As someone has pointed out...why don't we buy back our own training ground and sort out our own infrastructure. Would cost far less than £25 million. Even taking into account that in most cases no owner (buying or selling) usually gives two ****s about the club in an increasingly bizarre footballing world...it is a bizarre event.
(Unless Ivor is asking for £26 million, of course)
Surely there has been plenty of time(years) to sort a deal for our current training ground and for whatever reason it hasn't happened. The fact that it hasn't materialised might indicate it is/wasn't as straightforward as some would make out. (I wasn't one of the downvoters of your post I'd like to point out)
From my perspective , it’s the Couhigs/ ML who see this as an opportunity to get an asset for half price. Which business man would turn down that deal. The unfortunate thing is that our club has been dragged into the debate. Not sure I can see how Reading or us come out of this too positively. Only winners Couhigs and ML .
Of course it is, why it is being painted as US the fans? We gave up our club when the Cohigs came along, and we did that as we were fucked. Much like Reading are. And no one was there to help us.
Why don't we do something with the current training ground is another question asked. Let me ponder this. The philanthropic owners of the training ground who paid the massive premium for it to help their beloved club might well be looking at the development across the road and thinking there could be a re-zoning of the green fields for something that is worth waaaaaaaay more than it is today or the £300k they paid for it. Just a guess.
@YorkshireBlue that's what I cannot work out...how we have not been able to do a deal to buy out Ivor and Co...but can afford £25 million to buy the Reading Ground in a fire sale. Things are only a bargain if you have the money to buy them...if we had the money to buy this, I'm surprised it has not been used for other things.
(Though others join in from time to time depending on the topic, pretty sure I know who the regular down thumber who is appalled by my score predictions, attendance predictions and thinks I should not pull on the Gasroom shirt ever again is...joined every now and then by a bluenote proxy 😉)
Any Reading fan thinking we are the nail in their coffin might like to explain how we also killed off Beijing Renhe and KSV Roeselare, the other clubs Dai Yongge owned.
I was listening to someone on Sky Sports News this morning who was highlighting the money in the game and he was pointing out the salary differential between the PL and the Championship. He stated that PL players are on 100s of thousands a week, whereas the Championship players are only on circa £15K a week.
Mad- £15K a week or £60K a month / £730K a year, being quoted as an example of the poorer players in the Championship. 🤦🤦🤦🤦.
I am sure 90% of the people working within the UK today would be over the moon if they brought home £60K a month before tax.
Whatever the ground cost to build is now irrelevant to its current value.
Whether the ground is now worth £25m (or some other figure as a poster has rightly highlighted above) depends on what needs the buying organisation has for it, potentially whether the buying organisation can obtain a reliable rental for it and potentially whether there is a potential sell on value (eg for housing). The latter two feel quite challenging.
As it stands, the facility which looks magnificent, just simply looks too big for our current needs. So a reasonable conclusion is that we intend to either change our current needs or that we believe we can obtain a good income by subletting a substantial proportion of it (eg to Reading FC (but sustainability must be in doubt) , to another football club but apart from Oxford and Swindon, that feels geographically difficult or to another sporting club (the only one I can think of would be a phoenix Wasps). None of this seems to make much sense from a income point of view.
So does that suggest that the motivation for this must be our needs are about to change materially. If an outside investor is prepared to put in a substantial seven or eight figure sum just to buy a training ground, does he intend to put in many more millions to build a new stadium and invest in the team driving the club up to the Premier League, at which stage we would need a training ground of this ilk. Again though that feels like something of a fantasy.
Try as I might I just can't see how this deal makes sense, so I remain confused.
One little thought which doesn't justify the deal but might sweeten it a bit. Say we had a deal lined up with a credible sporting club to rent half the ground back of us at a rent of say £2m per year, would that be a way round the FFP regulations if our funder wanted to invest money in the team but cant due to FFP. But then who are that credible sporting club and how has this all been put together so quickly? No still confused.
Good post @DevC - it does feel as though something is fundamentally hidden about this whole thing, a missing bit of information to make it all make sense.
I doubt very much Bearwood is worth anywhere near £50m. It may have cost that much to build, but its current market value will only reflect what a purchaser will pay. If it has no development value as houses (no doubt our resident planning expert @DevC will advise) then it can only probably be used for recreational purposes. Prospective purchasers are therefore extremely limited.
Regardless of the outcome, I can't see Lomtadze passing the EFL fit and proper test for either Reading or us.
Turns out some Reading fans on X are talking about buying tickets for the BSM final so they can do a pitch invasion there! Tickets in the Peterborough end so that no money gets near our evil club.
Some calm and considered thoughts @DevC. Some credible outcomes there.
Other perspectives I have enjoyed as the Reading fans planning to 'sell out Wembley' to boo us. More cash - brilliant. One particular fellow who is going to attend Wycombe home games (four more this season) with the sole objective of punching Wycombe fans. Various threats of arson. Collectively I cannot understand why their fan base is struggling to comprehend how they got to where they are today.
I agree @DevC and @Shev I am generally an optimistic cove but if it is all true and without any coherent information from the club about where this is going, none of this makes any sense to me financially unless some massive changes are afoot.
Well that stopped me doing any work after 1500 today!
I shall wait for an @LX1 post after midnight before I try and even make any sense of what is actually going on.
But…
Did I read on here that there is a free bus to Reading’s ground from a decent real ale pub close to the railway station? Hmmm. Maybe not all doom and gloom!*
*And no I don’t mean it - merging or sharing (not at AP) with anyone Is the nightmare scenario for me.
At the time of the Beeks / Trust training ground controversy, there was a meeting (at the HUB I believe) where Trever Stroud stated that in the event of the land at Booker ever being sold on for a substantial profit, the new owners (Beeks) had agreed to share any good fortune with the club/trust. i don't know if that ever translated into a written agreement, but we certainly shouldn't forget it.
Comments
Hopefully there won’t be Thames Valley Wanderers coming down the line.
Would have AFC Wycombe Wanderers playing in the Isthmian League division 1 any day over that.
I think the ‘Thames Valley Wanderers’ dates back to the Sanchez era when he was grumpy that we weren’t getting bigger crowds.
I’m not sure @lx1 was actually encouraging this idea!
Maxwell tried to merge Oxford and Reading in the 80s, didn't he?
Yes, Thames Valley Royals.
Hence my Thames Valley Wanderers comment.
As someone has pointed out...why don't we buy back our own training ground and sort out our own infrastructure. Would cost far less than £25 million. Even taking into account that in most cases no owner (buying or selling) usually gives two ****s about the club in an increasingly bizarre footballing world...it is a bizarre event.
(Unless Ivor is asking for £26 million, of course)
What "Deal Agreement"? Has he, or anybody seen it? Does it even exist yet?
Apologies to the supporters of the proposed deal offended by my last post.
Surely there has been plenty of time(years) to sort a deal for our current training ground and for whatever reason it hasn't happened. The fact that it hasn't materialised might indicate it is/wasn't as straightforward as some would make out. (I wasn't one of the downvoters of your post I'd like to point out)
The £25m number is banded around as fact but doesn’t seem remotely likely to me. I reckon it will be about 25% of that.
From my perspective , it’s the Couhigs/ ML who see this as an opportunity to get an asset for half price. Which business man would turn down that deal. The unfortunate thing is that our club has been dragged into the debate. Not sure I can see how Reading or us come out of this too positively. Only winners Couhigs and ML .
Quote of the day, unfortunately. Football is a wonderful sport that is run absolutely terribly.
Of course it is, why it is being painted as US the fans? We gave up our club when the Cohigs came along, and we did that as we were fucked. Much like Reading are. And no one was there to help us.
Why don't we do something with the current training ground is another question asked. Let me ponder this. The philanthropic owners of the training ground who paid the massive premium for it to help their beloved club might well be looking at the development across the road and thinking there could be a re-zoning of the green fields for something that is worth waaaaaaaay more than it is today or the £300k they paid for it. Just a guess.
You reckon the owners bought it for £300k thinking it was going to be a training ground forever. I am confident they have their own plan$.
@YorkshireBlue that's what I cannot work out...how we have not been able to do a deal to buy out Ivor and Co...but can afford £25 million to buy the Reading Ground in a fire sale. Things are only a bargain if you have the money to buy them...if we had the money to buy this, I'm surprised it has not been used for other things.
(Though others join in from time to time depending on the topic, pretty sure I know who the regular down thumber who is appalled by my score predictions, attendance predictions and thinks I should not pull on the Gasroom shirt ever again is...joined every now and then by a bluenote proxy 😉)
Any Reading fan thinking we are the nail in their coffin might like to explain how we also killed off Beijing Renhe and KSV Roeselare, the other clubs Dai Yongge owned.
Agreed.
I was listening to someone on Sky Sports News this morning who was highlighting the money in the game and he was pointing out the salary differential between the PL and the Championship. He stated that PL players are on 100s of thousands a week, whereas the Championship players are only on circa £15K a week.
Mad- £15K a week or £60K a month / £730K a year, being quoted as an example of the poorer players in the Championship. 🤦🤦🤦🤦.
I am sure 90% of the people working within the UK today would be over the moon if they brought home £60K a month before tax.
The game’s gone mad!!!!
£720k
Whatever the ground cost to build is now irrelevant to its current value.
Whether the ground is now worth £25m (or some other figure as a poster has rightly highlighted above) depends on what needs the buying organisation has for it, potentially whether the buying organisation can obtain a reliable rental for it and potentially whether there is a potential sell on value (eg for housing). The latter two feel quite challenging.
As it stands, the facility which looks magnificent, just simply looks too big for our current needs. So a reasonable conclusion is that we intend to either change our current needs or that we believe we can obtain a good income by subletting a substantial proportion of it (eg to Reading FC (but sustainability must be in doubt) , to another football club but apart from Oxford and Swindon, that feels geographically difficult or to another sporting club (the only one I can think of would be a phoenix Wasps). None of this seems to make much sense from a income point of view.
So does that suggest that the motivation for this must be our needs are about to change materially. If an outside investor is prepared to put in a substantial seven or eight figure sum just to buy a training ground, does he intend to put in many more millions to build a new stadium and invest in the team driving the club up to the Premier League, at which stage we would need a training ground of this ilk. Again though that feels like something of a fantasy.
Try as I might I just can't see how this deal makes sense, so I remain confused.
One little thought which doesn't justify the deal but might sweeten it a bit. Say we had a deal lined up with a credible sporting club to rent half the ground back of us at a rent of say £2m per year, would that be a way round the FFP regulations if our funder wanted to invest money in the team but cant due to FFP. But then who are that credible sporting club and how has this all been put together so quickly? No still confused.
Good post @DevC - it does feel as though something is fundamentally hidden about this whole thing, a missing bit of information to make it all make sense.
I doubt very much Bearwood is worth anywhere near £50m. It may have cost that much to build, but its current market value will only reflect what a purchaser will pay. If it has no development value as houses (no doubt our resident planning expert @DevC will advise) then it can only probably be used for recreational purposes. Prospective purchasers are therefore extremely limited.
Regardless of the outcome, I can't see Lomtadze passing the EFL fit and proper test for either Reading or us.
Turns out some Reading fans on X are talking about buying tickets for the BSM final so they can do a pitch invasion there! Tickets in the Peterborough end so that no money gets near our evil club.
Blimey.
Why would he not pass fit and proper? If you look at the list of individuals who have passed it, it doesn't seem like the hardest thing to do...
Sorry @DevC, I see you posted whilst I was writing my screed.
Some calm and considered thoughts @DevC. Some credible outcomes there.
Other perspectives I have enjoyed as the Reading fans planning to 'sell out Wembley' to boo us. More cash - brilliant. One particular fellow who is going to attend Wycombe home games (four more this season) with the sole objective of punching Wycombe fans. Various threats of arson. Collectively I cannot understand why their fan base is struggling to comprehend how they got to where they are today.
And not a mention of planning permission! 😊
I agree @DevC and @Shev I am generally an optimistic cove but if it is all true and without any coherent information from the club about where this is going, none of this makes any sense to me financially unless some massive changes are afoot.
Gulp!
Well that stopped me doing any work after 1500 today!
I shall wait for an @LX1 post after midnight before I try and even make any sense of what is actually going on.
But…
Did I read on here that there is a free bus to Reading’s ground from a decent real ale pub close to the railway station? Hmmm. Maybe not all doom and gloom!*
*And no I don’t mean it - merging or sharing (not at AP) with anyone Is the nightmare scenario for me.
Connections with Putin, albeit not overtly?
They do know we get 45% of the final gate receipts
I can only recall one successful mass pitch invasion at the new Wembley and that was Millwall - obviously.
At the time of the Beeks / Trust training ground controversy, there was a meeting (at the HUB I believe) where Trever Stroud stated that in the event of the land at Booker ever being sold on for a substantial profit, the new owners (Beeks) had agreed to share any good fortune with the club/trust. i don't know if that ever translated into a written agreement, but we certainly shouldn't forget it.