I believe one action coming off the back of CTWD's meeting with City officials was to come up with alternative ways of generating additional income. Have any proposals been put forward to the club?
If they were asked to provide alternatives to the name change then they'd need to know how much funding is expected to come from the name change so they knew what scale to work on. Until something is produced showing how much that's worth it'd be daft to go putting things in. I mean as a group I don't think they're expecting the name change to make much difference to income, so a few small ideas would do, but you don't want to submit them if the club has paperwork saying they're going to make an extra £100M by doing it. What strikes me as odd though is it was reported that they be put forward as alternatives. Unless one of the plans ruled out a name change why wouldn't the club want to pursue every marketing idea CTWD came up with as well as the rebrand?
My idea was to stop the name change and the costs associated with it, in turn savings us thousands in the long term.
There are several different approaches to raising investment available. Major investment by individuals: Believe it or not there are not that many people with the odd 60m just waiting to invest in a football club. Consortium's: Again not that many willing to take a risk, whilst the amounts may be lower the risk increases as each member is reliant on the others. Fans Shareholding: Very difficult. It takes time to get the right form of Supporters Trust set up. Using an existing supporters trust is fraught with difficulties. The take up has to be massive. Pledges are difficult to recover and out of 10,000 applicants for membership only 15% will pay any money into a scheme. There are significant issues around any investment in Hull City: The club lacks substantial assets It is in the PL and lacks financial reserves. The clubs cash flow must be difficult to manage. The current division IS putting off investors The only way forward is to work together. The Stadium is as big a problem as any name change. Get this wrong and the club folds. If the Stadium is listed as a "Community Asset" it can be purchased at a lower price, but it also will always be difficult to raise finance against it, beyond what is needed to improve its capacity (like putting an extension on a house the improvement adds value which in turn increases the amount of finance available). If the Stadium is not listed as a "Community Asset" it will cost more to buy, but it could be used to fund a bigger project and that is a high risk strategy. The only way forward is to work together. A way forward could be that partial ownership of the club via a Supporters Trust as well as a Supporter, Club and Council development partnership. Investment in major projects that provide sports based developments alongside hotels and retail parks. All developed with the wider aim of creating employment, providing education, training and facilities that benefit the local and regional area. This means looking beyond the environs of the KC Stadium. It means engaging with the club, university and the people of not just Hull, the East Riding as well. This cannot be achieved in the current climate. CTWD cannot be supported by Supporters Direct as they are a single issue group. The HCOSC cannot change into a Supporters Trust. The Tigers Co-op will need significant changes to be made to its constitution. The clubs owners have to consider the fact that the name change is not of benefit to anyone at the moment. The council have to learn that respect can be lost so easily in business and that commerce is not politics. Supporters have to be involved and that starts by becoming involved and not just sitting back and letting someone else do the work whilst you take the piss. We are at a turning point, right now and its time that everyone focused on the one thing that everyone wants, a successful and secure club that we can all be proud to be a part of.
