Reading FC (Holdings) accounts 2014/15

[RoyalBlue]

We all have our own views and that's that. Ian makes a point but do not lose sight of the fact the The Man was a virtual unknown previous to his involvement and rose to the dizzy heights of being knighted. Dont tell me he didnt gain financially in other ways other than the football club but more by virtue of his increasing status, networking etc.
Im not saying he should of given the money instead of loan it but those are the facts. His vast financial losses were in the main on other failing businesses due to downturn in construction.

Some of you worship the ground he walks upon and he loves your adulation showing him as the messiah when he strolls onto the pitch, only when its on Telly though, some of us dont and some probably give a toss.

Thats football eh?
A game of opinions.


Oh and we dont all have to share the same one as the Self Righteous on here.

you're getting a bit mixed, SJM likes to be called Chairman as in Chairman of RFC (he's not now we know) because he's more proud of that than ever being called Sir John. (which was given to him as a reward to charity and Support of the conservatives but not for his work for RFC.)

You are kidding! His Ego more proud of being Chairman than Sir?! How many times do you think he says 'call me John' rather than 'Sir John'? Of course he still likes to be around the club. Why wouldn't he when some people still bow in front of him, applaud and sing his name, But as someone else has stated, his character is well illustrated by the fact that his pitch walks usually tend to coincide with the cameras being in town.

As for why he got a Knighthood - it's a lot easier to give money if your tax advisers have helped you (albeit legally) avoid paying a very significant sum in tax. If big corporations and the very rich were prevented from using tax avoidance schemes, there would be far less need to finance things like schools through charity.

Anyway back to main topic. I'm very surprised to hear that the hotel still 'appears' to be making a loss. Not sure how they manage to do that. I thought occupancy rates were pretty good, location is good and there doesn't appear to be a surplus of hotels in the locality.

And it would appear that the doomsday scenario is that the Thais are merely investing in the football club to establish credibility and get their property development scheme approved on the back of it. Once they've done that they walk away leaving the club with nothing. If that happens the Anton sale will seem to be a very minor error by comparison.

[Vision]

Playing Devil's Advocate slightly wrt Anton. His commitment to Cat A Academy and putting in place plans for the new training ground are things which should work to our advantage in the future and put us in an advantageous position compared to other clubs of a similar size.

Also without his input I doubt the 2nd Premiership promotion would have happened. Investing in Roberts and offering the sulking Kebe a new contract were major catalysts in our end of season push. Of course he got all giddy after that and lost the plot somewhat thinking the Prem was a licence to print money but I still maintain there was and will continue to be some good that came of his time here.

The rising debt is a concern of course but really we're not in much worse a financial position than any other club would be with dwindling parachute payments or indeed where we stood after our first foray into the big league and subsequent drop. It's a hard fact that failure to bounce straight back leaves you with a lot of cloth cutting to do which we've genuinely done ok with. You only have to look at the many many clubs that have dropped even further into the 3rd tier not long after tasting the high life because they couldn't get the balance right.

If we look at two of the major promotion players Derby and Boro they spent the best part of 2-3 seasons downsizing and consolidating after their initial fall and failure to bounce back. Of course they have wealthy owners (also both genuine fans which may be significant) who with the advantage of the slightly more relaxed FFP regulations are putting a lot of their own personal money in.

There's no indication that the Thais are willing to do the same but the point is that once we can get back to a slightly more even keel , the scope is there to do so if they wish to match their ambitious off field plans with similar on-field ones.

It's tough at the moment I think we all can accept that and there are some tough short term decisions that will have to be made but in general I don't think we're making too bad a fist of it and there are still reasons to be optimistic for the future.

RTG's well and truly on

[Maneki Neko]

Some of you worship the ground he walks upon and he loves your adulation showing him as the messiah when he strolls onto the pitch, only when its on Telly though, some of us dont and some probably give a toss

its simple gratitude for 20 years of absolutely top notch chairmanery

[multisync1830]

We all have our own views and that's that. Ian makes a point but do not lose sight of the fact the The Man was a virtual unknown previous to his involvement and rose to the dizzy heights of being knighted. Dont tell me he didnt gain financially in other ways other than the football club but more by virtue of his increasing status, networking etc.
Im not saying he should of given the money instead of loan it but those are the facts. His vast financial losses were in the main on other failing businesses due to downturn in construction.

Some of you worship the ground he walks upon and he loves your adulation showing him as the messiah when he strolls onto the pitch, only when its on Telly though, some of us dont and some probably give a toss.

Thats football eh?
A game of opinions.


Oh and we dont all have to share the same one as the Self Righteous on here.

you're getting a bit mixed, SJM likes to be called Chairman as in Chairman of RFC (he's not now we know) because he's more proud of that than ever being called Sir John. (which was given to him as a reward to charity and Support of the conservatives but not for his work for RFC.)

You are kidding! His Ego more proud of being Chairman than Sir?! How many times do you think he says 'call me John' rather than 'Sir John'? Of course he still likes to be around the club. Why wouldn't he when some people still bow in front of him, applaud and sing his name, But as someone else has stated, his character is well illustrated by the fact that his pitch walks usually tend to coincide with the cameras being in town.

As for why he got a Knighthood - it's a lot easier to give money if your tax advisers have helped you (albeit legally) avoid paying a very significant sum in tax. If big corporations and the very rich were prevented from using tax avoidance schemes, there would be far less need to finance things like schools through charity.

Anyway back to main topic. I'm very surprised to hear that the hotel still 'appears' to be making a loss. Not sure how they manage to do that. I thought occupancy rates were pretty good, location is good and there doesn't appear to be a surplus of hotels in the locality.

And it would appear that the doomsday scenario is that the Thais are merely investing in the football club to establish credibility and get their property development scheme approved on the back of it. Once they've done that they walk away leaving the club with nothing. If that happens the Anton sale will seem to be a very minor error by comparison.

Genuine question have you ever met him?

[loyalroyaldaz]

Yes.
He was pissed up on all three occasions except one where he was entertaining a very young asian looking chap at an indian restaraunt .
I also know people who have worked for him.

[multisync1830]

Yes.
He was pissed up on all three occasions except one where he was entertaining a very young asian looking chap at an indian restaraunt .
I also know people who have worked for him.

so on each occasion he said call me sir john?

[loyalroyaldaz]

Er......i never said anything about being called Sir John. He was virtually incoherent when pissed and i have no idea what he asked the young Asian Guy to call him

[Huntley & Palmer]

From Insider Media

Reading FC have returned to the black despite a multimillion-pound drop in turnover as they adapt to life in the Championship.

The recently filed accounts of Reading Football Club Ltd at Companies House have revealed revenues of £35m for the year to 30 June 2015. This was down from £38.1m a year earlier as parachute payments from the Premier League reduced.

As a result, operating losses widened to £12.7m from £10.8m.

But Reading recovered from pre-tax losses of £7.3m and posted a profit of £2.6m, boosted by an £11m gain.

Media revenues fell by £3.1m in the second year of FAPL parachute payments, while commercial revenues for the year grew by about £100,000 to £3.9m.

Salary costs fell to £33.3m from £34.5m while other operating expenses declined from £48.1m to £44.5m.

In the annual report, Reading said revenues generated on matchdays remained constant although additional income from cup matches compensated for a reduction in league receipts. The Royals reached the FA Cup semi-final last season and are in the quarter-final this year.

Meanwhile, Reading said they generated total profits of £4.6m from sales, appearance and sell-on clauses associated with Alex McCarthy, Sean Morrison, Shane Long and Michail Antonio.

Earlier this month, plans were submitted for a mixed-use development around Reading's Madejski Stadium, including a convention centre and ice rink, hundreds of homes, a hotel, retail and leisure facilities. RFC Prop Co Ltd, a partly-owned subsidiary of Reading FC, lodged a planning application for the scheme.

[glass half full]

Shock! Horror! RB on another vehement attack on SJM...