In February the Dee4Life board sought to gain the views of members in a survey. Around a third of our members (171) took the time to share their opinion on the trust and what they would like us to focus on going forward.
We will take these views into consideration to help form our strategy.
Below is the list of questions we asked with the top-level results from each. Beneath each answer section is a summary of our thoughts on the responses.
Here are nine things Dee4Life could focus on, on your behalf. What THREE things do you think we should focus on most?
Working to ensure Dundee FC are here for the longer term (selected by 74% of respondents)
Bringing all Dundee-minded people together to support the club (51%)
Providing feedback to the club on off-field performance raised by members (38%)
Our overarching aim is to help ensure that Dundee is successful on the park and financially secure off it, which chimes with the most popular option selected by members. For us, providing feedback on the club’s operations and performances – and encouraging genuine engagement with as wide a section of the fanbase as possible – is vital if this goal is to be achieved.
Our door is always open to any Dundee-minded group or individual and we will meet with representatives of the club or any other fan group at any time and without any preconditions.
How much do you agree that there should be:
Fan representation on the club board (62% strongly agree, 29% slightly agree)
A Dundee FC AGM for shareholders (75%, 18%)
More regular feed of information about the off-field performance of the club (66%, 30%)
More regular feed of information about the current/new stadium (70%, 26%)
More regular Q&As with club representatives (64%, 28%)
Enhanced communication from the club is the clear priority of members. For almost a year we have been campaigning for the reintroduction of the club AGM and/or a meaningful Q&A with supporters’ representatives. We believe that this would address the information deficit around the stadium and other issues and enable the views of a wider cross section of fans’ views to be heard.
We will continue to push for engagement of this kind and note the answered to our stadium questions supplied earlier this week.
Do you believe Dee4Life are on the right track?
Strongly agree (46%)
Slightly agree (38%)
Disagree slightly (7%)
Disagree strongly (5%)
No opinion (4%)
It is important for all organisations to be self-reflective and responsive to feedback from members and other stakeholders. While we are pleased that 86% agreed that we were on the right track, we note that the number who strongly agreed was lower than for any other question.
Clearly a major factor in this is that relations between the club board and Dee4Life are not currently positive. We remain committed to rebuilding this relationship and our local MSPs have offered to broker a meeting between Dee4Life and the club board. In addition we have been in discussions with intermediaries about restarting relations. We hope they respond positively to these efforts and that this will enable us to seek the priorities outlined in your answers above.
Thinking about Dee4Life membership at £10 at year, which is most true of you?
I will definitely rejoin this year (81%)
I will probably rejoin (13%)
I may or may not rejoin (6%)
It is heartening that the vasty majority of you will either definitely or probably rejoin and we hope to win over both those who are currently unsure as well as to attract new members. We will look closely at all the reasons given, whether positive or less so, and this will feed into our approach over the next year.
Which of these things are true of you?
I have a season ticket (70%)
I go to most games (65%)
I buy food/drink from the outlets (26%)
I buy hospitality (25%)
I buy things from the club shop (71%)
I am an 1893 Foundation member (27%)
I am a Dee Lottery member (39%)
I buy half-time draw tickets (34%)
I am a DeeTV subscriber (23%)
I contribute to club raffles (30%)
I go to club events and dinners (26%)
I am a club sponsor/advertiser (3%)
I am a shareholder (24%)
I am a member of the DSA/a supporters’ club (36%)
Your answers demonstrate that Dee4Life members are passionate, loyal supporters of Dundee FC who contribute to the club in a variety of ways. Applying these figures across our entire membership, we can say with reasonable certainty that around 350 Dee4Life members are season ticket holders.
While the data does not allow us to ascertain exact spend, using fairly conservative assumptions we estimate the total financial contribution of Dee4Life members to the club each year to be in the excess of £200,000.
Who are our members?
Gender – male (94%), female (4%), other/prefer not to say (2%)
Age – 25-34 (5%), 35-44 (11%), 45-54 (12%), 55-64 (35%), 65-plus (35%), prefer not to say (2%)
From – DD postcode (62%), AB (8%), EH (7%), KY (5%), G (4%), Other Scottish (9%), Non-Scottish (5%)
Our typical member is a man, aged sixty, living in the Dundee area. Clearly for the future of Dee4Life we need to attract more younger members and increase the number of female members.
What is the best thing about being a Dundee FC fan?
Analysing your responses, three clear themes emerged – team (41% of mentions), identity (34%) and kin (19%). You have made it clear that Dundee is not just your team, it is part of your identity and that of your family.
There were also a few answers along the line of “I wish I knew”!
Dee4Life’s members’ portal is the place to manage your membership and view any Trust documents. To access the portal, please follow the steps below.
On any page on the Dee4Life website, click on the ‘Member login’ option on the top navigation bar.
This will open up a login page to our members’ portal.
To access Dee4Life documents, you will need to register for an account with our system – this is called Sheep CRM. All members should have been given the opportunity to do this when they first joined Dee4Life.
This initial page gives you the option to register for a Sheep CRM account, login to an existing account, become a Dee4Life member or give your consent for data recording.
If you have already registered, please skip to the next step.
To register, click the ‘register your account’ link and input your first name, last name and email address and phone number you used for signing up with Dee4Life.
Click the box to agree to the Sheep CRM terms and condition then click the ‘register’ button. This will then send an authentication email to your given email address. Follow the instructions on in this email to complete your sign up.
If you have previously registered for a Sheep CRM account, select the ‘Click here to log in’, option.
This will open a page asking you to input your email address. Please note, this should be the email address associated with your membership.
Type in your email address and password into the text box, then click ‘CONTINUE’. If you have input the correct credentials you will be logged in. If not, you will be prompted to try again.
There is also the option to reset your password if you have forgotten or to input an activation code, if you have been sent one.
Once you have logged in, your will see the members’ portal page. Here you will be able to manage your information, membership and find Dee4Life documents.
To find documents such as meeting agendas and minutes, click the ‘Documents’ option in the top right of the screen (circled on the image above).
Upon clicking ‘Documents’ you will then see a list of document categories. To download any document, click on one of the categories to open up the library of files.
Click the ‘Download’ option to the right of the file (circles on the image above) to download a copy to your device. You can also click on the name of the file for more information on it.
To return to the main portal page, click the ‘Dashboard’ button at the top right of any page.
If you experience any difficulties in accessing the members’ area, please don’t hesitate to get in touch by emailing contact@dee4life.com.
Did you know that whenever you buy anything online – from your weekly shop to your annual holiday – you could be raising free donations for Dee4Life with easyfundraising?
There are over 7,000 brands on board ready to make a donation – including eBay, Argos, John Lewis, ASOS, Booking.com and M&S – and it won’t cost you a penny extra to help us raise funds.
I would like to kick off this month’s update by thanking all of you who responded to our recent survey. Your answers will help determine our future strategy and efforts to ensure that Dee4Life is as representative of the views of our members as possible.
My colleagues Andrew Pyke, Scott Lorimer and Ross Day have led on this project and are currently analysing the data before we consider your contributions as a board. We will then share the results widely, initially at the members’ meeting on Monday 18 March. As I said a few weeks ago, this meeting will take place on Microsoft Teams. This is in response to a request to occasionally hold meetings online to allow more members – particularly those who live outwith Dundee – to take part.
Members can join this meeting from 6.50pm for a 7pm start on Monday 18 March. An invitation will be sent out towards the end of next week.
We are aware that some of you may never have used Teams before so please get in touch with any concerns you may have. Please also let us know of any topics you would like us to cover during the meeting.
We will send a reminder with a full agenda before the event but, in addition to sharing the survey results, we will also update you on our efforts since the Dee4Life AGM back in November. There will then be an open discussion, with members invited to share their thoughts based on what they’ve heard.
I am sure that the welcome progress evidenced in the submission of Planning Permission in principle for the Camperdown stadium development will feature heavily in discussions and I hope that we will be able to update you on the questions sent to the club via our Supporters Liaison Officer at this time.
I look forward to welcoming as many of you as possible to this meeting and to hearing more about your views on both Dee4Life and the club.
With the team performing better than we have seen in sometime, notwithstanding some poorer results recently, the new stadium proposals, with the Planning Permission in Principle application now submitted, and the recently announced partnership with Burnley, there is a lot of excitement around the Dundee support just now.
The Burnley link is particularly intriguing to me as I spent several years living in the Lancashire town. My wife and I still have friends down there, and I was last at Turf Moor earlier this season. It is a fantastic club from a great part of the world, and I hope that this partnership delivers for all parties.
The Dee4Life board is obviously delighted by the prospect of Dundee taking steps forward on and off the park but – as I outlined last month – the founding principes of the Trust mean we must always ask questions about developments, even those that appear exciting and potentially transformative.
With that in mind, we have submitted a series of questions (see below) relating to the stadium development. I hope that the club takes the time to consider these and provides answers that will go some way to addressing the concerns that members tell us they still have about the Camperdown plan.
At our November AGM we agreed to hold a follow up meeting in the first quarter of 2024, and I can confirm that this will take place on the evening of Monday 18 March. Following on from another suggestion, this will be online to allow a wider selection of members than usual to attend. I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible then. Further details, including how members can join the meeting, will follow in our next update.
Ahead of that discussion, we want to gauge the views of members about how the Trust and the club and to find out a bit more about you and how we can best represent you. To this end, we have compiled a short survey which members will find in their email inbox. I would be most grateful if you could take a few minutes to fill in before the end of February.
Thanks for your time and I am hopeful February gives us more league points.
Regards Keith Winter, Chair
Questions submitted to the Dundee FC board via club SLO John Burke: 1. When will the full planning application likely be submitted? Or any submissions required by the grant of the current PPIP under any attached conditions, notably suspensive conditions?
2. Is the target of football being played in the new stadium by summer 2025 still valid given the fact that planning permission in principle still has to be determined?
3. What are the phasing arrangements for the delivery of the elements contained in the development mix? Will the football facilities be included in the first phase or is the stadium contingent on the successful delivery of the other, revenue-generating elements?
4.Will Dundee FC own the stadium? If not, will the rental terms be set at a commercial rate or on other terms, such as a set percentage of the club’s turnover?
5. If the club is not to own the stadium, will the club pay more in rent than the current arrangements at Dens Park?
6. The ONS notes that private commercial construction costs have risen by around 30% in the past seven years, including approximately 14% since December 2021. Interest rates have risen significantly in this time too. How has all this impacted on the affordability of the project? What protections are in place for the club should DBPH experience financial difficulties that prevent the project from being delivered, or the company to cease trading?
7. Records from the Land Registry suggest that both the Camperdown site and Dens Park have been used as security against loans obtained from the Soho Green finance company. Is this correct, what has this finance been used for and have the loans been repaid? What guarantees can be given that Dens Park will not be lost if repayments are not met?
8. Is finance in place for the new stadium development and is this in the form of investment or lending? If it is the latter, are the club liable for repayments of this?
9. Whilst the planning application process and subsequent development takes place what are the arrangements and investments planned for Dens Park?
10. In any delay on delivery of the Camperdown proposal what is the strategy and practical arrangement for the continuing use and operation of Dens Park over each of say 3, 5, 7-year periods or indeed indefinitely?
11. Should planning permission be refused or should the development fail to materialise for any other reason, what is the club’s Plan B position?
Happy New Year and I hope you had a great festive period with family and friends.
The past month has brought both the exhilaration of late goals at Dingwall and Kilmarnock and the disappointment of the Aberdeen and St Johnstone postponements.
With regards to the latter, we know from correspondence from members how frustrating you have found the situation. Accordingly, we have written to the club’s Supporter Liaison Officer to try and better understand the underlying issues with the pitch and to offer any practical support we can to minimise the risk of future call offs. In this letter, we also reiterated our long-standing offer to support the introduction of eticketing at Dens Park.
December’s other major talking point was the new stadium image and additional details about the project released by the club. This has rightly generated a great deal of excitement and discussion amongst Dundee fans, and we welcome the stated commitment to ongoing consultation with supporters as the project develops. It was also reassuring to hear John Nelms restate that interim groundsharing is unlikely to be required.
John Nelms talks on the new concept image of the Camperdown Stadium Development campus.
The Dee4Life board has always believed this project could be transformative for Dundee but are also wary of any risks to the club and hope these concerns are fully addressed either in the forthcoming planning application in principle or as part of the related consultation.
20 years of Dee4Life
2024 marks the 20th anniversary of Dee4Life and I want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the dozens of fans who have served on the Trust board in that time as well as the countless volunteers who have given up their own time to help ensure that the club has survived some of the most turbulent times in its history.
As you all know, Dee4Life arose from the incredible efforts of fans to save the club from liquidation back in 2003/04. The time and effort given by the Trust’s founders to galvanise fundraising efforts, attend interminable meetings and help prove Dundee was worth fighting for was incredible and all Dundee supporters owe them a debt of gratitude.
When the Dark Blues entered administration for the second time, the astonishing effort of fans – combined with the sacrifices of directors, staff and players – saved our beloved club once more. Dee4Life officials, volunteers and members had again given so much of themselves while asking for nothing in return and these efforts enabled Dundee to exit administration as a supporter-owned club.
The following two years were not without their difficulties, but no one should be in any doubt about how hard those running the club worked in difficult circumstances or that every decision was made according to what they believed was in the best interests of the club. Ultimately, they kept Dundee FC alive until a viable alternative appeared.
When we Dee4Life members voted to sell our majority shareholding to the club’s current owners we did so after the-then Trust board negotiated entrenched rights designed to protect the future of the club we all love.
The Trust’s fortunes have waxed and waned over the years, but dedicated fans continued to give up their own time to keep Dee4Life alive out of a belief that an independent fans’ voice is not only important but vital. We now mark our 20th anniversary with a growing membership and a determination amongst the current board to ensure that the views of all fans are heard at a pivotal time for our club.
The issue of an ageing stadium with limited commercial potential has plagued successive Dundee owners for decades. As well as acknowledging the stability brought by the current owners, we appreciate the scale of their ambitions. In our view, the best-case scenario is for the Camperdown development to succeed as envisaged. However, we must also be mindful of any situation that might put the club at risk again and seek all and any assurances that this project will not do this.
Custodianship of our entrenched rights is a responsibility that the Dee4Life board takes very seriously. The Trust was formed to not only fight the short-term threat to the club that existed back in January 2004 but to ensure that it would always have a future. That is why we must continue to ask questions about the health and direction of Dundee FC, even if doing so is not always universally popular.
Once again, I thank past and present Dee4Life directors, members, volunteers, donors and friends for everything they have done over the years. I hope that we can all look forward to a happy and prosperous 2024, on and off the park.
November saw the 2023 Dee4Life AGM take place and there was a decent attendance with the formal business of the Trust concluded satisfactorily.
In the Q&A session of the meeting several matters arose for discussion. A particular point was on a message conveyed to the meeting by a DSA postholder and Dee4Life member. The essence of this message is that Dee4Life is not currently seen as a supportive organisation by the club, that our directors are not welcome at Gardyne and that all future communications should be routed through the club’s Supporter liaison Officer.
I therefore wrote to John Nelms seeking clarity on the message delivered via a third party. In response I was informed that “the Club is not willing to support a relationship with Dee4Life at this time”, the club referred to our September and October updates in which we explained the mechanism for delivering the agreement that FPS made when they bought the club as well as summarising the recent meeting with our local MSPs.
We confirmed that we have not threatened legal action and indeed made it known to members at the AGM that we, as a board, would not support this action. In our most recent communication with the club we emphasised our commitment to resolving this situation amicably while noting that we are well within our rights to seek assistance from our elected representatives or any other intermediaries to build a means of communication with the club as its largest minority shareholder.
Over the past couple of months, we have purchased covers to prevent the long-standing issues with dirty seats in the South Enclosure as well as making an introduction that will hopefully lead to the Dundee Academy CIC establishing a new educational partnership. It is our intention to continue to support the club’s development and initiatives that improve the matchday experience for fans. In parallel to this, however, we believe that a mechanism for all supporters to be able to ask questions of the club board is vital.
Dee4Life exists because of the mistakes of the past and we have a responsibility to members to try and ensure the club custodians deliver a positive future. The current board may feel that oversight is unnecessary given the commitment and investment they have made but this is something they agreed to when they took over the club. The founding principles of the Trust mean that we must continue to ask questions on behalf of supporters. The Trust need to find a means to do this for our members and we continue to investigate how this may best achieve this.
Finally, following on from a suggestion made at the AGM, a further meeting will be held in March 2024. We will announce further details on this in the New Year.
All the best to all member and their families for the forthcoming festive period, a successful and prosperous 2024, not least on the pitch for Tony Docherty and the team.
Former Dundee chairman Bill Colvin shares his remarkable DFC journey with us and why he thinks being a member of Dee4Life is important…
Bill Colvin never intended to become involved with Dundee. He was a lifelong Dunfermline fan who had lived in the south of England for many years. He was approaching a point in his life when, after a highly successful career in the care industry, most would look to wind down their commitments.
Taking on a stressful and time-consuming new interest wasn’t part of the plan, and sinking several hundred thousand pounds of his own money into a football club he didn’t even support certainly wasn’t on the agenda.
Bill Colvin in the Dens Park directors’ box during his time as Dundee Chairman. (Image by Derek Gerrard Photography)
But then tragedy and opportunity combined to change Bill and his wife’s Pam’s life and bring them into the orbit of a fanbase who will forever remain grateful or the role he played in saving their club.
Investing in Dundee
The history of Dundee FC is commonly told through football grounds across Scotland – West Craigie Park, Caroline Port and Dens, Ibrox, Hampden and Muirton – but the role that the 2010 Scottish Care Home Awards ceremony played in the club’s story is less well-known. It was at this event that current Dee4Life director Kenny Valentine sought out Bill, his friend and former colleague, to ask if he might be able to help Dundee out of the financial mess they had found themselves in. As it turned out, Bill had been thinking along similar lines and the conversation they had at the bar of the Glasgow Hilton would have far-reaching consequences for the Dark Blues.
“My father-in-law, Bill Gordon, was a big Dundee supporter,” explained Bill. “He was there when they won back-to-back League Cups at Hampden and he would take great pleasure in reminding me that Dundee’s record victory [10-0 in 1947] was against the Pars. Pam and I had bought her parents a house down here in Surrey so he hadn’t been to watch the team for a lot of years but I had a friend who was a business associate of Peter and Jimmy Marr. They very kindly arranged for me and my father-in-law to go to a game at Dens. Peter arranged for Bobby Cox to spend time with us and that meant so much to Bill. Bobby presented him with a Dundee tie and you would have thought it was made of gold he was so delighted.
Bill Colvin (left), his father-in-law Bill Gordon and Bobby Cox (right)
That was my first experience with Dundee and it left me with a really positive impression of the club.
“Very sadly Bill died when he was on holiday with us up in Scotland a few years later. The following day, the club went into administration for the second time. We used to get the Courier delivered down here every day and it helped build the banter between Bill and I when Dundee were playing the Pars. We would read about how the club might not survive and think about how Bill would have felt about that. That got us thinking about using some of the money from his house to help his club live on. But it was just an idea at that stage and that’s where Kenny came in. I’ve known him for a long time through the care industry and he knew Pam’s dad had been a Dundee fan. I was asking him ‘how the hell do I get into Dundee to offer some help?’”
Kenny, who was volunteering with Dundee FC Supporters Society – as Dee4Life was then known – promised to connect Bill with club chief executive Harry MacLean. A follow-up call took place while Bill was on holiday on Bermuda. Kenny claims the money his friend was willing to pledge grew with every bottle of beer he sunk. By January 2011, when Bill flew up to Scotland to meet with Harry, his donation had ballooned into a very substantial sum.
‘Crazy’ Dee-fiant memories
Aside from the finances involved, news of Bill and Pam’s generosity helped fuel the ‘Dee-fiant’ spirit that was driving the club to defy the odds by surviving the 25-point penalty designed to ensure relegation. At a time when those involved with the club felt under attack from all sides, the Colvins showed that not only did Dundee still have friends out there, but also ones willing to fight for its existence.
“You have my wife to thank for all this, she’s the one who had been brought up a Dundee fan and who kept encouraging me as we got deeper and deeper in,” laughed Bill. “It was unbelievable that we survived the points deduction. What Barry Smith – one of the nicest men I’ve ever met – did was incredible. Then you had Steve Martin’s son-in-law [Craig Robertson] being called up from the juniors, Neil McCann scoring that goal against Raith and Sean Higgins playing with steak in his boots. It was crazy.
Bill Colvin alongside wife Pam at a Dundee Player of the Year Dinner (Image by Derek Gerrard Photography)
“The longer the unbeaten run went on, the more addicted we got. It really is like a drug, isn’t it? We were following every minute of it. If we couldn’t be at the games, we were following them on the television or the radio and Pam used to run around the coffee table every time we scored. She was already a fan but got deeper into it and I got hooked as well.
“I have so much respect for every one of those players who got us through. When Sparky went to Wolves and when Craig Forsyth went down south they waived their fee so the club could keep the cash. That was young guys giving up a substantial amount of money and I don’t think a lot of people know that. And there was everything that the supporters were doing. It was a real team effort to keep the club alive.”
American interest
The highs of the Deefiant season would prove impossible to maintain. Two unhappy years of fan ownership included an unexpected elevation to the top flight in the place of the imploding Rangers followed by a humbling relegation as the club struggled to find any kind of security. Throughout this period, Bill continued to support the club financially, helping to stave off disaster by ensuring wages were paid on one occasion. Originally Bill and Pam had envisaged making a single donation and stepping away when the club exited administration. Instead, Bill was elected to the club’s board of directors in April 2013 and was destined to become part-owner shortly afterwards.
“There were a lot of really good people doing their best, but the club needed money to get back on its feet again,” he said. “I was busy with work so didn’t really have time to get involved but as I was putting more and more money in, I felt I should maybe be having more of an influence over how it was spent.
“After I joined the board, [former CEO] Scot Gardiner called me out of the blue and said, ‘I’ve got these Americans who are really keen on putting money into the club’. Back in those days I was going back and forward to Houston every two or three months on business, so Scot and Steve Martin flew over to Houston with me to meet Tim Keyes and John Nelms. My company had a box at Houston Dynamo so we took them to the game. It was something of a validation that all the Dynamo guys I introduced them to already knew them through John’s involvement with youth football there and Tim’s business background.
“I talked to banks, people that worked with them, advisors, accountants. It was clear they had money behind them and, to be honest with you, the prospect of having someone to share the load was appealing to me.
“Dundee fans had been absolutely unbelievable. They had put a lot of money in but when money is required overnight, you can’t just go and arrange a fundraiser so I was quite happy to see another investor in there.”
Relationships were strained as the newly formed Football Partners Scotland sought to buy a controlling stake in Dundee while DFCSS directors held out for assurances how the deal would protect the club and to allow rank-and-file members to vote on whether to give up their hard-fought ownership. Tired of what they saw as delaying tactics, Bill, Steve Martin and finance director Iain Crichton resigned from the board, only to retake their positions once the sale was completed. Bill was the now the chairman of a club he had never imagined becoming involved with.
Dundee FC Season 2014/15 Board of Directors Bill Colvin John Nelms Steve Martin Ian Crighton pic.twitter.com/kTz4VpeGAm
— Dundee FC Players Past & Present (@DundeeLegends) April 27, 2023
“Things did turn ugly in that period, but I certainly understood why they were cautious,” admitted Bill. “They had had to endure some fairly unusual owners, shall we say, who had made bold promises that didn’t materialise. Now they had people saying ‘we’re going to put all this money in’ and it was understandable they were wondering what the catch was.
“When John, Steve and I held meetings to appease fans who might have concerns about us, I was shocked at the number of people that turned up. The places were packed and there was a whole cross section of the city there. It showed the passion that people feel for the club and that’s what drove Pam and I on to keep supporting the club financially. We would look around the ground and see little kids at the games with their grandparents and such a diverse range of people and it was wonderful. At any club the fans keep it going and should be an integral part of it. I think it is important there are supporters’ organisations like Dee4Life looking out for fans and asking questions. I know from speaking to Kenny how hard he and the current Dee4Life board are working to ensure Dundee fans have a voice so I would encourage as many as possible to join up.”
Bill stood down as Chairman in May 2015, with the club having won promotion and achieved a top 6 Premiership finish since FPS had taken over. He had been instrumental in appointing Paul Hartley to the manager’s post and the two enjoyed a strong relationship for the rest of Bill’s time on the board.
“John Brown had done a brilliant job in nearly avoiding relegation the previous year but it was becoming obvious that we had to look elsewhere to ensure we got promoted,” recalled Bill. “Paul had done a great job at Alloa and he carried us over the line, thank God. There are two things that really stick in my mind about that time. The first was watching the game against Cowdenbeath the year we got promoted when Greg Stewart and Kane Hemmings tore us to bits. I ran downstairs after the game and said, ‘We’ve got to sign Greg Stewart’ and Paul looked at me and said, ‘it’s already in motion, Chairman’.
“The other was when we played Aberdeen in the cup and we were sitting next to Alex Ferguson at the game. He couldn’t understand why I was praying for a draw but it was because I wanted the replay money. And then David Clarkson came on and scored the winner in injury time!
“It was an exciting time. I tried to buy the stadium off John Bennett several times, but we never got it over the line. I never felt it was an absolute essential to own the ground and thought it was more important that we found money to keep it in good shape for the fans.
“It was an honour to be Chairman of the club and to have done something for the supporters, to have worked with the people I did and get to know so many fantastic players – guys like Peaso, Jimmy McAllister and Gary Harkins. Jesus, what a player Harkins was!”
Regrets?
So, given all that, does he ever regret stepping away?
Pam and Bill Colvin in the Dens Park board room.
“No. I think it was the right time for me to step back but we still follow Dundee to this day. Not as closely as we used to because it’s quite a trek from Surrey to Dundee. For a couple of seasons we were flying up for games every two or three weeks but we uncoupled ourselves a bit over the years. I’ve not been up to Dundee for a while, but we’ll hopefully be at Dens later this year.
“Everything we did was great fun. There are some great people around the club, and it’s such an important part of the fabric of the city. We got hooked and don’t regret a single thing. In fact, I’d do it all again. If it the worst ever comes to the worst again, I’ll be there for Dundee.”
To join Bill in the Dee4Life ranks, sign up today for just £10 a year.
I would like to thank all of you who came along to Saturday’s AGM and contributed to an impassioned discussion about the club we all love.
As a board, it is important for us to listen to our members and to have them shape our future direction. We are currently reflecting on all that was said at the AGM and will share our thinking, and any other developments, in our regular update at the end of the month.
I would also like to take this opportunity to introduce Andrew Pyke, our newest board member.
New Dee4Life board member Andrew Pyke
Andrew brings with him a wealth of experience in market research having worked for a number of multinational companies. His career includes nearly five years as Insight Manager at the Scottish Football Association. While there, Andrew set up the SFA’s first ever Insight function, established marketing planning, worked with UEFA to establish benchmark measures for football in Scotland and led Scotland’s EURO 2020 evaluation group.
More importantly, Andrew is a lifelong Dundee fanatic who is a season-ticket holder for the Bobby Cox Stand and a member of the Glasgow Dees, We are excited about the energy and ideas he will bring to Dee4Life.
A polite reminder that the Annual General Meeting of the Society for 2022/23 will be held at 11.00am on Saturday 11 November 2023 in the Dundee Social Club.
The AGM will be conducted for the purpose of considering and if thought fit passing the items below requiring the approval of a majority of those members who participate in the AGM
Minutes of the AGM held on 19 November 2022.
Report on the Society’s Performance.
Presentation of Revenue Account & Balance Sheet for year ended 31 May 2023.
Appointment of Walker Dunnett & Co as the Society’s Independent Examiner.
Election of Board Members.
Any Proposed resolutions
An agenda has been emailed to members previously and it is hoped this will allow us to conclude the formal part of the AGM more quickly, thus allowing members to engage in the subsequent Q&A session which will end by 1pm at the latest.
Members have also should have been emailed links taking them to our latest accounts and minutes of our previous AGM minutes.
Dee4Life 