Having read various opinions on the running of the club over the past few weeks on social media, and see'ing a minority of comments about sacking the board etc, it made me realise that the younger fans won't remember what it was like pre Simon Moran.

Although he joined the Warrington board in 1999, he bought the controlling shares in 2003 and effectively became the owner of the club. So Simon Moran has now owned the club for 20 years, and wondered what everyone's thoughts are on him with the recent issues and under achievement by the club ?

[sizeApologies in advance if this has been mentioned on another thread and already discussed. [/size

We can chunner about never having won the big one when we really should have done during this period but without Moran we'd not have been to 6 challenge cup finals and 4 Grand Finals. None of that ever seemed likely when I was younger. We've had a turbulent time of late but you can still see that Moran and co are trying to get it right which we should be thankful for.

I see Simon as an enabler - he's done his bit by spending his money. I'm not convinced that the rest of the hierarchy within the club has given him value (aside from the 2010-13 period) in terms of professionalism, ruthlessness and succession planning . Most other clubs would kill to have an owner like him and I don't think we've made the most of it. He probably saved the club from a far worse fate.

He has my full support. He's saved us as a club, put us on a sound financial footing, and yes, we haven't been as successful as we'd have wanted to have been, but in all reality, apart from Wigan, Saints and Leeds, who has.

Long may he continue in his current role.....

Nice thread Abe.
Without trying to derail it several years back I put up a couple of threads about the Moran years and the board structure. I even showed the board structure for the two companies involved with who fitted in where.
Unfortunately it was all too way above for here and the abusive pile ons from various members ensued.
Rather than remove the abusive comments the mods deleted the threads
So interesting to see if you get similar abuse and thread deletion

As far as I'm concerned, The man deserves nothing but complete respect and gratitude From everyone in and around the club.
He put his money where his mouth is, and made it possible for all the big signings we've had, whether they've been good or bad, he's made it happen. It's been a rollercoaster ride that's for Sure and he's with us....Good Man!

It's hard to imagine what position the club would be in now without Simon. We probably wouldn't have the HJ and its possible the club would no longer exsist if he hadn't made the decision to get involved to the level of buying the club.
In latter years it could be argued that he has taken a step back with the club but he does have other business interests and can only have so many spinning plates, especially post covid.
Personally, as a supporter all my life I'm grateful to Simon and did take the opportunity to tell him so once and he just smiled and thanked me.
He seems a shy man who doesn't appreciate any publicity at all but for certain he's one of us, but has the finances to make a difference.
Blame for under performance on the pitch should be levelled at all concerned but it isn't through lack of commitment on the owners part.

A fine example of the problem being the messenger and not the actual message, maybe??...

Yes he joined the board of Warrington Sports Holdings Ltd in1999 and is currently one of 8 board members. If he is the majority shareholder do you know the purpose and function of the additional “person with significant control’

Also to me as club owner it seems strange that he doesn’t sit on the board of the Warrington football club Ltd

If it wasn’t for Moran we’d now all be moaning about possible relegation from the championship and why Kear didn’t drop Dudson, Matautia and Minikin for the trip to Dewsbury.

It's good to see some positivity and sensible comments here.
Yes, Moran deserves a massive thank you for what he's done for the club.
At the end of the day he's a fan - through and through.

As has been mentioned, many of the 'facetube' generation have no idea or comprehension of 'pre HJ' days - post Tony Barrow. (For all its' faults, the old Wilderspool ground was intimidating to the opposition).
We did have some great players back then (but not at the same period) and ocasionally a great run - generally in the cup, but we tended to rely on 'hope' rather than what we have now - which is closer to 'expectation' from many.

Our game needs more people like Simon.
His involvement is a positive not just for the Warrington club but rugby league in general.

Love the guy.

We owe him a debt of gratitude for investing his money into a club we all love.

Moaners and detractors can bore off elsewhere.

He has been an absolutely fantastic owner and we all owe him a huge amount of gratitude. Others have already given all the main tributes I'd want to say.

When we moved into the new stadium Simon Moran drove the club forwards and helped completely transform our mentality. I remember being in the queues at the club shop for Andrew Johns merchandise when we brought him in, in summer 2005 and thinking the club was completely unrecognisable from where we were 3 years earlier battling to avoid relegation at Wilderspool with a championship level squad. We had internationals like Gleeson, Fa'afili and Swann already, then we brought in Andrew Johns. Then over the next few years we were adding guys like Morley, King, the Monaghans, the Andersons, Hicks, Hodgson, Solomona, Waterhouse. Suddenly Warrington were a big name in the world of rugby league who top players wanted to play for.

How much of that was due not only to Simon Moran's investment but also his contacts and ability to sell the club and vision and get superstar players to sign for us. I guess that is what being a promoter is about. I also think Paul Cullen was a good foil for Simon Moran in that era - he had the charisma and media presence to be the front man for the club's ambitions while Simon Moran kept a low profile behind the scenes.

You can split the last 20 years into two halves. Whereas 2003-13 was an exciting ride with a sense of the club going places, 2013-23 has been largely frustrating with a sense that we have underachieved. I think there have been some bad decisions over that time and some things have been allowed to drift. But we should also remember that the wider environment has been very different. The higher NRL salary cap has made it harder for British clubs to bring over the real top players so guys like Morley and King aren't available any more. Unfortunately we've ended up overpaying for some mediocre players because that's all that has been available.

Also the last few years have brought other challenges which Simon Moran will have had to deal with, away from the club. Brexit has made it harder to attract acts from Europe due to the complicated additional bureaucracy for artists doing gigs in the UK. Covid and the restrictions on live events basically put everything on hold for the best part of 2 years. It's been a difficult time to be an events promoter.

So whilst we have all been a bit disappointed in recent years and that contributes to the occasional frustration that gets voiced on here against people at the top of the club including Simon Moran, we have to accept that the wider environment hasn't been the same as it was in say 2004-10 when he was landing big signing after big signing.

I know these bitter remainers try to blame Brexit for many things, blaming it for Wire being sh!+e might be pushing it a little too far....