Monday Nights Meeting with Paul Casson

[Stephen Leonard]

the only downside was the 75% needed to give mr casson the chance to take back our club to where we want it!
is there any way round this i.e. could we change this at the a.g.m.?
if we cant is it 75% of the members in total or75% of people who vote?

steve leonard can you advise?

The 75% is company law in respect of a vote on a special resolution being proposed.

I wont go into a long detailed response about this issue but I can advise that am constantly talking to a firm of Company Law specialists we use to ensure that however a vote is undertaken it is
a) legal
b) allows all members the chance to participate
c) meets the necessary criteria required by the FA should it be approved.

My role in this is not to influence the outcome, but is to ensure the correct legal process is followed so that whatever the outcome it is accepted as being fair by all involved and not subject to any sort of legal arguments which could cause uncertainty for the club.

[Uncle Peter]

As for Number of members, I.don't have the figures to hand. I'll find out for Friday

Sent from my C6903 using Tapatalk

[Holkerbird]

Mr Casson said if we are promoted into the Premier then we would probably go full time and then the players would be expected to live locally. The difference being this time he would be able to afford the funding of this I presume.
I recall the Oxford manager saying he expected his players to live within an hour of the Kassam, although they aren't at the end of the longest cul-de-sac in the world.

[Adam29]

Regards the players living in barrow, think he said that should the club win promotion into the conference then he would want the club to be full time as he felt the conference was a more full time league and that being full time would be important towards moving on in an upward direction. (Holkerbird beat me to it )

Certainly interesting times ahead and you would hope that with the substantial funding available under casson the current bod will as already stated by others give mr casson the thumbs up on Friday.

I honestly feel we would be letting a massive oppertunity to progress slip away if this takeover isn't sanctioned

[pjdaly]

I’m well enough sold on the “genuineness” front with regard to Mr Casson, not simply as a result of last night’s discussions but because of other things I’ve heard prior to last night. However, morbid though it may have seemed, I think the question “what happens if you die?” is a very important one and he did suggest that ownership would likely pass to his own children. Given that Mr Casson wants to honour his own late father with this project we would have to hope that his own children, even if it’s years down the line, would likewise honour him and maintain their future inheritance as Barrow Football Club (and not something else). I am guessing that Mr Casson’s children are adults themselves by now and it would be good to have an insight as to how they feel about this whole thing (we did hear that his wife is right behind it and the ownership would first pass to her if he pre-deceased her). I am also assuming that his children are born and bred Americans (unlike Paul himself) and will have little affiliation to Barrow other than through their Dad’s stories. The bit about opening the club up after a couple of years to some sort of supporters trust was interesting and in due course I’m sure we need to know more about this.

Re the post above about it being unrealistic to have part-time players living here: I would guess that in fact this would only be a consideration if we got promoted and went full-time (he did say that whilst we are in our present league we would remain part-time but would definitely have to go full-time if we got promoted).

It’s good that he recognised that the state of the pitch was of paramount importance and it’s also good that he recognised the importance of the “in-game experience”, even if the Americanism seemed to cause a bit of confusion. He seemed to fully appreciate that things like the toilets, the floodlights, the Holker Street end, the general “wow factor” of the ground and the basic comfort and entertainment value of the whole experience are an important feature of the package. Whether marching pom-pom girls are in the pipeline I do not know but he did recognise importantly that whilst winning was paramount it was important to maintain an appeal to those non-diehards who might float away if the whole feel of the match day experience is not right. He also emphasised family, and the passing down of interest in the club to the young ones and this was spot on.

Mr Casson even ventured so far as to suggest redevelopment of the popular side but perhaps he needs to consider the Crossbar end long before that!

As for concerns over whether every member would cast a vote, I cannot see why this would be a problem. It certainly would be a problem if it was a requirement to attend a meeting to cast a vote but common sense decrees that postal or electronic voting must be allowed in order to recognise the rights of far-flung members, or indeed anybody who could not attend a meeting for any reason. I cannot believe that anybody who has bothered to shell out money to be a member during the hard times of the last twelve months is suddenly not going to bother to take an interest and vote on something as major as this.

There was an element of uncertainty regarding the board; at first he strongly suggested it would be a whole new board but later seemed to semi-retract this idea when quizzed about jettisoning current members who might have a wealth of knowledge and experience; at that point he stated that interviews would be held so as to offer the opportunity for current members to prove themselves.

There was lots of promise in last night’s presentation but obviously still lots for us to yet learn. Surprisingly, for a successful businessman, I actually though he seemed a shade nervous but I guess it’s understandably daunting to face a Barrow AFC rabble. I could not resist the opportunity at the end to let him know that both Peter Bebbington and Fred Else (the two 60’s stars mentioned by him when reflecting on earlier days) still lived in the area and he was amazed to discover this!

[Nigel Bamford]

I wasn't there last night so a couple of questions (OK, four) to those who were:

1) He's talking about spending an awful lot of money - pitch; roof on Holker St end; toilets; players - yet seems to be saying the club should only break-even or turn a small profit. In which case he's unlikely to get his investment back any time soon. Did he indicate that he was prepared to write off that investment?

2) Did he say what would happen if his plans didn't materialise as he hoped?

3) Did he expand on what he meant when saying that he expected to "grow the assets" (as I think someone has reported here) - a rather nebulous bit of corporate-speak.

4)Will members be sent some form of prospectus before the vote?

From all reports the guy's sincerity isn't in question and I hope it comes off but I'm just concerned about what happens if the gloss wears off and things don't work out as he expects.

[Steelworks End]

Whether marching pom-pom girls are in the pipeline I do not know

Please ...... NO, NO, NO.

[Shaun]

I honestly thought he came over well, overall.

He sat there on his own at the centre of the stage and faced all kinds of questions from a packed crowd, and, despite some vague comments (e.g. re improvements to the ground, the pitch, how he wants players, manager and board members to be locally-based, etc) and some ludicrous/outrageous ones (Skype a game from a seat while you're on holiday, etc) and the odd worrying comment (e.g. his obsession with the 'in-game' experience and Dallas Cowboys being a great 'wow-factor' stadium despite the fact they are rubbish on the pitch (not what we want to hear Mr Casson)...he struck me as open and honest and ambitious, AND with the club's best interests at heart.

I just wish he'd have focused MORE on the team and progressing up the table(s) and how he planned to do that, rather than the stuff surrounding the team, and I also think we could have done without a lot of the personal stuff and the cringeworthingly naff videos.

Having said that, I thought his comment about leaving a legacy in his Dad's name was a lovely touch. And, as he outlined the plan he/they had, it was nice to hear him say that "to at least get back there" (The Football League) was the 10 year aim.

All in all, pretty promising stuff.

[Shaun]

To Nigel, to at least try to answer some of your questions:

He talked about how he was in it to get something from it (or words to that effect) and that he had a pretty decent ("lucky") business track record. He was vague about exact finances and on how exactly he would do certain things, but then it is early days, as he said.
The one (financially-related) quote that keeps coming back to me was:

"We either keep what we've got or we take a risk." (He never really properly defined the 'risk' part, though most people seemed to warm to the guy.)

[Chris Benoit]

This 75% vote is a huge stumbling block IMO. I haven't renewed my membership for a while but I think I'll have to now. Might even sign my missus up. At the moment we're getting between 700-1000 fans through the gate, take out the current members and take out the kids and I bet there is a lot of people there, including myself, who aren't members but would possibly have a big influence on the final outcome. I can't see there being more than 4/500 members right now so surely we need to get a bit of pressure on our family/friends/other supporters to try and get the ball rolling.

[blue nige]

all those people "point scoring"

ask yourselves this, what do we have now?

DEBT,DIRECTORS OWED MONEY,NO AVAILABLE CAPITAL TO INVEST IN PLAYERS/INFASTRUCTURE,NO LONG TERM PLAN (APART FROM YOUTH TEAMS)


we either carry on as we are or yes take a chance but unless i win the euros tonight we struggle on,i know which option i prefer!

sometimes in life you have to make an important decision this is one of them,if we don`t take it i honestly don`t know where we are going!

p.s. thanks steve

[John Very Little]

With regard to the voting as all members are entitled to vote I think postal voting will be allowed so that should mean every member gets the opportunity to vote and from my discussions about the constitution I think return of proxy voting is gonna be voted on at the forthcoming AGM.

However I think getting 75% to vote is gonna be the main issue as many people move and forget to let the club know their new address, many are members but aren't that bothered about voting and are happy to just pay the club £20 every year while some members may have died. In addition there may be some members the club don't actually have an address for. As a result every member needs to make sure the club have their up-to-date details.

On the subject of further detail that's required, with regard to ground developments, I presume some of these will have caveats in that he won't re-do certain areas of the ground unless we are in Conf Prem and getting certain crowds for example? Essential things like toilets, re-laying the pitch and the floodlights would be a priority and get done first as the cost of just these alone would be significant?
I get the impression he would raise some cash for other projects by selling some of his shareholding to others who wanted to buy some shares?

[barrowfan]

This 75% vote is a huge stumbling block IMO.

I know one or two have said this but why?

Overall there is a very positive attitude on this forum and people I've spoken to this morning say it's a no-brainer!

[Chris Benoit]

This 75% vote is a huge stumbling block IMO.

I know one or two have said this but why?

Overall there is a very positive attitude on this forum and people I've spoken to this morning say it's a no-brainer!

As John L said above - there are many who do things like forget to update address, die or generally don't pay attention. The forum is also a small part of the BAFC community and there will no doubt be people who will still have their reservations about having the club at the mercy of one man. I'm all for this takeover and absolutely desperate for it to go ahead. I just hope that we manage to get the 75% vote required

[DaveC]

John, how many of the members do you believe have moved in the last 12 months?
I wouldn't expect it would be a big percentage, maybe 10% perhaps?

Really could use the data on how many members we have on board right now, and for folk like Charlie and myself at al, we can join as members at any point and use our votes as we choose.