Whats with the big burnt perfect circle on the edge of the Cooper-end 6-yard box??

Really?

So let me get this right. One save doesn't make you a good keeper, but one mistake makes you a shite one? Edit to add - Losing to Llanelli had fuck all to do with Michael Fraser anyway.

I'm keekin ma breeks about tomorrow! Don't have a good feeling...but i've said that since January so heres hoping for more of the same!

Right enough. The American thing made me forget the Everton part.