The Killie chairman is well used to appearing in front of the cameras but we weren't quite so comfortable with this TV lark. After a pre-interview coffee in the hotel we headed to the TV gantry at the back of the East Stand to face the cameras and Jim Spence's questions. The presenter was very helpful and as the former editor of the Dundee Utd fanzine The Final Hurdle he understood the fans concerns at Killie. We were told the whole piece would last about four and a half minutes but it seemed to flash past in no time whatsoever. Of course there had to be a disruption and it arrived in the shape of a troublesome wasp. Who else can say they were upstaged by a wasp on their Sportscene debuts? There was no hurling of abuse from the troops in the Howard all the same so we must have acquitted ourselves alright.

One lasting memory we have from the elevated gantry is thinking how magnificent the Rugby Park pitch is looking. The glorious sunshine and lush pitch made for an impressive backdrop and Mark Gallagher along with his staff are doing a magnificent job in getting the pitch back to its brilliant best. There was quite rightly a fair amount of criticism when the new pitch was first laid, however, the club said it would take a few years for everything to settle down. That has proven to be the case and I can honestly say Mark and his team have the famous turf looking as good as its ever been - great work lads.

Thread of The Week

There is no doubt that one of the 'hot topics' mentioned above was the open meeting called by the club last week to 'openly' discuss the club's finances with the supporters. It got off to the worst possible start when the thousands of letters sent out to season ticket holders and shareholders did not arrive at their destinations until the day after the event. The club say that they will be taking the matter up with the Royal Mail and it may have been something to with the exam results coming out but big Aldo the postie says it's not his fault! Whatever happened is now pretty much inconsequential but surely, given the importance of the meeting, it would have been more advisable to send the letters out a few weeks in advance?

The meeting itself was well covered in last weeks edition of the Standard but the ensuing debate among fans about the meeting makes for interesting reading and, as ever, opinions ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous. Here is an excerpt from the main thread (or conversation for those not familiar with Internet etiquette) -

Dave: This meeting was only worth going to, to see how the club plans to produce money out of nowhere. The answer to that is that they expect the fans to cough up because Jamie Moffat is not going to give us any more cash. Not that I blame him and I'm grateful for his families contribution, but did they need to make us sit through this snorefest to tell us what we already knew? All I could take from it was that our debt is way out of control and if it wasn't for the bank deferring loans then we would have to shut up shop tomorrow. And Sir John Orr reckons that's positive - his words not mine! Who is he trying to kid? They want 500k from the fans, do they think we all live in Troon? I want to know, apart from Mr. Moffat, what all these other 'directors' are putting into the kitty. There seems to be no financial input from them and what experience exactly have they got to offer our club? Anyone else see the 'ideas we are going to look at' section on the presentation slides? They included selling the hotel and the ground and leasing them back. Am I alone in thinking this is a potential disaster? These guys put their hands up in front of us all and admitted that they've made a total mess of the finances over the last three years and now they want the fans to help bale them out - do you trust them with their record? If you ask me they were only being open with the stuff they thought it was safe to be open with and they will turn around next season after selling off our ground and say 'We told you so at that meeting we never invited you all to!' Another cop out, if it was really all about getting our cash via these same old tired methods then they would have moved hell and high water to get people there. There is something very fishy going on and I just don't trust them. Speaking of which I'm not giving them a washer, I will give my money to the trust because they are at least accountable to their members as to how their money is spent and I know I wont be financing some directors jolly on a Saturday. Rant over, for now!

Marc: I didn't manage to get to the meeting. However if the Board are planning to sell the hotel and then lease it back there is definitely a bigger financial loss in the long run. OK it would be nice to get a lump sum up front from a buyer, but do they realise that over say a 25 year lease, the money they will have to pay back will far outweigh any benefits, and just delay the inevitable financial problems?
Colin: According to the accountant tonight, the club will not be selling the hotel. It would not even make enough on the sale to do so, as they would only cover the price of building materials etc. And, the hotel is making money now. So it isn't even an option.

Shug: Personally I thought it gave us an insight into how much financial mess the club nearly got into but have managed to pull back from the brink just in time. Why not test the new openness and call the club tomorrow with your concerns? My understanding now is that the hotel is a vitally important revenue stream for the club...I was glad to hear its staying in the club ownership.

Campbell: The only reason the hotel was mentioned as a lease back option was to make the point that they are considering all options open to them. But I do think it highly unlikely they would even consider going down that route.

Dave: Stand up just to be shouted down by the ex-police chief and his cronies? Why would I want to do that? They are the ones that wield the power at the club and they are the ones with all the facts and figures, they are businessmen and if you think that they went into that meeting without an answer for everything then you are very much mistaken. Mind you, they never had an answer to the Soccer School question, and they left Davie McKinnon to try and dig them out of the hole. Not really fair considering it was not his doing, and not very chivalrous of the rest of them to let him carry the can either. I'm sorry if they've hoodwinked you with all this 'we are all in it together' patter but if this was really true then we would never have got to this stage in the first place. Those days passed with the end of the Fleeting era and will not change until we can get someone else like him involved again - if only. We lack leadership, we lack drive, we lack communication, we lack vision - and obviously we lack cash, but if we had people on the board with the first four then the fifth part of the equation would eventually materialise - it did before!

Suzy: Dave, I think the meeting was more positive than you are making out. The club seems to be trying to communicate with us all. At the meeting SJO specifically said that if anyone has any problems or questions they should contact the club rather than spreading negativity. Its only going to make the situation worse!

Dave: The hotel made a £300,000 loss in the first year. The hotel them made a £200,000 profit this year. They made it quite clear that £200,000 does NOT even cover the loans debt the hotel owes. The only reason it is making any money currently is because the bank, yes that's them we give all our money to, have deferred the loan payments until it is able to try and increase the profit margin enough to attempt to pay back the original debt. It does not take a genius to work out that in effect the hotel is only making money because the bank have decided they will get their money back quicker if they leave it alone for a wee while.

Stevie: Dave, if Mr. Moffat is going to match any contribution £ for £ how will that get him his money back? Is it not designed to try and cancel out the dept so that any money he does invest is just that? An investment to improve the club and increase the value of his shares, rather than him (& only him, nobody else on the board has anything like the required disposable income) just throwing HIS money into paying the interest only.

Alex: Well done Dave! Love your spin on the facts we were presented with. Of course our board are negligent. They should have seen the collapse of SPL TV, the same way as the Old Firm did, and saved time, money and effort by scuppering it at the very first meeting, not waiting for the two clubs to decide just before implementation. They should have looked at their crystal ball a little more closely to see the drop in TV revenue and budgeted accordingly. They should have insisted that every player at the club has a one year contact so that high earners can be dumped when we can no longer afford them (never mind about fielding a settled team as football doesn't come into it!). They should have left their ambition at the door, and training pitch next door, rather than investing in a long-term project like the hotel. They were obviously responsible for our cup defeats by Alloa, Airdrie and A*r and the resultant lost revenue. They should not have forced redundancy onto the 'nice guys' at the club. But most of all they should have hid our plight in accountants language that few of us would understand rather than keep the fans informed, after all rumour is much more enjoyable than hard facts.

Willie: Mixed feelings about last night. I'll try and summarise them. I agree with a lot of what Dave says, but not all of it. Last night was an extremely important meeting and should have been a rallying call to all supporters. The date should have been one month away with letters going out and announcements at games - no excuses from the club here. If they announced it in the Sundays a week ago the letters should already have been drafted and out - why a weeks delay to send them over a weekend for a Tuesday meeting - don't blame the PO! Season Tickets - when you sub it down we had 3,000 last year and have 2,800 paying this year. Another 2,000 freebies of which a large number will be ex walk up punters like myself. I am fully supportive of what Hippo, Baz etc have done to achieve this for the fans but I now genuinely believe this scheme is hurting the club financially - hope I'm wrong. Leadership - there was no rallying call, no Bobby Fleeting hard sell. It was easy to walk in and out the room without feeling guilty about parting with your cash. If we need the money then lets say we need it and not hedge around the issue - we may not be in crisis but looking at the numbers crisis isn't far away! Tell people that and they will stand up and be counted. What are the Board doing themselves? Jamie Moffat excluded because he has done more than could ever have been asked and is still doing more converting his loan. Where is the commitment from Robert Wyper, Jim Clark et al? Are they investing in the Trust to get it started, the youth set up or what? People will follow their lead but £500 to me may be the equivalent of 20k to some of these guys - are they parting with their cash - if so tell us! Player sales - this worries me - we do need to be a selling club but I have real concerns as to the value we get for players (not the Board's fault per se). If we are selling Boyd we need 7 figures for him or a deal that could net us that based on his future. Likewise Canero and any others. The hotel - it isn't funding itself now but will they sell it if it starts to? I hope not but the Bank may dictate this. Other investors - are the Board trawling everywhere to find new serious investors - difficult job I know. The ideas - nothing they presented excited me nor did they push them hard enough. It's easy to criticise and I apologise for the length of this but it is the way I feel.

Baz: I realise your concern about the season ticket offer Willie but I think your fears are unfounded. The club sold 3,000 season tickets last year but only 1,500 of those were adult tickets (not sure the split this time granted). There was a 10% decrease in season tickets sales for the five years previous so the projection was to sell 2,700 this season but instead we have just under 5,000 guaranteed to be in attendance at every home game and if sales continue to go the way they are this week we will top that. We were told that there are still loads of freebies floating about out there unclaimed and people are still purchasing tickets at a fair rate...and the club have already stated that they have cleared their feet with the project financially and should benefit more from merchandising than previously. Of course we will lose walk up punters but remember that the majority of walk up punters are away supporters and that wont be affected - if anything a better atmosphere and better pies should attract more of them. A season ticket holder is worth a lot more to the club than a walk up punter and that's the bottom line - plus they'll be paying more this year to make up for it and serves them right for not having the sense to buy a season ticket! Cue irate exiles who only make a couple of games a season - I'm sure that an extra couple of quid twice a year wont burst the bank, that was not a dig at your loyalty or your custom!

Flood: The concerning thing was that they are blaming Sky leaving the SPL and a resulting fall in TV revenue as one of the major factors. The only accounts that have been affected by the latest BBC deal are the one finished 31/5/03 where we will lose approx £1.9m . In the last year of the Sky (31/5/02) deal the club also lost approx £1.9m. The year prior to this the club lost £0.9m when Sky were also involved. Does anyone know how much did the club borrowed for the Park Hotel? Was it the full £8m that it cost to build? It is worrying that the bank have deferred loan repayments, as this will result in an increase of the actual amount borrowed, each month. What I seen last night was a clueless, directionless board who have taken us to the brink financially and have no idea how to escape from this...basically, throw it open to the fans and hope that they can come up with something! SJO kept talking about stewardship of the club. They will (come 31/5/04) have delivered losses of roughly £6.7m in 4 years without paying for the hotel. I wouldn't trust them to run a stall at the indoor market.

We apologise of this reproduction seems to be slanted one way or another, it's not intentional, please remember that we don't get the final edit! To re-print the whole thread would take up the full sports section but we can assure you that everything was pretty much balanced between those opposed to how the club is currently being run and those who are very happy with the boards leadership. The game is all about opinions and wouldn't life be boring if we all thought the same way. The bottom line is that we all want the club to go from strength to strength and as long as we keep that in focus then hopefully it will click into place in the end...and for a few quid we'll send the boys round to Dave's house Sir John! Who'd be a football club director? None but the brave!