Q&A with Greenock Morton Chief Executive, Warren Hawke

28th December 2017

Greenock Morton Supporters’ Club, 7pm
Project Brave/ Youth Development

 Project Brave - challenging time as far as this is concerned. We missed out on the top 16 in
Project Brave but with Forth Valley YA (which is predominantly Falkirk) recently dropping
out, it will hopefully mean Morton will take their place. Measurable performance outcomes
(MPO’s) were used to decide the placings – we suffered because of the fact that our academy
was only 5 years old and a lot of other clubs had been running for longer. Our projection is
heading in the right direction year on year. At the moment we have between 5 and 7 youth
development graduates in the squad for every game; would love to see this increasing through
time in every match day squad
 The Morton academy has been building for 5.5 years during which the SFA have changed the
criteria on a number of occasions and we have been doing our best to meet it as best as we
can. We see it as one of the cogs for long term sustainability for the club – chances of selling
players and offering players a platform to develop. From our perspective we want young
players in our first team doing well, ideally from Inverclyde and the local areas. Our next few
years of youth teams are strong – a lot of the current under-17 boys have been playing in the
development squad at the age of 15, so this is very promising.
 Sustainability – the academy is a large commitment and of course there is an argument to not
have one and just focus on the first team but I feel that is building our club on quicksand.
 Brentford model has been mentioned – this is where there is no youth development
programme until the age of 17/18; Brentford then scout other larger academies, signing the
players that didn't make the grade at the top London clubs. The Brentford model can cost just
as much if not more than the traditional academy via scouting and data / stats costs etc.
 Scouting - Morton have four scouts solely for the academy and Derek Anderson has overview
of the whole process. If we are light within a position / age, this will focus our attentions to
find a player to fill that gap.
 Sell on clauses – as you’ve seen with Van Dijk, the initial fee might not be the total income
for a transfer – Hamilton and Falkirk for example have done extremely well from this.
There’s also appearance clauses, international appearances, promotion bonuses etc. We
haven’t been in that position yet but we have done our homework and fully understand what
we would need to do if the situation arises.
 All transfer decisions are a full board decision.
Sinclair Street Road Issues

 Situation - for the last 20 years we have had an agreement with the police that a police officer
would be in place at the end of the game, clears the car park safely and we pay approx. £55
for this presence. Around 6-8 weeks ago, the police said that the police officer was not
legally covered for them to be there. In the basic non legal perspective it is the safety of a
fully trained traffic officer or all of the fans leaving the stadium. It is legally now a club and
council issue and Inverclyde Council have been very supportive. Morton would now have to
pay £650-£900 to close Sinclair Street every game, however this road is not our
responsibility, it’s the Councils. We cannot afford this charge for every home game.
 This isn’t just a local problem, it is a national initiative but we are getting hit harder than
many others, despite many other clubs being in a similar position.
  A number of fans highlighted stories of almost getting hit at the Inverness game on Sinclair
Street and in particular the tunnel under the railway bridge. Morton CCTV picked up a
number of these incidents and the safety team have shared these images with the key
stakeholders. The police are also aware as they were present.
 The club’s biggest fear is somebody getting injured and we are managing the situation as best
as we can with our experienced safety team.
 Against Brechin and Dundee United the club paid to close the road but ultimately we
shouldn’t be closing someone else’s responsibility and can’t continue to do that financially.
We want to work with the Council and other stakeholders to come to a reasonable solution.
 The club will not lose their safety certificate over this as the club is solely responsible for the
footprint of the football ground. Sinclair Street is not part of the footprint.
 We have a fantastic safety team who are extremely knowledgeable and very good at their job,
they have been working tirelessly to resolve this matter as safely as possible.
Turnstiles and Ticketing

 First home game of the 2016-17 season – analysis on the gate was that 31% of people in the
ground were adult – having spoken to other clubs, the consensus was the average is 55-65%.
As of the Brechin game in December 2017, 63% were adults.
 Main objective from the club’s point of view was to protect the club and season ticket holders
who were paying the correct price to get in all season and from a sustainability point of view,
we needed to plug this hole.
 On changing the turnstiles - our youngest turnstile was 1924 and each season more and more
were seizing – they were all on their way out. The gap to squeeze through was also extremely
small and not suitable for all fans. This linked with poor flow rates (the number of people per
minute) we felt an investment was necessary.
 We also wanted to take away cash from the stadium on a match day as much as possible and
that’s why we introduced the reduced rate if you buy early or on your fan card.
 8 contractors were involved in the full process and 1 company let us down.
 We were promised it would be in place by July and 5 months later we’ve still not paid them a
penny as they still haven’t provided us with an effective system.
 At other clubs, for every one season ticket holder, they tend to have 4 or 5 fan card holders,
this is the ultimate objective.
 The new system gives us a much better analysis of who our supporters are and how they are
buying.
 We did our due diligence on the company – St Mirren swear by this company and couldn’t
speak highly enough of the system – unfortunately it hasn’t worked and I completely hold my
hands up for that.
 We will need to review the system and decide what we are going to do for next season and
this will happen in summer.
 St Mirren have one version of the software and we were given an upgraded version but
unfortunately it appears it wasn’t ready to go live.
 £18/20 ticket price – it’s not a punishment of an additional £2, the price is £20 for the game
but if you can get your ticket prior then you get it for last year’s price – this can be done at
Cappielow, Smiths, online by putting it on the fan card or phoning the club. With the fan card
no matter what time it is you will only pay £18.
 You can also phone the club in advance, pay over the phone and pick up the tickets on the
day.
 View in the room was that the £2 was a punishment rather than a discount but in reality it is
an early bird discount or, if you have a fan card almost a loyalty card discount.
  Stuart Duncan, who assisted the club and tested the website on a huge number of platforms,
admits it still has some flaws.
 It was highlighted by members of the audience that a number of fans got in to the Dundee
United game without paying and flashing a variety of different cards to get let in – the
turnstile system went down for a period before this game.
 Away clubs are offered tickets to sell from their own outlets prior to the game at £18 but for
those who turn up on the day it is £20. Some clubs won’t sell tickets at their own ground so
all of their fans will have paid £20.
 We are aware of the concession price being higher than others in our division – we can’t
change this half way through a season but this will be looked at – this query was raised a
couple of months ago by Graham who did an analysis of prices across the whole league.
 On pricing - Up to the age of 16 we are extremely good value for money and are the best/
equal best, with under 12s free, and 12-16 only £5. It was identified that a 17 year old in
school may need to pay the full concession price and after Graham raised this, it was taken to
Warren and will be looked at as well.
New Strip Format

 The community engagement has been fantastic each time we have run this competition. We
want to keep the strip selection with supporters as much as possible as the supporters are the
ones who will be buying the strip.
 Warren was told when he joined the Board that we would never sell more than 500-600
strips per season
 We sold 1450 strips of the first home kit that went to the vote, 620 of these were for under
6’s which emphasises the impact of Morton in the Community.
 We are happy to review the process and see if we can tweak it – please let us know any
suggestions.
 Possible to look into ways in which will allow people from further away to vote but still
avoiding the risk of it being hijacked. It was suggested that season ticket holders could vote
via email as we could verify their vote.
 Warren is very pleased with support the club has had from Smiths – all of the 1874 branded
stuff like the training gear, hats etc. is in there. 1874 is Morton’s brand, if we changed
manufacturer we would still be able to keep this brand as it is ours.
 Merchandise sales are heading in the right direction and any suggestions that I take to
Smiths are positively received and acted upon.
 We are keen to support community businesses and having the partnership with Smiths does
exactly that.
Club Ambitions

 Overall aim is to ensure we have a club for many years to come.

 We are currently unsustainable without the Rae’s; their investment over the years must be
fully recognised and appreciated, without them we don't have a club, Warren’s ambition is to
get the club operating sustainably.
 Last year was the first year for a long time we have had a profit and that was largely down to
the two cup runs.
 We finished 4th last year while being 7th in terms of average attendance – we need to be
sustainable at that level to move on.
 Dundee United had a sub whose wages were three times as much as our highest paid player –
that shows you the sort of budgets we’re talking about competing against.
  We of course want to win the league as that’s why we’re in it but we also recognise we have
to be realistic.
 We have an excellent board of directors who have great ambition for this club, we have an
excellent balance of experience and are working well together, and we need to ensure we
don’t build the club on quick sand.
 St Mirren stand – We got our value for money from that transaction from the floodlight
towers, which have been in place for a number of years. Putting a cover on the Wee Dublin
End would cost around £250-350,000, the WDE currently only gets used 5/6 times per season
and it doesn’t always rain! An investment such as this would be better spent elsewhere in
Warren’s opinion
 BBC Alba – the club don’t get a say in whether the game can be televised or not – it’s a
central contract held by the SPFL and all clubs take a cut of the income. We are contracted to
host one live league ALBA match per season
 Away fans being in the cowshed - This depends on numbers. As a rough gauge; if it is 300-
800 we will open sections F & G of the main stand and the end of the cowshed. For greater
numbers than that we will put them in the Wee Dublin End. These decisions are based on the
visiting supporters’ safety officer’s prediction of the away support plus intelligence by all
parties involved in the pre ops meeting (usually tues prior to a match) and usually set by our
safety team who have extensive experience in this area. For less than 300 away fans it
doesn’t make financial sense to have them in the cowshed.

If anyone has any comments or questions, please feel free to contact Graham Barr, Supporter Liaison
Officer at slo@gmfc.net