John Nelms – Video Interview

[Prince Buster]

9 minutes ago, ChinaDee said:

Budgeting for the top six is reckless and unrealistic in my opinion. How many times have we finished in the top six in the past 40 years? And we are now operating on the basis that we will always be in the top six? Reckless. 

 

I'm all for a new stadium, but, as for the cost of running Dens, if we're spending 200k a year on repairs, how much would be saved on a new stadium running costs? And where does the £20/30/40m come from to build it? Makes the 200k a year look cheap.

Running costs would come from increased utilisation of available and purpose built facilities. Income could pale the cost of maintenance into insignificance.

Stadium is to be built by investors.

Re. budgeting for top six every season, seems extremely ambitious but not sure about reckless. I prefer to have an ambitious board than a restrained / complacent one.

[ChinaDee]

6 minutes ago, Prince Buster said:

Running costs would come from increased utilisation of available and purpose built facilities. Income could pale the cost of maintenance into insignificance.

Stadium is to be built by investors.

Re. budgeting for top six every season, seems extremely ambitious but not sure about reckless. I prefer to have an ambitious board than a restrained / complacent one.

Clubs all over Scotland have built new stadiums and what income do they really generate? St Mirren, Falkirk, Hamilton, Livingston etc.?

If the stadium is paid for by investors, how are they going to make their money back to generate a return on their investment? Would the club be renting the stadium from the investors? 

[Guest]

Very good interview from John. A club that is moving in the right direction. Failure to get top6 has hit the club with the loses, and probably the reason why we sold Hemmings & Stewart to cover the loses. 

Confident with Hartley and FPS just now, could be far far worse (Just look across the road). Yes we made a loss, but FPS are covering that just now for the time being, new stadium and extra revenue from that will help us to make profit or at the very least break even. 

Big game tonight - Mon the Dee! 

[harry94]

8 minutes ago, ChinaDee said:

Would the club be renting the stadium from the investors? 

We'd have the same sort of status now in renting the stadium but we wouldn't be incurring the projected substantial running costs of operating Dens long term and we'd have the opportunity to draw a profit from some of the facilities that we help maintain (which would be negotiated between FPS and Dundee). FPS would make their money from accumulating rental from us and other commercial facilities available. There may well be some sort of plan which I think would be logical which could maybe see some sort of shares being given to the club in the rental agreement which could build our assets long term.

Of the clubs you've listed, none of them really stack up to a directly comparable case as no one has really built a facility like is being proposed at Dens. St Johnstone are the big example and even in a time of decline, their stadium brings in a whopping 25% of their annual income. The ground is past it's glory days and used to bring in a lot more but on that alone, it's made St Johnstone a very healthy club.

The fact in all of this is that Nelms and Keys are parting with millions of pounds out of their own pocket as that's the only way a stadium can be built. Dundee will not be in any debt from the construction and will have the burden of maintaining an increasingly antiquated facility taken off them with a whole new ground and training facility right up there with anyone in the country. If Nelms and Keys get their calculations wrong and don't record a profit, they will be the ones to suffer from that as they've put the money down for it. Even if the project was to not live up to expectations in the wider commercial aspects, Nelms and Keys will need to maintain the footballing part of the operation as Dundee paying rent would be their only route to income.

Unfortunately, if we stay at Dens, it's going to be very difficult to see an increasing percentage of our budget going towards maintenance and we'll be passing that burden on to the next generation. £1 spent on a new purpose built site is substantially more than £1 spent on an old ground so we're just not going to be able to garner the same substantial resources that we can attract from the plan FPS seem to be working on.

I'm a pretty cautious person in what I'd stake myself but I do think there is massive potential for all parties involved if this is handled correctly. I've been to some pretty good function suites in other cities over the past year or so and some of the facilities are in great excess of anything in this city. We won't be able to make something that is perfect for every scenario and superior to everything out there but there's a definite deficit in what is available in this city and we could fill some of those gaps. On top of that, we would have a superior capacity (St Johnstone accommodated for 17k when Elton John was playing so we could potentially have 23k in the stadium) to Slessor Gardens and be able to host events that have visited Falkirk and St Johnstone (Rod Stewart, Elton John, Status quo etc). Even the pubs could generate very decent income on match day alone and we could enhance our relationships with the ice rink.

[Cobra]

There's so many things we could do with the new ground. We could open a Ron Dixon greyhound racing track and Angus Cook banking facility!

On a more serious note it would be good to have a bar, restaurant and hotel so out of towners can make a weekend of it and put a bit of extra cash into club.

 

[Guest]

55 minutes ago, harry94 said:

We'd have the same sort of status now in renting the stadium but we wouldn't be incurring the projected substantial running costs of operating Dens long term and we'd have the opportunity to draw a profit from some of the facilities that we help maintain (which would be negotiated between FPS and Dundee). FPS would make their money from accumulating rental from us and other commercial facilities available. There may well be some sort of plan which I think would be logical which could maybe see some sort of shares being given to the club in the rental agreement which could build our assets long term.

Of the clubs you've listed, none of them really stack up to a directly comparable case as no one has really built a facility like is being proposed at Dens. St Johnstone are the big example and even in a time of decline, their stadium brings in a whopping 25% of their annual income. The ground is past it's glory days and used to bring in a lot more but on that alone, it's made St Johnstone a very healthy club.

The fact in all of this is that Nelms and Keys are parting with millions of pounds out of their own pocket as that's the only way a stadium can be built. Dundee will not be in any debt from the construction and will have the burden of maintaining an increasingly antiquated facility taken off them with a whole new ground and training facility right up there with anyone in the country. If Nelms and Keys get their calculations wrong and don't record a profit, they will be the ones to suffer from that as they've put the money down for it. Even if the project was to not live up to expectations in the wider commercial aspects, Nelms and Keys will need to maintain the footballing part of the operation as Dundee paying rent would be their only route to income.

Unfortunately, if we stay at Dens, it's going to be very difficult to see an increasing percentage of our budget going towards maintenance and we'll be passing that burden on to the next generation. £1 spent on a new purpose built site is substantially more than £1 spent on an old ground so we're just not going to be able to garner the same substantial resources that we can attract from the plan FPS seem to be working on.

I'm a pretty cautious person in what I'd stake myself but I do think there is massive potential for all parties involved if this is handled correctly. I've been to some pretty good function suites in other cities over the past year or so and some of the facilities are in great excess of anything in this city. We won't be able to make something that is perfect for every scenario and superior to everything out there but there's a definite deficit in what is available in this city and we could fill some of those gaps. On top of that, we would have a superior capacity (St Johnstone accommodated for 17k when Elton John was playing so we could potentially have 23k in the stadium) to Slessor Gardens and be able to host events that have visited Falkirk and St Johnstone (Rod Stewart, Elton John, Status quo etc). Even the pubs could generate very decent income on match day alone and we could enhance our relationships with the ice rink.

Great post Harry. The benefits for this is great for the whole city. Dundee as a city needs a major concert venue, and this new stadium could offer this. Massive revenue for the club   

[DFC1974]

Despite the many memories Dens Park holds for me, the prospect of moving to a new stadium is something to look forward to imo.

Dens (and Tannadice) was built with turnstile takings along with player transfers being the main sources of income for a football team. Post Bosman and the introduction of Sky in the early 90s along with its subsequent 'arm chair supporter,' saw both of these revenue streams being cut drastically. 

Dundee simply have to move with the times and look for new ways to finance the football outwith football. The idea of bars, restaurants etc financing the Dees, or at least the upkeep of the stadium, has to be seen as a positive step in the right direction. Modern facilities will also make supporting the city's premier club all that more attractive for youngsters to start supporting Dundee. 

[islaydarkblue]

13 hours ago, Prince Buster said:

I don't have it in for you at all Islay. I'm just not convinced you're genuine as in my experience nobody can be as blinkered an individual as you often come across on this board. Maybe I'm just lucky and have never met anyone in real life that is so adamant in their opinions (right or wrong) that they can't at least make an attempt to see more than one side of an argument.

I genuinely think you're at it.

Prince.

I can assure you that I am not "at it".

I believe in looking after number one, myself.

[islaydarkblue]

5 hours ago, GregTeamDee said:

Very good interview from John. A club that is moving in the right direction. Failure to get top6 has hit the club with the loses, and probably the reason why we sold Hemmings & Stewart to cover the loses. 

Confident with Hartley and FPS just now, could be far far worse (Just look across the road). Yes we made a loss, but FPS are covering that just now for the time being, new stadium and extra revenue from that will help us to make profit or at the very least break even. 

Big game tonight - Mon the Dee! 

John Nelms speaks about our failure to reach the top 6 at the split costing £200K. However he forgets to mention that the Doon Derby must have raked in well over £100K in gate receipts plus hospitality being sold out.

If we manage to make the top 6 at the split this season only one Category A club Hearts will play at Dens post split. We will have already played Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen twice at home this season.

[islaydarkblue]

6 hours ago, ChinaDee said:

Clubs all over Scotland have built new stadiums and what income do they really generate? St Mirren, Falkirk, Hamilton, Livingston etc.?

If the stadium is paid for by investors, how are they going to make their money back to generate a return on their investment? Would the club be renting the stadium from the investors? 

Today I had a hospital appointment at the Royal Alexandria Hospital in Paisley. The bus I was on passed St Mirren's old ground at Love Street which is still lying derelict. Originally Tesco were going to build a new supermarket on the site but when Tesco fell on "hard times" they abandoned their plans. The lady sitting next to me on the bus told me that new houses are going to be built on the site.

[eyeothedug]

On 02/28/2017 at 20:17, PolarBear said:

£10million plus for a new stadium, we could have a new Derry and main stand for that and stay at our home instead of moving to a meaningless plot. 

Yes I am sceptical too. I realise that a new stadium will improve income streams and help with car parking but it's also likely to be clinical and dull. It won't be a big capacity (should only really be 10k) and even with the corners filled in it might not look or feel particularly good. I doubt we will be paying for a creative architect to produce something interesting. It's likely to be four boxes. I'm sorry but I hate stadiums like Livi's, Hamilton's, Mcdiarmid etc. Zero character, history and atmosphere. Also no boozers close to the ground. Don't make you want to go to the match.

Also the plot of land bought seems a strange shape? I guess it's big enough though.

[islaydarkblue]

1 hour ago, eyeothedug said:

Yes I am sceptical too. I realise that a new stadium will improve income streams and help with car parking but it's also likely to be clinical and dull. It won't be a big capacity (should only really be 10k) and even with the corners filled in it might not look or feel particularly good. I doubt we will be paying for a creative architect to produce something interesting. It's likely to be four boxes. I'm sorry but I hate stadiums like Livi's, Hamilton's, Mcdiarmid etc. Zero character, history and atmosphere. Also no boozers close to the ground. Don't make you want to go to the match.

Also the plot of land bought seems a strange shape? I guess it's big enough though.

Nobody has mentioned a couple of important points.

1. Is there a break in the lease of Dens Park and if so, when.

2. There has been no mention of the "deal" struck by the directors of DFCSS at the end of the administration period for the benefit of DFCSS.

It has previously been mentioned on the "other" forum but sadly HMac does not post on this forum.