Piataks push right buttons for Carlisle United fans

The American businessman did not, though, leave that idea to chance. Not by a country mile. What followed was as thorough a sales pitch for the controlling shares of Carlisle United that the club can have seen, certainly in this sort of setting.

The tone given and the takeaway for those leaving the Halston Hotel on Sunday evening was that these folks are methodical, have done their homework and knew exactly which buttons to press.

Those buttons ranged from the big-ticket stuff – the investment, the training facilities, the “step change” playing budget, the long-term commitment, the ideas for Brunton Park, the pledge towards being accessible owners – to the crowd-pleasing riffs.

As such, we learned that the Piataks were not just people intent on improving Carlisle United business-wise, but were across and in love with its story. “We’ve watched the Jimmy Glass goal 200 times,” said the Magellan Transport Logistics owner and CEO.

There was also the unprovable but highly popular description of Paul Simpson as the best manager in the EFL, which drew perhaps the night’s strongest single ovation. There was a knowing acceptance that “soccer” wasn’t a term they’d be using if they could help it. The Warwick Road End toilets received an early mention. His United, he said, would seek to “own the north” and make visiting teams “afraid” of playing at Carlisle.

And if the Piataks are as thorough as they presented themselves, then perhaps even a few lines on the population of Cumbria “if you pull Barrow away”, was not the innocent quip it appeared. "I don't mean that disrespectfully," Piatak said, as the room briefly fell into chuckles.

Fans at the CUOSC meeting (Image: Barbara Abbott)

Yet this was not just a case of playing to the gallery. Supporters can soon see through thin populism. What we also got, above all, was detail and lots of it, both on the family’s business background and principles, and their handle on what’s what at Brunton Park.

The Piataks above all paid fans the respect of answering their questions with preparedness. The most common question of “why”?, concerning a Jacksonville family’s seemingly random interest in a lower-league football club from Cumbria, was met with a series of slides, bullet points and the description of a process, rather than a whim: a narrowing-down which ended up with five EFL clubs on their menu, but Carlisle coming top because of its geographical-area dominance, its potential for commercial improvement, and its openness to discussions.

“We didn’t wake up and throw a dart at the wall,” Piatak said. “Everything we do in business starts with a business case. There has to be some rationale.”

The process, Piatak said, was underpinned by a passion for sport reflected in their long-standing partnership with NFL team the Jacksonville Jaguars, and which the family have also worn on their sleeves in attending Carlisle matches in the recent past.

Anyone, though, can don the replica shirt. It is the hard-headed aspects of this deal upon which it will hang.

Tom Piatak speaks to the audience (Image: Barbara Abbott)

Piatak knew this too. The father of the family was the night’s dominant figure, taking the microphone after CUOSC’s introductions and talking at length, unbroken - on his feet, not sitting down - for more than 90 minutes.

Future fans’ forums won’t be brief affairs, you couldn’t help thinking. Good, though, if the information is as forthcoming and the sincerity remains. Piatak said that he and his family would make themselves available for as many supporter-facing events as possible. They would attend more than half United’s games in year one of their ownership despite being America-based, and stressed that they’d love fans to submit ideas on all areas of the club for consideration. A meeting open to all fans, not just trust members, would be on the cards if the deal goes through. “Our accessibility will be unmatched.”

This, they suggested, chimed with a leaning towards community which they described in a detailed opening segment on their business background. We heard of events overseen and participated in amid their Florida business activities, whether it be supporting domestic abuse centres, being at the forefront of national disaster recovery, backing football foundations and hosting tailgate parties.

So far, so friendly. But what about the nuts and bolts?

The family, we heard, were an equity business, not one that relied on outside investment, venture capital or debt. They took pride in sustainability, at never having to lay off or furlough workers in their transport logistics and technology operations, and at promoting the transition to civilian life of military veterans, who make up 20 per cent of their US workforce (Piatak is himself a former US Army captain).

CUOSC's Nigel Davidson speaks ahead of the Piatak presentation (Image: Barbara Abbott)

Piatak detailed the large companies with whom the family works and explained that the foundations they have built in their five businesses meant they were now “comfortable” in satisfying a long-held ambition to diversify into professional football.

Specifics on United were gradually introduced. Piatak spoke of his admiration for “historic” Brunton Park – “it just needs a little modernisation”. He was aware of the stadium’s flooding history and the need for improvements to make it more resilient.

Piatak was aware of United’s year of formation – 1904, when the club evolved from the former Shaddongate United – stressing that American clubs do not boast such impressive heritage. He discussed the process of opening talks with the club's stakeholders, via Zoom meetings and then in-person visits, coupled with attendance of Carlisle’s play-off games at Bradford, at Brunton Park and at Wembley.

“I’d take Brunton Park over Bradford City any day,” he said, eliciting more applause. The Wembley final, where they sat near United directors, duly plugged them into the “electricity” and tension of the Blues to the maximum. After that, Piatak said, “our hearts were done…we have to make this happen”.

This was not a quick-fix, “band-aid” takeover whereby “good money would be thrown after bad”, Piatak went on. There would be initial investment doubly outstripping what United have received in their history, but it would not be a heavy-spending ego trip where business reason takes a hike. They would instead do as they have in Florida: make significant capital investments to grow infrastructure, set the stage for genuine growth, and do this at the same time as gauging what sort of finances Simpson would need to keep United in League One this year, and then progress them higher in the division (“our visions align very well”, Piatak said of Simpson, with whom he had enjoyed positive conversations, as well as the manager’s wife Jacqui).

There would be an early commitment to tackling the training ground question, perhaps in phases, but with the clear vision of reconnecting all parts of United, and making their facilities something that could help lure and keep players here. They would speak to anyone who could help realise this ambition, the council included. Their current gym in itself was not good enough for high-end professional athletes, Piatak also ventured.

There was then a description of how the deal would look, in terms of shareholding and board structures. These were the specifics on which CUOSC asked for confidentiality connected to the members’ meeting to be respected in our reporting. The details will soon be little secret but, considering we were attending in a membership capacity, it was right to agree to that request.

Tom Piatak talks to the audience (Image: Barbara Abbott)

There was an emphasis on accountability, at board and staffing level, but Piatak was at pains to say that the family were not coming in to impose new staff on the club. He spoke admiringly of their current workforce, and urged everyone to act like "owners" in their roles - to be proactive, to get on with effecting necessary change.

Purepay, potentially the elephant in the room, was not left in a corner ignored. It could not be. Piatak attacked the subject, projecting himself perplexed that dialogue on the debt has so far been elusive, as well as “confident and committed” to finding a solution.

Another thought was present as he spoke on this. Do business people of this level, this gravitas, declare themselves “confident” if they don’t have a plan? Piatak insisted he did not have the answer in front of him there and then, but equally did not come across as a man whose entire blueprint for Carlisle United would dissolve if things with Purepay remained tricky.

The intention was as clear here as it was in the initial Castle Sports Group statement: they wanted as much of their investment to remain in the club as possible, as little debt on the books as possible.

On United’s potential, there were no grandiose aims – no Knighton-esque flourishes, thank goodness – but a clear enough idea of establishing the Blues as League One promotion contenders and the kind of club that can make its home in the Championship eventually. And then, who knows?

“There’s no ceiling,” Piatak said. “There is a ceiling [without] investment and proper owners…if [you have those], the sky’s the limit.”

A question-and-answer session examined some of the consequences of their proposal for CUOSC, and how the club would be protected should the Piataks ever wish or need to walk away in the kind of circumstances which have damaged other clubs. Piatak concluded his answer on the latter by pledging not to put United “in harm’s way”. They were in it for the long run, he emphasised, and were also not here to cream profit from Carlisle's progress. "One pound," allied to genuine, lasting development, would be enough return, he said, and even that would be reinvested.

It was only in the Q&A session that, courtesy of a supporter’s question, we heard from the other five family members. Patty Piatak, Tom’s wife, stood confidently with the mic and, after describing herself as the family’s “momma bear”, said her work lies in areas of social and corporate responsibility, and her nature was that of an “optimist – glass half full."

The family answer questions from CUOSC members (Image: Barbara Abbott)

Patty, Tom earlier said, was also an ideas woman, one who had vision and who had already entertained ideas for the modernisation of certain parts of Brunton Park.

Jenna, their daughter, then described her own marketing background and the belief that Carlisle United’s name, under their ownership, could be grown “all over the USA”. Her fiancé, Nick DeMasi, was strong in “data and sports analytics” from a background in financial analysis with Ernst & Young.

Alice Piatak said her strengths lay in community involvement and human resources – a bridge between owners, management and employees – while her husband Tom II, the Piataks’ son, was a contracts man, a “problem-solver”, a man of “creative ideas” and with a “die-hard passion for football”.

It was some time before the end when Norman Steel, the veteran CUOSC member and former director, took the mic in the Q&A and, instead of asking a question, stated his belief to the room that the Piatak deal “was a no-brainer”. Cue more applause.

Further discussions then continued, including how improved facilities could also benefit United’s women’s team and academy, and a belief that the East Stand at Brunton Park was a significantly “underdeveloped asset” in terms of ways it could be equipped for the team as well as the wider club – a “gold mine”, in fact, as regards potential.

Things were eventually wrapped up with CUOSC leaders announcing the forthcoming vote, and their board’s “unanimous” agreement to urge members to vote in favour of the resolution. It was, by the end, strange at such a meeting not to have heard a single dissenting voice, and this was clearly the Piataks’ initial triumph (as an aside, the day was also a triumph for CUOSC, whose staging of this kind of event, in such a place, was much slicker and more professional than past trust gatherings).

The members' poll will determine whether the impression was accurate, but this did seem like an audience desperate for exactly what the Piataks tabled: the prospect of change, but change that is costed, measured and worked out in granular detail as well as change that comes with calculated boldness and passion.

Tom Piatak with two young fans after the meeting (Image: Barbara Abbott)

Piatak lingered to meet eager supporters, and gave some time to the News & Star and ITV; as gregarious and open there as he had been in front of the audience, whilst his family mingled in the bar. If this was day one of United’s future then it did come with an approachability that, on the surface, will serve a newly ambitious club well.

Nothing in life is certain. Certainly few things in football takeovers are. The leap of faith required to get behind this one, though, did not seem particularly taxing for those present. Perhaps the Purepay saga still has the potential to make all this trickier than anyone would like. Beyond that, the Piataks appear to be walking into an ever more welcoming Cumbrian embrace.