The Kraken

Like you, I'm living abroad right now, and you're right it does make you much more appreciative of everything back home (I can't wait to get back home in 3 or 4 weeks time). That said, I'm not sure if I agree with you on this one, though I appreciate the sentiment. I don't think you can "force" people to grieve; people will pay their respects in their own way. A little education is certainly beneficial, but as has been posted I think the whole Hollywoodisation of Titanic has done way more to contribute to it being ingrained upon our psyche than a minute's silence at a football game would do. Obviously, if the disaster had happened recently then there's no doubt at all that there would be an occasion to show respect. And while I'm sure everyone empathises with what happened, a lot of people aren't as emotive about the subject as you, and I think we have to respect that also.

Do you not think that that is what many others will do, too? Perhaps many people feel they don't need a minute's silence at a football game in order for them to pay their respects. A lot of people genuinely don't feel that attached to a disaster that happened 100 years ago; as much as it was a complete travesty and huge loss of life.

That really is a rather sad and desperate act to airbrush past events from history.

Out of interest, assuming you won't be attending the game, what will you be doing to mark the occasion?

The more I think of it, the more I agree with this approach. And its not being cold-hearted or disrespectful of those who lost their lives, but I don't see how a minute's silence is particularly relevant to the SFC of today. It may be a poor comparison to make, but if we're now doing minute's silences for landmark anniversaries, would we also expect one for the various anniversaries of Ted Bates' passing? Or other club legends? Gone, but never forgotten, and we shouldn't need a minute's silence to remember that. I still hope the city do something to commerorate the day; that is entirely appropriate.

Yes, but on the flip side, Rememberance Day is a time to reflect on the contributions made and lives lost of those in all wars, not just ones from years past. As I've said above, I can understand the arguments for and against. Overall, I think its much more important for the city to have a major event to commemorate the anniversary than it is for the football club to do so. If SFC choose to do something then great. If they don't, I wouldn't choose to criticise them for it.

You could ask the same question about Rememberance day, couldn't you?

It's a sensitive subject; I certainly think the city should be doing a hell of a lot in terms of rememberance. I'm split on whether the club should or not, and can see the arguments on either side as to what SFC should do before the game. If the club are going to do something, it needs to be built up so that people know its going to happen. Just having an off the cuff on the day "by the way, we're having a minute's silence for the Titanic" is inappropriate, it's all or nothing for me. But in any case, I'm out of the country until May so it's not really something that affects me anyway...

Too long; didn't read.

Birch isn't saying any of that. The £1K is an initiative by their supporters trust. Which is clearly doomed to fail, as nobody knows how much the club will cost to buy, how much it will cost to run, who the money will go to, and what you actually end up owning for your money. What an investment!

Without wishing to be too pedantic, that's not entirely true. Our current average attendance is just over 25,500. Previous years in the Championship showed average attendances of 23.5K, 23.5K, 21K and 17.5K. In mitigation, we've never had a season as successful or trouble-free as this one, which would somewhat explain the extra 2K on the gate.

You just hit the nail on the head. At the moment, despite what anyone says, no-one has any realistic idea as to what sort of regular crowds we could achieve. There are estimates we can all make (and have done to death), but for now that's all they are. What we can be sure will happen over the next 2 or 3 years is that Cortese will certainly be monitoring the situation very closely, in terms of: How many season ticket holders we have. How quickly the home seats sell out. What sort of level of applications there are for tickets beyond that. Plus various other methods (e.g. online ballot for tickets) which would give an indication as to what a realistic capacity stadium is for us in the top flight. If the numbers are proved feasible, then I'm sure a very good case will be put forward for increasing the stadium capacity. If it turns out the numbers don't stack up, then I'm sure we'll look to maximising other revenue streams.

Is that true? Slightly different scenario, but I'm sure when it was bein mooted that Pompey could go bust that their parachute payments would return to the PL.

No chance. My mate owns a pub in town and he'll definitely be open for it, whereas in the past he's been "advised" by the police to close. Prior to the bubble the police were quite hot on shutting some pubs down for the morning/day; well they didn't say pubs "had" to close down, but that if there was trouble the landlord was pretty much on his own! The bubble has seen to it that pubs can now open up as per normal.

Avenue Saint seems a little bit emotional about it all. Worryingly so.

Yep, just saw it on ebay myself.

Up: Us, Reading and Cardiff (only because my mate works for them and I get free tickets.....) Down: Wigan, Bolton, Blackburn, clubs who have settled for league mediocrity and can't fill their small grounds.

I agree. As I've said above to MLG, I think whatever league we are in we will always struggle to keep players when the likes of United, City, Arsenal, Spurs come calling. Where we may have better success than in the past is when the likes of Everton, Villa, Sunderland start sniffing around. I believe Cortese when he hints at making the stadium bigger; I think we'll definitely look at it in the next few years, though I don't quite buy into the revisionist theories and 45K expectations. I think a 40K stadium is potentially, in the next few years, possible. Which makes us a bigger attraction and, provided we don't get loaded with debt doing it (unknown right now) able to maximise profits better.

What you say is true; however in all three of the cases of Walcott, Bale and Oxo I doubt whether Premier League status would ultimately have made much difference to them staying. When the top 3 or 4 clubs come calling its very difficult for any club to resist, whether in the PL or Championship. I'm not sure I agree with your analogy either of players staying until their mid-20s. Maybe in some cases you're right. But you only have to look at Rooney (moved to United at 19), Daniel Sturridge (Chelsea at 20), Fabregas (Arsenal at 16), Pique (United at 17), and however many others to show that when the really big clubs come calling (even from other big clubs) there isn't a lot clubs can do to keep their best prospects. Where I imagine we will better success in when the clubs just below the top 4 or so come calling, the likes of Villa, Everton, Sunderland, Newcastle. We may just be able to show that we have something equal to offer than they could get there.

I admire the rationale and sentiment, but it's not totally steeped in reality. The one Academy graduate he leaves out, Lallana, has been an exception to the norm. Walcott, Bale, Chamberlain all in very recent years have been enormously keen to leave the club as soon as a bigger name club came calling. Unfortunately not all players will buy into the "love of the club" mantra, in fact most won't. Being in the Premier League will give us a big leg-up in keeping our better academy graduates. But it won't be the be all and end all, we still have to face reality that we'll likely be a selling club (as most in the top dvision are).

That's a fair principle to take. Personally I don't believe its £15M, but then no-one has any real estimation of the actual cost so its a moot point. This type of investment is very good to see within the club. Staplewood was a tired building and needed some form of upgrade to bring it up to at least a mid-range Premier League club, which is where we're aiming to go. I guess Cortese's idea was, if you're going to spend a few million on it anyway, why not spend a bit more and get the best. Its one of the things we can control; getting the foundations right. We won't compete with the top clubs for wages paid or transfers fees shelled out, so we've got to looka t what we can lead at. Control the controllables, I'm sure I've heard that somewhere! MLG and many others have had disagreements about the potential stadium expansion, but I think there has always been an agreement by most/all that an extended St. Marys is not out of the question by any means, just a point of when and by how much. Personally I'll stick to my opinion that we're still at least 2 or 3 years away from that, but in the meantime what we're seeing here is a very nice show of progress, and also I'd hope an indication that its the start of something with us from the owners/CEO.

As I said at the top of this page; the CVA is administered by Baker Tilly, who were effectively put in place by HMRC. And their policy is to oppose any CVA that provides anything less than full repayment of all debt. So good luck with that one.

It's pretty outrageous what PFC have done with this, though no real surprise. And I fully expect the FL to try to brush this one under the carpet, as I very much doubt they have it within their written rules to do anything about it. That said, what this does do is create a formal £16.5M club debt, which is controlled by Baker Tilly. That debt will form part of any new CVA. And being as Baker Tilly effectively represent HMRC, they will surely push for nothing less than full repayment of the CVA amount. And as a £16.5M debt will be more than 25% of the total debt, it's quite clear Baker Tilly hold all the cards here. With that in mind, they are NEVER going to get a CVA agreed, surely? Which will then mean further points deductions per the FL's rules.