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Club Finances



Tom Hark Preston Park

Will Post For Cash
Jul 6, 2003
70,374
Voroshilov said:
Of course he did. I know some on here dismiss him as a bore, an old fart, a man in love with his own voice. They say he is too ready to listen to the opinions of old drunks he's never met before. They say here is a man who thinks he's an expert on every subject, a man who doesn't let the absense of any supporting evidence get in the way of his argument. They say he sees the worst in everybody except himself.

But this is a man who takes rumour and hearsay and spins it into a devastating critique of a bunch of crooks who have run this club into the ground by taking it over from Bill Archer bringing it back to Brighton overseeing three promotions and battling nimby's and uk planning law to provide a home capable of sustaining the club long into the future.

I know Ernest and FG will join me in thanking the lord that we have such a man on our side

Mods! MODS! Voroshilov's using irony! TELL him!
 




Publius Ovidius

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
46,093
at home
Chappers

Assume you are a Leeds fan...you are in the premiership....you are in the champions league...you have the best young manager in the league...your chairman borrows money knowing he has to get better players in...Viduka/Kewell/Fowler...to get these you play top dollar and rediculous wages...as a fan you Love Risdale. he is giving you everything you want.

It goes tits up....you hate Risdale...he is the anti-christ

But after Istanbul he was the graetest man alive.



All I am saying is lets get some perspective in this.
 


Westdene Seagull

aka Cap'n Carl Firecrotch
NSC Patron
Oct 27, 2003
21,086
The arse end of Hangleton
dave the gaffer said:
Personally I have no feelings of negativity about DK or positivity for that matter.

That seems a little unfair. I take it you have the same neutral feelings about Archer & co ?

If you hate Archer and his cronies for what they did then is only seems reasonable to give some credit ( positive feelings ) to the current board and DK for what they have achieved.
 


CHAPPERS

DISCO SPENG
Jul 5, 2003
44,806
dave the gaffer said:
Chappers

Assume you are a Leeds fan...you are in the premiership....you are in the champions league...you have the best young manager in the league...your chairman borrows money knowing he has to get better players in...Viduka/Kewell/Fowler...to get these you play top dollar and rediculous wages...as a fan you Love Risdale. he is giving you everything you want.

It goes tits up....you hate Risdale...he is the anti-christ

But after Istanbul he was the graetest man alive.



All I am saying is lets get some perspective in this.

So until they screw us over you aren't going to be positive about them? Fair enough.














You grumpy old BASTARD.

xx

:)
 


Publius Ovidius

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
46,093
at home
If you remember, Archer and co were seen as the saviours when they came in. Bellotti used to go around the ground and promise all sorts of things. I remember talking to him at Plymouth on New Years day when he sounded plausible.....little did I know he was a weasel

They turned out to be charletans and were found out.
 




Publius Ovidius

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
46,093
at home
I would love to be on that programme...Grumpy Old Men.

I agree with everything they say:lolol: :lolol: :lolol:
 


Brovion

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 6, 2003
19,402
Yeah Dave but it took us less than seven years to find out they were crooks and charlatans! I know we're the same age so we've seen the same people come and go, I too have heard inside stories about all the regimes that have held the reins at the club (unlike some I don't post them here) and no organisation is perfect.

But surely even you in that cold, flinty heart can acknowledge that the Knight era has been the most difficult in the club's history? However despite the difficulties on the playing side we haven't just survived as a poor Div 3 (League 2, whatever) side but have achieved far more than we did for about 90% of our history. Strangely in adversity we've done better than when we DID have a proper ground and when we weren't pouring money into an apparently bottomless planning application. This isn't luck, it's taken organisation committment and love. Believe me if I thought Knight. Perry etc were the wrong people I would be saying so. However they are self-evidently the best team we've EVER had and I don't like seeing them undermined for no good reason other than they're not multi-multi-millionaires.
 


Charlies Shinpad

New member
Jul 5, 2003
4,415
Oakford in Devon
At the end of the day,who ever puts money into this club is not doing it for the love of it are they?

They will all want there full penneth worth when we finally get the go ahead wont they,and if anyone on here disagrees with me they had better get there blue and white tinted glasses off!!
 




Brovion

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 6, 2003
19,402
Charlies Shinpad said:
At the end of the day,who ever puts money into this club is not doing it for the love of it are they?

They will all want there full penneth worth when we finally get the go ahead wont they,and if anyone on here disagrees with me they had better get there blue and white tinted glasses off!!
Quite often true, but how is anyone going to profit from investing in Brighton? From that point of view Archer was the man at the right place at the right time and he did very nicely thank you very much. Brighton and Hove Albion FC Ltd now has no assets to exploit, although you can by a part share in the debt. Other clubs own their own grounds, we don't. So how are they going to get their money back let alone their 'full penneth'?

Falmer btw won't be owned by the club.
 


For those who have forgotten (or just chose to ignore) , this from the Argus.......

First published on Wednesday 28 July 2004:
Nine-year quest to secure new stadium
by Matthew James

When The Argus revealed Brighton and Hove Albion were selling the Goldstone Ground, few readers expected the saga to be making headlines nine years later.

At the time this newspaper exposed the club's plans to groundshare at Portsmouth, John Major was prime minister and one of Albion's current first-team squad was only eight.

The sensational scoop sent shockwaves throughout Sussex on July 7, 1995. Three Argus editors and ten Albion managers later, the issue of a home for the club is still high on the local agenda.

Bill Archer, who was then Albion's majority shareholder and became chairman less than two weeks later, sheepishly admitted the news had "broken rather prematurely".

Albion said they would share Pompey's Fratton Park while a 30,000-seat stadium was built at Waterhall, north of the A27, partly funded by retail development at nearby Patcham Court Farm.

But a day after breaking the initial story, The Argus revealed the then Brighton Council had already told Albion the scheme was unacceptable.

A month later, we revealed Albion had sold the Goldstone to developers Chartwell for £7.4 million - a story brazenly dismissed by chief executive David Bellotti, who urged fans to "stop whining and listening to Argus-backed speculation".

After research by chief reporter Paul Bracchi and Albion fan Paul Samrah, The Argus also revealed Archer's controlling shareholding had cost only £56.25 while Greg Stanley's minority share was £43.75 - a total of £100.

Other money injected by Archer and Stanley had been loaned with no personal risk while the value of the ground exceeded the club's debts.

Perhaps even more worryingly, Bracchi and Samrah exposed a change in the rules governing shareholders in the event of the club folding.

For 89 years from 1904, Albion's articles of association had guaranteed any surplus funds from asset sales would be distributed to another local club or charity.

But this clause was omitted from new rules adopted at an extraordinary general meeting on November 23, 1993, shortly after Archer and Stanley took control.

The no-profit clause was eventually reinstated as the new owners described its omission as an "oversight".

In another front page exclusive, The Argus revealed a £600,000 loan from the Stanley Trust had clocked up £131,250 interest against the club in less than three years while Stanley was due another £250,000 as Albion had failed to pay the interest in time.

Bracchi travelled to Archer's home in Mellor, Lancashire, and offered the startled chairman a cheque for £56.25 - the amount he had paid for his shares.

Bellotti banned The Argus and veteran newspaper seller Fred Oliver from the ground, then failed to invite anyone from the paper to a Press conference at which he unveiled plans for a 30,000-seat stadium, sports complex and retail or office development at Toad's Hole Valley, Hove.

Chief sports writer Andy Naylor and I turned up anyway but councillors soon dismissed the scheme because of its large commercial element on a sensitive greenfield site.

Two years earlier, the then Hove Council had granted planning permission for a non-food retail park at the Goldstone, Albion's home for more than 90 years.

Club directors argued planning permission would increase the value of the site, enabling the club to settle urgent tax debts by borrowing more. Archer was a director but did not control the club at that stage.

A report by Hove Council officers quoted the view of East Sussex County Council: "It would be desirable for an acceptable replacement site to be identified and developed before the Goldstone Ground is redeveloped."

Hove officers responded: "The club has declined to...accept a condition limiting the start of development to the opening of facilities elsewhere, although its architects have confirmed in writing it is the firm intention to secure the new facility prior to leaving the Goldstone.

"To impose a condition prohibiting implementation of the permission until the club has relocated ... would not meet the conditions set out in (Government guidance)."

Councillors accepted this advice and Albion managing director Barry Lloyd said the successful application would stay on the backburner "until we find ourselves a new home".

With Albion on the brink of being wound up unless the club settled its tax debts, an emergency meeting of shareholders was held at The Grand hotel, Brighton, on October 28, 1993. It was then Archer and Stanley seized control by setting up a holding company called Foray 585 (foray = sudden attack or raid).

The atmosphere around the Goldstone between 1995 and 1997 reflected an explosive cocktail of anger, desperation and contempt for Archer, Stanley and Bellotti, with pitch invasions, walk-outs, boycotts, marches and petitions, including 6,500 Archer Out! signatures collected through The Argus.

An Argus phone poll suggested 98 per cent of Albion fans would not attend matches at Portsmouth.

The Football League stressed Albion would not be allowed to share a stadium outside Brighton and Hove unless the owners produced "concrete evidence" of the club's future return to the area. Archer and Stanley could not.

Chartwell threw Albion a lifeline by offering to lease back the Goldstone for an extra season at a rent of £480,000 but the company rejected the club's counter-offer of £200,000 and set Albion a deadline of noon on April 30.

With no agreement, Albion faced homelessness and possible extinction going into the match against York on April 27, 1996. Fans invaded the pitch and pulled down both sets of goalposts, forcing the match to be abandoned after 16 minutes.

Less than an hour before Chartwell's deadline, Albion agreed to lease back the Goldstone for a season. Bellotti refused to reveal the rent but it was reported to be £480,000, the initial asking price, suggesting the club could have prevented the abandonment.

When Andy Naylor asked Bellotti if he accepted "any responsibility for what happened on Saturday", Bellotti replied: "If there is one person in this room more responsible for what happened than anyone else, it is The Argus and Andy Naylor."

Bellotti threw Andy and I out of the Press conference.

By the time Dick Knight succeeded Archer as chairman the following year, the club was committed to groundsharing even further away at Gillingham, a round-trip of 150 miles from Brighton and Hove.

At least Knight and his consortium took over a League club as Albion narrowly avoided relegation, fighting back from 11 points adrift to safety after a tense draw at Hereford in May 1997.

But supporters were angered again when I revealed in The Argus Chartwell had sold the Goldstone site for £23.86 million - £16 million more than Archer had negotiated. Fans demanded to know why he had not included a sell-on clause to benefit the club.

Early crowds at Gillingham were dismal and the new board announced plans for a temporary move to Withdean Stadium, although the local athletics stadium would need major improvements to satisfy the Football League.

An early phone poll in The Argus resulted in 683 calls for the idea and 703 against but supporters used blue and white ribbons to launch their campaign to Bring Home the Albion - BHA for short, the initials of the club.

The Argus gave out 12,000 supporter packs and campaigned hard for Albion's cause.

Writing in the Albion Almanac, supporters' club chairman Tim Carder said: "The local paper has been a wonderful and influential supporter of the Bring Home the Albion campaign and I have nothing but praise for it."

More than 32,000 people signed a petition in favour of the plans, which councillors approved by ten votes to two.

Withdean residents dropped a threatened legal challenge and the Seagulls finally flew back to Brighton and Hove in 1999 after negotiations with stadium managers Ecovert South.

Almost 45,000 people - more than two-thirds of those who voted - backed the idea of a stadium at Falmer when the council held a city-wide referendum in May 1999.

Many Falmer residents and some environmentalists opposed the club's vision but The Argus enthusiastically supported a stadium, explaining the benefits in positive stories almost every day throughout the referendum campaign.

Delays largely caused by negotiations with the universities of Brighton and Sussex over land, contract conditions and car parking meant the Falmer plans only went before councillors in June 2002.

This time the pro-stadium petition contained more than 61,000 signatures, comfortably breaking all local records, and councillors voted 11-1 in favour.

The public inquiry was held between February and October last year before Albion fans including Des Lynam and Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim, delivered thousands of pro-stadium letters to 10 Downing Street.

But fans were stunned when Charles Hoile, one of two inquiry inspectors, concluded Falmer was too small and too near the South Downs for a stadium.

His report sparked further concentrated campaigning from February to May.

Much of this took place at matches, including a sit-in by fans after a game at Wycombe, the donning of John Prescott masks from The Argus for the play-off semi-final at Swindon and a carefully choreographed display of banners during the play-off final at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff.

More than 140 MPs, including well over a third of Labour backbenchers in England, have signed a motion urging Mr Prescott to approve the stadium.

The extraordinary efforts of Paul Samrah and Tim Carder in particular may never be fully appreciated but the ongoing Falmer For All campaign is a team effort that unites all sections of Albion's diverse supporter base.

Many initiatives have originated and developed on the fans' web site North Stand Chat and through emails on the Seagulls Mailing List.

Perhaps the most ambitious so far was National Falmer Day, March 6, when Albion fans attended dozens of matches across the country to hand out leaflets and drum up support - even at arch-rivals Crystal Palace.

Other web-inspired stunts have included the delivery of flowers from League clubs to Mr Prescott in London and a giant Valentine's Day card to his constituency office in Hull.

While there is bound to be initial disappointment the decision is not an immediate Yes, Mr Prescott's letter represents giant leaps forward from Mr Hoile's report.

By reopening the inquiry against the advice of two inspectors, Mr Prescott is accepting the national need for a modern stadium in Brighton and Hove and tacitly accepting the environmental impact of a stadium at Falmer.

Albion fans everywhere will rise to the challenge of campaigning for a few more weeks.

It will be worth the wait for the right result - and the right result it will be.

The longest battle is almost won.
 


Bens Grandad always seems to have some kind of maverick agenda for reasons known only to himself. His spoutings during the dark years at those fans forums are etched in the memory of all those who were there. Ray Tinkler eh? Now there's a name from the past. Many on this board will not have heard of him. Most Leeds fans have though! Many years ago Leeds needed one point in the last game of the season to be champions in a game against West Brom. Minutes to go and Jeff Astle scored the most blatent offside goal in the history of football. Despite the linesman waving furiously, Tinkler gave the goal! :ohmy: A mini riot occured at Elland Road and Leeds ended up with nothing that season. :lolol: Tinkler was/still is a figure of hate at Elland Road. The "Prosser" of his era, he was often controversial.

Bens Grandad and Ray Tinkler??....Hmmmmm.....I'll take the clubs versions of events any day!
 






Jul 5, 2003
12,644
Chertsey
Desert Orchid said:
Yes, but The Argus printed them. And it does also say: "Many initiatives have originated and developed on the fans' web site North Stand Chat and through emails on the Seagulls Mailing List."

ok fair do's i was speed reading.
 


Seagull73

Sienna's Heaven
Jul 26, 2003
3,382
Not Lewes
It is up to individual whether or not they chose to like/respect/hate any one person or set-up within the club. But how ANYBODY can be believe for one moment that, at this point in time, with the club in the situation it finds itself, somebody is benefitting financially from the football club is utterly ga-ga.

More to the point, if you don't like somebody at the football club, fine have your opinion, but for anyone to spread malicious UNFOUNDED rumours about the club, right at the point where it is trying it's hardest to succeed, is no fan. Simple as.

It is clear that some people posting on this board are dying for Knight to fail in securing a future for the Albion. Why? Does that make you a fan if that is the case, what are you people hoping to achieve by Dick Knight failing in delivering Falmer? So I can say I told you so?

Forget any one individual and focus on the bloody cause, i.e. getting us a brand-spanking new stadium that we can proud of.

Who do you people think you are? You make yourselves no better than those tossers at LDC. I must admit I'm at the point where I personally hope you have overstepped the mark, and that the club feels in the mood at some point to make an example of you.
 




Beach Hut

Brighton Bhuna Boy
Jul 5, 2003
71,992
Living In a Box
:bounce: :bounce:

Any comment BG ?
 


Publius Ovidius

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
46,093
at home
I reiterate. Its a personal thing

I accept the last few years have been horrendous and DK and the board have steered the course extremely well, but they are businessmen so I would expect them to. They are also under the biggest amount of scrutiny that we have ever had, so anything untoward would be spotted immediatly!!

I take nothing away from DK and the present board. I am 100% behind what they are trying to achieve and those of you who know me will know that to be the case. I only hope that Falmer is not the be and end of it all...if Prescott is to say no, then I cannot believe that we will close the doors.

I just can't get myself into a feeling of the present lot can do no wrong because of what has been going on these last couple of years.

We were in a dire straight at times in our history..if mark Beeney was not sold, the VAT and I/Rev would have shut us down. That was a very dark time and I knew the protagonists at the Revenue who had totally lost faith in the club and its ability to survive.

The sign of a good democracy is to listen to other peoples arguements and not attack them for having them. FG/Earnie etc are still regarded as toungue in cheek, whereas I feel some of BG's comments tend to be shall we say mischievous in the extreme.

Onward and ever upward
 


portlock seagull

Why? Why us?
Jul 28, 2003
17,207
Seagull73 said:
how ANYBODY can be believe for one moment that, at this point in time, with the club in the situation it finds itself, somebody is benefitting financially from the football club is utterly ga-ga.

Absolutely - I seem to remember less than 1000, the lowest ever home league gate in our history v Lincoln on a wet cold November night at the Preistfield, whilst Engalnd were on the tele and we got stuffed. I remember the 606 phone-in on the way home with Richard Littlejohn was all about the England game and then he said something like "there was another game tonight, where the fans have to do a 150mile roundtrip to see their side after one of football's greatest scandels and it was the lowest ever crowd. If you were one of Brighton's fans present, give us a call and tell me why you were there".....Why? Because we had to give DK our support in HOPE of better times to come. And come they did. He stuck with us, we stuck with him so that the Albion would have a future. I saw my season ticket then as a loan and still do to some extent paying well over the odds. In a democracy everone's entitled to their opinion but the tiny minority who continue to whinge just become tiresome and eventually we all stop listening to them. And that's what we should do now.

I'll never take the side of some cheap-shot like BG against the current board. So, as we're keen on telling the lino's at the Withdean re:their flags, you can take yer unfounded accusations
and stick 'em up yer arse. Sideways!
 


Easy 10

Brain dead MUG SHEEP
Jul 5, 2003
61,798
Location Location
Brovian said:
But surely even you in that cold, flinty heart can acknowledge that the Knight era has been the most difficult in the club's history? However despite the difficulties on the playing side we haven't just survived as a poor Div 3 (League 2, whatever) side but have achieved far more than we did for about 90% of our history. Strangely in adversity we've done better than when we DID have a proper ground and when we weren't pouring money into an apparently bottomless planning application. This isn't luck, it's taken organisation committment and love. Believe me if I thought Knight. Perry etc were the wrong people I would be saying so. However they are self-evidently the best team we've EVER had and I don't like seeing them undermined for no good reason other than they're not multi-multi-millionaires.
What a fabulous paragraph Brovian - sums up my feelings precisely. Good work fella.

:clap:
 




Beach Hut

Brighton Bhuna Boy
Jul 5, 2003
71,992
Living In a Box
Maybe we can draw a line under this episode, however, I would like a comment back from the one that started it all.

I do worry though that in around 2 - 4 months time once Falmer is agreed there will suddenly be a bus load of glory seekers arriving.

If they do, I'd be happier to stick with the current chairman, chief executive, manager etc - they can't be that bad, many clubs would beg to be in our position.
 


Yorkie

Sussex born and bred
Jul 5, 2003
32,367
dahn sarf
Bounced so that everyone gets a chance to read this.
 


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