Re: Financial Troubles : Wed Aug 15, 2012 7:38 pm  

I am confused are you for or against??

Re: Financial Troubles : Wed Aug 15, 2012 11:17 pm  

goosey wrote:

I am confused are you for or against??

It seems like against !
Sounds like he had as a problem with Mr Fawcett being in charge at the club!
Maybe if you can do any better put your money where your mouth is.
I don't know much about Mr Fawcett but I do know my other half knows of one of the other directors and sort of knows someone who knows the other one very well and from what he says I carnt see them being involved with something if it was going to the wall - it's common knowledge around the area the other 2 directors have plenty of funds to throw around.

Re: Financial Troubles : Thu Aug 16, 2012 3:32 am  

Would anyone, with any money, involve themselves in a business that will surely show no return unless they were a fan? I am sure it is mostly ego building stuff but hey - there is no-one else. If there is something "going on" at the club - it wont be the first and it wont be the last. Whatever a director of this club does it appears they will be reviled. Its best not to know and just watch the rugby.

Re: Financial Troubles : Thu Aug 16, 2012 11:53 am  

THE END GAME wrote:

OH DEAR, OPEN YOUR EYES PEOPLE IT IS STARING YOU IN THE FACE. IT IS SO EASY TO CALL PEOPLE TROUBLE MAKERS, AXE TO GRIND AND GOT IT IN FOR THE CLUB. THEN YOU HAVE POOR GARY FAWCETT TRYING TO DO HIS HARDEST FOR THE CLUB THAT IS MAKING PROFIT AND PUTTING SOLID FOUNDATIONS IN PLACE FOR NEXT SEASON OH AND NOT TO FORGET THE 2013 SEASON TICKET MONEY THATS SAT IN THE BANK MAKING PROFIT FOR NEXT SEASON WHICH IS OF COURSE GOOD BUSINESS PRACTICE OR SO GARY SAID.

THIS GUY IS AND WILL DESTROY THE CLUB BUT AT THE MOMENT ALL WE CAN DO IS SIT BACK AND PRETEND LIKE NOTHINGS GOING ON, WELL UNTIL D-DAY. PEOPLE WILL EAT THERE WORDS SOON, TIME IS RUNNING OUT.

Ok, so you're pretty angry judging by the use of capital letters, probably because you care about the club, which is a good thing. I've a few questions I'd like to ask about what you've put.

Gary Fawcett took the club when it was basically destroyed, what other alternatives did we have to take over the running of the club?

Do you know of any alternative people or groups who would be willing to come in and are capable of doing a better job than the current board?

In the hypothetical situation that you were the Chairman of the club, what would you do differently to what the current board are doing now?

I'll be honest here, based on what I've seen I'm not 100% sure on the future of the club. I haven't bought a season ticket yet because even though I have the money I'm worried I'll get my fingers burned. However having listened to what Gary Fawcett has said first hand I'm reasonably optimistic. He's admitted the club has had cash flow problems and why those problems arose, he's admitted players have been paid a little late and explained why. It showed a decent bit of honesty to do that. I genuinely don't think he's hiding anything from us, and to be honest if he has strung us along with a pack of lies then he's going to have an awful lot of folk on his back.

Re: Financial Troubles : Thu Aug 16, 2012 12:01 pm  

If I didnt know better I would swear THE END GAME(notice the capitals I think he is shouting) sounds just like Old Boy Cougar,but surely not!.
While I can clearly see your not in the current chairmans fan club I wonder if you had an alternative you would like to share with us all.At the moment I dont see a long line of potentional new owners banging on the Cougar door,so like Goosey said just go down watch the game and enjoy for now.Until I win the lottery thats what I will be doing.
However I would love to know your views on the halfbacks,JD's best postion,who would be your starting props,and what about Marchy as coach for next year plenty of talking points there,after all there is a rumour going round that Keighley Cougars do actually play rugby from time to time.
By the way my local paper shop has a sandwich board outside,I could lend it to you for a while ,with a quick repaint you could have "THE END IS NIGH" on the front, and on the reverse "I TOLD YOU SO".Not sure it would fit through the turnstile though,dont worry we can cross that bridge when we come to it

Re: Financial Troubles : Thu Aug 16, 2012 2:24 pm  

THE END GAME wrote:

OH DEAR, OPEN YOUR EYES PEOPLE IT IS STARING YOU IN THE FACE. IT IS SO EASY TO CALL PEOPLE TROUBLE MAKERS, AXE TO GRIND AND GOT IT IN FOR THE CLUB. THEN YOU HAVE POOR GARY FAWCETT TRYING TO DO HIS HARDEST FOR THE CLUB THAT IS MAKING PROFIT AND PUTTING SOLID FOUNDATIONS IN PLACE FOR NEXT SEASON OH AND NOT TO FORGET THE 2013 SEASON TICKET MONEY THATS SAT IN THE BANK MAKING PROFIT FOR NEXT SEASON WHICH IS OF COURSE GOOD BUSINESS PRACTICE OR SO GARY SAID.

THIS GUY IS AND WILL DESTROY THE CLUB BUT AT THE MOMENT ALL WE CAN DO IS SIT BACK AND PRETEND LIKE NOTHINGS GOING ON, WELL UNTIL D-DAY. PEOPLE WILL EAT THERE WORDS SOON, TIME IS RUNNING OUT.

I'm not sure why you felt the need to change your user name, you are still spinning the same yarn.

If you know something just come out and say it, rather than predicting the imminent doom of the club without providing supporting evidence to back up your statements. If you actually acted in an even handed way rather than apparent smug self-satisfaction you might find some people would support your cause. Instead you just sound like you have a personal vendetta.

I'm not sure what words you think people will eat, we don't know anything!, except:
ALL clubs at our level are living on the edge especially when cash flow is disrupted by a poorly planned home and away schedule. Given the size of the crowds, I would imagine many are in precarious positions.

If all you are doing is telling us this, then "you are not the messiah, you are a very naughty boy" (girl)

Incidentally, why didn't you voice these concerns at the various fans forum's - Gary was present, you could have contested what he said and sorted it out for once an for all to his face.

Re: Financial Troubles : Thu Aug 16, 2012 7:17 pm  

goosey wrote:

Would anyone, with any money, involve themselves in a business that will surely show no return unless they were a fan? I am sure it is mostly ego building stuff but hey - there is no-one else. If there is something "going on" at the club - it wont be the first and it wont be the last. Whatever a director of this club does it appears they will be reviled. Its best not to know and just watch the rugby.

Well said " Goosey" - everybody knows there is no money to be made at a Rugby League club either in Championship /1. Even most super league clubs have problems. But maybe we should be patting our directors on the backs for pumping money into something which will give them no return as you say only a true fan would do that surely - no one else seems to wanting to do it or have funds to do it - so why is it some so called fans constantly pick faults with our board of directors when I think they try there best in difficult times.

Re: Financial Troubles : Thu Aug 16, 2012 9:01 pm  

I love the words, "D-Day" and "time is running out". I remember reading similar words from another poster some time ago and guess what, we're still waiting. Dreamer makes a good point, if you know something but for whatever reason can't, or won't say you are going to lack credibility on here. This I know but not telling doesn't really work. Why not attend the q&A session and ask carefully worded questions. You may know more than we do and who know's, you may have a point, but washing your dirty laundry on here isn't the way I think you should go about the business. The Chairman has answered the questions on the financials, until we can have evidence to the contrary we have to take him at his word. In the absence of something more substantial coming out this just has the makings of stirring up trouble. JD has a few weeks left in the role, let's put our efforts into supporting him and the team.

Re: Financial Troubles : Sat Aug 18, 2012 12:14 pm  

Obviously the financial state of the club would be improved if the attendances were greater and more cash was coming into the coffers.

Given the fact that we won promotion last year, have competed well and made the playoffs this year and given the very good attendances which were achieved in the Cougarmania era, why is it that the club cannot attract more than 8 to 900 attendances ? Not now living in Keighley, from a distance, it seems very disappointing that the attendances are not in the 1500 range, given the team performances.

Re: Financial Troubles : Sun Aug 19, 2012 8:39 am  

keighley1 wrote:

Obviously the financial state of the club would be improved if the attendances were greater and more cash was coming into the coffers.

Given the fact that we won promotion last year, have competed well and made the playoffs this year and given the very good attendances which were achieved in the Cougarmania era, why is it that the club cannot attract more than 8 to 900 attendances ? Not now living in Keighley, from a distance, it seems very disappointing that the attendances are not in the 1500 range, given the team performances.

1. The economic downturn we've been in recent years has hit the town hard and the club hasn't adjusted it's business model to suit.

2. The clubs marketing is abysmal, mainly due to it over committing it's resources to the playing side of things. No point having a decent side if you can't sell it to the wider Keighley public.

3. Cheap Season tickets well marketed from Super League clubs. Especially Huddersfield and Br*dford. It's cheaper to watch Huddersfield than it is to watch us not only that their facilities are better and so is the Rugby.

4. Rugby League, like a lot of sports, have got greedy. Remember the halcyon days of Cougarmania? Remember how much it was to get in? Ticket Prices have more than doubled in the 15 or so years since the Cougarmania bubble burst. Wages haven't. It may not be as outrageously expensive as Football has become but £40 for 2 hours entertainment is still a lot of money. I'm sure I've mentioned this before but I can go to Cineworld as many times as I want for a month for the price it costs to pay in for a game at Cougar Park, and you know what? There are plans to open one in Keighley.

5. We are not attracting enough 16-30 year olds to games, they are our future hardcore support, our future life long fans. What little marketing resource we have is being targeted at kids much younger. Kids that age don't possess the free will that teenagers and young adults have. I'm 31 years old, when I look around the ground on match days I'm in probably in the youngest 25% of all the fans there. I'd love to see what the average age is of home fans at Cougar Park, if I was to guess I'd say around the age of 50. Our club is dying out........ literally.