A date to look forward to?

[porcupine]

It's coming close (27/05/23) for the Football Club to submit its annual accounts. However, these will only show what they want the public to see, and that it's the year end June 2022. It'll be historical information and fairly meaningless for us to see just how solvent, or otherwise, the actual football club is at present. I don't share TT's view that there's been income of around £500K and surplus funds available, after this disastrous season. Otherwise, why the Party last week, on which we've heard nothing?

The Stadium company's accounts as at 31 March 2023 are not due until December 2023.

[EarnockAccie]

Apparently at the High Tea Colin asked 8 season ticket holders and a few sponsors to help him find £800,000. Sounds a familiar sum. Supposedly HAFC is up for grabs for £1. Let’s buy the Joke Stein for the same sum, build four stands, and start again without McGowan.

[TerracingTomas]

Apparently at the High Tea Colin asked 8 season ticket holders and a few sponsors to help him find £800,000. Sounds a familiar sum. Supposedly HAFC is up for grabs for £1. Let’s buy the Joke Stein for the same sum, build four stands, and start again without McGowan.

That’s the first feedback of any kind from the Mad Hatters’ Tea Party I’ve seen. The club for sale for a £1 is plausible because that’s a repeat of Watsons’ play that led to Ronnie acquiring the club for the same amount along with £3/4 million pound of debt. This time round I doubt he will find an “astute” businessman whose willing to take the club without the stadium and with a string of conditions that effectively make any new club owner a Mcgoofey glove puppet.

[porcupine]

Yes. no-one in their right brain would buy a football club without the stadium even for a pound, when the Football Club's accounts are interwoven with other holding companies.

I have no reason to dispute what's been said about a cash raising exercise as there is every possibility that those that are running the whole show, are now faced with a real cash flow problem. From other clubs that have folded in recent seasons, we all know what that means for Accies.

Very difficult days ahead??

[manxaccie]

Does anyone know if Ronnie & co inherited McGowan or they brought him onboard after they had bought Accies?

[TerracingTomas]

All happened at the same time manxaccie if records at Company House are correct.

Ronnie became director of the football club in July 2003. Mcgowan became a director of Deeka who owned the stadium in May 2003. The following year Mcgowan became a director of the stadium company. He doesn’t pop up as a director of the football club until 2014.

If I recall he was still involved in Raith Rovers until 2005 but as he only bought into the Accies stadium side of things there was no conflict of interest.

He set up Edencrest with Walter Hamilton in June 2003. Initially it was a dormant company but eventually as he gained more and more control of the stadium he has used Edencrest as the ultimate holding company of the football club and stadium companies.

[porcupine]

Did Watson not bring McGowan to the table at the almost liquidation of Accies, when CMcG was bought out from Raith Rovers after threatening to sell their ground for housing? Was it not the case that any investor at that point was taken, regardless of their pedigree? Some well meaning local businessmen lost some or all of their savings.

Sadly, we see little of Ronnie McDonald around the stadium and football games now. Probably seriously sickened by it all.

[manxaccie]

Thanks for the reply TT.

Has NDP always been owned by HAFC Stadium Ltd rather than Hamilton Academical Football Club Ltd? I see the Stadium Co was incorporated in 1999 and assets jumped from £1.5m to £7m in the June 21 accounts, so I'm assuming this new ltd co was formed with ownership of the stadium in mind. Is this kind of set up common practice within Scottish football?

I suppose it makes sense financial sense to separate the main asset from what is effectively just a name and a licence to play in the Scottish league. However, it does then open the door for potentially unscrupulous business people to gain control of something they have no interest in. Something that is supposed to belong to a community. I wonder if the football guys - Gray & MacDonald are forced to tolerate McGowan, or are very much happy to work alongside him - I guess we'll never really know.

In reality then, the football club are very much merely tenants of those that own the stadium. At the moment it's very much stalemate with McGowan needing the football club to fund his other interests and the football club needing somewhere to play. I wonder if we might eventually see someone come in and threaten to move the footballing side of things away from NDP.

[TerracingTomas]

Has NDP always been owned by HAFC Stadium Ltd rather than Hamilton Academical Football Club Ltd?

Yes and no Manx Accies. When the land was acquired it appears to have been held by Deeka. When they start building the stadium a separate stadium company is set up but it’s owned by Deeka which is still the case today. McGowan hold 55% of the shares in Deeka through his company Edencrest which gives him control of the stadium. I hope that’s clear

[porcupine]

I wonder if we might eventually see someone come in and threaten to move the footballing side of things away from NDP.[/quote] As suggested by earnock accie on 10 May.

Now that would really cluck things up for some people! Income stream dies with immediate effect. Accies could end up palying at the K Park at East Kilbride, if not the Jock Stein Centre, or finding some investor interested in buying/ground sharing Blantyre Vic's park. A lot cheaper overall??

[TerracingTomas]

McGowan has always made a point of saying the football club has a long lease on the stadium, Porcupine when the issue of the stadium and club being separate is raised, as if that makes it ok. I have no doubt that he will have made it as difficult as possible to break the lease without incurring significant financial penalties.

[porcupine]

Hadn’t considered that, but you’ll be correct. He’s astute enough to have covered that contingency when relationships were far better than they are now.
We are probably screwed, either way. Hopefully, the rental agreement is not subject to punitive five yearly increases, or shorter. Only way out would be to liquidate HAFC then start it up again, like many others have done with a slight change or addition to the name. We would still have the longest name in UK football, though!!