Shareholders Benefits Re-established

Twenty years ago, the right to two tickets per shareholder for a game, substantial discounts on season and lounge tickets, not to mention priority in all administrative matters, had all but disappeared.  This must have been particularly galling to those investors who renounced all rights to financial dividends so that all profits could be re-invested in the Club and community they love.  To add insult to injury, the market value of those individual shares appeared to have dropped to around £1400 each or less from a peak valued in thousands.

This provided an interesting counterpoint to Bill Kenwright's claims to be looking for investors "24 hours a day, 7 days a week".  It looked from here that Bill could have saved his time and not bothered — he wasn't looking for 'investors', he was just looking for donations.

Alright, the goodies aren't what they were — but they're a welcome start... 5% discounts on season tickets, home and away ticket priority for one ticket per shareholder returned through the Shareholder Liaison Officer, and other reasonable benefits (see below for full details).

It seems that supporters who aren't Shareholders needn't worry about these rights eating into general ticket allocations for two reasons:

(1) The number of shareholders is a tiny fraction of general attendance — currently capped at 3% but in reality much less;

(2) They're frequently people we know who go to most of the games anyway.

The cynical amongst us (Oh yes there are...) might argue that this is just a ploy to buy off the argumentative Shareholders Association with rough weather forecast (see Joe Beardwood's financial analysis), but we're happy to give credit where it's due.  Anything that genuinely promotes interest in investment — by Evertonians, in Everton — is long overdue.

Brunei-based "cell funds", of course, need not apply...

Steve Allinson
 

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