The Well Society is pressing ahead with plans for a new supporter-driven era at Motherwell despite uncertainty over the ownership model.

American TV executive Erik Barmack outlined his vision for the Steelmen on Thursday after arriving in Scotland to hold further talks with the club board over proposed investment.

Barmack, a former Netflix vice president who runs his own film production company, is aiming to take a majority shareholding over time, despite saying he does not want to “disempower” the Well Society.

The fan group has only had a majority of representatives on the club board for the past few weeks despite assuming its 71 per cent stake in 2016.

The club are at a major crossroads, with chief executive Brian Caldwell in his second week in the job and chairman Jim McMahon set to retire at the end of the season following 23 years on the board.

Motherwell’s three-man board needs to grow to six to eight members following a recent change to the club’s articles and the recently revamped Well Society board is finalising its approach to supporting Caldwell and other staff at the club, whether that is with or without Barmack.

An update on social media read: “We continued working on The Well Society’s new business plan at our latest board meeting.

“Our members are shaping the proposal – we have identified eight core values based on a survey completed by over 200 Motherwell fans.

“With our expanded board and additional experienced contributors across our workstream groups we are finalising strategies to engage more with members and to play a more assertive role in supporting the club build a comprehensive long-term plan for success on and off the park.

“Aims include improving the matchday experience, encouraging lapsed supporters back and attracting new fans to Motherwell.

“Whatever happens elsewhere in the coming days and weeks, we are preparing for a bright new future with supporters at the heart of a renewed sense of purpose around our club.

“We are excited to be able to share the plans in the coming weeks.”

Barmack is set to attend Motherwell’s cinch Premiership clash with Hibernian on Saturday.

The Los Angeles-based former journalist declined to give any details of the financial package on offer when interviewed by the BBC this week.

The club recently signed a deal which allowed both parties to explore the proposal further but the Well Society board has not been involved in the negotiations as a collective.

Members have been promised the final say on any concrete proposal which emerges in the coming weeks but a recent vote opened up the possibility of the supporters’ group dropping below a 50 per cent stake.

Motherwell supporters are set to be given some major decisions to make following several proposals to invest in the fan-owned club.

Outgoing chairman Jim McMahon revealed at Motherwell’s annual general meeting on Wednesday night that they had received “four or five serious approaches” following a recent announcement that the club were open to investment.

Talks with two of those interested parties – one American and one multi-national – have “progressed rapidly” but both would result in significant dilution of the Well Society’s 71 per cent stake.

With the interested parties keen to push forward, Well Society members are set to be consulted given at least one of the proposals would reduce their shareholding below 50 per cent, while members have been promised the final say on whether to accept a concrete offer.

The Well Society was set up in 2011 and assumed a majority stake five years later. It has close to 4,000 members, who have already invested £1million in the club, mostly in the form of a loan, while about £750,000 is in a reserve fund.

The news came on the backdrop of financial results which showed the club made a £1.6million loss last season.

McMahon claimed the loss was “fully anticipated, managed and primarily the result of various long-term strategic decisions made by the club in recent years”. The club have invested heavily in Fir Park, including a new £1.2million hybrid pitch, new PA and CCTV systems among other projects.

Turnover was £6.4million, an increase of more than £800,000, the majority of which can be attributed to a rise in income from UEFA.

Staff costs last season were £5.1m, down slightly on the previous campaign. The first-team player budget fell by £340,000, mainly because of a reduction in bonuses, while other staff costs increased by £184,000, partly because of compensation costs to departed managers Graham Alexander and Steven Hammell and their assistants.

As a comparison, fan-owned St Mirren spent £4.3million on their staff costs last season after reaching the top six of the cinch Premiership.

Motherwell have spent significantly more on wages than the likes of St Mirren and Kilmarnock since becoming fan owned but McMahon and interim chief executive Derek Weir have both talked about a funding gap in recent months and the challenge of competing with the likes of Hearts and Hibernian, who have benefited from external funds.

The club had £1.75million cash on May 31 last year, down from more than £4million from 12 months earlier. They expect to have at least £500,000 in the bank at the end of the current financial year but say they have had a profitable season this time round.

Meanwhile, it was revealed that manager Stuart Kettlewell has a contract until the end of next season.

It was widely believed that Kettlewell’s contract was due to expire in the summer as Motherwell had declared his deal was “initially to May 2024” when he was appointed exactly 12 months ago. However, a one-year extension was triggered when Motherwell avoided relegation last season.

The club’s recruitment of a new chief executive is ongoing with Weir scheduled to depart in five weeks. McMahon steps down at the end of the season and another director, Andrew Wilson, has now resigned.

Motherwell chairman Jim McMahon denied their fundraising video was akin to “begging for money” as he stressed the club was not in financial difficulty.

A video that appealed directly to Hollywood celebrities and finished with a young fan saying “Taylor Swift, gie’s some dosh” has been viewed more than two million times on social media and already led to enquires about investing.

However, it sparked embarrassment among many fans and led to concerns about the finances of a club which lost £1million in the 2021-22 campaign and was expected to announce similar financial figures for last season.

McMahon stressed the fan-owned club had cumulatively broken even since the Well Society assumed majority ownership in 2016 and explained they were looking for either more members, sponsorship or new investment to “de-risk the business”.

The 74-year-old was unaware of any criticism of the advertising agency-produced video and said: “We are not desperate for money. We are financially stable and we have enough money to see us through this season, next and maybe a bit of the next.

“So I don’t see it as begging for money and I am not embarrassed by it.

“I don’t think it’s a desperate cry for money because it isn’t. If it comes across that way, I can only say to fans, ‘that’s not what it was meant to be’.

“It was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek take on some of the trends that are happening in football just now and an attempt to encourage folk into the shop.

“We had more Well Society members sign up in the first couple of hours of the video than the last two or three months. And we have already had about 10 declarations of interest – can we find out more about the ability to invest?

“It’s part of our strategy to use our other contacts, mainly into the (United) States and other parts of the world, to say: ‘Here’s what we are. Here’s what defines what we are as a club, are you interested?'”

Many fans will wonder why the club needs to seek investment after receiving a record £3.25million fee for David Turnbull in 2020 and taking up an interest-free £3m Covid-19 recovery loan from the Scottish Government.

The club’s wage costs increased by 60 per cent in five years up until the summer of 2022 and Motherwell outspent the likes of St Mirren, Kilmarnock and Ross County by £1-2million on wages during that latter season.

The Well Society has already committed more than £1m into the club, mostly through a loan that is unlikely to be repaid, and fans continue to contribute to a reserve fund.

McMahon, who plans to step down at the end of the season, admitted there was a “reasonably big gap” between costs and income if they do not perform well through player sales, cup runs or league position.

“Five, six years ago we didn’t have big injections of money from Americans or other people,” said McMahon as he denied the fan-ownership model was failing.

“James Anderson at Hearts is putting £5million a year in. You have Dave Cormack at Aberdeen. You have the Hibs money.

“There’s money coming in that is making it more difficult for us to compete on the pitch with these clubs. I think we react to it by trying to see if we can accrue money from other sources.

“We are not in financial difficulty, we are not trying to sell the club, we are trying to give it the best chance for the future. We should be examining the model continually to see if it’s still fit for purpose.

“I would tick the box of working jointly with someone whose values align with the Well Society. I guess the board would go out to the members with the proposition.”

Motherwell have launched a campaign to attract new investment from “anyone who wants to support a proper community club” – including Hollywood celebrities.

Chairman Jim McMahon recently announced plans for a fundraising initiative as he signalled his intent to step down from his Fir Park role by the end of the season “once a successor has been appointed and certain live projects have been completed”.

The cinch Premiership club – owned by the Well Society fan group – has stepped up its bid to attract new investment by releasing a light-hearted 90-second video in which players and staff members attempt to outline the appeal of the club to potential investors.

The film begins with defender Stephen O’Donnell musing: “Are you the next Hollywood celebrity looking to get involved in football? Well we’ve got a club that offers real bang for your buck.”

“We’re proudly a fan-owned club but we are always looking for ways to do more and achieve bigger things,” said McMahon.

“This is a slightly out-of-the-box approach, but with it, we hope we can increase Well Society memberships or find businesses or individuals whose values align with ours.

“Most football clubs operate at a loss and are only viable through significant annual subsidies from their owners.

“There’s a lot of talk of famous investors from the US right now so we thought it’d be fun to put our own spin on the theme, to show what we’re all about at Motherwell Football Club.

“Hopefully you can see that we’re a club that goes beyond just the 90 minutes. With things like walking football and mental health support, we’ve always helped the local community to make sure the positive effects of football can be felt off the pitch too.

“We welcome anyone who wants to support a proper community club. Whether that be new additions to the Well Society or new sponsors. And if anyone from Hollywood wants to get involved then we’re all ears.”

Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell has stressed the club’s search for investment is part of a natural drive to improve.

Chairman Jim McMahon this week announced he would step down by the end of the season and claimed the club needed “significant investment” to retain a “competitive player budget”.

Interim chief executive Derek Weir is also aiming to make way for a permanent successor by the end of March.

The board will soon unveil plans for a fund-raising initiative which they have been working on for at least two years, but the fan-owned club had never previously publicly announced their intentions.

“I think we can dramatise things,” said Kettlewell, whose team host Rangers on Christmas Eve as they search for a first win in 15 matches.

“The clearest way I can put it is this isn’t a knee-jerk reaction. I can stress from my point of view, this is only being done to see if we can move forward.

“All the add-ons about significant investment, I have read one or two stories this week about other clubs, we are all trying to improve, we are all looking for that bit more money to strive forward. It’s no different at Motherwell Football Club. That will have been a mindset for several years at this club.”

McMahon’s comments will have come as a shock to many, especially as the club received what they described as a “transformational” £3.25million fee from Celtic for David Turnbull in 2020 along with other sizeable transfer income and a £3m Covid recovery loan from the Scottish Government.

Motherwell have spent significantly more on staff costs than comparable cinch Premiership clubs – about £6m more than Kilmarnock for example during the first six seasons under fan ownership. In the 2021-22 season, their staff costs were £5.2m compared to Killie’s £3.4m and the club made a loss of about £1m.

Kettlewell and Weir worked on reducing the player budget over the summer.

“We have been really prudent, we have tried to get things to what we feel is a manageable situation,” Kettlewell said.

“Within that there’s been a dramatic reduction in numbers of players. When you have 18 or whatever senior players and you have three, four, five injuries, it brings its challenges.

“But the most important part is – and I do go hard on this – that we have to move forward now. We can’t stumble across what’s next and guess what comes next. We need to be proactive as a football club.

“Quite clearly we see there has to be a slight change of direction, a slight change of thought process.

“Times change, the cost of living changes, so to be sitting with the same or a less budget as things stand can be a challenge, because football players cost more now, the running of the stadium, the pitch, the training facilities, the academy, all these things cost lots of money.

“We have to make sure we can run all these things but also that we can try and invest and get the best playing squad possible to us.

“So that proactive thinking sometimes has to be that you think outside your box and look for slightly different alternatives, whether there can be some sort of external investment that can nudge things along the way, whether there’s other people that want to help and be involved in the football club that can make us a better version.”

Kettlewell still has a “little bit of scope” in the January transfer window.

“That can alter, I can’t tell you exactly how many that’s going to be,” he added. “What it looks like we might be able to do is bring in one or potentially two. I am not in a position where we want to be losing players.”