Dean Hoyle announced yesterday that he is going to step back from the day-to-day running of the football club and will look to find someone to buy the club. This news was coupled with the announcement of a new managing director, Dave Baldwin, that will take over the work Dean was doing as the club’s figurehead and who will be in charge of the search for a new buyer of the club.
I’ve seen some fans celebrate this news and act as though this can only be a good thing for the club but I’m far less optimistic. While there’s a possibility that things could work out well down the line, I’m a bit concerned. In this article I’ll talk about a few of the things that worry me about this new development…
The takeover between Phil and Dean has still not been officially concluded
Unless I missed an announcement somewhere, I don’t think we’ve had confirmation that Dean Hoyle bought Phil Hodginkinson’s three quarter stake in the club. The relationship between the two clearly soured when the latter’s business empire collapsed and Hoyle said in his programme notes shortly after that the club were left on the brink of administration – a claim I seem to remember Hodgkinson refuted.
The 25/75 split may not be that straightforward anyway, as the original deal to buy the club between Hoyle and Hodgkinson involved an installment plan and given the financial strife Phil experienced he may not have made all his payments. Add to that all the money Hoyle is owed by the club and it starts to get a bit messy.
Would a new owner be able to unpick the tangled mess of Hoyle and Hodgkinson’s ownerships? Would they want to touch it with a bargepole? It would be like trying to get in the middle of a messy divorce and has potential for all sorts of nastiness if either party doesn’t agree with the other’s opinion about how money should be distributed.
I’m speculating a little as I don’t have access to the books or the financial acumen to understand them but from the outside I can imagine there’s huge potential for boardroom drama and if I was a potential investor in a football club these factors would be huge red flags for me.
Dean Hoyle has been a good steward for the club and who knows what will come next
I know not every fan feels the same as me about the above statement, but on the whole, I think Dean Hoyle has been a force for good for Huddersfield Town. He openly admits that he’s made mistakes in his time at Town but for the most part he’s done the right thing and we’ve had some amazing times under his stewardship.
He’s a genuine fan, with a decent amount of money and he’s been willing to invest when we’ve needed it. That’s a fairly rare thing in football these days. He could have put more money in and he could have written off the money he’s put in rather than trying to draw it back out but there’s still time for him to write some of that debt off and he’s been patient about taking back his money and I don’t believe he’s taken a penny in interest (bearing in mind inflation is now 12%). We’ll have to see what happens with that money the club owes him – I’d love it if he wrote it off as a parting gesture to the fans but that may be too much to hope for.
I think a lot of the fans that are critical of Hoyle may not realise how much worse owners can be. They may soon find out. I’m not trying to be a doom monger but you don’t have to look too far around the football league to see basket case clubs with absolutely awful owners.
Will anyone even want to buy Huddersfield Town?
Who in their right mind would be interested in buying Huddersfield Town at the moment? We’re currently sat bottom of the Championship and staring League One in the face. Even if we do manage to pull out of our current death spiral and survive in the Championship, Dean Hoyle said a few months ago that we’re currently running a £10m-a-season deficit that requires the constant trading of players to bring that down to a more palatable £5m-a-year loss.
So we’re trying to tempt in a new owner by telling them that IF we manage to stay up, we’ll then have to keep producing players that can be sold to the Premier League for many millions of pounds every summer (and the fans will hate you for selling all our top talent) and then you’ll still need to plug a £5m hole in the balance sheet every season. And that’s just to tread water in the Championship with a below average squad and a stripped back academy. Great! Sign me up!
What will a new owner want to do?
I think there are a few things a new owner may question when they come into Huddersfield Town. I’m not saying they’ll want to change things straight away but there are definitely some things fans might take for granted that aren’t set in stone. For example:
- Cheap season tickets – is a full stadium worth the lost revenue?
- The B Team – Is it producing enough first-team quality talent to justify the cost?
- The Head Coach & Director of Football model – Does this system deliver or should we return to an old school system with an experienced manager at the helm?
- Open communications – Dean Hoyle and Phil Hodgkinson both engaged quite a lot with fans and told them what was going on when they could. There’s no requirement for new owners to do so. Hopefully they will because they’ll want to win over the fans but they don’t have to and may prefer to keep a bit of distance instead.
Trying to be a bit more optimistic
After being a bit of a doom monger for most of this article, I thought I should try and finish on a more positive note. The guy responsible for selling the club, Dave Baldwin, says that we’re working from a “solid foundation” and are a “clean business” for any incoming investor – which suggests at least that he believes that the club is a decent proposition and hopefully he’ll be a good salesman for the club.
I’ve recently watched the “Welcome to Wrexham” documentary series, and it’s clear from that series how exciting football ownership is to people with a lot of money, even when they know very little about how football works. Rob McEleney, despite watching all of Wrexham’s games over the course of his first season of being owner, quite obviously doesn’t understand the offside rule but still loves his club anyway. The documentary has shown me that people with money but no attachment to a club can come in and still have good intentions and be good custodians of a club. Although for every club bought by Hollywood stars there are dozens bought by dodgy businessmen with ulterior motives (sorry – it’s very hard to stay positive).
If Town can pull out of the relegation zone and settle in mid-table then I think they become a fairly reasonable proposition for a semi-ambitious investor. We’d be relatively cheap compared to a top-end Championship club but it wouldn’t take a huge sum to get us competing at the top end of the league, as we showed last season when we made the playoff final. So we could really do with winning a few games pretty soon!
Very worrying times Price rises in season tickets are inevitable. will the boo boy like that ? . Good luck To Dean. Hope we don’t regret this. Think the managers day’s are numbered. Just need a multimillionaire Arab UTT .
Don’t worry about the boo boys. At least they will pay to watch – and air their opinions. Worry more about those who cannot – or will not – pay to watch a struggling, low quality – possibly relegated – football team.
I think it is a sad day for the club and I worry for our future. I think Dean Hoyle has done an excellent job in his time with the club. He will always be a club legend in my mind.
The boo boys have now got their way but, like you, I do wonder who will buy the club. Frying pan to fire comes to mind. They will still find something to moan about.
Dean Hoyle doesn’t own the ground either , that could be a stumbling block for any new investor
Spot on Ian. We’d only attract the very deep pockets if we totally owned the ground and the land it’s on. As it is, it’s not an attractive proposition for most big investors.
For once i agree with you I am a very worried terrier. I Can not understand why the transfer of the 3/4 of the club as not been done in the last 12 months what is the problem why is Phil Hodjkinson holding on to them Dean Hoyle should at least give us the truth
Phill is not holding on to them it’s the ego factor that has a back log and we are waiting for them to agree to thr shares being returned
We all make mistakes, but we don’t all pump millions into our local football team and create incredible memories for its fans.
The way some of our ‘supporters’ have gone after Dean Hoyle makes me sick. Have a word.
I share your fear (assuming anyone wants to buy us).
It’s was a sad day yesterday for HTFC with Dean Hoyles announcement. Your piece sums up the situation really well. Dean has been a great custodian of our football club for 14 years. Like any club it’s had its ups and downs but I think he should be proud of what he has achieved in his time as owner. What his detractors don’t always take on board is that this is a business and he is a businessman not a benefactor although he has had to be at times most recently with the Phil Hodgkinson situation. I hope we can find a new owner with his credentials but it’s unlikely.
I wish Dean well and sincerely hope his health stabilises and he can continue to watch and support as a supporter not owner.
Andrew,
Well written piece. I agree with all that has been written. I’ve always under stood that eventually a new owner would arrive, but I do worry that not owning the Stadium will put a lot of investors off. The keyboard warriors have finally got their wish, and got rid of the best owner the club has had in my 55 years of support. I hope they dont have any regrets over the next few years, but if they do, no doubt they will start typing!
Every owner Town have ever had has left the club when their own ambitions have been met. Dean Hoyle is doing exactly the same. What we don’t yet know is the state he will leave us in. We have to hope that he will at least ensure that administration is not the answer.
You make some good points but I’m sure the shares will be back to dean just waiting for the regulators to pass them.as for the club well like anyrpthing else it will be tough but best not to speculate just let them get on with trying to find a buyer and keeping the club going dean is still funding it till it’s sold
It’s was a sad day yesterday for HTFC with Dean Hoyles announcement. Your piece sums up the situation really well. Dean has been a great custodian of our football club for 14 years. Like any club it’s had its ups and downs but I think he should be proud of what he has achieved in his time as owner. What his detractors don’t always take on board is that this is a business and he is a businessman not a benefactor although he has had to be at times most recently with the Phil Hodgkinson situation. I hope we can find a new owner with his credentials but it’s unlikely.
I wish Dean well and sincerely hope his health stabilises and he can continue to watch and support as a supporter not owner.
Re your comment :
‘The 25/75 split may not be that straightforward’
It is all very straightforward. The Pure accounts are transparent. Dean has 100% control over the shares by way of lien over the 75% He will only hand over the cash for the 75% at the precise time the club is being sold and the amount paid to Phil will be determined by the price the club is sold for. Eg if he sells the club but on;y for £1.00 this time and the purchaser again agrees inject new money into the club that ranks second to the club paying Dean’s loans back over time, then Phil get’s 75p. Phil has no say at all in the matter, he probably has his fingers crossed that Red Bull will offer £50m – £40m to pay back Dean and £10m for the club of which Phil would pick up £7.5m – but do we really want to be Huddersfield Red Bull 🧐😫😂
” Dean Hoyle said a few months ago that we’re currently running a £10m-a-season deficit that requires the constant trading of players to bring that down to a more palatable £5m-a-year loss. ” This is the bit that I don’t understand. How are we different from other successful clubs in the Championship. We are always considered a low budget club but looking at last seasons promoted club ground capacities: Our capacity is 24500. Of the promoted clubs Bournemouth is 11364, Fulham 25700, Notts Forest 30445. At the top now Burnley 21994, QPR 18439 so we are right up there as far as receipts go. We have had multimillions come in via parachute payments and players sales. We pay lower wages than probably all those mentioned so what’s wrong? It can only be the lack of support and funding from the owner(s). Add that one is taking back every penny he can even if it has almost bankrupted the club and left them in this situation. Any financial support given over the past months may be 20% as a fan but 80% to support his investment. It doesn’t seem to have crossed their minds that dropping into League 1 will wipe out a large amount from the clubs value.
Definitely a sad day for the club, but not unexpected. Hoyle did an amazing job with Town last time around, bringing us up from League 1 obscurity to the Primadonna League (and against all odds staying up!).
But I think it’s been very clear that his heart wasn’t in it this time: he hasn’t been very visible or made many statements, the investments have not been at a level we could’ve hoped for (although nobody really can criticise him for that; it’s his money), Carlos Corberán and Jorge Alarcón left (possibly) frustrated, Josh Marsh left affecting recruitment, etc. – and Hoyle even admitted this in his statement now.
Maybe the biggest mistake was that he didn’t appoint a new CEO when Mark Devlin left, but tried to run the show himself, which possibly didn’t work out for the club and certainly not for him, bringing his health problems back on the table.
So all in all, I think it’s a good thing (both for Hoyle and the club) that Dave Baldwin takes over as CEO and that they’re now looking for a new owner, but without having the panic of a firesale written all over the process.
Regarding the sale and the value of the club for potential buyers, there are several things to factor in, including that Hoyle not only owns 25% of the shares in the club itself, but also all of Canalside and has loaned the club some 60 million (it was 49 last year and after that he has claimed to have put in another 10 or so). In addition, Town only own 40% of the stadium, with Kirklees Council holding 40% and Huddersfield Giants 20%; I don’t know the value of the stadium, but it ought to be at least 50 million (after all, it cost 40 million to build it, almost 30 years ago).
So, if the club is worth around 50 million and Canalside about 20 (figures previously mentioned in the Examiner, I think), a new owner who wanted to take total control would have to pay Hoyle over 90 million, Hodgkinson about 40, the Council at least 20 and the Giants 10. Thus putting in 170 million from the start for a club which still essentially will be worth 50, and then having the prospect of pitching in at least 5 more each year just to keep it afloat.
But what new owner would step in with a status quo ambition? Supposedly the aim would be Hodgkinson’s top-30 level (which I think is fair enough and very reasonable). To get there, the owner would need to pitch in more money and/or find more sponsors.