Sons' sorrow

[Nowhereman]

When any club is taken over there is usually a bit of a fanfare and an announcement of intentions from the new owners. There would have been work going on behind the scenes for a few months before the takeover was finally completed. The new owners have had ample time to prepare a statement but have clearly chosen not to Their silence suggests to me that they do not have anything positive to say

[Jan Vojáček]

1 minute ago, optimistic said:

Social media boycott suits dfc this weekend past

And as for engaging with the fans.....

I suppose this is where we have to break DFC from the new owners.

You're assuming here that the DFC media people knew about this in advance of the social media boycott and didn't find out about it at half 7 on Friday night, out of the blue, when they were just out the shower.

The new owners have to come out and introduce themselves and their intentions. I know for a fact that what went on the website on Friday was literally all the information available at the time.

Now you can argue that we should've heard more since then, but until the new owners communicate with the club's media guys there isn't much else that can be said by the volunteers who run the social media channels.

[the snudge]

We might be more receptive to a move if the new owners came out and said,

"yeah we want the land to turn a profit but in the meantime we will build an adequate ground, and invest in the playing side of the club"

That'd be a partnership I could be potentially onboard with

 

[O'Kelly Isley III]

13 minutes ago, Nowhereman said:

When any club is taken over there is usually a bit of a fanfare and an announcement of intentions from the new owners. There would have been work going on behind the scenes for a few months before the takeover was finally completed. The new owners have had ample time to prepare a statement but have clearly chosen not to Their silence suggests to me that they do not have anything positive to say

Mother of God.  We've waited years to rid ourselves of Brabco, so for the next few days let us all fill our heads with hallucinations that perhaps, just perhaps, there may be better days ahead.  And yes, we know Andy Hosie is still in the frame, but maybe he is not directly involved.  And yes, we also now have at least one architect on the Board - does that automatically in itself spell impending doom ?  What matters is not glossy press releases or PR schmooze, but getting the new guys across the table and beginning the dialogue.  And I can tell you that effort is under way.

[optimistic]

I suppose this is where we have to break DFC from the new owners.
You're assuming here that the DFC media people knew about this in advance of the social media boycott and didn't find out about it at half 7 on Friday night, out of the blue, when they were just out the shower.
The new owners have to come out and introduce themselves and their intentions. I know for a fact that what went on the website on Friday was literally all the information available at the time.
Now you can argue that we should've heard more since then, but until the new owners communicate with the club's media guys there isn't much else that can be said by the volunteers who run the social media channels.

What I meant, was that, they can gauge fan opinion, before coming up with the appropriate statement

[George Parr]

I suppose the problem with the absence of any substantive detail in the announcement is it invites all of us and the wider fanbase to speculate and start trying to put the pieces together ourselves. And when one of those pieces is 'More Homes DFC' then I completely understand the growing anxiety.

My sense is this deal has been done neither through any particular love of Dumbarton football club, nor exclusively with a view to liquadation and realisation of the land value. The latter just doesn't seem worth the hassle. I guess we will find out in the coming weeks but I suspect the true intention lies somewhere inbetween. 

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

14 hours ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

What the new owners have to say is of sufficient importance to me that I'm willing to wait until they have a comprehensive statement to make.  Aggreko was taken over last week and the workers were told it will likely be months before the new ownership  fully kicks in.  For all we know there may be legal and regulatory aspects to be dealt, never mind the SFA and SPFL, so I think we need to bide our time.

Having said that I really hope that the DFC Board will emphasise the need for restoring trust and belief in a support base utterly demoralised by the Brabco reign, and I would hope and expect that we are not about to witness a repeat of that experience.

On the football side, future changes are a given but it is what it is for what remains of this season and that should be completely divorced from the takeover.

My concerns are around the fact our chairman has yet to provide any sort of an update, something I’d have expected to happen fairly quickly after the takeover was announced, if not a small statement from him when it was announced. I do however find the silence from the new owners conerning as well.

[BallochSonsFan]

I wouldn't be specifically concerned at a lack of anything substantial from the club right now. Given the disconnect between Brabco and the DFC board in the past couple of years, the deal would have been done between Brabco and the new owners with little input from the club board and little regard to disclosing it. If it's the deal that Brabco have been working on for some time then it's been nearly 2 years in the making. That the club aren't in a position to make a big statement to the fans is really just a continuation of the non-existent relationship between Brabco and the DFC board.

If nothing substantial comes out in the next week then I'd be very concerned. Right now? Given the poor relationship between Brabco and DFC directors, this is pretty much what I'd expect. Doesnt mean that I'm not worried about the deal overall. And I'd expect to see strong leadership from the chairman and the board in the coming days. Right now I'd hope that the DFC board are doing what they can to build some very basic and hopefully constructive relationships with the new owners.

[Turnberry Fields Forever]

You sort of wonder if the new guys know exactly what they've bought here.

[The Moonster]

If the deal has been in the making for 2 years then the owners themselves should have plenty to say. They don't. They've been setting up companies which are clearly in line with a plan for our club but we're told nothing. Two of them have joined the board already but we've not bothered to announce even that. These guys may have honest intentions but they are going the wrong way about it. 

[PWL]

Just renewing my Trust membership. Would respectfully suggest as many as possible do likewise. 

[BallochSonsFan]

https://www.dumbartonfootballclub.com/news/?mode=view&id=4877

[optimistic]

Stable championship club/ full time/ new stadium, being the long and short of it

[BallochSonsFan]

Not necessarily ambitions that should be beyond us. Championship football could be possible. Same with a mostly full time playing squad. The gap between ambition and reality right now is massive. Brabco made many of the same claims and ultimately failed to bridge that gap between ambition and reality. It'll be up to the new owners to show us that they can do what Brabco couldn't.

[microdave]

Iirc, the planning permission was refused because of the housing. If we got the go ahead for a new stadium on that site, then where does the money come from?
How do they think we can sustain a full time squad on an average attendance of 6-700? Our highest average in the Championship was 1100 which was skewed by having three of Scotland's biggest teams there.
What will these Scandinavian players be like?
In what way do propose more supporter participation? I can get on board with more supporter participation and ownership of the club, I'm struggling to see how that will happen.
Overall, I'm glad they've released the statement but it only raises more questions.

[The Moonster]

2 minutes ago, BallochSonsFan said:

Not necessarily ambitions that should be beyond us. Championship football could be possible. Same with a mostly full time playing squad. The gap between ambition and reality right now is massive. Brabco made many of the same claims and ultimately failed to bridge that gap between ambition and reality. It'll be up to the new owners to show us that they can do what Brabco couldn't.

I'm not sure how full time football isn't beyond us. We're literally picking up bargain bucket Lowland League players and we think we can somehow bridge the gap to a full time side?

A number of things that concern me about that statement:

1. Henning Kristofferson is taking the lead on football matters. He is a financial businessman with an apparent global network of contacts for football talent. Sounds great, but without knowledge of what it takes to be good in Scotlands 2nd & 3rd tiers, the contacts he has might be utterly useless. It sets off alarm bells for me when you hear "international talent" being brought to a part time 3rd tier side. The sort of thing you promise fans if you are a charlatan, IMO. 

2. "The Hosie family keeping a stake in the club" being dressed up as a brilliant thing, without mentioning that the Hosie involved is a convicted criminal who is banned from directing a company. 

3. Talk of making us full time I think displays the huge misunderstandings about the game up here and in particular the situation Dumbarton and it's fans find themselves in, however I will credit them for avoiding writing such nonsense as "becoming the biggest club in the west of Scotland, outside the Old Firm" like our previous charlatan owners.

4. Plans to reignite the Youngs Farm proposal are just utterly deflating. Interested to know how the f**k they plan on financing it without selling houses to raise cash. If it is the selling on of young Scandinavian talent then I think I'll call house on Charlatan Bingo.

Struggling to see where this mob make pots of gold out of us with those suggested plans tbh. Selling houses on the current plot won't raise enough for a new stadium and give them a tidy profit. 

 

[Mediocre Pundit]

Two quick questions as an interested observer: first, where is Youngs Farm - is it a good location? And second, what would DFC fans want from a new stadium - I’d assume something like a 1k stand straddling half way line incl. facilities / hospitality plus basic terracing around other three sides would be appropriate - sort of like a purpose built Links Park? Wouldn’t imagine that would be too expensive, which might mean it could be covered (with profit) from sale of current site given how attractive that would be for development.

ETA: this isn’t to downplay concerns - I’d be very worried if the same thing happened at Thistle (and to be fair I’m already worried about our current and proposed ownership structures)

[Cruyff14]

The Hosie family line is quite the bit of spin.

The cynic in me says of Priorities A-F, the only ones that will remain are 50% of D, and 100% of E.

B will be the excuse that leads to D & E.

[lorenzo71]

4 minutes ago, microdave said:

Iirc, the planning permission was refused because of the housing. If we got the go ahead for a new stadium on that site, then where does the money come from?
How do they think we can sustain a full time squad on an average attendance of 6-700? Our highest average in the Championship was 1100 which was skewed by having three of Scotland's biggest teams there.
What will these Scandinavian players be like?
In what way do propose more supporter participation? I can get on board with more supporter participation and ownership of the club, I'm struggling to see how that will happen.
Overall, I'm glad they've released the statement but it only raises more questions.

LIVINGSTON to me are an example of what we could be.They have very few supporters yet are in the top 6 of the PL.How they survived and progressed is beyond me .Staying FT in L1 with crowds below 1000 ,a massive stadium which was always empty to maintain but they did it.We are not a million miles away from what they were.

When Meadowbank became Livi  Jim Leishman went round theschools garnering support which made their stadium a sell-out for many years.Kids who previously supported Rangers/Celtic started to support Livi.We could garner more support by converting kids from grassroots -adults will be very difficult.Possibilities are there but we need people with the invention and enthusiasm to carry it out.We are not talking about thousands here, maybe just a few hundred.Still a lot but doable IMO.

[The Moonster]

3 minutes ago, Mediocre Pundit said:

Two quick questions as an interested observer: first, where is Youngs Farm - is it a good location? And second, what would DFC fans want from a new stadium - I’d assume something like a 1k stand straddling half way line incl. facilities / hospitality plus basic terracing around other three sides would be appropriate - sort of like a purpose built Links Park? Wouldn’t imagine that would be too expensive, which might mean it could be covered (with profit) from sale of current site given how attractive that would be for development.

ETA: this isn’t to downplay concerns - I’d be very worried if the same thing happened at Thistle (and to be fair I’m already worried about our current and proposed ownership structures)

Young Farm is just off the A82 between Dumbarton and Renton. It's not a good location - one train station a 15 minute walk away and poor road access. It is a flood plain which under the previous proposals was stopping us from building further training/5s pitches which could be rented out. Road access is really poor and we'd need to pay for building new access roads. Local farmers have also said their livestock could cause issues with the road as they need to move cattle across it, and they wouldn't be giving a f**k if a game was on at the time.

As for size of the ground, I've always thought Burton Albions ground is the dream for a small club. 2,000 seats with around 4,000 terracing - that's probably bigger than we'll ever need but gives the room for growth. Selling the current land we sit on isn't apparently as fruitful as originally thought due to the work needing done to the ground/soil, but I have no idea what truth there is to that. The previous stadium move proposal involved selling houses on the new development at Youngs Farm as well, so god knows how this mob plan on financing this without that residential development.