Motherwell shape up to punch through the pessimism

Theirs is a can-do attitude that begins with the supporters and extends through the club's staff, players, manager, directors and all the way up the chain to the chief executive herself. While others in Scottish football bemoan the state of the game and declare the situation hopeless, at Motherwell their response is to look for ways to do things better. They may not succeed in all their aims but any failures will certainly not be due to a lack of trying.

Motherwell have always positioned themselves as a community club and that is truer now than ever. The decision by John Boyle, long-time owner and chairman, to step down in the summer and hand over his shareholding without charge has given the club a chance to engage with the supporters like never before. A membership co-operative scheme – in the form of the fabled Barcelona model – will soon be formalised and it is hoped the Well Society will bring in around £1.5m to replace the occasions when Boyle would dip into his pocket to help the club through difficult times.

"We figured the best way to make the club successful would be to do it in a way that was sustainable," Andrew Wilson, a Motherwell director, told Herald Sport. "That meant getting the fans involved while generating as much income as we possibly can to help us fund what we do at the moment.

"To help with cashflow and to ensure the income covers the expenditure at the end of the year, we reckoned we would need a buffer of around £1.5m. That money would help with any unforeseen calamities either on or off the field, and also ensure we would never have to sell any of our players in adversity. We want any future player sales to happen at a time, and with terms, that suit both us and the player.

"We're in the fortunate position of not having any bank debt thanks to John's generosity, which allows us to think a bit differently. The idea of an industrial and provident society is one member, one vote, and the plan is that over a period of a couple of years we will have a fully elected board, which would be a first in Scottish football."

While for many clubs the aim during these turbulent financial times barely stretches beyond survival, Motherwell have set a course for expansion. Gates are up at Fir Park this season but the hope is to raise attendances further to around an average of around 8000.

If that seems optimistic in the current climate, then Motherwell will keep tinkering with the matchday model in the hope of making it increasingly enticing to potential supporters. They have regularly shown great imagination with their ticketing policies – at last week's Friday night match with Hibernian they charged £10 for adults and £5 for concessions, while season ticket holders could bring a friend along for free – and such innovations will continue for as long as they can bolster their crowds without greatly damaging the bottom line.

"Our next step is to grow the size of our fanbase," added Wilson. "We reached a low a few years ago in terms of the number of season ticket holders but when you look back to the days when Paul Lambert was here and we were playing against Borussia Dortmund in Europe, from memory we were pulling in around 8000 fans per week. We need to get back to that and maybe even go beyond it.

"To do that we need to try completely different things. You look at Neil Doncaster [Scottish Premier League chief executive] and his time at Norwich City, when they got their season ticket base up from 10,000 to 20,000, and we must be able to replicate that if we try. This year we took £10,000 less in season ticket revenue but our numbers were up by 10% so that's definitely been worth it in our view, as we let a lot of kids in for nothing. Our gates are up this season but we're not claiming a victory yet. It's just a sign that we can improve things further."

Marketing the club better has made a big difference. "What we never did previously was gather information about who our fans were. Football clubs, in general, have been relatively lazy in how they treat their fans, attract new ones, or keep in touch with them. That's something we are in a great position to change. Over the last few years we've built up a database with their details, which means we can do things like send them an email from [manager] Stuart McCall after a match and generally interact with them better."

There are no Gerald Ratner moments with Wilson, little chance that he will disparage, even in jest, his product. "It's self-defeating for people to talk about our game in negative terms, to talk the game down. We think we have to provide an antidote to that as people won't be attracted to something people are always being pessimistic about. You have to be optimistic. There will always be people who try to tell you that you can't achieve something. We have to be confident enough in our vision to punch through that pessimism."