Mario Lapointe is a businessman and entrepreneur. He is a French-Canadian whose first language was not English. He is a musician and singer-songwriter who cites Johnny Cash and Leonard Cohen as inspiration.
He made his money in the electronics industry and has a degree in mechanical engineering. In his free time, he works on old cars and restores them to their former glory, a hobby which earned him the nickname ‘Vintage’.
He describes himself as a poet and a ‘soulful whisperer’. In his latest venture, he has also now become the owner of one of Scotland’s oldest football clubs after recently completing a deal to buy Dumbarton.
Following years of financial mismanagement and off-field turmoil, Dumbarton were plunged into administration last season and docked 15 points, leading to relegation to League Two.
A fund-raiser set up by supporters allowed the club to make it through until the end of last season, before the old company was dissolved and Lapointe bought the assets and set it up under a newco structure.
Which raises a fairly obvious question. Why would an eccentric French-Canadian businessman want to invest in a cash-strapped part-time club in the fourth tier of Scottish football?
Businessman Mario Lapointe was this week unveiled as Dumbarton’s new owner
The French-Canadian is confident the club can recover after a period of financial instability
Dumbarton were docked 15 points last season and suffered relegation to the fourth tier
Well, Lapointe is clear on one thing. He is not here to make a quick buck or to sell the family silver. Indeed, he is now actively working on a guarantee that would stop the stadium being sold off under his watch.
‘I was looking for a team for quite a while,’ he explains. ‘I looked at Italy, Spain, Portugal, England, Ireland and Scotland.
‘For the pockets I have, I’m not looking for a £400million team. I’m a modest guy. My mum was a cleaner and my dad was a mechanic. I did mechanical engineering at university.
‘I started my own electronics business in 1996 and I didn’t take any salary whatsoever the first three years.
‘I was the only guy who was happy to have parents who were divorced because I could bum dinner at one place and then go elsewhere the next night.
‘I used to have a girlfriend from Glasgow when I was studying. It’s the passion of the country which ultimately made me want to come here.
‘Dumbarton is a resilient club who have had a lot of ups and downs, but the passion of the people who work and volunteer around the club was really clear to see.
‘Look at the stadium. Where in the world could you see a more spectacular setting for a football stadium?
‘The Rock’ undoubtedly remains one of the country’s most special stadiums
‘I shared something on my Facebook recently about the perfect radishes. People like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, guys who are a little bit different. I always compare a good team to a good salad. You can’t have a good salad with just lettuce.
‘I like radishes and, in sports terms, that would be guys who have a little character. I want this club to have character.’
By his own admission, Lapointe doesn’t have limitless wealth to pump into an under-performing and troubled football club.
This isn’t going to be another Brooks Mileson and Gretna project, where the owner was seduced by wild ambitions to go flying up the leagues and spent way beyond their means.
The plan is to bring some much-needed stability to Dumbarton. To get the club back on a solid footing and to become the best-run part-time club in the country.
While Lapointe may be a colourful character, a lot of what he said at his unveiling yesterday made sense.
He wants the club to live within its means and to become self-sustaining. Progress might be slow in the initial period, but it’s part of a wider, long-term plan.
‘First thing’s first, I am not here to sell the stadium,’ he insists. ‘If I wanted to build houses, I could have done it back in Canada. No, that’s not why I’m here.
Lapointe is eager to get the fans on board as he looks to make big changes behind the scenes
‘We have a community trust which is a non-profit organisation that was set up before I arrived. I don’t own all of the land beyond the stadium.
‘There is a section of land which I believe belongs to another party, but they can’t build anything on it. In the long-run, we want the community trust to take ownership of this land so they have the right to approve things.
‘In terms of the level of investment I will make, it’s probably not correct to put an exact figure on it. But probably half my savings are going into this. I want to put the club back on its feet.
‘The burn-rate (loss) for the club has been close to £200,000 per year. My goal is for the club to move away from that and not to burn money. It’s about how you allocate the money in certain areas of the club and the facility at the stadium.
‘For instance, one of the first things we are going to do is spend around £20,000 to revamp our main hospitality suite.
‘We want that to be something that appeals to people. They can come and have a great day out at the football and really enjoy our hospitality experience.
‘We also have some big spaces, big halls, inside the stadium. Those could be used for birthday parties, wedding functions, stuff like that. Whereas, at the moment, they are not being used at all.
‘I want us to start hosting music nights, things like open mic, and also comedy nights. These are things that could help with revenue whilst also engaging with the local community in Dumbarton.
Murdo MacLeod made his name at Dumbarton as a teenager and returned later in his career
‘You have to invest in things like this initially to start finding ways of bringing in revenue. Otherwise, you will just end up in the same situation where the club is pouring money down a hole.
‘In terms of budget — cup money, league money and sponsorship equals the player wages. That’s basically it. It can’t be any more simple than that.
‘We have it all on a spreadsheet. My accountant Mhairi, who is the daughter of [Dumbarton and Celtic legend] Murdo MacLeod, is great.
‘You can’t run a club purely with ego and ambition. You have to win it with math. This will be a key point for us in terms of how I want to take the club forward.’
In terms of his background in music, Lapointe revealed that he had already contacted David Byrne, frontman of Talking Heads who was born in Dumbarton.
‘I tried to reach out to him so that I could get him to make a little video so that I could pump the tyres of the volunteers,’ he says.
‘Just so he could say something like: “Hey! Dumbarton! I heard that there’s a new sheriff in town”.
‘But he didn’t answer. Talking Heads are actually one of the favourite bands of one of my sons.
‘I play guitar and write songs. If you go on to vintagelapointe.com, you will hear all of my songs on there. I think I have a song for every kind of mood you can experience.
‘I used to write music when I was much younger, than I basically stopped for about 30 years or something. I used to be in a band around the time I went to engineering school.
‘I didn’t have a great memory. I would f*** up all the time and forget the words. It was the same when I tried to read poems at school.
‘After getting divorced, 25 years of marriage, three boys, you end up with quite a lot to say. So I wrote songs about it.’
Whether or not he becomes Super Mario in Dumbarton, only time will tell. But with Lapointe in charge, life at The Rock certainly won’t be dull.
