Name your price

Fans want Vlad's figure
By ROBERT MARTIN
Published: 15th November 2012

ALEX MACKIE has urged Vladimir Romanov to come out and name his price for Hearts.

The Edinburgh businessman insists a deal to bring the Jambos under fan ownership CAN be done — but only if Romanov is more realistic about the kind of fee he is looking for.

And Mackie revealed he intends to carry on talks with the Tynecastle board in the hope his ambitious takeover of the Edinburgh club can be achieved.

On Tuesday, Mackie’s Foundation of Hearts group offered to pay off the club’s £450,000 tax bill in return for Romanov’s majority shareholding.

That offer was booted out by the Jambos board, who branded it a ‘staggering misjudgement’ of the value of the club.

Hearts then managed to reach their own resolution with HMRC after first-team players agreed to defer their salaries for the month of November.

But Mackie insists the Foundation remain keen to take over Romanov’s stake.

And he now believes it’s up to Hearts to come to THEM and lay down their terms.

He said: “We want to keep the channels of communication open with the club now.

“They publicly came out and said they felt our offer was not acceptable. I wasn’t surprised they did so, we’re all in a cut-and-thrust business after all. But we are still keen to talk terms.

“So let’s go the other way — let’s hear from them what they think is acceptable.

“We’re not going anywhere. There is a real desire from our side to reach some kind of agreement here.

“But we can’t do that until the club tells us exactly what they want.

“So my message to them is ‘Let’s try and hammer out a deal’.”

Mackie’s Foundation have spent the past two years putting together a plan to buy the Jambos and have studied the business models of a number of successful sides.

In particular they have taken inspiration from Barcelona, whose 300,000 ‘socios’ pay a membership fee on a monthly basis.

And they believe a smaller version of that could be achieved at Tynecastle.

Now Mackie’s next step is to convince both Supporters Direct and Romanov that such a scheme would work.

And he hopes Hearts’ agreement with HMRC will give both parties the chance to discuss the matter without the spectre of liquidation hanging over the club.

He said: “The threat of the tax bill put pressure on every Hearts supporter, not just ourselves.

“The winding up order from HMRC was a catastrophic event for everyone connected with the club.

“Thankfully a positive outcome was reached and we think we played a part in that.

“Now all of the parties involved have a bit a bit of breathing space to consider their next move.

“We intend to accelerate the development of our interest in the club.

“We have done our homework on this, we have studied many examples of what we are looking to do.

“We’ve looked at La Liga in Spain, we have looked at the Bundesliga in Germany.

“Barcelona is one model where their fans pay a monthly fee towards the running of the club.

“And such a model, where all our fans would have the opportunity to contribute what they could afford, would be our goal.

“This is NOT a consortium trying to buy Hearts, rather this is a vehicle to enable fans ownership of the club.

“None of the people involved in our bid will take a penny from the club if we are successful.

“The long-term survival of this club is our ultimate goal.

“But we need to know what Hearts are thinking now. We need to hear what they have to say.

“Once they do that we’ll have a better idea of whether or not that goal can be achieved.”