That 'plan' for Melton was just embarrassing. I remember speaking to a surveyor who works on major projects and he said it would be multi multi millions just to get the roads and infrastructure in place before you even started the stadium. I think if Allam had put in a fair offer to buy the KC, it might have happened but I believe he offered peanuts and tried to hold the council to ransom with the Melton plans.
I don't know about those details, TT - but I've been told by someone who isn't prone to 'gossip', that the initial intentions of the club ownership were for the good of the fans and area, as he'd seen or been told about the feelgood factor of the first two Premier League seasons. He also felt he'd been stabbed in the back by a local councillor who helped 'lubricate' the purchase, who had, rightly or wrongly, told him that the land and stadium were a formality and the council would do all they could to help regenerate the club and environs. Everything that happened afterwards seems to be a series of unfortunate events that made things worse. As you write, either side of the argument, it was a huge opportunity lost - Liverpool council are engaged in a thirty year process of transferring council-owned dockland areas into private development and the resulting investment running into hundreds of millions to create parks, public spaces and thousands of homes (Liverpool Waters), so it's not unprecedented for councils to enter the process of handing over largely unused, derelict land.
We’ve not been debt free since Pearson sold up, when Acun bought the club Hull City Tigers Ltd had debts of £48m and the SMC Ltd had debts of £18m. The Allams owed it to themselves, but it was still debt run up because the club wasn’t washing its face.
And who has 'winged it' since? Have the council done anything with it? Has a single brick been laid? Of course he had a plan, he spent £3k drawing them up, which is more than the council had done, or anyone else since has for that matter, you tell me who has come forward since with a plan for the area, in your own time.... The Allams bought the club because they were in danger of losing the cash they had loaned them which was such an amount that they couldn't pay it back and the danger was they could lose the lot if the club went belly up. They had given the club one loan which was paid back with interest then the club came back for more and more, until it got to the stage where they were on the very edge of bankrupcy. I believe the deal was struck after City played Leeds at Elland Road. With a cheque for £20m being written out that night and It was bought with honourable intentions. The level of the debt and amount of unpaid bills, said to be another £20m did not become clear until the deal had been done. The council at the time ruined everything by not playing ball with the owners, in exactly the opposite way they are now playing ball with the owners of HKR. It could have been handled better, that is obvious, and fault lies on both sides, but a deal was there on the table. One side wanted it, the other were not interested. End of.
I seem to recall Waggy knew Tom Courtney because the latter was a City fan, and Courtney had befriended Omar Shariff during the production of the film "Dr Zhivago", hence the latter became a City fan also. Looks like Assem Allam liked hobnobbing with superstars !
The full Hull City first team squad of the 1970/71 Terry Neill season were introduced as guests on Eamond Andrews This Is Your Life programme when it featured Omar Shariff.
I remember reading TC had a dalmatian that he called Waggy (I think it was a piece written by TC for Waggy's testimonial programme) - the joke was that TC didn't know who had the most spots, Waggy the dog or Waggy the footballer!
I could've sworn that the This Is Your Life programme you are referring to was for Tom Courtney rather than Omar Sharif. I think Eamon surprised Tom by knocking on his front door with his 'big red book' accompanied by Waggy and Chillo (or at least that's how I recall it!)
The link you posted also includes John Alderton, the TV actor in the shows "Please Sir", playing a school teacher, "Upstairs, Downstairs" as a chauffeur. Both Alderton & Courtney attended Kingston High School in Hull. If any forum members attended KHS on Pickering Road, am I remembering correctly the fact that there was a bronze statue/bust of aviator Amy Johnson in the front entrance to the school? She had attended KHS when it was on The Boulevard prior to moving to Pickering Road. Sadly in her late 30's she lost her life in the Thames after bailing out when the plane she was piloting ran out of fuel.
I attended KHS in the 1950’s to 1962. The bust of Amy Johnson was at the entrance to the Hall. Alderton was still there when I was , Courtenay had left.
