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Post by gasheadowen on Oct 1, 2024 12:50:45 GMT
'Facts' 1) The ban for an ex-director who presided over as bad a period in our history as anything Higgs did, then threw his toys out the pram because him and his mates couldn't afford to takeover the club was completely justified and if you removed the emotional attachment of it being a football club you will completely agree with it. Try acting how Kevin did towards your local pub/restaurant/barber/butcher/baker/candlestick maker and see how much they want your custom. 2) High interests loans by trying to secure a sustainable future for the club, a level of ambition everyone on here strives for. When it failed the only person that lost out was himself. I'm sure there were opportunities to sell to the likes of the Venkys/Dai Young, but he safeguarded the club by selling to Wael. 3) He was shafted by Sainsbury's, we weren't the first and won't be the last 4) Was he on the pitch or in the dugout during the conference season? We had a budget that was probably top 7, that season everything that could've gone wrong did; the injuries were ridiculous, Wardy had the unfortunate situation with his wife that led him to take his eye off the ball and DC being parachuted in to soon. There were far worse Rovers teams that survived, but you play with fire enough times and you get burnt. He showed immense foresight to give DC the job longterm whilst everyone had their pitchforks out and showed immense leadership after a tough start. I'm sure he's had some time to reflect on his time at Rovers and I'm convinced he could be an asset to the board, like I said this happens all the time in the corporate world. You appear to be delusional I’m afraid! Regardless of whether we believe the current owners are doing well or badly, there is one absolute certainty… it will never be as depressing as it was under Higgs! Another one that seems to be completely missing the point, I'm not advocating him returning to full scale take over the club, just suggesting it might be prudent for the current owners to reach out to him to see if he can offer some advice/pointers/another perspective. You run your own business, I understand it's a very niche and modern concept; but presumably you network with older businessmen that have been successful in the past? If it cost you a meal out/round of golf to spend a few hours with an experience businessman in your field and get a few pointers is that not something you would think worthwhile? |
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Post by ifollowgas on Oct 1, 2024 13:48:15 GMT
You appear to be delusional I’m afraid! Regardless of whether we believe the current owners are doing well or badly, there is one absolute certainty… it will never be as depressing as it was under Higgs! Another one that seems to be completely missing the point, I'm not advocating him returning to full scale take over the club, just suggesting it might be prudent for the current owners to reach out to him to see if he can offer some advice/pointers/another perspective. You run your own business, I understand it's a very niche and modern concept; but presumably you network with older businessmen that have been successful in the past? If it cost you a meal out/round of golf to spend a few hours with an experience businessman in your field and get a few pointers is that not something you would think worthwhile? It's a pity that when Sainsburys pulled out of the Memorial Ground purchase a consortium of Bristol based businesses was not found to sell the ground as housing, complete the UWE build and develop the football club in collaboration with the University and the Council. I believe that such a collaboration would have provided BRFC with a prosperous and sustainable future involving people and institutions with local interests. Also, the Rovers' fans and North Bristol residents would at last have a decent stadium & event facilities for the first time. |
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Post by gasheadowen on Oct 1, 2024 13:55:39 GMT
Another one that seems to be completely missing the point, I'm not advocating him returning to full scale take over the club, just suggesting it might be prudent for the current owners to reach out to him to see if he can offer some advice/pointers/another perspective. You run your own business, I understand it's a very niche and modern concept; but presumably you network with older businessmen that have been successful in the past? If it cost you a meal out/round of golf to spend a few hours with an experience businessman in your field and get a few pointers is that not something you would think worthwhile? It's a pity that when Sainsburys pulled out of the Memorial Ground purchase a consortium of Bristol based businesses was not found to sell the ground as housing, complete the UWE build and develop the football club in collaboration with the University and the Council. I believe that such a collaboration would have provided BRFC with a prosperous and sustainable future involving people and institutions with local interests. Also, the Rovers' fans and North Bristol residents would at last have a decent stadium & event facilities for the first time. But where were those consortium of Bristol Based Businessmen? Probably like Kevin Spencer too busy bitching like school girls on minor internet forums. For all his faults Higgs stuck his head above the paraphit to the detriment of his own personal wealth and undoubtedly his physical and mental health; but gets nothing but sh** from people on here who think the club owes them the world because they watched us lose to Shrewsbury on Ifollow on a dodgy stick. |
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Post by eric on Oct 1, 2024 13:57:48 GMT
Another one that seems to be completely missing the point, I'm not advocating him returning to full scale take over the club, just suggesting it might be prudent for the current owners to reach out to him to see if he can offer some advice/pointers/another perspective. You run your own business, I understand it's a very niche and modern concept; but presumably you network with older businessmen that have been successful in the past? If it cost you a meal out/round of golf to spend a few hours with an experience businessman in your field and get a few pointers is that not something you would think worthwhile? It's a pity that when Sainsburys pulled out of the Memorial Ground purchase a consortium of Bristol based businesses was not found to sell the ground as housing, complete the UWE build and develop the football club in collaboration with the University and the Council. I believe that such a collaboration would have provided BRFC with a prosperous and sustainable future involving people and institutions with local interests. Also, the Rovers' fans and North Bristol residents would at last have a decent stadium & event facilities for the first time. Don’t we still have the issue of revenue streams? If UWE were getting non matchday revenues I don’t like the idea of giving up our freehold of The Mem to build a stadium for the benefit of North Bristol residents and where most of the financial benefit goes to UWE |
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Post by gasheadowen on Oct 1, 2024 14:06:25 GMT
It's a pity that when Sainsburys pulled out of the Memorial Ground purchase a consortium of Bristol based businesses was not found to sell the ground as housing, complete the UWE build and develop the football club in collaboration with the University and the Council. I believe that such a collaboration would have provided BRFC with a prosperous and sustainable future involving people and institutions with local interests. Also, the Rovers' fans and North Bristol residents would at last have a decent stadium & event facilities for the first time. Don’t we still have the issue of revenue streams? If UWE were getting non matchday revenues I don’t like the idea of giving up our freehold of The Mem to build a stadium for the benefit of North Bristol residents and where most of the financial benefit goes to UWE I think at the time the idea was the build cost of UWE would be entirely off-set with what Sainsburys would be paying for The Mem, so even if we didn't get a penny of non-matchday revenue (which was never confirmed, it's another GasChat fact), the club would hope to be better off because of the ability for bigger crowds at UWE (case in point Hull, Swansea, Brighton et al). Yes we wouldn't have had the freehold of The Mem, but what use is that if we'd have to pay to play somewhere else, the 125 Year lease we'd get at UWE for £1 a year in rent would safeguard our future. In the last few years build costs have gone through the roof (Brexit, Wars, Covid, Minimum Wage increase) etc etc, which means there'd be a £20-30m+ shortfall meaning there isn't really a business case for a stadium and thus we're going to be reliant on a very charitable owner if we are to ever get anything built. |
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Post by eric on Oct 1, 2024 14:12:01 GMT
Don’t we still have the issue of revenue streams? If UWE were getting non matchday revenues I don’t like the idea of giving up our freehold of The Mem to build a stadium for the benefit of North Bristol residents and where most of the financial benefit goes to UWE I think at the time the idea was the build cost of UWE would be entirely off-set with what Sainsburys would be paying for The Mem, so even if we didn't get a penny of non-matchday revenue (which was never confirmed, it's another GasChat fact), the club would hope to be better off because of the ability for bigger crowds at UWE (case in point Hull, Swansea, Brighton et al). Yes we wouldn't have had the freehold of The Mem, but what use is that if we'd have to pay to play somewhere else, the 125 Year lease we'd get at UWE for £1 a year in rent would safeguard our future. In the last few years build costs have gone through the roof (Brexit, Wars, Covid, Minimum Wage increase) etc etc, which means there'd be a £20-30m+ shortfall meaning there isn't really a business case for a stadium and thus we're going to be reliant on a very charitable owner if we are to ever get anything built. I wasn’t advocating retaining the Mem if we had moved to UWE. I just wouldn’t have wanted to give up owning our ground to build a stadium on someone else’s land and not having 100% control over our own future. If a deal had been reached where we had a fair and decent share of all stadium revenues it could have been worthwhile. |
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Post by gasheadowen on Oct 1, 2024 14:25:38 GMT
I think at the time the idea was the build cost of UWE would be entirely off-set with what Sainsburys would be paying for The Mem, so even if we didn't get a penny of non-matchday revenue (which was never confirmed, it's another GasChat fact), the club would hope to be better off because of the ability for bigger crowds at UWE (case in point Hull, Swansea, Brighton et al). Yes we wouldn't have had the freehold of The Mem, but what use is that if we'd have to pay to play somewhere else, the 125 Year lease we'd get at UWE for £1 a year in rent would safeguard our future. In the last few years build costs have gone through the roof (Brexit, Wars, Covid, Minimum Wage increase) etc etc, which means there'd be a £20-30m+ shortfall meaning there isn't really a business case for a stadium and thus we're going to be reliant on a very charitable owner if we are to ever get anything built. I wasn’t advocating retaining the Mem if we had moved to UWE. I just wouldn’t have wanted to give up owning our ground to build a stadium on someone else’s land and not having 100% control over our own future. If a deal had been reached where we had a fair and decent share of all stadium revenues it could have been worthwhile. I know you weren't advocating that, but if we had a watertight 125 year agreement to play in an improved stadium with better matchday revenue opportunities I think that would be worth giving up the freehold on the Mem for, it's not like we're going to be making a significant amount at The Mem at the moment on non-matchdays. It's like you being 100% sure you want to live in Bristol for the rest of your life, if someone said you need to swap your £250k mortgage free home you own to pay £1 a year to live in an £800k home that you don't own, but can never be thrown out of for the rest of your's/your children and Grandchildren's lives I'm sure you'd be tempted. The twist is now we can't have that straight swap because of buildcosts and need someone to plug the gap. |
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