LOVE AT 1ST FRIGHT
Easter Road trouble didn’t put Gordon deal in doubt
Leeann Dempster admits she’s glad that first impressions don’t always last.
If they did, new Hibs owner Ron Gordon might well have walked away.
However, Easter Road’s chief executive had no fears that Gordon would pull the plug on the deal to buy Hibs despite his bittersweet first visit to the club.
US-based businessman Gordon last week bought out the major it y shareholding of Sir Tom Farmer and Rod Petrie and provided a seven- f igure investment into the Leith club.
The change of ownership saw Gordon replace Petrie as chairman and wipe out debts of around £ 3million.
However, six months of negotiations could have been scuppered on a fateful night in the capital in March, by the antics of one fan who attacked Rangers star James Tavernier. It was the first t ime that Gordon had ever attended a Hibs match. There was no time for Dempster to dwell on the potential shame the lout brought to the club.
Instead Dempster sprung into immediate action.
She appeared on TV and publicly apologised to Tavernier, insisting the Hibs supporters had shamed and embarrassed their club.
The incident occurred just six days after Celtic star Scott Sinclair was almost struck by a Buckfast bottle thrown from the crowd at Easter Road during Celtic’s 2- 0 Scottish Cup quarter-final win.
Dempster’s strong leadership and decisiveness in the face of adversity won the day – as Gordon still signed on the dotted line.
Dempster said: “It’s irrelevant that Ron was in the stand, to be honest. That was not a consideration.
“It was the fact it had happened, first and foremost, and also quite quickly on the back of the Scot t i sh Cup game against Celtic. “It wa s an unneces s a r y embarrassment to the club. “I know folk wi l l say ‘ She
only went on the telly because …’ but it was nothing to do with that.
“I wanted to stress how unacceptable it was and to show the club were absolutely diligent and determined to stop this.
“I had no concerns that it might affect the potential deal with Ron.
“Our matchday operation is good. We’ve talked about it in detail and had closed-door briefings.
“Of course things happen at football matches but it’s an irrelevance within the bigger discussions, because you can not mitigate them unfortunately.
“You can try to stop them and put in place lots of different protocols.
“That night it was more about the action and the event, rather than what else was happening in the stadium.”
Now Dempster admits she can’t wait to see what plans Gordon has for the new debt-free capital club.
Dempster said: “It takes a certain kind of person to step forward and want to own a football club.
“I’m really looking forward to the future at Hibs.
“We’ve been in a good place for a while and we’re now going to be in a better place.
“Not having the mortgage and being debt-free is a magnificent position to start from. The numbers are in the public domain, it puts us £500,000 ahead before we kick a ball. “There are lots of things to celebrate but the main ones area transitional ownership and being debt-free. That should drive the exc itement – you can’t underestimate what it means. “Once that’s gone it allows you to breathe. But I don’t want to underestimate what we do already. “Our football budget is at the highest it has ever been, both the budget dedicated to the f irst- team and within the football department. “We have great people working at the club and they are getting resources. “I don’t think we should underestimate the commitment the club has got at the minute. “Ron’s determination, and he’s bringing that across loud and clear, is that the club are in a great position but he wants to make it better. “I thi nk that means making a lot of things better and that hopefully means we’re going to make the football as good as it can be. That has always been the determination for us anyway.” First on Gordon’s agenda is to build an indoor facility for the Edinburgh men. Such talk is music to Dempster’s ears. Dempster said: “The indoor facility is a massive gamechanger for us. “We are a gold club, in terms of our SFA licensing.
“We are operating right at the top within that environment.
“If we complete our own indoor env ironment at Hibernian Training Centre, there’s no reason why we can’t be deemed to be right up there with the best training facilities not just in Scotland but the United Kingdom.
“We’re determined to make it a full-size environment to encompass not just what we’re doing here but the women’s team and the community.
“That’s a big part of it and the thing that real ly enthuses me is Ron’s determination to ‘give back’.
“He has talked about it all the time.”
There’s lots to celebrate .. including transitional ownership and being debt-free