Potential New Owners

[Royal Ginger]

Hope for a consortium with a name that sounds like it was found in a z-grade spy novel to be our saviours may be misplaced.

Rarely do faceless corporations with no obvious personal investment turn out to be the good guys in the eyes of those who care about the institution.

I don’t really want to hear much more saviour worship for ‘Red Bird’.

[Snowflake Royal]

Hope for a consortium with a name that sounds like it was found in a z-grade spy novel to be our saviours may be misplaced.

Rarely do faceless corporations with no obvious personal investment turn out to be the good guys in the eyes of those who care about the institution.

I don’t really want to hear much more saviour worship for ‘Red Bird’.

So you're not interested in a group with a positive track record who seem to operate in a way that would suit us?

You'd rather bank on someone with personal investment materialising out of nowhere, like Anton Zingarevich or Dai Yongge?

[Royal Ginger]

I dunno man, but I have a nagging feeling that if you asked an AI to generate pictures of a bunch of lizards dressed as people you’d get https://redbirdcap.com/people/

The acceptance and worship of a corporation few if any of us will have been aware of until Beardy McWeirdo shows up and anoints them out saviours just isn’t sitting comfortably with me.

I’d prefer an unspectacularly dull owner who can just about keep us ticking over than ‘emphasis on capital appreciation and compounding equity’.

It’s all kinds of slimy gross, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers.

[WestYorksRoyal]

I dunno man, but I have a nagging feeling that if you asked an AI to generate pictures of a bunch of lizards dressed as people you’d get https://redbirdcap.com/people/

The acceptance and worship of a corporation few if any of us will have been aware of until Beardy McWeirdo shows up and anoints them out saviours just isn’t sitting comfortably with me.

I’d prefer an unspectacularly dull owner who can just about keep us ticking over than ‘emphasis on capital appreciation and compounding equity’.

It’s all kinds of slimy gross, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers.

Where would we find an unspectacular owner who keeps us ticking over? What does that even mean?

The EFL pyramid is entirely unsustainable, and "ticking over" in L1 would be downgrading our academy to Cat 3 or 4, cutting back on Bearwood and even then the unflashy owner is probably still putting in £1m or £2m a year to cover losses. Who would be interested in a project like that?

Or you can look at a model where player sales allow you to punch above your weight, which may involve short term investment but which would ultimately give you a better value asset. I know which I prefer. And I can see why investors would be interested, as we have the infrastructure there.

[Royal Ginger]

It means someone with an interest and enough disposable to fund the team in such a way that it can exist with occasional chances of taking a step up and making them some extra cash but who isn’t either hellbent on a meteoric rise to the premier league nor a faceless corporation which is looking to ‘leverage fungible assets’.

Don’t know where that person is found, I don’t have the answers, I’m just asserting that I find the quick adoption of a bunch of emotionless corporate types to be our saviours as unpalatable.

[Snowflake Royal]

I dunno man, but I have a nagging feeling that if you asked an AI to generate pictures of a bunch of lizards dressed as people you’d get https://redbirdcap.com/people/

The acceptance and worship of a corporation few if any of us will have been aware of until Beardy McWeirdo shows up and anoints them out saviours just isn’t sitting comfortably with me.

I’d prefer an unspectacularly dull owner who can just about keep us ticking over than ‘emphasis on capital appreciation and compounding equity’.

It’s all kinds of slimy gross, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers.

We heard about Red Bird first separate to Storey, and people were already saying they looked like the best option of a not great field of options before they got (rightly or wrongly) associated with Storey.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

It means someone with an interest and enough disposable to fund the team in such a way that it can exist with occasional chances of taking a step up and making them some extra cash but who isn’t either hellbent on a meteoric rise to the premier league nor a faceless corporation which is looking to ‘leverage fungible assets’.

Don’t know where that person is found, I don’t have the answers, I’m just asserting that I find the quick adoption of a bunch of emotionless corporate types to be our saviours as unpalatable.

I'm all for someone who can offer us more financial stability than what we have had, although Dai did pump a lot of money in, is there really a problem with someone with deep pockets who can fund us to improve us, but actually do it sensibly?

[WestYorksRoyal]

It means someone with an interest and enough disposable to fund the team in such a way that it can exist with occasional chances of taking a step up and making them some extra cash but who isn’t either hellbent on a meteoric rise to the premier league nor a faceless corporation which is looking to ‘leverage fungible assets’.

Don’t know where that person is found, I don’t have the answers, I’m just asserting that I find the quick adoption of a bunch of emotionless corporate types to be our saviours as unpalatable.

I just think any serious investor will realistically want to make money out of us. Nobody will want to help fund losses so that we can be a comfortable mid table side. Even SJM ultimately had ambitions of PL football and selling us on for a profit, which he achieved.

Now this doesn't have to involve PL this time. The landscape has changed since SJM with increased parachute payments, and you normally need a financial bazooka to crash the top flight, or a season where you get lucky with injuries etc., and sneak through the play offs like Luton. So Red Bird could be happy with the Championship, but even then you'd need the "moneyball" player selling model to sustain us. Mid sized clubs living within their means struggle in the Championship now, due to the wage distortion from parachute payments and over ambitious owners.

[The Royal Forester]

It means someone with an interest and enough disposable to fund the team in such a way that it can exist with occasional chances of taking a step up and making them some extra cash but who isn’t either hellbent on a meteoric rise to the premier league nor a faceless corporation which is looking to ‘leverage fungible assets’.

Don’t know where that person is found, I don’t have the answers, I’m just asserting that I find the quick adoption of a bunch of emotionless corporate types to be our saviours as unpalatable.

I just think any serious investor will realistically want to make money out of us. Nobody will want to help fund losses so that we can be a comfortable mid table side. Even SJM ultimately had ambitions of PL football and selling us on for a profit, which he achieved.

Now this doesn't have to involve PL this time. The landscape has changed since SJM with increased parachute payments, and you normally need a financial bazooka to crash the top flight, or a season where you get lucky with injuries etc., and sneak through the play offs like Luton. So Red Bird could be happy with the Championship, but even then you'd need the "moneyball" player selling model to sustain us. Mid sized clubs living within their means struggle in the Championship now, due to the wage distortion from parachute payments and over ambitious owners.

I think this is misleading, If I remember correctly SJM said when he took over the club, that his ambition was to get us into the top flight, (not ultimately, as you put it). At the time I am sure he didn't intend to selling us on having reached his ambition. He, and we, had no idea at the time how much it would cost to keep us there.

[Greatwesternline]

It means someone with an interest and enough disposable to fund the team in such a way that it can exist with occasional chances of taking a step up and making them some extra cash but who isn’t either hellbent on a meteoric rise to the premier league nor a faceless corporation which is looking to ‘leverage fungible assets’.

Don’t know where that person is found, I don’t have the answers, I’m just asserting that I find the quick adoption of a bunch of emotionless corporate types to be our saviours as unpalatable.

I just think any serious investor will realistically want to make money out of us. Nobody will want to help fund losses so that we can be a comfortable mid table side. Even SJM ultimately had ambitions of PL football and selling us on for a profit, which he achieved.

Now this doesn't have to involve PL this time. The landscape has changed since SJM with increased parachute payments, and you normally need a financial bazooka to crash the top flight, or a season where you get lucky with injuries etc., and sneak through the play offs like Luton. So Red Bird could be happy with the Championship, but even then you'd need the "moneyball" player selling model to sustain us. Mid sized clubs living within their means struggle in the Championship now, due to the wage distortion from parachute payments and over ambitious owners.

I think this is misleading, If I remember correctly SJM said when he took over the club, that his ambition was to get us into the top flight, (not ultimately, as you put it). At the time I am sure he didn't intend to selling us on having reached his ambition. He, and we, had no idea at the time how much it would cost to keep us there.

The financial crisis crippled him personally. He'd invested all his spare money in property developments around the station and the value of those developments nose dived. On top of that he banked with RBS and after the financial crisis RBS were screwed and called in their overdrafts from SMEs, which was one of the main reasons Madejski couldnt cope eventually. We had a £10m overdraft facility i think which Sir John said he had to finance out of his own pocket when RBS came calling. This combined with the failure of the redevelopment in good time, and also his printing business basically shut up shop.

[From Despair To Where?]

That sort of benevolent owner disappeared out of the game 20+ years ago. The sort of money required these days for a club with our infrastructure to even stand still will only come from consortiums, hedge funds or billionaires. The financial landscape of football has changed irrevocably.

The likes of Madejski are just not prepared to write off £13m each year.

[Royal_jimmy]

That sort of benevolent owner disappeared out of the game 20+ years ago. The sort of money required these days for a club with our infrastructure to even stand still will only come from consortiums, hedge funds or billionaires. The financial landscape of football has changed irrevocably.

The likes of Madejski are just not prepared to write off £13m each year.

Madejski probably barely has £13m left

[Stranded]

That sort of benevolent owner disappeared out of the game 20+ years ago. The sort of money required these days for a club with our infrastructure to even stand still will only come from consortiums, hedge funds or billionaires. The financial landscape of football has changed irrevocably.

The likes of Madejski are just not prepared to write off £13m each year.

Madejski probably barely has £13m left

Poor bloke.

[Orion1871]

That sort of benevolent owner disappeared out of the game 20+ years ago. The sort of money required these days for a club with our infrastructure to even stand still will only come from consortiums, hedge funds or billionaires. The financial landscape of football has changed irrevocably.

The likes of Madejski are just not prepared to write off £13m each year.

Madejski probably barely has £13m left

Poor bloke.

Perhaps we should all crowdfund for him to get to £14m.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Lots of worrying stories coming out about 777 partners as they go through approval for Everton. Looks like we dodged a bullet there.

[Snowflake Royal]

They sounded pretty dodgy.

[Royal_jimmy]

Let's hope one of us wins £100m on the euromillions.

[J1A7Y]

Let's hope one of us wins £100m on the euromillions.

£100m? Buying the club with it, yes. But you’d have to sell it pretty sharpish if that’s all you have.

[WestYorksRoyal]

The club will already be worth less than it was a month ago. Dai's delusion will stop a sale.

If you look at Southend, where the owner had unrealistic expectations, a deal was only struck when it was liquidation or accepting. That's where we need to get to. Hurry up HMRC.

If Dai is here next season, expect the same cycle in L2; the only saving grace is that only 2 teams get relegated. However bad this season gets, it needs to be resolved this season so that the new owner has time to stabilise and ensure L2 is as bad as it gets.

[Stranded]

Frankly no longer care who buys us, close to even welcoming the fantasist Storey at this point.

This is a slow painful death that will see us as a non-league side, at best, before we know it - either by 2 more relegations or as a phoenix club.

Whilst getting a new owner could make things worse, it is literally the only way it gets better.