TAKEOVER *NOT* CONFIMRED

[Brogue]

Yeah he was involved in the training ground fiasco wasn’t he

[Avon Royal]

If it was the Wilf brothers then we could have won the owners jackpot.

They’ve been transformational for the Vikings, who now have the best facilities, infrastructure and stadium in the NFL.

Not going to get excited though until something confirmed.

[royal67]

Should we begin practicing our whooping and hollering now?

Or maybe our hopes and prayers....??

[windermereROYAL]

Hopefully we can consign these three stickies to history at the middle/end of May.

[Franchise FC]

Hopefully we can consign these three stickies to history at the middle/end of May.

You really should have put a year qualifier on that statement

[WestYorksRoyal]

The big question is who with. I expect a journo will report in the next few days.

I expect so, there will be no official confirmation as the EFL rules don't allow it but I would imagine one of the local journos will get a name in the neat future.

Wording suggest the process could take up to 2 monts - so end of May, which is fine, but be amazing if this can get closed out by the last home game.

There is 4 weeks until the Blackpool game. Highly unlikely to be completed by then. Perhaps contracts exchanged by then? That's the point where Dai can't back out and we can celebrate. Southend exchanged contracts before Christmas and it still hasn't completed, but that is due to their council moving at glacial pace to update planning permissions. It only took WBA about 2 weeks between exchange and completion.

If not this season, first game next season could be a big occasion. Oxford at home on the opening day? Or, given recent developments, Wycombe?

[BarryWhiteRFC]

If it was the Wilf brothers then we could have won the owners jackpot.

They’ve been transformational for the Vikings, who now have the best facilities, infrastructure and stadium in the NFL.

Not going to get excited though until something confirmed.

Would love to see football run more like the NFL. Now I know there is only 32 teams so not as much competition for fans etc, but NFL franchises are rarely run at a loss. If we could get the same kind of branding and marketing awareness into football, especially in the catchment area that Reading has, that the NFL has, it could help swell the fanbase, which, I think, would only be a good thing. I, for one, would certainly welcome the new owners. As you say, the Vikings are a very well run franchise. Always had a soft spot for them since I was in a booth next to most of the team back in 2015 in a Las Vegas nightclub (Bank in the Bellagio (very much a "look at me" post )).

[Greatwesternline]

If it was the Wilf brothers then we could have won the owners jackpot.

They’ve been transformational for the Vikings, who now have the best facilities, infrastructure and stadium in the NFL.

Not going to get excited though until something confirmed.

Would love to see football run more like the NFL. Now I know there is only 32 teams so not as much competition for fans etc, but NFL franchises are rarely run at a loss. If we could get the same kind of branding and marketing awareness into football, especially in the catchment area that Reading has, that the NFL has, it could help swell the fanbase, which, I think, would only be a good thing. I, for one, would certainly welcome the new owners. As you say, the Vikings are a very well run franchise. Always had a soft spot for them since I was in a booth next to most of the team back in 2015 in a Las Vegas nightclub (Bank in the Bellagio (very much a "look at me" post )).

And then the franchise packs up and leaves if a better offer comes along elsewhere?

It's a basket case.

[Stranded]

If it was the Wilf brothers then we could have won the owners jackpot.

They’ve been transformational for the Vikings, who now have the best facilities, infrastructure and stadium in the NFL.

Not going to get excited though until something confirmed.

Would love to see football run more like the NFL. Now I know there is only 32 teams so not as much competition for fans etc, but NFL franchises are rarely run at a loss. If we could get the same kind of branding and marketing awareness into football, especially in the catchment area that Reading has, that the NFL has, it could help swell the fanbase, which, I think, would only be a good thing. I, for one, would certainly welcome the new owners. As you say, the Vikings are a very well run franchise. Always had a soft spot for them since I was in a booth next to most of the team back in 2015 in a Las Vegas nightclub (Bank in the Bellagio (very much a "look at me" post )).

And then the franchise packs up and leaves if a better offer comes along elsewhere?

It's a basket case.

Its not a basket case, its just a very different system. A lot can be learnt from the good bits re marketing etc without having to take on the franchise nature of the competition.

[rabidbee]

I wonder how well minor league team manage, though. At least they never have to try to compete with recently demoted NFL teams still running with an NFL-size budget.

[BarryWhiteRFC]

Would love to see football run more like the NFL. Now I know there is only 32 teams so not as much competition for fans etc, but NFL franchises are rarely run at a loss. If we could get the same kind of branding and marketing awareness into football, especially in the catchment area that Reading has, that the NFL has, it could help swell the fanbase, which, I think, would only be a good thing. I, for one, would certainly welcome the new owners. As you say, the Vikings are a very well run franchise. Always had a soft spot for them since I was in a booth next to most of the team back in 2015 in a Las Vegas nightclub (Bank in the Bellagio (very much a "look at me" post )).

And then the franchise packs up and leaves if a better offer comes along elsewhere?

It's a basket case.

Its not a basket case, its just a very different system. A lot can be learnt from the good bits re marketing etc without having to take on the franchise nature of the competition.

Exactly this, there is plenty good to be taken away from the running of NFL teams.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Would love to see football run more like the NFL. Now I know there is only 32 teams so not as much competition for fans etc, but NFL franchises are rarely run at a loss. If we could get the same kind of branding and marketing awareness into football, especially in the catchment area that Reading has, that the NFL has, it could help swell the fanbase, which, I think, would only be a good thing. I, for one, would certainly welcome the new owners. As you say, the Vikings are a very well run franchise. Always had a soft spot for them since I was in a booth next to most of the team back in 2015 in a Las Vegas nightclub (Bank in the Bellagio (very much a "look at me" post )).

And then the franchise packs up and leaves if a better offer comes along elsewhere?

It's a basket case.

Its not a basket case, its just a very different system. A lot can be learnt from the good bits re marketing etc without having to take on the franchise nature of the competition.

The nature is fundamentally different and very hard to copy. There are rewards for success and risks associated with failure, but nothing close to those associated with promotion, relegation and European football qualification. The closest we came to learning from their game was the failer launch of the super league which was rightfully castigated.

One big reason we don't have a sensible financial model in this country is that it's fundamentally bloody hard. You don't want to discourage ambitious owners from investing and fans from dreaming of punching above their weight, you don't want a system that entrenches the dominance of those fortunate enough to be at the top of the tree right now. Even as a neutral, you want to see change in the PL. But things such as FFP, wage caps etc., will do exactly this.

Creating a system that prevents clubs getting into ruin without discouraging ambitions and investment is difficult, but not impossible. The politics will doesn't appear to exist in the game to find solutions that tread this line.

If we survive this, you could argue the end point of us in L1 is a very fair reflection of Dai's tenure and is part of the jeopardy that makes our pyramid so great. I think less sympathetic fans of other clubs would say this. But for much of this season the threat has now been relegation but extinction, which is the threat that no set of fans should have to face.

[Ascotexgunner]

If it was the Wilf brothers then we could have won the owners jackpot.

They’ve been transformational for the Vikings, who now have the best facilities, infrastructure and stadium in the NFL.

Not going to get excited though until something confirmed.

Would love to see football run more like the NFL. Now I know there is only 32 teams so not as much competition for fans etc, but NFL franchises are rarely run at a loss. If we could get the same kind of branding and marketing awareness into football, especially in the catchment area that Reading has, that the NFL has, it could help swell the fanbase, which, I think, would only be a good thing. I, for one, would certainly welcome the new owners. As you say, the Vikings are a very well run franchise. Always had a soft spot for them since I was in a booth next to most of the team back in 2015 in a Las Vegas nightclub (Bank in the Bellagio (very much a "look at me" post )).

You mean a superleague....

[tmesis]

If it was the Wilf brothers then we could have won the owners jackpot.

They’ve been transformational for the Vikings, who now have the best facilities, infrastructure and stadium in the NFL.

Not going to get excited though until something confirmed.

Would love to see football run more like the NFL. Now I know there is only 32 teams so not as much competition for fans etc, but NFL franchises are rarely run at a loss. If we could get the same kind of branding and marketing awareness into football, especially in the catchment area that Reading has, that the NFL has, it could help swell the fanbase, which, I think, would only be a good thing.

It's much easier to control costs when there's no rival league for players to sign for, and you can implement a salary cap at whatever level you like, to guarantee profit.

It also helps when you can them limit all clubs to a few major cities.

Had that European super league been set up, and they'd implemented a salary cap*, it would have been hugely successful. A couch potato fan's wet dream.

* of course there wouldn't have been a cap, as Real Madrid and Barcelona wanted a league that from the outset, would have given them a financial advantage over the rest.


Minor league sports over there are very different to teams outside the top division here. Particularly in baseball, club are basically farm teams that exist with the aid of their major league affiliate, for youth development. Mentally it's more like the distinction there used to be between league and 'non-league' in the past, as entirely separate entities.

Crowds, even at the best supported minor league clubs, are far lower than the worst supported major league ones.

It should also be pointed out that historically, the failure rate of minor league clubs in all US sports is horrific. The US adopted its closed shop franchise approach simply because so many clubs were joining the leagues and folding within a year or two. It wasn't about maximising revenue. It was about stopping the leagues looking like basket cases, with multiple clubs folding each year.

[tmesis]

One big reason we don't have a sensible financial model in this country is that it's fundamentally bloody hard. You don't want to discourage ambitious owners from investing and fans from dreaming of punching above their weight, you don't want a system that entrenches the dominance of those fortunate enough to be at the top of the tree right now. Even as a neutral, you want to see change in the PL. But things such as FFP, wage caps etc., will do exactly this.

One thing often overlooked is that football clubs have always overspent and got into a mess.

The difference is that the sums involved now are far bigger. Back in the 80s, when a 3nd tier club losing "£5000 a week" was absolutely shocking, the reality was that there was nearly always a local business rich enough to come in and take over.

Now, a crisis club at the same level will be losing £500,000 a week, and the kind of people able to bail clubs out are much fewer in number.

[WestYorksRoyal]

One big reason we don't have a sensible financial model in this country is that it's fundamentally bloody hard. You don't want to discourage ambitious owners from investing and fans from dreaming of punching above their weight, you don't want a system that entrenches the dominance of those fortunate enough to be at the top of the tree right now. Even as a neutral, you want to see change in the PL. But things such as FFP, wage caps etc., will do exactly this.

One thing often overlooked is that football clubs have always overspent and got into a mess.

The difference is that the sums involved now are far bigger. Back in the 80s, when a 3nd tier club losing "£5000 a week" was absolutely shocking, the reality was that there was nearly always a local business rich enough to come in and take over.

Now, a crisis club at the same level will be losing £500,000 a week, and the kind of people able to bail clubs out are much fewer in number.

Though tbf there seems to be no shortage of idiots lining up to buy clubs and take on these astronomical losses. The flip side of what you describe is that now buyers come from around the world.

[Pepe the Horseman]

From Bloomberg

Chiron Sports Group is in exclusive talks to buy Reading FC, the troubled English football club owned by the Chinese businessman Dai Yongge, according to people familiar with the situation.

Although the article doesn't actually tell us anything we don't already know https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... ckout=true

[Pepe the Horseman]

Someone suggested they could just be working on behalf of the yanks, similar to what they did for Bristol Rovers.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Someone suggested they could just be working on behalf of the yanks, similar to what they did for Bristol Rovers.

There website says investment and advisory, so could be either. They also talk about seeking co investors, so it could be that they're leading but also have investors beyond their 2 main backers.

Their page also mentions "acquisition of a former Premier League team at a significant discount to market" in the pipeline. Hope Dai and his team don't read that and use it as an excuse to bump the price up.

[blythspartan]

If the potential new owners have loaned the club say to £2m to cover costs until the end of the season could they put us into administration if Dai changes his mind and can’t afford to pay them back?