[Archived] Buying The Football Club

[scotchrover]

Why don't we buy the club ourself????

We would have to each pay £1714.30 based on 35 000 fans and the club worth £6o million

Then sell 45% to Murdoch or Bransen to pump the cash in for fun.

or

£857.15 each for a 50% share

£874.29 each for a 51% share which gives us a minority majority

However if does happen, I want to be at least on the board. Phillipl for finances???

[allanncd]

The Trustees are driving the club into the ground with their parsimonious approach. Soon it will be worth nothing and even the Jersey scrooges will realise that. Then they'll be happy to sell it for a quid.

[scotchrover]

Come on guys we have to do something. ITS NOW OR NEVER

[lockers]

No offense mate, but we cant even get 30k tickets sold for 30 quid, so how are we going to get 35k to stump up nearly 2 grand

[Majiball]

Its a great idea I'd love to own part of the club.

I just don't think enough could afford it. its not as if ebbsfleet is owned completely by fans of the club, you could make it open to all.

Whether it would be the right way forward is something else, its not as if we could consistently invest in the club. At least the trust has some 750M worth of assests to fall back on should we end up swimming in @#/?.

[67splitscreen]

Did Liverpool not try to do something similar a few years back.

JW did say, "we are looking for outside investment"

[DingleBaiter]

Did Liverpool not try to do something similar a few years back.

JW did say, "we are looking for outside investment"

Yep - the Liverpool thing was clearly a joke from the start, one only has to look at who's heading it up - Rogan Taylor, who seems to spend all his time doing soppy PA spots on TV & in the media rather than his day job.

These fan contribution schemes are interesting, but often for the wrong reasons. Firstly, they're often over-committed initially more on good intentions, but when it comes to providing the cash there's often a tail-off of two thirds in some cases. Secondly, what does the investment actually buy - usually a token representation. Lastly, can you imagine the corporate governance if this board is typical of the likely investors?

The Ebbsfleet concept is relatively unique, but even that seems to be struggling these days to retain continued investment. It's not the credit crunch that's the problem, it's long-term commitment and apathy that causes otherwise well-meaning concepts to flounder.

Interesting to note that even United these days are struggling to retain long-term financial commitment amongst it's supporters, such as the maligned case at present whereby United have asked for financial commitments from season ticket holders for Cup games - currently under investigation. Clearly this was aimed at two factors - the club needing guarantees from the fans to ensure lines of credit against their massive debt, but secondly - they felt confident fans would blithely comply, and if they didn't, someone else would take their place.

Sadly, football today is subject to the financial meltdown as much as anyone, and some clubs are more precarious than others. It's okay Spurs & Arsenal saying they've waiting lists for season tickets of thousands, but it's a different matter altogether when tickets become available. There-in lies the fundamental problem we face at Rovers, if we lose a supporter it's unlikely another will take his/her place.

Consequently, any likely fan-driven investment in Rovers is doomed to failure I feel, sad as it is to admit that. We've fans that prefer to use their existing investment as leverage against expectations already, in that fans tend to threaten to withdraw support on negative factors such as if we got Allardyce, losing Bellamy, the Trustees not investing etc. as opposed to positive factors (let's think big and carry on as Jack intended, instead of slating somebody else for not investing)

I'm sure the club would welcome any sensible, committed scheme to encourage financial support from fans, but the pay-off is what expectations & responsibilities would it bring? Incidentally, why has the supposed selling price increased from 40m (which should have reduced given transfer recoups and lack of spending) to 70m?

The sums for us buying into the club work anyway we want them to, but it's what would be expected from us in doing so that won't do.

For instance if 10,000 fans committed an addition £100 into a pot, we'd have a million. Equate that £100 to pies, say 2.00 a pop = 50 pies over a season. Equate it to pints, say 2.50 each, it's 40 pints a season. Realistic to most fans, I'd suggest - if the motivation is there of course. So let's say some fans can afford & want more, and commit more, and 4,000 can afford £500, that's another 2 million into the pot. Finally, businessmen get 2,000 times 1000, so that's 5 million into the pot - a sum that any club would welcome.

So, we've got 5 mill leverage now, but what do we get for our money? Do we go down the debenture route, commit to the club's revenue and expect our repayment to be free season tickets for a fixed period of time? Or do we say we want to change/help the club now, and buy a percentage of the shares? Like any business deal, it's about having the right pitch, balancing expectations and if it's going to be worthwhile for all concerned.

Although 5 million isn't a lot in the scheme of the things to the club's turnover, or to the Trustees, it can't be sniffed at. Anything is attainable given realistic expectations, focus, capacity, means & motivation. However, it's this last factor that I fear would be the undoing of any fan-driven initiative. Plenty have the motivation, but not the means. Some have the means, but not the motivation.

[daveoftherovers]

Isn't the best way to liase with our former Lytham now Jersey based guy who looked at buying Rovers?

That way we could pump effort and realistic money into a realistic Joint Venture, he has the contacts and the collateral, not us, however, we, the fans, bring things that marketeers and business people need to make this kind of thing happen properly.

Or you could even run it as a co operative? And where would the Local Authority stand? They surely have a vested interest?

[ABBEY]

Why don't we buy the club ourself????

We would have to each pay £1714.30 based on 35 000 fans and the club worth £6o million

Then sell 45% to Murdoch or Bransen to pump the cash in for fun.

or

£857.15 each for a 50% share

£874.29 each for a 51% share which gives us a minority majority

However if does happen, I want to be at least on the board. Phillipl for finances???

because i have no spare cash,i buy my season ticket and thats a big monthly outlay.

[novella]

to be fair if we did buy the club (which obviously wont happen) then what?

anyone know how to run a football club?

it sounds easy on a message board. not so easy when put into practice.

[jonv]

does everyone get free season tickets once the purchase is made!! oh.. so we still have to buy our tickets to sustain income

this forum has become the slumps...

[modes98]

Well I've played championship manager since the early days and progressed onto football manager. I would say I know a fair bit about the computer version of blackburn rovers.

[broadsword]

I think we should re-name ourselves "Jersey Hard-ups".

Nice ring to it.

[brightonrover]

I think we should re-name ourselves "Jersey Hard-ups".

Nice ring to it.

Bring back Vinjay.

[Eddie]

It might be possible for us to buy the football club, the problem would be how would we then continue to invest in the club? If we can't do that then it wouldn't achieve much.

If every share owner was then willing to plow 500-1000 into the club every single year, on top of keeping their season ticket, then we would be looking at something.

It would never be viable.

[Sandiway Blue]

You would be lucky to get a thousand supporters to part with just short of £2k apiece,nevermind 35,000.

[2PAC 4 Blackburn]

Nice concept. I'd be up for it but does sound a bit far fetched. Didn't Barca do it a few years ago?

[Billy Castell]

Barca have been run along something like these lines for a long time.

[scotchrover]

Rovers trustees have downgraded the price of the club too £40 miilion and iam sure we have more than 35,000 fans as 140,000 people live within in Blackburn with Darwen area.

The money would also as i've said would come from an investor who would own a 49% stake at the club after us buying 100% and then buying some of it back. This could be someone like Bransen, Murdoch or even the walker trustees(us buying 51% of the club.

Anyway, do you really think that the walkers would make us pay over the top prices for the sale of the clubs to the fans.

[Sandiway Blue]

Rovers trustees have downgraded the price of the club too £40 miilion and iam sure we have more than 35,000 fans as 140,000 people live within in Blackburn with Darwen area.

The money would also as i've said would come from an investor who would own a 49% stake at the club after us buying 100% and then buying some of it back. This could be someone like Bransen, Murdoch or even the walker trustees(us buying 51% of the club.

Anyway, do you really think that the walkers would make us pay over the top prices for the sale of the clubs to the fans.

No Offence,but you haven`t a cat-in-hell`s chance of getting anywhere near that amount of Rovers fans parting with just short of £1800.You must be in a very well paid job to come up with this idea,as you make it sound as though everybody has it lying around doing nothing (and thats not to be critical of your earnings BTW,i never begrudge anybody who is well paid).

However the average working man would struggle to come up with £300 at this moment in time,let alone £1800.To most of us £1800 is still a hell of a lot of money that we can`t afford to give away (even if it is to the best club in the world! ).

[Beta Ray Bill]

Rovers trustees have downgraded the price of the club too £40 miilion and iam sure we have more than 35,000 fans as 140,000 people live within in Blackburn with Darwen area.

The money would also as i've said would come from an investor who would own a 49% stake at the club after us buying 100% and then buying some of it back. This could be someone like Bransen, Murdoch or even the walker trustees(us buying 51% of the club.

Anyway, do you really think that the walkers would make us pay over the top prices for the sale of the clubs to the fans.

You know, with the sense you talk you could have easily have been a city Exec.

Woolworths, Northern Rock, XL.com all spring to mind as ideal candidates for your amazing business acumen.

[BuckyRover]

Yes, go for it scotchrover. Don't waste your talent....

[47er]

Rovers trustees have downgraded the price of the club too £40 miilion and iam sure we have more than 35,000 fans as 140,000 people live within in Blackburn with Darwen area.

The money would also as i've said would come from an investor who would own a 49% stake at the club after us buying 100% and then buying some of it back. This could be someone like Bransen, Murdoch or even the walker trustees(us buying 51% of the club.

Anyway, do you really think that the walkers would make us pay over the top prices for the sale of the clubs to the fans.

As Eddie says its not so much the initial purchase price as the ongoing costs (millions) year after year after year. There are wealthy (by ordinary standards)Rovers fans as well as the rest of us but not in the Premier League! How could fans provide the money that the Walkers won't?

[scotchrover]

All right what do we do??????

Just let the club rot with the bunch of scrooges that are in charge and at least Iam trying to come up with an idea or 2 instead of just moaning like some of you lot do.

OK YOUR TURN MOANERS, COME UP WITH AN IDEA OR 2 AND POST THEM AS NEW TOPICS

SIMPLETONS AND PLANS some of you GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER and come up with Creative thinking

HAD ENOUGH.....

[scotchrover]

How could fans provide the money that the Walkers won't?

We would by 51% of the club as 100% is too much for a number of people due to the ice skating ring of the economy at the momment and invite some investor on board like Branson or Murdoch or maybe an Arab like City have at the momment