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Charlie Methven: Global Football Partners have no plans to ‘flip’ Charlton Athletic
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So if anyone disagrees with you they're "Charlie's mates".SouthLincsAddick said:I think it’s way too early to say the way the club is being run is a complete success. We’ve just come off the worst season for 90 odd years. They hired Appleton, the ex-Oxford Utd manager, which worryingly CM is still trying to distance himself from. CM doesn’t have a great record in football, he has the unenviable record of presiding over the worst league finishes for every club he’s been involved in. Luckily we now have a decent manager, I hate to think where we’d be if NJ had said no, like so many other highly rated managers did at the time.He may spin that we are actually a ‘street club’ and that’s how you unlock 40% extra revenue, that is probably what he’s telling the owners. That sort of spin doesn’t sound like a sound, long term plan. As usual it’s going to be a gamble on promotion or things will unravel quickly. Finger crossed!
Now expecting Charlie’s mates on here to pile on.
It may be they just have a different point of view to you.13 -
The item that doesn't seem to have been mentioned is the emphasis that CM placed on owning the assets ie The Valley and Sparrows Lane.
Did he not say at the end that if he could change one thing it would be owning those assets. It was also about the only area where he was very reluctant to mention numbers. Income, losses, etc he shared. When he was asked about the price of the Valley and SL he clamed up. That suggests to me that they don't want to queer any current or future negotiations with RD. Or it could be he still has to convince the money men that owning the assets is a good investment.
Also he didn't, if I heard it right, say where "not a family club" but that we're "not not a family club but there are about 60 clubs who claim to be family clubs". Please correct me on either item if I misheard it.12 -
Had a quick listen. The main objective appears to be getting to the championship and that may well be enough for the current crop of investors.
If correct, the money floating about in the champ quoted by Methven is substantial. Premier league 2 anyone?0 -
Was also interesting that one of the successes he mentioned about Sunderland (some of which were nothing to do with his time there!) was that they owned the assets and the hosts looked aghast when he clarified that we didn’t own ours. I suspect this might be a case of him having a classic English view of the importance of owning your stadium and the American owners not quite getting it. I could be totally wide of the mark there though.Henry Irving said:The item that doesn't seem to have been mentioned is the emphasis that CM placed on owning the assets ie The Valley and Sparrows Lane.
Did he not say at the end that if he could change one thing it would be owning those assets. It was also about the only area where he was very reluctant to mention numbers. Income, losses, etc he shared. When he was asked about the price of the Valley and SL he clamed up. That suggests to me that they don't want to queer any current or future negotiations with RD. Or it could be he still has to convince the money men that owning the assets is a good investment.
Also he didn't, if I heard it right, say where "not a family club" but that we're "not not a family club but there are about 60 clubs who claim to be family clubs". Please correct me on either item if I misheard it.
And yes, you’re correct about family club thing. He did say others were more family orientated but also pointed out that the phrase family club doesn’t really mean anything, how do you measure the family-ness of a football club?4 -
It's hard for a public school educated Etonian not to be patronising, it's part of the DNA. You don't have to like the guy, but if he's part of the team that gets us promoted he can be as patronising as he wants, particularly when he's right in what he says.Return of the SE7 said:He posted on X implying that supporters can't grasp the reason why Alfie May was sold. I responded calling him a patronising cnut. Then his post disappeared.
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The street footballer branding thing sounds like a brand idea from somebody who's never worked in branding.
We recruit street footballers from cages and tower blocks and turn them into top footballers. But that's not the club's identity, it's just part of what the academy does.
We don't play exciting, tricky street football on the pitch. We never have. Fair to say a big chunk of our supporters can't even stand players who do stepovers.
The best Charlton teams have been well-organised, passionate and industrious. Same as our activist fanbase whenever we've been faced with existential crises or bad owners. That's much more closer to who/what the club is. We're not street footballers or street football fans.
We already have a rich history and connection to the community, with the largest community trust in football. That's a better start than inventing 'street football' positioning.
Effective branding has to be authentic or it will come across as contrived and opportunistic. They can't identify a target market and just go pandering to it. It's basic stuff. You have to find a middle ground between who you are and what people want.
What even is the opportunity? If they've got research that says young people from local tower block communities are willing to regularly spend £30 on tickets to watch League One football if the club aligns with their values, I would fall off my chair.
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Not at all, all opinions welcome, just that there’s a vocal contingent that seem to defend Charlie’s actions, good or bad.southamptonaddick said:
So if anyone disagrees with you they're "Charlie's mates".SouthLincsAddick said:I think it’s way too early to say the way the club is being run is a complete success. We’ve just come off the worst season for 90 odd years. They hired Appleton, the ex-Oxford Utd manager, which worryingly CM is still trying to distance himself from. CM doesn’t have a great record in football, he has the unenviable record of presiding over the worst league finishes for every club he’s been involved in. Luckily we now have a decent manager, I hate to think where we’d be if NJ had said no, like so many other highly rated managers did at the time.He may spin that we are actually a ‘street club’ and that’s how you unlock 40% extra revenue, that is probably what he’s telling the owners. That sort of spin doesn’t sound like a sound, long term plan. As usual it’s going to be a gamble on promotion or things will unravel quickly. Finger crossed!
Now expecting Charlie’s mates on here to pile on.
It may be they just have a different point of view to you.2 -
I've just finished listening to the whole thing, and I paid particular attention to the "street football brand" bit because I'd also had a long chat aweek ago with someone close to the club who told me "they have an agenda, they don't want people like you and I as fans". He and I are "older white men" but we might differ in how we feel about that. After I heard CM, I think my mate's fears are unfounded, but I am slightly less clear about what exactly CM is suggesting we will do to build a "brand" around "street football". I think @Chunes criticism is reasonable. Charlie is a PR guy, and they tend to have a dangerously superficial understanding of branding. So I winced when I heard "street football".
However, Charlie is proving to be a lot better on clear strategic thinking than I'd ever have imagined from enjoying "Sunderland til I die". Seems to me he correctly identifies the changing demographic profile in our part of SE London. So why wouldn't you overall want to appeal more to that demographic closest to the ground ? (was it TS, or perhaps Meire who had the bizarre idea to target SW London?). Then he is also right to say "family club" is a loose concept claimed by 60% of all League clubs. That's nothing unique so as a branded message it fails, particularly when we compete with so many other clubs nearby.
Fine but when it comes to attracting young people from this new demographic, a proper business would first do research to find out exactly why this potential fanbase doesn't yet come. At a guess, I'd say top reason, the football has been utter crap, second as Chunes said, the price. But I'd also want to know, does that mean they instead go to, lets say West Ham? Or do they in fact really not go to watch pro football for more generic reasons? If that's true, it's a marketing problem but more fundamental than a branding exercise can solve, because a strong brand gives you a competitive advantage over the competition, other clubs. e.g. you don't give a toss about whether you believe Walkers Crisps are better than Sainsbury own label, if you have decided that crisps are fundamentally bad for you .
So I think we'll have to see how exactly where Charlie takes this. It may be that he thinks its something they will start to do only when we've addressed issue 1, i.e. we are no longer South East London's laughing stock.14 -
Braziliance said:Henry Irving made some really excellent points, and tbh, I think it's a lot harder than the people in charge realise to tap into the market of the surrounding areas.
The reality is, Charlton just isn't an easy team to support. I have a group of old mates who are a mixture of Somali, Pakistani and Kenyan, and they can't understand why I support Charlton. They have gone to games, and have all said that if we got to the Premier League, they'd get season tickets, but that's not to support Charlton, but rather see quality football.
People who have no family ties to Charlton, are a very hard sell for Charlton. We are arguably the most underachieving London professional football club at present (not even sure its an argument tbh) there's a real lack of interest in our level of football.
Just a point I'd like to question.
Based on listening to the whole thing Charlie makes a point that the gap between L1 and Champ is widening and there is a conscientious effort to boost prestige of the championship, with the new efl deal being with more than ligue 1 for example,
And moving towards an premier league 2 ( with it an ever increasing quality of football I'd imagine) but this is not new news.
He also mentioned sponsorship in this regard and how it's difficult for us to get people interested in L1 because of the prestige and quantity of other ports teams ( locally ie London ) I think there is clear thinking here in that regards.
Anyway, I digress, with that in mind surely then if we can get promoted and become an established champ team again would that not then begin to appeal to these types you mention?1 -
Separately @Henry Irving just one point to your thoughtful post with many good points; on the way CM described how American biz people see English football assets as bargains compared with US sports clubs, Kieran Maguire has come to the same conclusion, and Kieran takes a pretty dim view of Charlie generally. So I think Charlie's conclusion there is solid.1
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Think you are all missing the key point here. There is a clear path / stepping stone between being oblivious to CAFC, despite them being on your doorstep and then becoming a committed supporter. Stage 1, you get offered a job in a kiosk in the ground. Once you are conditioned to an environment where people chuck large quantities of beer down their neck and sing songs, you then move closer by moving to stage 2, watching the football as a steward. A year or so of that and you're match ready. Academy, kiosk staff and stewards are the future. It just took a marketing genius to unlock it. All aboard, the more the merrier i say.3
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That's worrying Prague, took my white son to his first game last weekend. If the club don't want white people as fans, I think I'll take him Maidstone United next time, thanks for the heads up4
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That’s obviously not the case, there’s a big difference between wanting to appeal to one group and saying you don’t want another group to come. I’m going to be generous and assume this is a joke…Kidaroos_Addick said:That's worrying Prague, took my white son to his first game last weekend. If the club don't want white people as fans, I think I'll take him Maidstone United next time, thanks for the heads up17 -
Mixed race people must be a space/time continuum dilemma for those who decide which skin colour is or is not welcome or encouraged at the Valley.
All cats are grey in the dark.
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Don’t be ridiculous, I highly doubt the club “don’t want white people as fans”.Kidaroos_Addick said:That's worrying Prague, took my white son to his first game last weekend. If the club don't want white people as fans, I think I'll take him Maidstone United next time, thanks for the heads upThere are 15,000 empty seats at the Valley every other Saturday and the fan demographics in the ground don’t reflect the demographics in the surrounding neighbourhoods. We are leaving a lot of money on the table.10 -
Absolutely load of crap to say club don’t want white fans ridiculous… think you need to remove that commentKidaroos_Addick said:That's worrying Prague, took my white son to his first game last weekend. If the club don't want white people as fans, I think I'll take him Maidstone United next time, thanks for the heads up5 -
Jesus wept, the owners talks about bringing in more fans from the local area which is a highly diverse inner London area and some cretins take it as a chance to promote the great replacement conspiracy.20
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Not a joke at all, his words were the club don't want people like you or I as fans. Or have I mis-understood something?9
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yes you have totally misunderstood that as CM has not said anything remotely close to thatKidaroos_Addick said:Not a joke at all, his words were the club don't want people like you or I as fans. Or have I mis-understood something?23 -
If the idea is to encourage more local yoof to attend with "street football", does that mean we're going to have to install metal detectors or amnesty bins for the knives?2
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Well said.se9addick said:
Don’t be ridiculous, I highly doubt the club “don’t want white people as fans”.Kidaroos_Addick said:That's worrying Prague, took my white son to his first game last weekend. If the club don't want white people as fans, I think I'll take him Maidstone United next time, thanks for the heads upThere are 15,000 empty seats at the Valley every other Saturday and the fan demographics in the ground don’t reflect the demographics in the surrounding neighbourhoods. We are leaving a lot of money on the table.
Please can we not have yet another thread ruined by certain repeat offenders making it about them and their politics.13 -
More to this i don't know how the "white" bit crept in but it obviously that the club is trying to attract a younger crowd, they literally created a section for 16-20 year olds. It makes sense from the club perspective to put effort in to attracting a younger crowd, those around 60 who attend arent likely to stop attending through choice but a significant amount probably wont be coming in ten, fifteen years time for a variety of reasons. It's not about not wanting a certain demographic as fans but attracting fans from other demographics and as a business if they feel there is more chance of making a profit from demographic A than B they will do so.
All this said its not that they wont older men as fans but more so they want to attract a younger fanbase who will spend money and if that means some of the older fans stop attending they are happy to make that trade off.
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bang on the money until the very last bit in kyRadostanradical said:More to this i don't know how the "white" bit crept in but it obviously that the club is trying to attract a younger crowd, they literally created a section for 16-20 year olds. It makes sense from the club perspective to put effort in to attracting a younger crowd, those around 60 who attend arent likely to stop attending through choice but a significant amount probably wont be coming in ten, fifteen years time for a variety of reasons. It's not about not wanting a certain demographic as fans but attracting fans from other demographics and as a business if they fell there is more chance of making a profit from demographic A than B they will do so.
All this said its not that they wont older men as fans but more so they want to attract a younger fanbase who will spend money and if that means some of the older fans stop attending they are happy to make that trade off.
opinion. Don’t think they’re expecting the older fans to stop as nothing is being done to discourage them really, the fanzone doesn’t make a huge difference to older fans for example but is aimed at new younger fans
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What does you and I mean ? It could mean anything are you both over 6ft, have brown eyes, right handed, like cricket ?Kidaroos_Addick said:Not a joke at all, his words were the club don't want people like you or I as fans. Or have I mis-understood something?
Its not about not wanting you as fans its about putting effort in to attract a different demographic to attend aswell. If i go to a restaurant and they have a wheelchair ramp, I don't as an able bodied person throw a tantrum saying "ThiS ReStauRant DoEsN'T WanT ME to eAt 'Ere"6 -
Henry, if you are aiming that "repeat offenders" comment at me, I don't really post on here, and I don't really have any politics. I'm just picking up on what Prague (not CM) has clearly stated above, as I find it very concerning if that is the "agenda". I'll leave it at that, as you say don't wanna spoil the thread.1
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No exactly that, you are right the point I'm making, maybe clumsily, is if a few (and there will always be some upset by any change) older fans get upset because the fanzone is too young, loud etc (also accepting as you said most dont care) the club is happy to make that trade off. Not to be seen as a whole exchange of older fans for younger fans.fenaddick said:
bang on the money until the very last bit in kyRadostanradical said:More to this i don't know how the "white" bit crept in but it obviously that the club is trying to attract a younger crowd, they literally created a section for 16-20 year olds. It makes sense from the club perspective to put effort in to attracting a younger crowd, those around 60 who attend arent likely to stop attending through choice but a significant amount probably wont be coming in ten, fifteen years time for a variety of reasons. It's not about not wanting a certain demographic as fans but attracting fans from other demographics and as a business if they fell there is more chance of making a profit from demographic A than B they will do so.
All this said its not that they wont older men as fans but more so they want to attract a younger fanbase who will spend money and if that means some of the older fans stop attending they are happy to make that trade off.
opinion. Don’t think they’re expecting the older fans to stop as nothing is being done to discourage them really, the fanzone doesn’t make a huge difference to older fans for example but is aimed at new younger fans0 -
but that isn’t what Prague said either? The comment his friend made was much more about age than anything else, which I imagine isn’t an issue for your son. Unless your son is middle aged that isKidaroos_Addick said:Henry, if you are aiming that "repeat offenders" comment at me, I don't really post on here, and I don't really have any politics. I'm just picking up on what Prague (not CM) has clearly stated above, as I find it very concerning if that is the "agenda". I'll leave it at that, as you say don't wanna spoil the thread.1 -
The comment that @PragueAddick heard … ie "they have an agenda, they don't want people like you and I as fans" … is, I believe, an overreach by the person he spoke to.Kidaroos_Addick said:Henry, if you are aiming that "repeat offenders" comment at me, I don't really post on here, and I don't really have any politics. I'm just picking up on what Prague (not CM) has clearly stated above, as I find it very concerning if that is the "agenda". I'll leave it at that, as you say don't wanna spoil the thread.They are hoping to break into another sector of the local populace, not to replace ‘us’ with ‘them’ - that would be commercial suicide.11 -
Exactly.stonemuse said:
The comment that @PragueAddick heard … ie "they have an agenda, they don't want people like you and I as fans" … is, I believe, an overreach by the person he spoke to.Kidaroos_Addick said:Henry, if you are aiming that "repeat offenders" comment at me, I don't really post on here, and I don't really have any politics. I'm just picking up on what Prague (not CM) has clearly stated above, as I find it very concerning if that is the "agenda". I'll leave it at that, as you say don't wanna spoil the thread.They are hoping to break into another sector of the local populace, not to replace ‘us’ with ‘them’ - that would be commercial suicide.
I cannot understand how Kidaroos Addick missed the opening part of my next sentence:
"After I heard CM, I think my mate's fears are unfounded"
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Did he comment on why transfer fees are ‘undisclosed’ yet happy to share how much money we lose?0
