- Author, Nick McPheat
- Role, BBC Sport Scotland
It feels somewhat amusing to hype up a vote involving Motherwell as history defining just days after a landmark general election – but here we are.
The fan-owned Fir Park club started a search for external investment in January with a viral tongue-in-cheek video that ended with a young fan asking for Taylor Swift to “gie’s some dosh”.
From Swift to sour, it has all turned a bit messy in the six months since.
The reason for that? An investment proposal from Wild Sheep Sports, led by former Netflix vice president Erik Barmack, has polarised the club and its fanbase.
While the Motherwell hierarchy are backing the deal, the board of the Well Society – the club’s majority shareholder – is recommending it is rejected.
But it is the members of the fans’ group who will decide the shape of the Lanarkshire side’s future during a two-week voting period starting from Monday.
Questionable comms, statement tennis and a Pie & Bovril thread
It is no exaggeration to say the past month has been one of the most extraordinary in recent times for Motherwell – and that is without a ball being kicked.
It all began with the club revealing details of the Barmack family’s proposal. The Well Society board instantly opposed it.
But while the Motherwell site struggled to deal with an influx in traffic, fans were reading the society’s reasons for rejecting a deal their browsers couldn’t initially reach.
This set the tone for weeks of questionable communication, something supporters have criticised for some time now. Even Barmack has raised his own concerns.
After all, this is a club that had to apologise to their own fans in February after waiting almost a year to announce manager Stuart Kettlewell had signed a one-year contract extension.
Douglas Dickie, who remains on the club’s executive board, resigned as co-chair of the Well Society following their statement.
He said he couldn’t align with the views of the group, who argued the initial Wild Sheep offer of £1.95m over six years to receive a 49% stake undervalued the club.
Motherwell defended the proposal, including their £4m valuation, after receiving “overwhelming requests” from concerned fans questioning “why we would progress such a deal”.
But just two days after issuing the 3,000-word defence, the deal was altered.
Those amendments came after Barmack decided to communicate with Motherwell supporters on social media and Pie and Bovril, the popular Scottish football fans’ forum.
Then things got a bit weird when someone shared transcripts of exchanges he claimed were between himself and Barmack, which included alleged messages from the American looking to entertain the fan with the idea of playing Celtic at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The biggest change in the revised terms means the Well Society would now retain their majority shareholding, but the group feel Motherwell would be “fan-owned only in name”.
Why Well Society feel ‘major risks’ remain
On the face of it, many will be wondering why a club like Motherwell would refuse investment from an ex-Netflix vice president and his wife Courtney, who is a senior director at Snapchat and has held a similar role at YouTube.
A docuseries seems to be a driving factor in the family’s interest – it is listed as a “high” priority in their strategy document.
Barmack said “it could be valuable to connect the world of Hollywood and European football” – a statement that might have toes curling, but instant parallels will be drawn with Wrexham’s recent success.
However, the Well Society – and large chunks of the fanbase – have been alarmed by potential red flags throughout the process.
Barmack told BBC Scotland he would be “healthfully sceptical of outside investment” as a fan. He also said he did not want to “disempower” the Well Society, nor was he interested in a takeover of the club.
Then came his initial offer to become majority shareholder for little over half of Motherwell’s record transfer sale, meanwhile the society would commit a similar amount and watch their stake drop from 71% to 46%.
Those terms have now been amended and the group’s share would instead drop to 50.1%, but they believe “major risks” remain in the proposal.
One of those is the fact Barmack would become chairman on day one for an initial £300,000 outlay. Wild Sheep would also immediately receive three of eight seats on the executive board and “a casting vote in the result of a stalemate”.
The society also say it is “unacceptable” that their shareholding would drop by over 20% after investing “only marginally less” than the Americans and feel their buy-back option could mean having to “start from scratch”.
Ambitious or unrealistic Barmack plan?
And now there are concerns over the numbers in the Barmack family’s business plan, which the society says questions the “viability of the investment offer” and “credibility of the process”.
The Wild Sheep document, which was not completed in time to be included in the voting pack members will have access to, details how they believe they can “usher in a new era of prosperity”.
The US-based couple say they are in talks with “a few potential investors” with backgrounds in sports and media and suggest they are also tapping into the “market of celebrities and influencers”.
But further questions have been raised about potential debt Motherwell could incur, with projected year-one initiatives estimated to cost over £1m after Wild Sheep have invested just £300,000.
By the end of year three, those costs – which include “predictive AI for marketing” and introducing a Motherwell app aimed at drawing 50,000 downloads – spike to almost £4m following a £900,000 outlay from the Barmacks.
The Well Society released their own plan three days earlier, promising a “revitalised and more influential” approach to fan ownership.
The group have faced some criticism since becoming the club’s majority shareholder in 2016 for lacking ambition and direction, but a “refreshed” board has pledged to be “more open, transparent and accountable”.
They also remain open to new investment, providing any interest parties “accurately value the club, safeguard fan-ownership and ensure sustainable financial stability in the long term”.
“This is a real chance to do something special,” were the words of Motherwell chairman Jim McMahon when the Well Society became the club’s majority shareholder in 2016.
McMahon is now attempting to encourage others to back the Barmacks in a statement that initially spelled their name incorrectly four times, published more than an hour after voting opened on Monday morning.
The next fortnight will determine whether enough society members agree with the outgoing chairman, or side with his predecessor Brian McCafferty, who argues the proposal is “major risk” to the financial future of Motherwell.