Mark Ogren’s friends regularly say to him: “Scottish football - are you serious?”
The American tycoon, however, can’t be more serious when it comes to Dundee United.
The United owner knows that a lot of his friends and fellow business people find it strange that he and his son, Scott, have invested millions in a soccer club more than 3,690 miles away.
Ogren then tells the history of United and speaks about the club, fans and their future plans.
They then quickly realise this is not just a financial investment but an emotional one into the bargain.
He admitted: “When I speak about Dundee United a lot of my friends say Scottish football, are you serious? “How did you get involved in that? “I tell them all about Dundee United and what is happening at the club and then they all say that sounds exciting.”
It was probably more challenging than exciting during lockdown. There was a black financial hole to fill, due to limited revenues and incomes which he had to fill from the other side of the Atlantic.
Already the Ogrens are estimated to have put more than £8 million into the club.
They couldn’t even get across as United returned to the Premiership. They appointed Micky Mellon as manager and Ogren didn’t even get the chance to meet him in person.
The Ogren family might have been left asking questions about the huge financial investment but they are all very much on the same page.
Ogren explained: “I have been involved in so many investments and they just think this one should be interesting.
“My wife has been a supporter of what I want to do and has an interest because Scott and I are involved.
“She has still to come across but I am sure when she comes to Scotland she will love it and will get a great appreciation for Dundee United.
“Hopefully she’ll get across when things open up again.”
Ogren bought the Tannadice club at the end of 2018 and has put his money where his mouth is, as they won the Championship and have now re-established themselves in the Premiership.
It has taken a lot of hard work and ploughed millions in but he believes they are already seeing a return.
He claimed: “We haven’t wasted the money. It just ended up costing us more money than we thought.
“Sometimes you get into it and you make decisions, where things are a little bit different than you thought it would be.
“We did our due diligence and had a plan when we came in and it cost us more. It wasn’t because there were mistakes made because often when you get into a business then there are opportunities that arise that can help us long-term and along with that we had covid and all bets were off during that period.”
Ogren insisted he wouldn’t swap Dundee United’s position with any other club in the country.
He passionately stated: “I would not trade my position of where we are at and what we are doing here with anybody else in Scottish football.
“I really feel, no matter what measurement you use or element of the club you look at, it is all good. We are going to continue to improve and we want to improve.
“I am just really pleased with where we are at.”
For Ogren, he won’t put a timescale on his United investment but made it clear he is very much in it for the long-term. He has left the day-to-day running to Tony Asghar and admitted if it wasn’t for the sporting director he wouldn’t be at the club. Ogren is in no doubt that he and his other senior leadership staff at the club have put solid foundations in place.
The owner isn’t putting money into United for nothing and further down the line there will need to be a return. Money has already started to come in with the sale of Scotland striker Lawrence Shankland to Beerschot.
“We have developed players and we’ve got a number of players who are internationalists. “We can’t make money as a club with just our operations. “We need to rely on developing and selling players. “Whether we develop our own or bring them in and re-sell them then that is always going to be an aspect of our revenue streams going forward.”
Ogren, who along with the owners of Dundee, Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen have paid for an independent report on how Scottish football can maximise its revenues, was over for the recent Tannadice wins over Rangers and Dundee and knows how important the United support is to the club.
Ogren has been impressed with the job new head coach Tam Courts has done and he is looking for United to stay in the top six this season.
“Our hopes for this season are top six,” he confirmed. “We were very close last season and just missed out by a fraction unfortunately. “We will look to be top six and to look and continue to improve. “We also want to be profitable. “Unfortunately, we have lost a lot of money since my original ownership. “A good chunk of that was down to cover and a lot of teams were in a similar situation. “I have also been on record as saying this is more than a hobby. “We certainly have some fun but we do need to make money long-term and we are on a pathway to do that.”
