Confimred new owners of Raeding Footbal Club

[bobby m's syrup]

Presumably he could in theory close the 'business' side of RFC and sell the stadium but the club, in terms of the history and supporters would remain even without any infrastructure. In that sense we are all part owners of the club if you see it as a figment of our collective consciousness.

But we haven't got any history

[Royal Lady]

Yeah - that's what I mean - what if his plan is to run the club into the ground and then build on the stadium and everywhere else he has bought. For example.

[royalZILLAAA]

Yeah - that's what I mean - what if his plan is to run the club into the ground and then build on the stadium and everywhere else he has bought. For example.

That's probably not the best way he could possibly turn a profit, out of all the opportunities to develop land in all of the world.

[Royal Lady]

Well if he cared about football and owning a club, he wouldn't be saying he wanted to build shops on the car park would he?

[Dick Habbin's hairdo]

Presumably he could in theory close the 'business' side of RFC and sell the stadium but the club, in terms of the history and supporters would remain even without any infrastructure. In that sense we are all part owners of the club if you see it as a figment of our collective consciousness.

But we haven't got any history

.... but aren't we the fourth oldest football club in the world currently 'active' and the oldest club south of the river Trent? Or is that utter nonsense and drivel in which case I'll crawl back under my rock.

[kwik-silva]

Well if he cared about football and owning a club, he wouldn't be saying he wanted to build shops on the car park would he?

There's nothing wrong with having development proposals in his offer to buy the club. Renovating the area around the ground could be beneficial to us, mostly for the reasons Winch mentioned a few pages back: sponsorship, foot traffic, merch sales, new supporters.

[maffff]

The club are saving the announcement of our new saviour for pg200...

[tidus_mi2]

The club are saving the announcement of our new saviour for pg200...

We'd better get to work then.

[Silver Fox]

Well if he cared about football and owning a club, he wouldn't be saying he wanted to build shops on the car park would he?

Why does your level of football care affect your desire to build on a car park? Get rid of the car park completely if you ask me, maybe people will stay to the final whistle

[SPARTA]

The Chronicle have also summarised the current state of play....


Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi and Mohit Burman from India are both attempting to take control of the club, ending the on-going takeover saga.

They include turning the area around the Madejski Stadium into a retail park with hotel and building houses on the club’s Hogwood Park training ground, with Royals poised to move to a new training facility at Bearwood in the near future.

Sagi, 41, is worth around £1.5 billion according to Forbes. It is thought he could purchase Reading for £1 then pay off the club’s debt which amounted to £38 million when the club was relegated from the Premier League in 2013.

.

Doesn't Sir John own the training ground? That was not part of the AZ deal. Shoddy journalism imho

Yes.

[Ian Royal]

There is something to stop him? Even if he owns 100% of the club and could do with it what he liked? Good.

There can be things written into the deeds of the property / land requiring that it must remain for certain uses. It may be that the land the stadium is on has that sort of requirement on it. Or you could contact the local council and try to get it registered and protected as a community asset or some such thing, if it isn't already.

[SPARTA]

I'm just going to make this point again. Teddy Sagi is adept at and focused on making more money. You cannot make money out of owning a football club. If he wants to buy Reading FC, it's 100% for the real estate potential that someone has highlighted to him. He will not invest his own money into the club and will have no real interest in it. He does not even especially care about football. We will not see him at games, he will not speak publicly (he doesn't really speak English anyway) and will simply leave the board in place to run the club, debt free admittedly. He has no interest in Reading as a place or the people/supporters of Reading.

Once he's made his money from what ever deal he has seen, he will sell the club and move on to the next deal.

I'm not therefore convinced he is really the kind of owner a typical football fan would want for their club.

Agreed, if either of the two it's Burman for me. He at least admits investing in a sports team is throwing money away but he gets a kick out of it.

"Sports is not a business. If you put money in sports, assume that its gone. Its something that I enjoy doing."

(from an article on India's wealthiest families if you care to dig it out)

[loyalroyaldaz]

The Land was given over with a stipulation that it is a "community Anchored Site".
That can be satisfied in many ways though.

[kwik-silva]

I'm just going to make this point again. Teddy Sagi is adept at and focused on making more money. You cannot make money out of owning a football club. If he wants to buy Reading FC, it's 100% for the real estate potential that someone has highlighted to him. He will not invest his own money into the club and will have no real interest in it. He does not even especially care about football. We will not see him at games, he will not speak publicly (he doesn't really speak English anyway) and will simply leave the board in place to run the club, debt free admittedly. He has no interest in Reading as a place or the people/supporters of Reading.

Once he's made his money from what ever deal he has seen, he will sell the club and move on to the next deal.

I'm not therefore convinced he is really the kind of owner a typical football fan would want for their club.

Agreed, if either of the two it's Burman for me. He at least admits investing in a sports team is throwing money away but he gets a kick out of it.

"Sports is not a business. If you put money in sports, assume that its gone. Its something that I enjoy doing."

(from an article on India's wealthiest families if you care to dig it out)

link

[winchester_royal]

I'm just going to make this point again. Teddy Sagi is adept at and focused on making more money. You cannot make money out of owning a football club. If he wants to buy Reading FC, it's 100% for the real estate potential that someone has highlighted to him. He will not invest his own money into the club and will have no real interest in it. He does not even especially care about football. We will not see him at games, he will not speak publicly (he doesn't really speak English anyway) and will simply leave the board in place to run the club, debt free admittedly. He has no interest in Reading as a place or the people/supporters of Reading.

Once he's made his money from what ever deal he has seen, he will sell the club and move on to the next deal.

I'm not therefore convinced he is really the kind of owner a typical football fan would want for their club.

Agreed, if either of the two it's Burman for me. He at least admits investing in a sports team is throwing money away but he gets a kick out of it.

"Sports is not a business. If you put money in sports, assume that its gone. Its something that I enjoy doing."

(from an article on India's wealthiest families if you care to dig it out)

YOU CAN'T JUST CHUCK MONEY AT A FOOTBALL CLUB ANYMORE.

We need someone to come in and run the club on sound business principles and who understands the importance of investment in the long term infrastructure. We don't know if either of the two individuals meet that criteria, so lets just reserve judgement for a couple of days at least.

[SPARTA]

I'm well aware of that, and I'm sure he is too; but he clearly highlights that he doesn't expect to make a profit but will put money in (within the rules etc).

[SPARTA]

Assume already mentioned, but if not, SJM has added three new directors as recently as last week - two of which are his daughters.



Someone's stacking the votes in his corner.

[From Despair To Where?]

Having read that article, the Burmans seem to have quite diverse business interests and appear to be pretty sharp business people. Add to that the fact that they acknowledge that sports clubs are a bottomless moneypit and it kind of sways me more in their favour.

[kwik-silva]

Assume already mentioned, but if not, SJM has added three new directors as recently as last week - two of which are his daughters.



Someone's stacking the votes in his corner.

He added them to Reading Holdings, surely that doesn't increase his votes on the board of the football club itself? As I already said a few pages back when this was first posted...

[bobby m's syrup]

Presumably he could in theory close the 'business' side of RFC and sell the stadium but the club, in terms of the history and supporters would remain even without any infrastructure. In that sense we are all part owners of the club if you see it as a figment of our collective consciousness.

But we haven't got any history

.... but aren't we the fourth oldest football club in the world currently 'active' and the oldest club south of the river Trent? Or is that utter nonsense and drivel in which case I'll crawl back under my rock.

Oh dear