[Archived] Brockhall training Complex-ACV Declined

[broadsword]

2 hours ago, tomphil said:

Covenants can get over turned, money and demand for housing talks. Harrods hampers, free corporate at matches 

Jesus, can I just stop you there? 

Your argument sank without trace at that point

[Stuart]

17 minutes ago, broadsword said:

Jesus, can I just stop you there? 

Your argument sank without trace at that point

He didn’t mean Rovers matches...!

[broadsword]

Oh right. 

 

Was going to say, bloody hell

[JHRover]

1 hour ago, Stuart said:

Does make you wonder though: Why bother?

Do they really think the have any chance of getting their money back? Can they really be so spiteful as to run the club into the ground? It’s much more likely that they have simply lost interest completely rather than any real plan or acceptance. Just an agenda item in a quarterly meeting, and a budget signed off each year.

Personally, if it was my business, I’d be looking to offload BRFC to whomever gave me a quid to take on the losses as soon as possible, just to save losing money. Regardless of lower costs there is no business sense in any of this. Unless of course a sale could introduce risk to their other businesses and/or personal wealth.

The moment they ran out of money/the bank stopped lending and they had to tighten their belts was the time to give up. Summer of 2015 after promotion was missed. At that point the parachute cash had all but dried up, there was a clear shift in their attitude which until then had been to sustain immense losses presumably on the basis they were 'trying' to get us promoted. The moment Tom Cairney was flogged out of the blue behind Gary Bowyer's back was the point at which it became clear things had changed and they were going to be cashing in to recoup some money. £35 million later and their bank balance was a bit healthier but unfortunately the club was sinking fast. 

Up until that point I could sort of understand what they were trying to do. They had a structure, of sorts, with Shaw, Myers and Bowyer. Bowyer was doing a steady job and there were signs we could push for the top 6. Operations appeared normal. A good season at that stage and the play-offs were within reach and promotion back to the Prem a possibility. The moment they gave up on that by selling everyone they could was the point they should have held their hands up and walked away. But instead the approach has been to install Balaji's butler as the shadow CEO and operate with a 1 man board whilst going through different managers like they are going out of fashion. Now the Premier League is further away than ever and to an organisation with no plan, no idea, no interest and £150 million down the drain you would expect them to have an end point, but this lot won't even think about the club until May's annual review when they consider our finishing position and financial performance and make a decision on the next 12 months,

[Athlete]

20 hours ago, Norbert Rassragr said:

I wonder if Mark Venus will get a cut of the money? He was lurking at brockhall a while ago, and made some money when sisu sold Coventry city's training ground for houses. 

Another useless Toerag who should be nowhere near Ewood let alone in the dug out.. He's hated in the midlands with a passion for his skullduggery in the training ground sale and his part in coventrys relegation 

[Vinjay]

2 minutes ago, Athlete said:

Another useless Toerag who should be nowhere near Ewood let alone in the dug out.. He's hated in the midlands with a passion for his skullduggery in the training ground sale and his part in coventrys relegation 

Magoo and Uranus...the dream ticket. 

[TBTF]

49 minutes ago, JHRover said:

The moment they ran out of money/the bank stopped lending and they had to tighten their belts was the time to give up. Summer of 2015 after promotion was missed. At that point the parachute cash had all but dried up, there was a clear shift in their attitude which until then had been to sustain immense losses presumably on the basis they were 'trying' to get us promoted. The moment Tom Cairney was flogged out of the blue behind Gary Bowyer's back was the point at which it became clear things had changed and they were going to be cashing in to recoup some money. £35 million later and their bank balance was a bit healthier but unfortunately the club was sinking fast. 

Up until that point I could sort of understand what they were trying to do. They had a structure, of sorts, with Shaw, Myers and Bowyer. Bowyer was doing a steady job and there were signs we could push for the top 6. Operations appeared normal. A good season at that stage and the play-offs were within reach and promotion back to the Prem a possibility. The moment they gave up on that by selling everyone they could was the point they should have held their hands up and walked away. But instead the approach has been to install Balaji's butler as the shadow CEO and operate with a 1 man board whilst going through different managers like they are going out of fashion. Now the Premier League is further away than ever and to an organisation with no plan, no idea, no interest and £150 million down the drain you would expect them to have an end point, but this lot won't even think about the club until May's annual review when they consider our finishing position and financial performance and make a decision on the next 12 months,

Completely agree which if memory serves was the first time the Ian's tried to get stuck in and were blanked. There was then a further attempt more recently to try to get Venkys to draw a line under their losses and they lied it had ever happened. So there has to be more to it and it seems they would rather pay the price of keep covering the losses albeit on a ''smaller'' scale than it was  rather than possibly open themselves up to being found out.

Its sinister and nobody could persuade me otherwise. Its a continuing downward spiral at every level and yet people still think its ok . Its not -its a total clusterfeck.  

[JHRover]

53 minutes ago, TBTF said:

Completely agree which if memory serves was the first time the Ian's tried to get stuck in and were blanked. There was then a further attempt more recently to try to get Venkys to draw a line under their losses and they lied it had ever happened. So there has to be more to it and it seems they would rather pay the price of keep covering the losses albeit on a ''smaller'' scale than it was  rather than possibly open themselves up to being found out.

Its sinister and nobody could persuade me otherwise. Its a continuing downward spiral at every level and yet people still think its ok . Its not -its a total clusterfeck.  

When you look at the 'calibre' of buyers sniffing around in 2010 with the mysterious unheard of since Saurin Shah (no information available online) and then the Western Gulf Advisory-Ahsan Ali Syed performance with his '£8 billion of assets' and £x hundred million to invest in the club and his henchmen walking into Ewood live on Sky Sports to 'view the books' and then Venkys the poultry company with no interest in football winning the 'race' by virtue of not being exposed by the BBC then I think you're probably right that 'sinister' is a word associated from the word go. Nobody is going to tell me that any of those interested buyers were ever suitable to buy this club and it seems Venkys won the race purely because they had the money and it was 'clean money' and they had a clean record.

All those 3 - Shah, Syed and Venkys - all from India - all appeared on the scene within the space of a few months of each other when there had been no rumours previously of their interest - all dodgy or bizarre to say the least - I think fair to say all 'introduced' to the previous owners by the same cockney broker - I think they would all have ended in disaster one way or another. With Syed we'd probably have seen a spectacular implosion, probably gone bust years ago - with Shah I suspect he didn't have any money to begin with so would have probably passed the club on.

Dodgy, dodgy, dodgy from the word go.

[OJRovers]

It’s a slow motion car crash.

It’s quite conceivable that they will still own Rovers in 10 years, where we will likely be non-league or non-existent.

 

 

 

[Ozz]

To be fair, we knew it was a bit of a long shot. Making the case that Brockhall is an Asset Of Community Value in the sense that the act prescribes was a tough one. The fact of the matter is that it`s major use is as a training centre for a privately owned football club. They can go anywhere they want to do this. Ewood Park was a much easier target, as it is intrinsically linked to a historical base, in the heart of the Blackburn Community, and is used for many things other than 90 minutes football every ten days. 

 

But we felt that the current time was the best to go for this at Brockhall, not least as there seems to be nobody really with any gravitas in Ewood on a day to day basis, and as such it might go under the radar unnoticed. 

 

However to see it rejected is one thing-The rejection is from the council remember not from Venkys-But to see who Venkys hired to formulate the land owners response to the application is staggering-They certainly were not going to take any chances with for example getting Cheston to reply to it. 

 

It would appear to have drawn them out from their shell this, and despite covenants and the oppressive planning permissions likely to hinder any proposed sale I am am lot more worried about this now than I was before. We appear to have poked a stick where it hurts, just a little. 

 

 

[tomphil]

2 hours ago, Athlete said:

Another useless Toerag who should be nowhere near Ewood let alone in the dug out.. He's hated in the midlands with a passion for his skullduggery in the training ground sale and his part in coventrys relegation 

Just what the hell was that guy doing getting involved in alleged land deals involving the football club that was paying him to be a bibs and cones first team coach ?

More to the point how the hell does he get through the door at Ewood ?

[tomphil]

12 minutes ago, Ozz said:

To be fair, we knew it was a bit of a long shot. Making the case that Brockhall is an Asset Of Community Value in the sense that the act prescribes was a tough one. The fact of the matter is that it`s major use is as a training centre for a privately owned football club. They can go anywhere they want to do this. Ewood Park was a much easier target, as it is intrinsically linked to a historical base, in the heart of the Blackburn Community, and is used for many things other than 90 minutes football every ten days. 

 

But we felt that the current time was the best to go for this at Brockhall, not least as there seems to be nobody really with any gravitas in Ewood on a day to day basis, and as such it might go under the radar unnoticed. 

 

However to see it rejected is one thing-The rejection is from the council remember not from Venkys-But to see who Venkys hired to formulate the land owners response to the application is staggering-They certainly were not going to take any chances with for example getting Cheston to reply to it. 

 

It would appear to have drawn them out from their shell this, and despite covenants and the oppressive planning permissions likely to hinder any proposed sale I am am lot more worried about this now than I was before. We appear to have poked a stick where it hurts, just a little. 

 

 

Keep poking, hard and fast

[tomphil]

46 minutes ago, JHRover said:

When you look at the 'calibre' of buyers sniffing around in 2010 with the mysterious unheard of since Saurin Shah (no information available online) and then the Western Gulf Advisory-Ahsan Ali Syed performance with his '£8 billion of assets' and £x hundred million to invest in the club and his henchmen walking into Ewood live on Sky Sports to 'view the books' and then Venkys the poultry company with no interest in football winning the 'race' by virtue of not being exposed by the BBC then I think you're probably right that 'sinister' is a word associated from the word go. Nobody is going to tell me that any of those interested buyers were ever suitable to buy this club and it seems Venkys won the race purely because they had the money and it was 'clean money' and they had a clean record.

All those 3 - Shah, Syed and Venkys - all from India - all appeared on the scene within the space of a few months of each other when there had been no rumours previously of their interest - all dodgy or bizarre to say the least - I think fair to say all 'introduced' to the previous owners by the same cockney broker - I think they would all have ended in disaster one way or another. With Syed we'd probably have seen a spectacular implosion, probably gone bust years ago - with Shah I suspect he didn't have any money to begin with so would have probably passed the club on.

Dodgy, dodgy, dodgy from the word go.

Let's also not forget that the min they got through the door they started going back on the terms they'd agreed pre takeover, not just the blatant involvement of SEM/Kentaro/Anderson etc but not paying off the original debt and not investing the 10 mill to immediately better the club as agreed.

It was all a pack of lies from the start and the very first thing on all their minds was pulling it to bits, cutting the wage bill, selling players and imo getting their collective stake monies back asap.

[Rover_Shaun]

"Get behind the lads FFS" seems an even more idiotic approach now

[Norbert Rassragr]

19 minutes ago, tomphil said:

Just what the hell was that guy doing getting involved in alleged land deals involving the football club that was paying him to be a bibs and cones first team coach ?

More to the point how the hell does he get through the door at Ewood ?

From memory, the training ground was around Ryton, a village just outside Coventry where there used to be a Peugeot factory, and I think it is a place ideal for redevelopment. It is about 20 minutes from the M1 and easy to get to the city centre now the bagington bypass is built. Venus and/or possibly his wife is a director of a company that builds houses on such sites. Strange coincidence that. History just might be repeating itself. I'll see what the company is called another time.

[tomphil]

Hopefully just coincidence but I trust nothing around Rovers these days with all the self serving snakes hiding in the shadows.

[J*B]

The term poking the stick where it hurts is interesting. It sounds like the A team have been brought in to make absolutely sure there are no restrictions on our biggest asset. 

[alcd]

13 hours ago, blueboy3333 said:

How much is Brockhall land worth to a housebuilder? Anyone hazard a guess? 

Probably £1m per acre. How many acres is it?

[NinjaTattoo]

36 minutes ago, Norbert Rassragr said:

From memory, the training ground was around Ryton, a village just outside Coventry where there used to be a Peugeot factory, and I think it is a place ideal for redevelopment. It is about 20 minutes from the M1 and easy to get to the city centre now the bagington bypass is built. Venus and/or possibly his wife is a director of a company that builds houses on such sites. Strange coincidence that. History just might be repeating itself. I'll see what the company is called another time.

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/09750656

[alcd]

12 hours ago, J*B said:

Average house price on Brockhall is £414,000. I reckon you could do 1,500 houses on all the land owned by Rovers. 

If the land is in green belt it would have to be included on a "Local Plan" for residential development adopted by the local council.

[Vinjay]

Club have commented on the situation having earlier offered no comment. This from an updated article on the LT website.

A Rovers spokesman said: “The club could not agree with the reasons behind the application for ACV status and therefore submitted a response to argue, amongst other things, that the facilities at Brockhall are private and access should remain by invitation only."

“Ribble Valley Council concurred with our view and the application was therefore turned down."

“The club remain fully committed to developing the facilities at Brockhall, as has demonstrably been the case through the retention of Category One status for our Academy, as well as the significant investment in a new artificial pitch at the Senior Training Centre in recent weeks.”

Can't remember if the council commented earlier or not but anyhow...

“The actual current use of the land is as a private facility, the majority of the activities on the site do not involve the local community nor do the local community have access to the facilities.

“Community events are on occasion carried out at the invitation of the land owner, and are ancillary to the primary use as a training facility and academy.”

The council also added there was ‘no evidence that the facilities have changed since their acquisition’ or ‘that it is realistic to think that there would be a non-ancillary use of the land that would further the social wellbeing or social interests of the local community’.”

[Boaty]

I think vinjays post has summed it up perfectly tbh. a complete storm in a tea cup.

[Vinjay]

2 minutes ago, Boaty said:

I think vinjays post has summed it up perfectly tbh. a complete storm in a tea cup.

Didn't say it was reassuring did I?

[JHRover]

10 hours ago, alcd said:

If the land is in green belt it would have to be included on a "Local Plan" for residential development adopted by the local council.

The council included Blackburn Rugby Club on its greenfield local plan for development subject to them identifying a different site to play on (probably Witton Park). No houses built as yet but they've been on about it for years. The rugby club are up for it because they'll get a fortune for that land as its ripe for building nice new houses on the edge of town. Different local authority with Brockhall but bigger sums of money involved, higher property values and less areas ripe for development down in the Ribble Valley than Blackburn itself.

 

[Vinjay]

Club perhaps taking the piss yesterday with an article titled "Rovers up for community award". Actually it was the community trust which is technically separate from the club but anyhow...