Pitching for Business Support
 - October 2011
When Dons chairman Stewart Milne first suggested to successful Aberdeen businessman Colin Welsh that he consider joining the Board of the football club he was swiftly rejected.
Mr Welsh, chief executive officer of Simmons & Company International, corporate finance advisers to the energy industry, is a lifelong Dons fan but liked to separate his busy professional life from his social activities.
He and son Connor, 14, were season ticket holders and his routine was to arrive at Pittodrie five minutes before kickoff .
“I was perfectly happy with that and to be honest I used to look at the Board, and Stewart in particular, and think: ‘Who would want to be in your shoes?’”
That was still the situation when the father of two, who overcame his own battle against cancer nine years ago, agreed to chair the local Fund Raising Committee for Monty’s Maggie’s Appeal Aberdeen which is attempting to raise £3 million to build a Maggie’s centre at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
Stewart Milne was a key member of the team and as they developed a closer relationship the building firm boss first made the suggestion to Colin.
“I just dismissed him out of hand and said: ‘That’s not in my plans. I am very busy and I have a pretty intensive day job’ - I didn’t feel I had the capacity or the desire to do that.
“However the one thing you learn about Stewart as you get to know him is that there is not a more dogged person in business. He kept at me and the more he talked about his plans, his vision for the club and how that might come together and what needed to be done, the more he persuaded me that I might be able to help.
“It is early days and I am just in the door but I think the things the club is looking for me to add value on are the building of the business and some of the funding issues around the club’s finances and funding the new stadium.
“Perhaps there is a bit of the heart ruling the head but I see it as not just a football club but also a business and the more I looked at it I thought that there were things that I could help address.
“Also, it is very easy for people to sit back and criticise but I have always felt those who deserve the credit are the ones who actually try to change things.
“If we were able to convert all the cynicism and negative energy which is applied towards Aberdeen Football Club into positive energy we would be in a very good place. In many respects that is the opportunity and the goal.
“There is clearly a job to be done just in building the business. Scottish football is in decline and the fan base of every Scottish football club is in decline but 80% of the people I talk to in Aberdeen now talk to me about football first and business second. Of those probably 80% don’t go to the games any more but they are showing they are interested in the club.
We have to do something to get them back spending money on the Club whether it is buying tickets for games or buying merchandise and the same goes for the corporate market. We must build the business into a bigger business and some of that is obviously about getting the right product on the park and some is about figuring out how to create other revenue generating opportunities using either the stadium or the Aberdeen FC brand and network.
“One of the things which is evident is that historically the club has been supported financially primarily by Aberdeen Asset Management and the Stewart Milne Group so it is ostensibly financial services and construction. While the club has had some success with the oil and gas community it has probably not had the success it could have had. It has scratched the surface of that opportunity. Is it too late? – No it’s never too late. Aberdeen’s global energy industry is on our doorstep and the club must engage more meaningfully with the industry to develop mutually beneficial partnerships. We have the potential to be the energy football club.
“Ian Jack of MI Swaco has just been appointed to the board as well and I think between us we would have a pretty decent contact base which we shall be looking to draw on.
There is a massive groundswell of latent support out there. Everyone gets the feelgood factor when the club has success. Look at the number of people who turn out to games when it has a cup run. If they have a European run Pittodrie is filled to the gunwales so there is no doubt the support is there and we have to try and find ways to bring them back.
“The first thing is for the club to restore its position of respect on the pitch. We have gone from everyone being scared to play Aberdeen in the glory days to almost the other way round. We need to get back into the winning habit and my personal view is that it is not unreasonable for us to be in a cup final two out every three seasons and to be in Europe. That would do me to start with.
“We can’t do everything at once so we have to prioritise and work up to the more difficult things but we have got to find things which will move the needle in terms of revenue generation.”
He is confident about the club’s future and admits: “I lose more nights’ sleep over what is going to happen to the broader economy than I do about what is going to happen to Aberdeen Football Club.”
He is more optimistic than he has been for some time about Aberdeen city and shire’s potential to benefit from oil and gas in the longer term.
“The crude price has been very resilient and as long as crude prices are strong, oil and gas spending is high and that feeds into the whole of the oil and gas services network. That means all the companies in the energy universe do well and Aberdeen actually gets more than its share because it has such a wealth of deepwater expertise and capability derived from all the work done in the North Sea. Companies here have an opportunity to play in all of the deepwater markets and have exposure to the massive growth in spending in Brazil, West Africa and Asia.
“In the North Sea the tax rise was not a good thing but developments which are not being done today will be done tomorrow, particularly if crude prices keep going up. Many of the fields which have historically been marginal will be developed and the life of others will be extended.”
He believes shale gas, which has transformed the US market, is a coming phenomenon in Europe.
“The International Energy Agency has talked about the golden age of gas coming but you could actually say it is the golden age of oil and gas that is coming. That would be a good thing for everyone involved in energy but the one proviso is that for that to happen we need the broader economy to hang together. We can’t afford another recession. We can’t afford another financial crisis and to avoid that we need concerted and convincing action by the politicians to head that off.
“The trouble is politicians all want to be heroes so they are quite happy to leave things until they are on the brink of disaster before they actually get propelled to do anything. I am worried about that side of things.
“We had banks going burst and now we have countries effectively going burst and we can’t afford for any one of these countries to go burst because the minute they do the banking system will be in chaos again. What is needed is the stronger countries to get together to bale these countries out on terms which make sense and then isolate them from further problems.”
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