Quote: Ian P "I have stated that I believe that the board have done a good job with this club, they have brought stabilty, profit and growth. I think they have also now run there term of office as it where and a change is needed in style, I do not think this can be acheived with the current board. I think we need to inject new blood and idea's into the mix with a poor progressive customer focused management. I held the belief that the present regime have this "take it or leave" it attitude towards the fans, the fans are very low down on the clubs pecking order , a sort of afterthought.
During the John Kear " saga " they realised they had a communication with the fans problem, they did try and improve things. To a certain extent that worked for a while, but the fans forums and radio phone ins have become very spin orientated with a lot less listening and a whole lot more preaching. It became very unpopular to speak out against the club, even on here people have been attacked for not following the party line.
This will end the way it always has at Hull FC, into period of near obscurity with low gates and even lower expectations except this time I do not think the club has carried enough of its "hard core " support with it. The club is ripe for a take over and perhaps this is what this is about now, we shall see but there has to be changes made now.'"
Whilst there is clearly a massive problem in the current coach, Hull FC remains a very well run club. As you yourself say, "they have bought stability, profit and growth". There are more than a few clubs out there who would kill to be in the financial position that Hull FC is.
We should not dismiss the importance of those three things lightly.
There is little wrong with the club that cannot be rectified by a new coach and some success under that coach. Experience shows that a winning Hull FC side brings people through the gate. Over the years, any run of form has almost always brought with it an increase in the gate.
I can see no evidence that the "club is ripe for a take over" either. Who is going to buy it?
The reality is that the club has very little in assets (it doesn't own it's own ground and doesn't have it's own training facilities) and hardly makes a vast profit either. This means that the value and attractiveness to a potential purchaser is very limited. There isn't likely to be any significant increase in revenue from television in the near future and rugby league does not have the cash cow that is international rugby that union enjoys either.
The shareholders have been here some time and have given no sign of wishing to move on. We are highly likely stuck with the current board for quite some time to come.
Whilst I personally think that Agar should have been removed some time ago, as he had started the season in charge and the board will have looked at the fixtures and known that it was highly likely that we would not start the season well. This always meant that they would be unlikely to remove Agar early in the season. Hopefully, the fans' reaction, the team's performances and the declining revenue will spur them into action this week and we can all move on and get behind the team on the pitch once more without this soap opera.
The club is in a strong financial position and looks well set for years to come. The board's main fault has been loyalty and there are many worse faults for a board of directors of any sports club to have.
