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Post by singupgas on Feb 19, 2024 21:09:54 GMT
How do you know the new owners are not the right investors? I don’t. And I truly hope they are. And if they are we have Wael to thank. But we’ve had false dawns before so only time will tell They aren't. We are tarting up the Mem a bit and putting a few extra seats in... We aren't going to be tearing up trees in afraid. The clubs needs a new stadium or proper rebuild of the Mem with 20k something capacity. Thanks to Wael and new the owner for keeping the club ticking along, just like Higgs and others before, but we will not be progressing to much better things, when our aspirations are building stands that would be pulled down anywhere else. |
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Post by bidefordgas on Feb 19, 2024 21:14:21 GMT
I had a good gut feeling about him from day one and I feel we’re in better shape now than we were when he bought the club. He clearly couldn’t achieve everything he wanted to whilst he was our majority shareholder but I’ve generally been pleased with what he has achieved. We’re still a little short of where we should be for a club our size and the biggest part of that is we never got a new stadium but he has got the ball rolling regarding improving the Memorial stadium and now hopefully our new majority shareholder can continue to keep bringing us forwards. It’s difficult of course as every other club is trying the same thing so getting ahead of similar sized rivals such as Oxford and Peterborough is a challenge. Small steps sure but we have taken them over the last 8 years. When I think back to the unaffordable mess Higgs got us in to prior to Wael it makes me shudder. Problem is none of us now know who Wael has handed the club over to, they could be similar to Wael or they could just see us as a cash cow. I sense the fact Wael's not attending the Q&A means that he's no longer going to take an active part in running the club. I would not read to much into Wael not attending the Q and A. After all our new majority owner, CEO and Manager are attending so all bases are covered there. It’s true Wael is now the club President but still attends games on a regular basis and I’m not in the camp that says he no longer holds any say, after all he still has a decent sized shareholding in his investment. |
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Post by Topper Gas on Feb 19, 2024 21:14:37 GMT
The UK’s number one direct business loans company according to all the advertising, trust pilot overall 5 star reviews and it would appear nobody challenging them on their claims, certainly not the 50000 customers a year who use them it would appear and all quite happy to pay whatever the interest rates they charge. It would appear to me our owners are quite happy to use them so why should I doubt them and I would suggest probably 99.9% would probably agree. It would appear to me that the very same doubters who called Wael a fake sheik are now lining up against our new majority shareholders and claiming they are selling us down the river. The very same doubters whom conveniently forgot that their hero Nick Higgs took out a huge payday loan to fight Sainsbury’s on his so called watertight contract failed court case.At least Wael in his eight years with us has delivered our training ground and in his attempts to improve us ran up debts which he has covered for that period and has brought in our new investors having spoken to several other individuals who had wanted to takeover our club. Personally I’m quite happy to trust him to do the best for our club and unlike a few on here have total confidence we will have our Rovers long after I’m gone. None of us know where we will be in a few years time but I’m still hopeful of better times even after supporting the club for the last 67 years since I was 7 years old. Without the failed court case they'd be no UWE and probably no interest from Wael in buying the club, keeping the UWE alive was a clever but risky ploy by NH , so good in fact Wael seems to have done something similar with the FM and the Al Saaed's, they just seem to have been a bit cuter when it came to seeing that it was always a non starter. |
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Post by stuart1974 on Feb 19, 2024 21:23:16 GMT
The UK’s number one direct business loans company according to all the advertising, trust pilot overall 5 star reviews and it would appear nobody challenging them on their claims, certainly not the 50000 customers a year who use them it would appear and all quite happy to pay whatever the interest rates they charge. It would appear to me our owners are quite happy to use them so why should I doubt them and I would suggest probably 99.9% would probably agree. It would appear to me that the very same doubters who called Wael a fake sheik are now lining up against our new majority shareholders and claiming they are selling us down the river. The very same doubters whom conveniently forgot that their hero Nick Higgs took out a huge payday loan to fight Sainsbury’s on his so called watertight contract failed court case.At least Wael in his eight years with us has delivered our training ground and in his attempts to improve us ran up debts which he has covered for that period and has brought in our new investors having spoken to several other individuals who had wanted to takeover our club. Personally I’m quite happy to trust him to do the best for our club and unlike a few on here have total confidence we will have our Rovers long after I’m gone. None of us know where we will be in a few years time but I’m still hopeful of better times even after supporting the club for the last 67 years since I was 7 years old. Without the failed court case they'd be no UWE and probably no interest from Wael in buying the club, keeping the UWE alive was a clever but risky ploy by NH , so good in fact Wael seems to have done something similar with the FM and the Al Saaed's, they just seem to have been a bit cuter when it came to seeing that it was always a non starter. Not sure there. The UWE stadium had PP and an agreement in principle with UWE already, what did the court case add? Also I'm not sure Wael took out a loan to keep Conygar on board. |
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Post by bidefordgas on Feb 19, 2024 21:34:28 GMT
I don’t. And I truly hope they are. And if they are we have Wael to thank. But we’ve had false dawns before so only time will tell They aren't. We are tarting up the Mem a bit and putting a few extra seats in... We aren't going to be tearing up trees in afraid. The clubs needs a new stadium or proper rebuild of the Mem with 20k something capacity. Thanks to Wael and new the owner for keeping the club ticking along, just like Higgs and others before, but we will not be progressing to much better things, when our aspirations are building stands that would be pulled down anywhere else. Sorry I can’t agree with you. I would suggest the playing side must be the priority along with some investment in the non playing side. It’s very well to say build a fancy new stadium and then hope we can succeed on the pitch, because if that does not happen the faithful 6k will be sitting in a two thirds empty stadium. Luton have been mentioned on here as an example to follow, a club who have come from years in non league to play in the very same stadium that they did in their division one days long before the Premier league was born. They now have plans for a new stadium with well over a hundred million in the bank for their exploits on the pitch and if they are relegated many millions more for three years after their relegation. It’s quite clear they are going to build their new ground with these monies and also quite clear they have not spent big on players to stay in the top flight. That is a model I would be happy to follow. As regards our new majority owners, they have only been here for less than a season, so I for one won’t be calling them out as not the right investors. |
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Post by percy on Feb 19, 2024 21:43:01 GMT
I had a good gut feeling about him from day one and I feel we’re in better shape now than we were when he bought the club. He clearly couldn’t achieve everything he wanted to whilst he was our majority shareholder but I’ve generally been pleased with what he has achieved. We’re still a little short of where we should be for a club our size and the biggest part of that is we never got a new stadium but he has got the ball rolling regarding improving the Memorial stadium and now hopefully our new majority shareholder can continue to keep bringing us forwards. It’s difficult of course as every other club is trying the same thing so getting ahead of similar sized rivals such as Oxford and Peterborough is a challenge. Small steps sure but we have taken them over the last 8 years. When I think back to the unaffordable mess Higgs got us in to prior to Wael it makes me shudder. Problem is none of us now know who Wael has handed the club over to, they could be similar to Wael or they could just see us as a cash cow. I sense the fact Wael's not attending the Q&A means that he's no longer going to take an active part in running the club. “A cash cow” hahahahhahahahhahaha |
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Post by Topper Gas on Feb 19, 2024 21:43:34 GMT
Without the failed court case they'd be no UWE and probably no interest from Wael in buying the club, keeping the UWE alive was a clever but risky ploy by NH , so good in fact Wael seems to have done something similar with the FM and the Al Saaed's, they just seem to have been a bit cuter when it came to seeing that it was always a non starter. Not sure there. The UWE stadium had PP and an agreement in principle with UWE already, what did the court case add? Also I'm not sure Wael took out a loan to keep Conygar on board. Once Sainsbury's pulled out the stadium scheme would have died as without them buying the Mem the scheme was dead, the court case kept it alive for a few months/years longer. Wael clearly didn't need a loan as he was wealthy enough to fund the losses personally. Wael was really no better at running Rovers than NH, the difference was Wael could afford to take the losses each season, it'll be interesting to see if the new owners have the same appetite to incur similar annual losses. |
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Post by bidefordgas on Feb 19, 2024 21:47:17 GMT
Problem is none of us now know who Wael has handed the club over to, they could be similar to Wael or they could just see us as a cash cow. I sense the fact Wael's not attending the Q&A means that he's no longer going to take an active part in running the club. “A cash cow” hahahahhahahahhahaha Totally agree Percy, “a cash cow” with unfortunately no milk! |
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Post by Topper Gas on Feb 19, 2024 21:51:25 GMT
Problem is none of us now know who Wael has handed the club over to, they could be similar to Wael or they could just see us as a cash cow. I sense the fact Wael's not attending the Q&A means that he's no longer going to take an active part in running the club. “A cash cow” hahahahhahahahhahaha What's the opposite. as buying a football club to lose £m's a season makes no sense for business men? They've already banked £750K from selling AC and 100 or so residential properties at Almondsbury will bring in decent money, will it just stop there? |
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Post by bidefordgas on Feb 19, 2024 22:01:07 GMT
“A cash cow” hahahahhahahahhahaha What's the opposite. as buying a football club to lose £m's a season makes no sense for business men? They've already banked £750K from selling AC and 100 or so residential properties at Almondsbury will bring in decent money, will it just stop there? Your forgetting the £300k spent for Conteh and as for your 100 houses on the training ground, have you ever been there? Unless we leave the training ground there is no way you could build 100 houses on there. Also you are assuming they will build all these houses and not extend our facilities there? If you are, you are definately living in cloud cuckoo land! |
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Post by trevorgas on Feb 19, 2024 22:03:41 GMT
“A cash cow” hahahahhahahahhahaha What's the opposite. as buying a football club to lose £m's a season makes no sense for business men? They've already banked £750K from selling AC and 100 or so residential properties at Almondsbury will bring in decent money, will it just stop there? Are you suggesting our club is being asset stripped?? |
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Post by Topper Gas on Feb 19, 2024 22:24:02 GMT
What's the opposite. as buying a football club to lose £m's a season makes no sense for business men? They've already banked £750K from selling AC and 100 or so residential properties at Almondsbury will bring in decent money, will it just stop there? Your forgetting the £300k spent for Conteh and as for your 100 houses on the training ground, have you ever been there? Unless we leave the training ground there is no way you could build 100 houses on there. Also you are assuming they will build all these houses and not extend our facilities there? If you are, you are definately living in cloud cuckoo land! Conteh was signed before AC was sold we've no idea how that deal was financed? 67 houses/residential units are already included in the S Glos Development plans, or at least proposed plans, developers will always find a way to include a few more. I'm not assuming anything I posted earlier we've no idea what the Al Saeeds intentions are, good or bad, but if they have the wrong intentions there's money to be made out of Rovers, the worry is Wael seems to be a bit gullible, as there was no logic in him letting JB take over the complete running of the club from the Boardroom down. |
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Post by bidefordgas on Feb 19, 2024 22:36:11 GMT
What's the opposite. as buying a football club to lose £m's a season makes no sense for business men? They've already banked £750K from selling AC and 100 or so residential properties at Almondsbury will bring in decent money, will it just stop there? Are you suggesting our club is being asset stripped?? It’s just another topper whopper! Mr Lansdown, a hugely successful figure in the financial sector putting millions upon millions into our neighbours across the city in order to make money and up to now has lost those millions. In fact our 3 million a season loses are just a tiny fraction of what he has lost at Ashton Gate and if they hadn’t sold a few players in recent years for millions it would have been even worse. The man is clearly a very clever businessman but is and was a fan of the City so he bought them. I would suggest he did so because he liked football, not because he thought he could make a fortune out of it. He didn’t need the money and I would suggest many owners are the same. It makes no sense but it’s happened and has done up and down the country in many clubs just like Bristol Rovers. The odd rogue owner has appeared at a few clubs in recent years, but I would suggest Waels eight years here has proved he is no rogue owner and I would suggest the Kuwait’s won’t be either. |
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Post by Topper Gas on Feb 19, 2024 22:46:46 GMT
Are you suggesting our club is being asset stripped?? It’s just another topper whopper! Mr Lansdown, a hugely successful figure in the financial sector putting millions upon millions into our neighbours across the city in order to make money and up to now has lost those millions. In fact our 3 million a season loses are just a tiny fraction of what he has lost at Ashton Gate and if they hadn’t sold a few players in recent years for millions it would have been even worse. The man is clearly a very clever businessman but is and was a fan of the City so he bought them. I would suggest he did so because he liked football, not because he thought he could make a fortune out of it. He didn’t need the money and I would suggest many owners are the same. It makes no sense but it’s happened and has done up and down the country in many clubs just like Bristol Rovers. The odd rogue owner has appeared at a few clubs in recent years, but I would suggest Waels eight years here has proved he is no rogue owner and I would suggest the Kuwait’s won’t be either. Lansdown can afford to loose £m's when he's a billionaire, Wael's clearly finding the going tough or he wouldn't have sold up and we've zero evidence the Al Saeed's are any more wealthy than Wael, so are they going to take the annual hits if he couldn't? No idea why you are suggesting the Al Saeed's are rogues, seeing Rovers as a good business proposition doesn't make they rogues or asset strippers, it just means they might not be splashing the cash like Wael has done. What other mid table L1 club as a foreign owner willing to write off £3m+ debts p.a.? |
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Post by bidefordgas on Feb 19, 2024 22:58:00 GMT
It’s just another topper whopper! Mr Lansdown, a hugely successful figure in the financial sector putting millions upon millions into our neighbours across the city in order to make money and up to now has lost those millions. In fact our 3 million a season loses are just a tiny fraction of what he has lost at Ashton Gate and if they hadn’t sold a few players in recent years for millions it would have been even worse. The man is clearly a very clever businessman but is and was a fan of the City so he bought them. I would suggest he did so because he liked football, not because he thought he could make a fortune out of it. He didn’t need the money and I would suggest many owners are the same. It makes no sense but it’s happened and has done up and down the country in many clubs just like Bristol Rovers. The odd rogue owner has appeared at a few clubs in recent years, but I would suggest Waels eight years here has proved he is no rogue owner and I would suggest the Kuwait’s won’t be either. Lansdown can afford to loose £m's when he's a billionaire, Wael's clearly finding the going tough or he wouldn't have sold up and we've zero evidence the Al Saeed's are any more wealthy than Wael, so are they going to take the annual hits if he couldn't? No idea why you are suggesting the Al Saeed's are rogues, seeing Rovers as a good business proposition doesn't make they rogues or asset strippers, it just means they might not be splashing the cash like Wael has done. What other mid table L1 club as a foreign owner willing to write off £3m+ debts p.a.? I have not said our owners are rogues! Read my words and understand. Your the one suggesting they are going to asset strip, not me and your the one suggesting it makes no sense to buy a club to lose money. You then come up with the statement that Mr Lansdown can afford to. Everyman can spend his money on what he wants and makes a judgement on what he can afford or can’t afford, so who’s to say our owners have bought our club to make money, break even or lose money. It’s certainly not me and you and anyone on here for that matter, but their choice annd theirs alone. |
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Post by bidefordgas on Feb 19, 2024 23:28:53 GMT
Your forgetting the £300k spent for Conteh and as for your 100 houses on the training ground, have you ever been there? Unless we leave the training ground there is no way you could build 100 houses on there. Also you are assuming they will build all these houses and not extend our facilities there? If you are, you are definately living in cloud cuckoo land! Conteh was signed before AC was sold we've no idea how that deal was financed? 67 houses/residential units are already included in the S Glos Development plans, or at least proposed plans, developers will always find a way to include a few more. I'm not assuming anything I posted earlier we've no idea what the Al Saeeds intentions are, good or bad, but if they have the wrong intentions there's money to be made out of Rovers, the worry is Wael seems to be a bit gullible, as there was no logic in him letting JB take over the complete running of the club from the Boardroom down. Topper you clearly have no idea about how councils make these plans. Councils look at areas of land in their areas either owned by them or others. In the case of the training ground owned by our club, they have identified that there is space on the undeveloped part for 67 houses in order for them to achieve their target for new housing. It is our asset and if we have plans for the undeveloped parts we can iobviously seek the planning permission for what we want. It then becomes a you scratch our back and we will scratch yours agreement. ie. The club say they want another couple of pitches, one under cover, a new building with facilities for the academy etc etc and allow some use for local people. The club further propose they build ten executive houses on the remainder of the site and the council say thanks very much that’s another ten houses off the total of our overall plan for the county. You have to remember in that area they will have to appease the locals as well as the football club so no way will they force the building I of 67 houses on land they don’t own and not let us expand further than what we have already done. |
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Post by Henbury Gas on Feb 20, 2024 8:58:08 GMT
The man is a legend and can do no evil, unlike some numb nuts on here
Saved our Rovers from certain death by putting his own money in and having faith in the club
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Post by phillistine on Feb 20, 2024 9:24:56 GMT
It’s just another topper whopper! Mr Lansdown, a hugely successful figure in the financial sector putting millions upon millions into our neighbours across the city in order to make money and up to now has lost those millions. In fact our 3 million a season loses are just a tiny fraction of what he has lost at Ashton Gate and if they hadn’t sold a few players in recent years for millions it would have been even worse. The man is clearly a very clever businessman but is and was a fan of the City so he bought them. I would suggest he did so because he liked football, not because he thought he could make a fortune out of it. He didn’t need the money and I would suggest many owners are the same. It makes no sense but it’s happened and has done up and down the country in many clubs just like Bristol Rovers. The odd rogue owner has appeared at a few clubs in recent years, but I would suggest Waels eight years here has proved he is no rogue owner and I would suggest the Kuwait’s won’t be either. Lansdown can afford to loose £m's when he's a billionaire, Wael's clearly finding the going tough or he wouldn't have sold up and we've zero evidence the Al Saeed's are any more wealthy than Wael, so are they going to take the annual hits if he couldn't? No idea why you are suggesting the Al Saeed's are rogues, seeing Rovers as a good business proposition doesn't make they rogues or asset strippers, it just means they might not be splashing the cash like Wael has done. What other mid table L1 club as a foreign owner willing to write off £3m+ debts p.a.? My take - for what its worth - is that Wael has been used to dealing with larger business at a certain strategic level where you bring in experts to do the more operational side of running a company and you then oversee it. Its how the bigger companies work. The problem however is that he maybe chose the wrong people and in the end realised that he needed someone with more hands on experience of actually running a business at an operational level and that was why he sold his majority interest. i dont think that its coincidence that he has become involved at a higher level again at the recent Asia cup and spent time there as opposed to flitting back to watch Rovers |
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Post by gasify on Feb 20, 2024 12:00:29 GMT
Conteh was signed before AC was sold we've no idea how that deal was financed? 67 houses/residential units are already included in the S Glos Development plans, or at least proposed plans, developers will always find a way to include a few more. I'm not assuming anything I posted earlier we've no idea what the Al Saeeds intentions are, good or bad, but if they have the wrong intentions there's money to be made out of Rovers, the worry is Wael seems to be a bit gullible, as there was no logic in him letting JB take over the complete running of the club from the Boardroom down. Topper you clearly have no idea about how councils make these plans. Councils look at areas of land in their areas either owned by them or others. In the case of the training ground owned by our club, they have identified that there is space on the undeveloped part for 67 houses in order for them to achieve their target for new housing. It is our asset and if we have plans for the undeveloped parts we can iobviously seek the planning permission for what we want. It then becomes a you scratch our back and we will scratch yours agreement. ie. The club say they want another couple of pitches, one under cover, a new building with facilities for the academy etc etc and allow some use for local people. The club further propose they build ten executive houses on the remainder of the site and the council say thanks very much that’s another ten houses off the total of our overall plan for the county. You have to remember in that area they will have to appease the locals as well as the football club so no way will they force the building I of 67 houses on land they don’t own and not let us expand further than what we have already done. I might have missed something here. The last I heard was that the council had put out to tender the requirement for land to build houses. We put our hands up and said, you know that land you sold us for peanuts. We can sell you some back for gold. I really hope there is opportunity to negotiate in this deal. Some have mentioned a covenant that you cannot charge for events on that land (maybe restricted to sporting events?). It would be great if they could scratch our back and remove that covenant. Eh, voila! They've maybe pulled a stadium out of their arse funded by the council. Wouldn't that be funny. |
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Post by chewbacca on Feb 20, 2024 12:05:43 GMT
The man is a legend and can do no evil, unlike some numb nuts on here Saved our Rovers from certain death by putting his own money in and having faith in the club What is it with Gasheads and the Cult of Personality. |
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