Is there any money to come in from past transfers?
The CEO again took the mic, 'Well, if we are talking about Craig Forsyth, you have six of the biggest Watford fans in the world sitting here at this table. There are add-ons in Craig's
contract, although we cannot control them. There is one in relation to the number of games
he plays, and he is nearly there, I think five or six games away from one of the bonuses
kicking in, if he is picked for Scotland there is another bonus, and a couple of other things, if
they were to get promoted, if they make the play offs, but that's all we have, if that's what you
are talking about, but obviously we cannot control that.'
Can individual fans or even groups of fans now buy shares, and would there be a lower limit
on how much cash it would take?
Scot passed this on to Fraser, 'In terms of supporters clubs, it was actually announced on Saturday at the supporters clubs meeting that the Capital Dark Blues have agreed to put in
another two thousand pounds, which takes their shareholding up to 750 thousand shares,
with another couple of clubs at that meeting indicating that they would be interested in
buying shares as well. So whether it is a supporters club, or an individual, I would be very
interested to hear from any of you that would like to do that. Obviously there was an
investment of a five figure sum recently for shares, and some people were making enquiries
about that, during administration, saying could we buy shares, and obviously it was not the
case during administration, but now if anyone did want to make a private application for
shares, get in touch with myself or anybody else on the Board, or Scot, and we would be
happy to talk to you about that. I think about a thousand pounds sounds reasonable for a
lower limit.'
Scot, would there be any chance of you using your contacts in football to organise a lucrative
game here?
The CEO obviously answered this one.
'We are absolutely talking to contacts I have in the game, contacts Barry has in the game with regard to matches, we are planning a commemorative game to mark the 62 title win, we
are also talking to some other football clubs. We don't foresee any problems in arranging
these games, but we have to make it as attractive as possible. There are two reasons for that,
the more attractive the game, the more money you will make, it is quite expensive to bring
some teams in, you read how Celtic and Rangers charge absolute fortunes because of the
amount of support they bring, but we are looking at contacts that we have, just on that, even
if they are away fans coming to Dundee, and not necessarily to play us, we are looking at
utilising our stadium or that, and I am using my contacts for that as well. But believe me, we
are looking at matches.'
Are their ways to open up Dens Park to the public, as a venue for various functions? And
where does for example, Snow patrol fit into that?
'Before I even started here, Maurice (Kidd) had contacted me with regard to putting on concerts. I have been involved in the past with some big concerts, at Ibrox, particularly
Frank Sinatra, Rod Stewart, Billy Joel, Elton John and Bon Jovi. I was amazed to find out
there had never been a concert at any of the two stadiums in Dundee. Maurice has gone quite
far down the line with regards a concert being held here over a weekend, or two days, but as
you can imagine, it can be quite expensive, although it can also be quite lucrative. We are
unable to make many mistakes as we have said, so we have to analyse it, and make sure that
any concert that we do look at is the right one for us.'
'But Maurice worked fairly tirelessly for a while on this, and we are, it's quite probable that we have just missed the boat for this summer, however we have already started, Jim
Thomson, myself and Maurice have started the process of getting a license for a concert. Jim
Thomson, again one of the diamonds that we have at this club, he has been here twenty years,
in various different ways, there is not a lot he doesn't know, there is not a lot of people he
doesn't know, but we are actively working, it's a fair question, on concerts. Snow Patrol,
obviously we would love to have them, but we need to get our license first. What we are also
looking at is utilising all of the lounges that we have, for weddings, funerals etc., we have to
make the stadium work a wee bit harder for us, we have a fantastic facility here, and we will
be making it work harder for us in the future, we just can't click our fingers. Maurice, do you
want to add to that?'
Maurice then took over, 'Yes. Just on the concert thing, when you have a football stadium, you are tied to a very short window of time when you can actually hold a concert. We were
unfortunate that we were offered a couple of acts, but because of the dates they supplied, we
missed out on. We are, and have been talking to one of the major promoters in the UK, and
we are going to have further discussions hopefully in the next month or two, and Scot will be
involved in those now. It looks like it is too late for this year, but hopefully we will do
something in 2013.'
'Also, regarding the use of the stadium, we hope at the end of this season, we are looking at Sunday 13th of May, we are looking to hold a family fun day, there will be attractions on the
pitch, on the concourses, hopefully the lounges will be open, maybe have some bands on. The
attractions on the pitch will be for kids and adults, and we would hope to get a good turnout
for that, and I think it could be quite a good fundraiser on the day as well. So we are looking
at a load of different ways we can use the stadium.'
Scot was soon back on the mic for this question.
Is the £100,000 from a new investor, or someone who has previously invested?
'Well the hundred thousand is new, we never had it last Thursday, but has he put money in
the club before, yes, but this hundred thousand is new.'
Source: FOOTYMAD
