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Post by tommym9 on Aug 1, 2015 20:26:19 GMT
Shared ownership doesn't seem so bad to me if it means we're better off overall.
I like the idea of a smaller fuller stadium rather than a 20k+ mostly empty stadium.
A good atmosphere is going to attract more fans than a really big empty stadium.
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Post by gasoline on Aug 1, 2015 20:29:07 GMT
So, UWE build stadium. We sell the Mem for £15m, pay off the debts of £5m (?) and have £10m to invest in stadium to Rovers'afiy it. If rent is reasonable and we sign a very long lease it seems like a decent outcome? Is that £1.5m still available?!
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Post by warehamgas on Aug 1, 2015 20:35:23 GMT
Those of you old enough to remember, we were tenants at Eastville and look where that got us..!!! I'm a bit sketchy on the details but we had a long term lease agreement with fixed rent at Eastville after selling it to the Bristol Stadium Company in the fifties. From what I remember we got into financial difficulties in the mid eighties under Barry Bradshaw and Martin Flook and they sold our rights to that guaranteed low rent for 150k to the stadium company ( Ian Stevens I think). It didn't take long after that to force us out. I'm sketchy too. But I think that is exactly what happened. It was a low rent then it became high as you say. We need to be careful. UTG!
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Post by britishgas on Aug 1, 2015 20:48:07 GMT
A lot of you are saying "yeah, let's just sell the Mem" as if ithere's people lining up to buy it. Surely the fact that we're gambling the financial future of the club on a sketchy appeal (and have taken out a high interest loan to do so) suggests that there's nobody willing to pay a decent sum for it?
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Post by RD on Aug 1, 2015 20:53:06 GMT
A lot of you are saying "yeah, let's just sell the Mem" as if ithere's people lining up to buy it. Surely the fact that we're gambling the financial future of the club on a sketchy appeal (and have taken out a high interest loan to do so) suggests that there's nobody willing to pay a decent sum for it? We're gambling on the appeal in case it's a yes, or at the very least we get some decent compo (to cover legal expenses and/or the wonga loan). There might not be supermarkets lining up for the Mem, but we could sell the land for housing in a heartbeat (and for £10m minimum).
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Post by Antonio Fargas on Aug 1, 2015 20:59:55 GMT
A lot of you are saying "yeah, let's just sell the Mem" as if ithere's people lining up to buy it. Surely the fact that we're gambling the financial future of the club on a sketchy appeal (and have taken out a high interest loan to do so) suggests that there's nobody willing to pay a decent sum for it? I'm sure any number of house builders would want the Mem site. It just seems mad to me to sell it. It's ok getting a nailed-on deal at UWE for the next fifty years, or whatever, but there will come a time when the deal is up. I imagine the idiots who sold Eastville in the thirties thought the eighties was too far away to need to think about.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2015 21:02:05 GMT
A lot of you are saying "yeah, let's just sell the Mem" as if ithere's people lining up to buy it. Surely the fact that we're gambling the financial future of the club on a sketchy appeal (and have taken out a high interest loan to do so) suggests that there's nobody willing to pay a decent sum for it? I'm sure any number of house builders would want the Mem site. It just seems mad to me to sell it. It's ok getting a nailed-on deal at UWE for the next fifty years, or whatever, but there will come a time when the deal is up. I imagine the idiots who sold Eastville in the thirties thought the eighties was too far away to need to think about. It was Ed Ware who was at The Mem with surveyors last week. Now lets think, what business is he in?
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Post by aghast on Aug 1, 2015 21:23:29 GMT
I can't see how it would be so terrible. It's not what NH dreamed of and promised us, but it might be better than sinking back into the Conference proudly clutching our estate agent valuation of the Mem at £10M.
Assuming we lose the appeal and the whole 100% funding of the UWE collapses, then we are stuck at the Mem, worth maybe £10m for the site, with maybe £7m of debts plus legal fees owed to Sainsbury's and our legal team, borrowed on a credit card in the name of N Higgs, plus a possible extension of a Wonga loan.
Crap ground, large debts, poor image to attract new players, little to offer potential new younger fans such as the kind of things they actually want like shiny bars and swish catering and nice soft seats under cover.
We can sit on our crumbling asset for another 10 years and descend slowly into footballing history.
Or we can accept that the original deal has died, and try another approach. It's not what we wanted, but it might work.
UWE fund a smaller stadium. We sell the Mem and clear all debts, plus hopefully £1m or so for new players. We get another 2,000 - 5,000 additional support each home game. We have a modern professional stadium with larger crowds and better facilities, and we can actually move forward on the pitch, where it really matters.
Maybe, like Swansea, we can then negotiate some sort of shared ownership.
Not all clubs own their own stadium, but what's the alternative?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2015 21:27:02 GMT
I bet Higgs thinks it's Christmas if we do move to a stadium owned solely by UWE.He can sell the mem and Walk away with his loans repaid in full,whereas that won't happen regardless of the court case appeal result.This would now be a dream scenario financially for him (compared to what he's facing right now)but the club would be left with no assets to speak of.The club will be worth nothing anyway when we're f*cked in court again so it won't make much difference anyway.
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Post by Topper Gas on Aug 1, 2015 21:55:39 GMT
A lot of you are saying "yeah, let's just sell the Mem" as if ithere's people lining up to buy it. Surely the fact that we're gambling the financial future of the club on a sketchy appeal (and have taken out a high interest loan to do so) suggests that there's nobody willing to pay a decent sum for it? I'm sure any number of house builders would want the Mem site. It just seems mad to me to sell it. It's ok getting a nailed-on deal at UWE for the next fifty years, or whatever, but there will come a time when the deal is up. I imagine the idiots who sold Eastville in the thirties thought the eighties was too far away to need to think about. But we were always going to lease the land which the UWE was going to be built on, we could have always reached the scenario where the UWE upped the leasehold cost at some point in the future. Unless somebody like Bath RFC wants to move in what are the UWE going to do with a 15,000 seat stadium other than rent it to Rovers? Although the latest proposal does seem the dream scenario for NH is he even taking on Sainsbury's, rather than accepting the £1.5m, knowing if he loses he gets his pay off anyway?
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Post by Dirt Dogg on Aug 1, 2015 21:59:10 GMT
I'm sure any number of house builders would want the Mem site. It just seems mad to me to sell it. It's ok getting a nailed-on deal at UWE for the next fifty years, or whatever, but there will come a time when the deal is up. I imagine the idiots who sold Eastville in the thirties thought the eighties was too far away to need to think about. But we were always going to lease the land which the UWE was going to be built on, we could have always reached the scenario where the UWE upped the leasehold cost at some point in the future. Unless somebody like Bath RFC wants to move in what are the UWE going to do with a 15,000 seat stadium other than rent it to Rovers? Although the latest proposal does seem the dream scenario for NH is he even taking on Sainsbury's, rather than accepting the £1.5m, knowing if he loses he gets his pay off anyway? Have to agree with this, stadiums are hard to sustain financially. Especially ones without a decent sporting team playing in them. I don't think they'd be interested in funding a stadium of that scale if they had any doubt we'd still be playing there in years to come.
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Post by BishopstonBRFC on Aug 1, 2015 22:56:52 GMT
Only worry would be the Coventry scenario. We sell the Mem, become a tennant at the mercy of someone else... Perhaps but why would UWE mess us about if we became tenants. Who else would take our place if we were forced out?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 2, 2015 0:29:05 GMT
Those of you old enough to remember, we were tenants at Eastville and look where that got us..!!! Funnily enough becoming tenants at eastville initially worked well for Rovers and they enjoyed more success than they had as owners. True it all turned sour in the end, but that may have been due to a poorly negotiated lease. We were also tennants at Bath and that didn't turn out to bad tbh. I would truly love us to own a new stadium, but history sugests we are not very good at being owners.
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Post by Antonio Fargas on Aug 2, 2015 7:22:25 GMT
I'm sure any number of house builders would want the Mem site. It just seems mad to me to sell it. It's ok getting a nailed-on deal at UWE for the next fifty years, or whatever, but there will come a time when the deal is up. I imagine the idiots who sold Eastville in the thirties thought the eighties was too far away to need to think about. But we were always going to lease the land which the UWE was going to be built on, we could have always reached the scenario where the UWE upped the leasehold cost at some point in the future. Unless somebody like Bath RFC wants to move in what are the UWE going to do with a 15,000 seat stadium other than rent it to Rovers? I don't know, what could you do at Eastville other than rent a stadium to the local football team?
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Post by BishopstonBRFC on Aug 2, 2015 7:33:58 GMT
But we were always going to lease the land which the UWE was going to be built on, we could have always reached the scenario where the UWE upped the leasehold cost at some point in the future. Unless somebody like Bath RFC wants to move in what are the UWE going to do with a 15,000 seat stadium other than rent it to Rovers? I don't know, what could you do at Eastville other than rent a stadium to the local football team? I think the difference here is that UWE actually want a stadium, but it'd be pretty pointless if the only games played in it were varsity matches against Bristol Uni attended by 500 people once a year.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 2, 2015 7:36:23 GMT
I've only seen one article on this which was on vital. It says that it is unclear whether UWE have spoken to Rovers. So....unless anyone knows otherwise, what's all the fuss?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 2, 2015 7:48:03 GMT
I don't know, what could you do at Eastville other than rent a stadium to the local football team? I think the difference here is that UWE actually want a stadium, but it'd be pretty pointless if the only games played in it were varsity matches against Bristol Uni attended by 500 people once a year. UWE took over Almondsbury FC several years ago and currently play on the pitch alongside the M5 slip road at Almondsbury opposite the GFA ground. That said, a 15,000 capacity stadium would surely be aimed at securing a tenant(s) and hosting other sports and events.
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Post by Antonio Fargas on Aug 2, 2015 8:14:41 GMT
I don't know, what could you do at Eastville other than rent a stadium to the local football team? I think the difference here is that UWE actually want a stadium, but it'd be pretty pointless if the only games played in it were varsity matches against Bristol Uni attended by 500 people once a year. Sure, but if you're putting the club into the hands of people who don't necessarily have the club's best interests at heart, and then hoping that the circumstances don't change, say, fifty years in the future, then you can't really complain if it all goes wrong in an unforeseeable way. I don't think IKEA even existed when we sold Eastville.
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Post by peterparker on Aug 2, 2015 8:27:29 GMT
The whole point of the original project was the income it would apparently generate.
If we are tennants we might only get ticket revenues. Any other money food/drink conferences whatever go to UWE.
How would that help?
Either UWE pay some one to manage the upkep of the venue and take all the revenue
Or a deal is done where we run the stadium and take a % of revenues to cover that cost
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Post by Topper Gas on Aug 2, 2015 8:29:06 GMT
I've only seen one article on this which was on vital. It says that it is unclear whether UWE have spoken to Rovers. So....unless anyone knows otherwise, what's all the fuss? True, but it fits in with the suggestion Henbury Gas made about Plan B and other "investors" getting involved with the UWE. In addition the NH statement about Rovers "dying" if they stayed at the Mem was as odd one as without Sainsbury's money how can we fund the UWE staduim? Regardless it gives us some hope the club has some kind of positive future, until the UWE deny it later today/tomorrow! As far as posters worrying about us losing ownership of the Mem/our own ground, I fear NH has already cost us that. I can't see how we can clear our debts inc the Wonga loan without selling the Mem? Swansea have done OK without owning their new ground so it's not always an Eastville situation.
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