I was expecting the “ defender of the club” @glasshalffull to come on here and tell us that everything is fine and there is no need to worry. But he has been very quiet since the meeting.
What concerns me is that Bobby Couhig has previously purchased the Denver Zephyrs baseball team and moved the 1400 miles to New Orleans !! He also purchased The New Orleans Riverboat Gamblers, he changed their name, colours and stadium and folded them within 3 years !!
If he can do that on his doorstep, im sure he wont have much of an emotional attachment to a football club, thousands of miles from his home and had never heard of 5 years ago.
Essentially like Rob says, the whole "trust" thing is pretty meaningless and symbolic. Their "ownership" goes the second we're sold.
But the holding the ground is utterly paramount to everything. For the criticism the trust amateurs have received, they've got the big call spot on. So far.
Buying a business on the other side of the world in the notoriously money leaking world of football and committing years to it in your 70s does not seem a particularly "Money grab" way of doing things.
It is of course absolutely essential that the trust keep the ownership of the stadium. Worst case scenario is of course the club going bust but we still have the stadium to accommodate a Phoenix club
unlike other stadiums ours is not in a location that would make it an asset for redevelopment. You couldn’t get permission to say build a supermarket. So the value of the stadium and the land it sits on his limited in that it could probably be only used as a stadium/hospitality venue
i’m sure Rob and his family appreciate this
I don’t believe for one minute that Rob Missy and Pete ever had or indeed still have any malicious intentions
They may be guilty of overoptimism and a little naivete about our British professional sport is run as opposed to its counterparts in the US.
I sense there’s may have been a little bit of family discord between Rob and Pete and the latter may have been unhappy about the failure of their company to acquire the stadium. As previously stated although the trust have been heavily criticised over the last few days you have to give them credit for standing firm on that.
This may have resulted in Rob realising that he won’t be able to hand the club over to Pete in due course and has made him think that he’s ownership of the club will be medium term rather than long-term. In his interview on Wanderers TV he said the other family members have no interest in running the club.
it is also possible that if money is tight he’s trying to obtain planning permission for the road but not necessarily in acting on it until and unless we are in the championship and therefore require permission to increase the capacity
we are where we are and hopefully the situation will settle a little over the next few weeks and in the meantime we will all feel better if the team start climbing the table
i’m not looking at the situation with rose coloured glasses just merely hoping that everybody’s acting with good but misguided at times intentions
I suppose it would be fair to say that RC is only doing what we should have anticipated him doing. Seemingly trying to get complete control of the club and ground.
My issue is more with the Trust board, who were (or at least I thought they were) put in place to act as a check to prevent this situation arising.
Genuine question - are there rules now about moving a club a significant distance? I believe the EFL introduced something after the Wimbledon/Franchise abomination but I could be wrong.
I’ve voted to oppose on the basis that a) I think the plan is overly ambitious, bordering delusional b) I therefore can’t see sense in us ploughing on with the strategy and leaving ourselves in a bigger hole when it unwinds c) I don’t like the sound of the extended lease and haven’t seen any conditions that would seem to prohibit Rob subsequently inviting Rugby/women’s football/Nascar to move in at AP.
Perhaps reassurances would have been supplied at the meeting, but I couldn’t get in so I’ve no idea.
A couple of other thoughts…
I suspect general morale around the ground will be low for the coming home games and we could do with a deliberate effort from the terrace to boost the atmosphere. Gaz and Dobbo have shown time and again that they can turn things around and produce winning teams. They deserve our backing and have more than earned it, despite recent poor form.
I’m not happy with the decisions made by the Trust but I have to accept I’m partially culpable I’ve not being as engaged as I should have been. Assuming current Trust directors go, getting good people in is going to be crucial. Criticism of existing directors which strays into personal abuse will discourage decent people from stepping forward in future and is best avoided. We end up with Z rate politicians for similar reasons - what reasonable person would want the gig?
Rob has as good as said he'll never sack Gaz. I'm not calling for Gaz to go, but I don't think that's healthy - surely all football managers need some degree of jeopardy?
I'm not sure if there is a ruling over relocation. Remember that since the Franchise was created Coventry had to play a season at Northampton (which is a move of 33.8 miles!)
Would you be happier and more motivated at your job if your manager was saying to you ‘if you fuck up I’ll fire you’ or ‘you’re doing a great job, you’ve got my support’?
If you want to add more context, you’re the person with the most success in your role ever.
The jeopardy is Gaz’s career opportunities. If we’re suddenly a League 2 team and his reputation has fallen apart, he’s only got himself to blame for not moving on.
That’s one of the only bits I agree with.
It’s also relatively likely that we might recoup some of our losses if Gaz performs well the rest of this season and we get paid off by a Championship club in summer.
While I understand your view points on the Stadium, I think that the land will become more valuable if/when this "New Road" has been built? Once that happens, developers could easily change that into a big-ish housing estate and could close off road access to the industrial estate.
Having a family member who works for the council and planning applications, I can confirm that nothing has come into the council (yet) with regards to plans for this new road. As we all know, even if Dashwood is in agreement for the road to be built, there will be a lot of checks and reports that will need to be completed before work can start. Things like Animal habits for Badgers, Bats, Red Kites etc can take up to 6 months to complete and they can then cause plans to be re-evaluated and new planning permissions to be re-entered.
I'm just worried about this whole situation, really worried and it looks like there is more horrible surprises in store.
@ReturnToSenda Could this be a reason as to why no other clubs have come in for Gareth? I fully believe that he is an excellent manager / first-team coach but could Rob's comments cause a bigger club to think twice before looking at him for their next manager?
Comments
I was expecting the “ defender of the club” @glasshalffull to come on here and tell us that everything is fine and there is no need to worry. But he has been very quiet since the meeting.
If he is just a businessman out for a profit there are a lot simpler ways to do it. I don’t believe that is his (sole) motivation.
What concerns me is that Bobby Couhig has previously purchased the Denver Zephyrs baseball team and moved the 1400 miles to New Orleans !! He also purchased The New Orleans Riverboat Gamblers, he changed their name, colours and stadium and folded them within 3 years !!
If he can do that on his doorstep, im sure he wont have much of an emotional attachment to a football club, thousands of miles from his home and had never heard of 5 years ago.
The interview suggests Pete threw his toys out after being told that the stadium wasn't for sale.
Trevor Stroud has a lot to answer for.
Some people are just in it for the temporary stardom like Chris Kirchner and Laurence Bassini
Essentially like Rob says, the whole "trust" thing is pretty meaningless and symbolic. Their "ownership" goes the second we're sold.
But the holding the ground is utterly paramount to everything. For the criticism the trust amateurs have received, they've got the big call spot on. So far.
Why do people keep trying to get after him?
We have much, much bigger concerns than trying to sneer at him right now.
Completely.
Buying a business on the other side of the world in the notoriously money leaking world of football and committing years to it in your 70s does not seem a particularly "Money grab" way of doing things.
It is of course absolutely essential that the trust keep the ownership of the stadium. Worst case scenario is of course the club going bust but we still have the stadium to accommodate a Phoenix club
unlike other stadiums ours is not in a location that would make it an asset for redevelopment. You couldn’t get permission to say build a supermarket. So the value of the stadium and the land it sits on his limited in that it could probably be only used as a stadium/hospitality venue
i’m sure Rob and his family appreciate this
I don’t believe for one minute that Rob Missy and Pete ever had or indeed still have any malicious intentions
They may be guilty of overoptimism and a little naivete about our British professional sport is run as opposed to its counterparts in the US.
I sense there’s may have been a little bit of family discord between Rob and Pete and the latter may have been unhappy about the failure of their company to acquire the stadium. As previously stated although the trust have been heavily criticised over the last few days you have to give them credit for standing firm on that.
This may have resulted in Rob realising that he won’t be able to hand the club over to Pete in due course and has made him think that he’s ownership of the club will be medium term rather than long-term. In his interview on Wanderers TV he said the other family members have no interest in running the club.
it is also possible that if money is tight he’s trying to obtain planning permission for the road but not necessarily in acting on it until and unless we are in the championship and therefore require permission to increase the capacity
we are where we are and hopefully the situation will settle a little over the next few weeks and in the meantime we will all feel better if the team start climbing the table
i’m not looking at the situation with rose coloured glasses just merely hoping that everybody’s acting with good but misguided at times intentions
I suppose it would be fair to say that RC is only doing what we should have anticipated him doing. Seemingly trying to get complete control of the club and ground.
My issue is more with the Trust board, who were (or at least I thought they were) put in place to act as a check to prevent this situation arising.
If he moves our team 1.400 miles we'll be playing in Seville next season. Which is good news for our Spanish fanbase.
But don't worry that won't happen. We'll be groundsharing with MK Dons next year.
Bucks Wanderers ? MK Blues
Genuine question - are there rules now about moving a club a significant distance? I believe the EFL introduced something after the Wimbledon/Franchise abomination but I could be wrong.
In the Q&A it says "we have costed out the proposed road at £250k". I'm no construction expert, but this figure looks way too low to me?
It definitely has among younger fans, although I've gone right off it now I know it's almost the same as a rugby chant.
Surely not 😂
Agreed. Maybe someone with some knowledge of this can give us an expert opinion
I’m no expert but I don’t believe you can move the club miles and miles away now.
anyway the trust own stadium this wouldn’t happen
I’ve voted to oppose on the basis that a) I think the plan is overly ambitious, bordering delusional b) I therefore can’t see sense in us ploughing on with the strategy and leaving ourselves in a bigger hole when it unwinds c) I don’t like the sound of the extended lease and haven’t seen any conditions that would seem to prohibit Rob subsequently inviting Rugby/women’s football/Nascar to move in at AP.
Perhaps reassurances would have been supplied at the meeting, but I couldn’t get in so I’ve no idea.
A couple of other thoughts…
Yep... and people still think he's a good thing and we should trust him. I'm afraid I dont
Rob has as good as said he'll never sack Gaz. I'm not calling for Gaz to go, but I don't think that's healthy - surely all football managers need some degree of jeopardy?
I'm not sure if there is a ruling over relocation. Remember that since the Franchise was created Coventry had to play a season at Northampton (which is a move of 33.8 miles!)
Would you be happier and more motivated at your job if your manager was saying to you ‘if you fuck up I’ll fire you’ or ‘you’re doing a great job, you’ve got my support’?
If you want to add more context, you’re the person with the most success in your role ever.
The jeopardy is Gaz’s career opportunities. If we’re suddenly a League 2 team and his reputation has fallen apart, he’s only got himself to blame for not moving on.
That’s one of the only bits I agree with.
It’s also relatively likely that we might recoup some of our losses if Gaz performs well the rest of this season and we get paid off by a Championship club in summer.
But Couhig has left himself in a bit of a tight spot if things really go tits up. Yet another instance where he should have just kept his mouth shut.
While I understand your view points on the Stadium, I think that the land will become more valuable if/when this "New Road" has been built? Once that happens, developers could easily change that into a big-ish housing estate and could close off road access to the industrial estate.
Having a family member who works for the council and planning applications, I can confirm that nothing has come into the council (yet) with regards to plans for this new road. As we all know, even if Dashwood is in agreement for the road to be built, there will be a lot of checks and reports that will need to be completed before work can start. Things like Animal habits for Badgers, Bats, Red Kites etc can take up to 6 months to complete and they can then cause plans to be re-evaluated and new planning permissions to be re-entered.
I'm just worried about this whole situation, really worried and it looks like there is more horrible surprises in store.
Of course, we know full well that what he says and what he does are two very different things, so we should take it with a pinch of salt.
@ReturnToSenda Could this be a reason as to why no other clubs have come in for Gareth? I fully believe that he is an excellent manager / first-team coach but could Rob's comments cause a bigger club to think twice before looking at him for their next manager?