15 minutes with the Cardiff City CEO

Hi all,

Following on from the Fans Parliament, I emailed Ken Choo. I’d had a list of questions for him and the chairman, but hadn’t had the chance to go through them, given the 40 or so others at the event.



To cut a long story short, last night Ken emailed to say he’d have some time after the game to go through them. It is easier to respond in person than Mail. True to his word he invited me up for a chat. He didn’t have to do it, so I’ll start by giving him credit where it’s due. I’ll also try to cover off a summary of the questions and answers without giving my personal views.




Q1 - The club debt stands at around £140m, that seems a worryingly high figure. When will the owner consider more debt to equity conversion.
KC - Debt can be a good thing, it’s not all bad. It’s owed to the owner and he isn’t charging interest on it. He could convert it whenever he realistically wanted to, but at the moment doesn’t see a need.
Me - If not all of it, why not some?! £140m is a lot of money and with £40m owed to the chairman, with 6-7% interest and continuing losses, it’ll only grow. At some point it’s going to get unmanageable.
KC - Agreed, but there is no current risk, or desire from the owner to do it. He can, but won’t at the moment




Q2 - The club seems to be struggling v its competitors off the field, whether retail or commercial revenue - what benchmarking does it do and why isn’t it competing?
KC - we do considerable benchmarking, but in L1 we’re a big fish in a small pond.
Me - I wouldn’t even look a L1, we should be competing with Bristol City at a minimum
KC - Bristol City have no CEO
Me - And they’re still ahead! They do, or did though. He oversaw Bristol Sport. We need to be reviewing how we work off the pitch, it’s where the money is made these days. The club feels reactive, not Proactive .. it feels like that runs through the club.
KC - We also have other set ups like the house of sport to factor in.
Me - I don’t deny that, but it’s clear they’re ahead and we need to be focused on catching up .. L1 or not





Q3 -Club doesn’t seem to want to hear from supporters. Why isn’t there a feedback portal? Why doesn’t it do more market research on things like the club shop to help with sales?
KC - We always welcome feedback, Corky will always reply.
Me - 100%, Corky is an excellent asset, but if you have feedback for specific areas, it doesn’t make sense to go through an SLO. If it’s forwarded on, you often don’t get a response from them anyway.
KC - Do you have an example?
Me - Plenty, good one is ticket marketing - how many times do you think the club have posted on social media to advertise tickets for today? How many times have they posted for the other games upcoming, cost and included links to buy?
KC - No idea?
Me - I can tell you, 0 .. posts about the upcoming game - no advert for tickets, no links off posts to buy .. you should be capitalising on the good feeling around the club. I fed this back earlier in the season. It happens game on game.
KC - Hmm, I’ll speak to the teams thanks
Me - Club needs to be smarter, take advantage of the good times. Win away at Wigan, encourage people down. It sells itself if you give people the right info. The club mentioned the success they’re having with the whatsapp channel, yet haven’t used it since the Fans Parliament.. make use of the tools more and join up the areas to get results.





Q4 - So many empty seats, I know the foundation does a lot in the area, but why can’t we fill more with kids?
KC - attendances are strong, despite L1. We’re happy with Season ticket and walk up numbers
Me - Yes, but it would be great to see more kids in the ground. Start them young and they’ll stay
KC - We have some work with schools in the pipe line.



We had to come an end there, amicably. Rebrand remnants are not something that wants to be discussed. With the owner there, whether it be the red seats or the current badge being less favoured than the 125 special .. sadly they’re here to stay until Mr Tan departs.

Cheers

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Thank you Rhys,

Excellent work and We need more people like you to represent our fans.

Telling us everything and No agenda or editing etc.

Much appreciated.

This was your fans Parliament meeting you told us last time:
Link

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=246626

Not exactly giving much away is he. I appreciate he didn’t need to do it in the first place but if you are going to do it, then be a bit more informative with the answers Choo!

Thanks for posting.

He's learned from Dalman in answering questions without giving much detail.

I'm disappointed that as the CEO he doesn't know about the lack of promotion the club put out about tickets.

Thanks for posting.

He's learned from Dalman in answering questions without giving much detail.

I'm disappointed that as the CEO he doesn't know about the lack of promotion the club put out about tickets.

It’s a “that’ll do” approach under this regime it seems. Not bothered about attracting more fans because they’re satisfied with our attendances as they are! What an attitude to have.

Some of the detail I went down to, I probably wouldn’t expect a CEO to know in fairness. But he does now so the proof is in the pudding.

Let’s hope the club uses the positivity to its advantage over the next 6-12 months. I said in the fans parliament the club has felt stagnant and rudderless over the last 2 years, and that comes from the top. If they press on, it can be rejuvenated.. the next 6-8 weeks up to Christmas will be a good indicator of it.

There are enough good things to sell at the club whether it be the kids in the academy or the Welsh call ups (obvious omission aside). If they don’t make the most of it now, they never will.

£140 M debt - there is Mr T's starting price and Dalman is getting a wage and charging interest - as posted on here by some .

Firstly, credit to you, CantonEndBlue!

Some great questions in there, and seemingly honest (as they can be with his boss looking down) answers from Ken Choo

If the club act in half of your suggestions, particularly schools and supporter engagement, they will be on to a good thing

The financial side is still a worry, as despite his ‘Vincent has underwritten it’ comment, it is surely a factor in any potential sale, and at 6-7% interest in today’s market, Mehmet Dalman could be a tough object to dislodge

Good for you CantonEndBlue.

Pity you didn't have longer to ask a few more questions.

He didn't really answer some of the questions and the replies to others only really confirmed that our club is a multi million pound business run by amateurs at the personal whim of one ignorant individual.

Did he try to flog you a car before he left?

Cheers Rhys, just sums up how badly this club is run when he has no idea about the amount of advertising afterall, he's only the CEO. It all seems to be a case of "plodding along" and why not, Dalman is stealing intrest at 7% and Del boy is stealing two wages from two different clubs you couldn't make it up. I wait for the day when the dictator and his two parasites f**k off from our club.

£140 M debt - there is Mr T's starting price and Dalman is getting a wage and charging interest - as posted on here by some .

That will always be the concern. You’d imagine Tan’s debt is now touching £100m and unless he’s willing to compromise.. we’re stuck with him for the foreseeable. Our only hope is he’s willing to front up to the clubs mistakes and he takes a smaller offer, but you’ve then still got the problem of the other £40m that’s growing by the day .. less than ideal.

Reply:

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£140 M debt - there is Mr T's starting price and Dalman is getting a wage and charging interest - as posted on here by some .

That will always be the concern. You’d imagine Tan’s debt is now touching £100m and unless he’s willing to compromise.. we’re stuck with him for the foreseeable. Our only hope is he’s willing to front up to the clubs mistakes and he takes a smaller offer, but you’ve then still got the problem of the other £40m that’s growing by the day .. less than ideal.

Spot On - That's my fear and good work on trying to get some answers and the update .