Jump to content

Telegraph article re Council buying the club


wimbornesaint
 Share

Recommended Posts

100% correct in my opinion. I can only guess at the revenue generated by the club for the city. Chuck in a fee to rent the ground and i reckon that the council would at worst get their money back.

 

To be honest, if it meant we had the stadium and could re-form to start in the conference, i would prefer this and us go bust and do that than Wupert coming back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bit of a populist gibe, fairly typical Winter. Not sure the council could reasonably be asked to take a speculative punt on something as risky as a stuggling, debt laden football club. The idea is nice but I fear that local govt would be taking on more risk than an individual or private company as they would probably not have the option of using bankruptcy or admin to hide behind should it all go pear shaped.

 

Nice idea but think there wasn't too much logic behind it that his colleagues on the Torygraph political or business pages would agree with.

 

And as for the idea of Lawrie as a kind of conduit between board and sporting sides. Hmm, I seem to remember that he was one of those who did so well out of the reverse takeover. Nuff said.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think some of you are missing the point. There is more to Saints surviving than just bailing out a business it is also about the morale of the City during potentially dark economic times.

 

Council would indeed be right to contemplate buying SMS to keep the Club going.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was told (And no idea how true or even if at all) that the Council and Solent University will buy the stadium (Not the club) together, if no other buyer could be found. Not something they particulary want to do, but there as a last straw

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1) The council are not considering for a moment buying the club

2) The club have had meetings and are supportive in principal about buying stadium

3) They have taken this to Fry.

4) Fry has told them that this is a back burner/ back up and unlikely to be needed

 

The club and stadium will be bought privately as a package

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was told (And no idea how true or even if at all) that the Council and Solent University will buy the stadium (Not the club) together, if no other buyer could be found. Not something they particulary want to do, but there as a last straw

 

That'd work from the club's perspective. A buy and leaseback arrangement would recapitalise and get a lot of the debt off the books. So long as they didn't **** the entire windfall up the wall in the sailor on shoreleave manner normal for football clubs and just leave themselves with a higher cost for a ground than they currently have with the bond.

 

Question comes back to whether this could be done within the budgetary constraints of the council and Uni.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If this had been written about any other club we would all be having a good laugh. I suppose we should be grateful for any support we get though.

 

Where does £15-£20 million come from? I seem to remember calculating £15m as the market capitalisation while we were still in the Premiership. I was guessing sub £10 million.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Loved the article and its sentiments, but anyone would know that ****ing sh..it council will not have the foresight or vision to buy the club. For a start, it cannot even manage its own internal affairs. Lots of nest feathering at SCC, exactly what we DO NOT want.

 

However... if the SCC were to run SFC, will it make the club more transparent?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was told (And no idea how true or even if at all) that the Council and Solent University will buy the stadium (Not the club) together, if no other buyer could be found. Not something they particulary want to do, but there as a last straw

 

I can see the council buying the ground as a last resort, and Solent could in theory utilise some of the facilities, especially the conference facilities but I'd doubt Solent could put much money into the pot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Potentially a brilliant idea if they appointed the right chief executive to independently run the club. What I like about the article is the fact that Winter has thought outside the box and come up with a radical suggestion that no one else has come up with.

 

Now it may be a pipe dream, it may be total mismanagement waiting to happen but it could be the nearest we get to the fans having a say in how our great club is run. The sense of pride it would give the city can also not be underestimated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can't see the Council having the wit, imagination or drive to buy the Club. They haven't done a particularly good job in getting the City together-dare i say it but Portsmotuh seem to have done a better job in terms of regeneration and getting their city on the map.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If I thought local government was remotely competent enough to run Saints I would agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments expressed in the article.

 

As it is, I would rather have a private owner.

 

But the council would be better than nowt.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am in 2 minds about whether a council should be involved in football clubs like Winter suggests. They do make investments but whether a football club is a viable one that gives the tax payer value for money is another question.

 

Having said that, there is this question of the art. How many people see it in a year? I haven't and don't even know where all the bits are. I suspect not hundreds of thousands though. If they bought SFC then potentially (ie a full ground every game) there would be nearly 8000k people using their investment on football alone, and then there are other uses. This season there were 453,759 people who used SMS to watch the football which I guess would be some what higher than the number who looked at a view pieces of art.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am in 2 minds about whether a council should be involved in football clubs like Winter suggests. They do make investments but whether a football club is a viable one that gives the tax payer value for money is another question.

 

Having said that, there is this question of the art. How many people see it in a year? I haven't and don't even know where all the bits are. I suspect not hundreds of thousands though. If they bought SFC then potentially (ie a full ground every game) there would be nearly 8000k people using their investment on football alone, and then there are other uses. This season there were 453,759 people who used SMS to watch the football which I guess would be some what higher than the number who looked at a view pieces of art.

 

Apparently, more people go to art galleries nationally than attend football matches nationally a year.

 

Southampton Art Gallery is one of the most successful provincial art galleries in the country.

Edited by eelpie
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am in 2 minds about whether a council should be involved in football clubs like Winter suggests. They do make investments but whether a football club is a viable one that gives the tax payer value for money is another question.

 

Having said that, there is this question of the art. How many people see it in a year? I haven't and don't even know where all the bits are. I suspect not hundreds of thousands though. If they bought SFC then potentially (ie a full ground every game) there would be nearly 8000k people using their investment on football alone, and then there are other uses. This season there were 453,759 people who used SMS to watch the football which I guess would be some what higher than the number who looked at a view pieces of art.

 

I'm pretty sure we won't get 8 million attendance next season!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...