The words pour out of the engaging and energetic Mario Lapointe as he tells his story of how a millionaire from Montreal has come to buy Dumbarton Football Club.
There is the Cinderella search that involved looking at clubs in Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Portugal. England, Northern Ireland and Scotland to see if their football footprint fitted his commercial shoe size.
There is the past that involved building up an electronics company as the son of a cleaner at a rehab centre and a mechanic. ‘My parents do not speak English,’ he says of his Quebecois provenance. His father did say no once. And it cost him.
‘When we started the business in 1996 we received a grant of $6000 dollars from the government but my wife and I had to put in $6000 each. I asked my father to put in some money but he said no. A Chinese lady put in $12,000. Ten years later we bought her out for $640,000.
‘When I told my father, he almost fainted.’
But he adds: ‘He should have had belief in his son.’ This nod to the past is cloaked in a smile of the present. Lapointe knows where he has come from but where is he going with Dumbarton?
Dumbarton owner Mario Lapointe, above right, entertains fans in Bar72 at the Marbill Coaches Stadium while local musician Richie Gallacher listens in
Mario Lapointe describes his guitar as his ‘medicine’ as he poses on Dumbarton’s pitch
The garrulous Canadian is eager to explain all to press, to fans and even to those he meets in the local pizza shop. But, perhaps, he says it best in song.
‘It is my first time singing in front of an audience,’ he says in a small room in Dumbarton’s stadium. ‘My guitar is my medicine.’
But to combat what ills? A timeline of Lapointe’s 57 years may do something to satisfy the need to understand the businessman’s desires and motivations, at least, for amateur psychologists. There are distinct eras. Lapointe wrote songs ‘to get girls’ as a student. He then married, built a business and stopped writing for more than 30 years. He then went through what was obviously an excruciatingly painful divorce in 2019, with it being finalised in 2021, and started writing songs again.
This time, one suspects, it was not ‘to get girls’. His songs are brutally frank, achingly honest and deeply revelatory. Before he takes to the stage, Lapointe talks of the need for authenticity and for men to talk to each other. ‘I don’t do psychologists,’ he says. He talks of putting his troubles in a jar and putting that on a shelf and moving on. ‘I know that psychologists tell you that is not the way to do it but it is my way.’
He adds: ‘These are songs with stories. Remove your shoelaces and your belt before coming in to listen.’
He is accompanied by Richie Gallacher, who runs a youth development charity, Tullochan. The gig is conducted in a refurbished room where the lights are low. There is darkness in Lapointe’s work. ‘The divorce, the pain, suffering…’ he reflects at one point before going on stage.
Yet there is an irrepressible cheeriness within him that seeks to rise from this mire of despondency and may help to explain why he has chosen to peer into the money pit that is Scottish football.
The League Two outfit’s stadium sits snugly in the shadow of Dumbarton Rock
On The Road’s Hugh MacDonald, above left, enjoys a chat with the entertaining Lapointe
‘A lot of clubs are on the edge,’ he says. Dumbarton teetered perilously close to extinction but Lapointe has pulled them back. His motives have been questioned. He laughs when he points out that most of the questions from concerned fans have been about construction. ‘But I have no interest or experience in any of that,’ he says. The prime spot on the Clyde has attracted real estate suitors but Lapointe is strong in promoting more edifying principles. His first visit to Dumbarton was in June.
Immediate impressions have remained with him. ‘Nutrition,’ he says. He was welcomed with doughnuts and soft drinks. He admits, too, his affection for pizza. However, he believes that the club should interact with its community in terms of providing a sanctuary, a place to be together, a free resource for advice on how to eat healthily. He has also moved quickly to improve the facility.
The writer who is darker than a winter’s night under the Rock is also a character who promotes the shining light of positivity. ‘This is not to push down the Scottish people but a lot of people here are not optimistic,’ he says with the sort of understatement that deserves some sort of award for supreme diplomacy.
‘I have to create a movement of positivity. If you are negative, you will pull in negativity. People say; ‘’You only live once.’’ But I say: ‘’You live every day, you only die once’’.’
This bullishness is supported by an acceptance of the reality of Scottish football. He knows he is playing in a game that can inflict financial injury. His love for the sport has been long-standing and he even coached one of his three sons to an association championship back in the day.
It is off-field matters which he must address. He must make improvements to the stadium, attract new supporters and foster a feeling of community. He must do all this while Dumbarton are in the trapdoor division where there is an awful opening to dismissal from the SPFL.
However, he is frank about his intentions. They resemble the aims of another traveller from Canada, the Celtic saviour Fergus McCann.
‘I have made an impact but I want to do more. I want the club to have financial stability within three years,’ he says, referring to self-sustainability. He admits he cannot simply fund it long-term. He is in the process of selling his electronics firm, which is estimated to be worth $8m-10m, but is not prepared to spend all his retirement in time or money on the banks of the Clyde.
‘It will then be all about who picks it up. I want to carry it forward, help it to flourish and pass it on as a club with financial stability. It would be good to identify a Scotsman with money who could take over. I would not squeeze him. It would be great to have fresh blood, fresh ideas, But I would be the guy who carried the burden for a while, a transition time.’
Curious punters gather to hear their club owner’s repertoire of songs in the stadium’s Bar72
Hugh MacDonald speaks to musician Richie Gallacher as he prepares to join Lapointe on stage
Dumbarton owner Mario Lapointe walks towards the stand with guitar in hand
However, he adds: ‘If we don’t get back on a strong financial footing within four years, then Mario is going to start looking slim.’
Mario looks strong as he picks up his guitar and heads to face his supporters. He is the first act in a weekend that includes a disappointing loss to Stranraer then a vibrant festival of music yesterday. Dumbarton rocks on Sunday.
‘You know, one of my first songs was about ships, a river and rock,’ he says of a composition in the early 1990s.
He takes a seat on the stage and peers out into gloom only illuminated by shards of light. He speaks earlier about how the most impressive factor about Dumbarton is the quality and commitment of the volunteers he has met. He talks too about the faith of the small band of sponsors. He smiles at the memory of encountering a fan in a pizza shop and being told: ‘’Thanks for saving my club.’’
But now he strums his guitar, takes a breath and introduces the first song. ‘You learn to live alone,’ he says.
The applause after each song tells him, however, that he is a part of something bigger. One is never alone at a football club. It may not be the only reason to buy one but it has brought Lapointe to another world. The guitar need not be his only medicine.
