CONFRIMED: Latest rumours Confrimed as Unconfrimed

[Stranded]

To quote Mark Bowen
"There have been an extremely high number of enquiries with some primarily focused on the clubs real estate assets"

Why are you shocked?

The club has a lot of relatively high net worth real estate assets and a currently L1 football team. Any investor in the club will be aware that the real estate is where they can make money by utilising it better - i.e. the stadium could be used more in the summer for concerts/events etc - fair to say anybody looking to buy the club will want to ensure that they are getting the real estate too and not just the money pit.

[blythspartan]

Tbf, not a bad message from Bowen. I thought there were undertones of trying to rally up more fans to attend games, which is a good thing as money is going to be very tight until we get new owners.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Feels like the noise is ramping up. Hopefully we'll have some genuine progress in the next couple of weeks.

Yes I agree, certainly seems to be more communications coming out of the club now compared to before Christmas, we can hope.

Think if it all comes to nothing we'll know soon too. Crunch couple of weeks.

[Royalwaster]

Was talking to a friend who is involved in board of a national league team - and he told me what virtually all teams in the league are loss making and need a financial injection of around £1million each year. I found that staggering ..

Don't want to be rude, but are you new here?

Football's financial model is irrevocably broken, and very, very few clubs break even - and those that do typically aren't in contention for winning anything.

Be fair. Not many people will realise that the owners of a national league team need to spend a million just to keep their clubs afloat. That is staggering, no matter how familiar you are with the crazy finances of English football.

Thanks - that's the point I was making ... was shocked that even non-league clubs were making these kind of losses with some clubs even still being semi-professional.

[Sutekh]

Don't want to be rude, but are you new here?

Football's financial model is irrevocably broken, and very, very few clubs break even - and those that do typically aren't in contention for winning anything.

Be fair. Not many people will realise that the owners of a national league team need to spend a million just to keep their clubs afloat. That is staggering, no matter how familiar you are with the crazy finances of English football.

Thanks - that's the point I was making ... was shocked that even non-league clubs were making these kind of losses with some clubs even still being semi-professional.

Really not surprised given the insane number of clubs that retain professionalism on relegation to non-league let alone the silly number that turn professional while still in the non-league system. Perhaps the leagues should insist that no club below tier 4 be allowed to be professional.

Surprised more clubs aren't going under given the complete insanity of it all, if only we could scrap the PL and start over...

[tmesis]

Be fair. Not many people will realise that the owners of a national league team need to spend a million just to keep their clubs afloat. That is staggering, no matter how familiar you are with the crazy finances of English football.

Thanks - that's the point I was making ... was shocked that even non-league clubs were making these kind of losses with some clubs even still being semi-professional.

Really not surprised given the insane number of clubs that retain professionalism on relegation to non-league let alone the silly number that turn professional while still in the non-league system. Perhaps the leagues should insist that no club below tier 4 be allowed to be professional.

Surprised more clubs aren't going under given the complete insanity of it all, if only we could scrap the PL and start over...

Weirdly, for some clubs it's actually cheaper to be full time rather than part-time.

Part-time players are less likely to move to be near(er) the club, and the club will then have to pay them travel expenses - and those can be higher than the difference in full-time compared to part-time wages.

Non-league clubs do have one advantage, in that contracts are typically much shorter, so they are much less likely to be stuck with bad buys for 3-4 years like we were. The flipside to that is that clubs can face a mass exodus of players if things go wrong.

There's nothing new about clubs overspending. The difference is the sums involved now make it much harder for a local businessman to step in and buy the club when things go wrong. We have rules in place to hit clubs that have grossly overspent and failed. Maybe if we had rules to stop clubs who grossly overspend and succeed, we'd stop people trying.

[Snowflake Royal]

Feels like the noise is ramping up. Hopefully we'll have some genuine progress in the next couple of weeks.

Yes I agree, certainly seems to be more communications coming out of the club now compared to before Christmas, we can hope.

I feel like I've read these posts every two weeks for the last 6 weeks.

[Armadillo Roadkill]

Thing is about the communications, there was a massive and justifiable complaint that we never heard anything.

The club now provides updates regularly, both via Bowen publicly, and from other officials via Star.

If they don’t make stuff up and if things are taking a long time, the comms will either dry up or be similar in content until there is big news to announce.

I prefer the regular comms, even if there’s not much progress to report just yet.

[Greatwesternline]

People shouldn't be driving to games anyway, it is bad for the environment.

Who said they want it to use as a car park? - probably want to do some building development before selling the club on less the car park, not realising the Thai's already did that

Seriously though, If a prospective buyer isn't aware of what they're actually buying that is a cause for concern.

Also, with the car park - wasn't there some suggestion that as part of the building plans free buses would be provided or something, If so that should be picked up by the Thai developers, but wouldn't surprise me if they got the club to agree to fund all that before they sold it.

There are plans for each bus to do two runs so your options will be get there far too early or hang around after the game, the club will also lose the revenue from the matchday parking.

Put on decent street food and bars outside the ground and spending an extra hour at the stadium after a game wouldnt be the end of the world for many. What is there to get home to on a Saturday? I've been a "home" fan at the new White Hart Lane, and at the Amex, and both clubs go to considerable lengths to monetise their supporters after the games, which also helps to reduce congestion after the games as well.

[East Grinstead Royal]

There are plans for each bus to do two runs so your options will be get there far too early or hang around after the game, the club will also lose the revenue from the matchday parking.

Indeed. My season ticket for the car park last season cost more than the one for the football. Getting out of the car park after the game convinced me not to bother again. Total lack of organisation and basically a free for all. I even had to put up with the unedifying sight of Ady Williams thinking he had the right to get in his car and cut in front of everyone who had been queueing for 45 minutes.

[SouthDownsRoyal]

Who said they want it to use as a car park? - probably want to do some building development before selling the club on less the car park, not realising the Thai's already did that

Seriously though, If a prospective buyer isn't aware of what they're actually buying that is a cause for concern.

Also, with the car park - wasn't there some suggestion that as part of the building plans free buses would be provided or something, If so that should be picked up by the Thai developers, but wouldn't surprise me if they got the club to agree to fund all that before they sold it.

There are plans for each bus to do two runs so your options will be get there far too early or hang around after the game, the club will also lose the revenue from the matchday parking.

Put on decent street food and bars outside the ground and spending an extra hour at the stadium after a game wouldnt be the end of the world for many. What is there to get home to on a Saturday? I've been a "home" fan at the new White Hart Lane, and at the Amex, and both clubs go to considerable lengths to monetise their supporters after the games, which also helps to reduce congestion after the games as well.

What do spurs and bha do to attract fans to stay after the game

[Royalwaster]

There are plans for each bus to do two runs so your options will be get there far too early or hang around after the game, the club will also lose the revenue from the matchday parking.

Put on decent street food and bars outside the ground and spending an extra hour at the stadium after a game wouldnt be the end of the world for many. What is there to get home to on a Saturday? I've been a "home" fan at the new White Hart Lane, and at the Amex, and both clubs go to considerable lengths to monetise their supporters after the games, which also helps to reduce congestion after the games as well.

What do spurs and bha do to attract fans to stay after the game

,
I assume they've learned from what US sports team do - if you've ever been to an NFL game you can see that they turn it into a whole day (commercial) event ... so the idea of arriving at kick-off and leaving just after the final whistle is not part of their thinking.

[morganb]

There's a lot of noise over on Twitter about getting more fans to the ground in order to raise much needs funds, however this act could also be important from a buyer's point of view - if you were looking to buy a club would you rather see a packed stadium or banks of empty seat? As supporters we need to do what we can to get a buyer to want to buy us and having a full ground could be a good side effect of also getting more money into the club.

[Greatwesternline]

There are plans for each bus to do two runs so your options will be get there far too early or hang around after the game, the club will also lose the revenue from the matchday parking.

Put on decent street food and bars outside the ground and spending an extra hour at the stadium after a game wouldnt be the end of the world for many. What is there to get home to on a Saturday? I've been a "home" fan at the new White Hart Lane, and at the Amex, and both clubs go to considerable lengths to monetise their supporters after the games, which also helps to reduce congestion after the games as well.

What do spurs and bha do to attract fans to stay after the game

Keep big bars open after the game, spurs keep the bar that runs the length of the stand open for several hours, as do Brighton. It'd be the equivalent of the East Stand Bar being kept open. These two clubs actually serve good beers. They also sell food you'd actually pay for. This means fans stay after the game, drink, chat, eat nice fast food. Watch sky sports on the screens that are everywhere. That sort of thing.

Everything about the Mad Stad experience is aimed at low cost (food and drink quality offer) high mark up for short time scale, rather than higher cost, more unit sales spread out over longer period of time.

[Sutekh]

Put on decent street food and bars outside the ground and spending an extra hour at the stadium after a game wouldnt be the end of the world for many. What is there to get home to on a Saturday? I've been a "home" fan at the new White Hart Lane, and at the Amex, and both clubs go to considerable lengths to monetise their supporters after the games, which also helps to reduce congestion after the games as well.

What do spurs and bha do to attract fans to stay after the game

Keep big bars open after the game, spurs keep the bar that runs the length of the stand open for several hours, as do Brighton. It'd be the equivalent of the East Stand Bar being kept open. These two clubs actually serve good beers. They also sell food you'd actually pay for. This means fans stay after the game, drink, chat, eat nice fast food. Watch sky sports on the screens that are everywhere. That sort of thing.

Everything about the Mad Stad experience is aimed at low cost (food and drink quality offer) high mark up for short time scale, rather than higher cost, more unit sales spread out over longer period of time.

Something new owners could look to change to recoup a bit of bunce. But no doubt we'll find that plod and/or the council will have a downer about it.

[Millsy]

Bunsen burner, nice little earner.

[72 bus]

[quote="Greatwesternline"] What is there to get home to on a Saturday?/quote]

If you need to ask yourself that, then you are doing life all wrong.

[Greatwesternline]

What is there to get home to on a Saturday?/quote]

If you need to ask yourself that, then you are doing life all wrong.

You'd rather be at home than socialising with your friends?

Not sure you've thought your answer through.

[Snowflake Royal]

What is there to get home to on a Saturday?/quote]

If you need to ask yourself that, then you are doing life all wrong.

You'd rather be at home than socialising with your friends?

Not sure you've thought your answer through.

Much as I hate to agree with Bus, I've never really got the 'get away from the wife and kids for some peace at football' view some.seem to have. And I can think of far better places to socialise with friends than a Madejski concourse, or some food and beer trucks around the ground.

[Hendo]

What is there to get home to on a Saturday?

If you need to ask yourself that, then you are doing life all wrong.

You'd rather be at home than socialising with your friends?

Not sure you've thought your answer through.

I go to football myself, so yeah - I'd like to nip off soon after full time. Plus I'm driving so wouldn't be wanting a drink anyway.