....every time he has a microphone put to his mouth Allam Snr causes controversy. I'm getting right royally pissed off with this spat between him and the council. A time of celebration has been spoiled by more petty squabbling. FFS
Mr Allam has every right to tell the Council to go do one. Allam is running a business and is a successful businessman. If he wants a private party for his staff and loyal supporters then he should be allowed to have one. Well done Mr Allam for one he has my full support.
I'm completely with Allam on this one. It's about time we cut ties with the council, all they do is hold this city and the club back.
He's not exactly re-opened the stadium situation. We've been promoted, and have refused the council's civic reception. People have asked why. That's the only reason for reopening this spat.
An unsatisfactory situation which threatens to taint our promotion success. Allam now appears to have crossed the line between commercial interest and entered 'this time it's personal' territory. He was live on Look North earlier and unfortunately Peter Levy's poor interviewing technique meant we missed the real story. AA said he was waiting for a call from the council . Levy failed to explore the 'from whom and about what?', and then asked a similar but different question about the stadium to which AA replied "No I don't what the stadium now". Confusing and contradictory. AA rambles a bit and his English is not always great. Levy is not really interested in the fine details of the story. Everyone is a loser in this spat. Still reckon we need Alan Johnson to mediate. Here's hoping.
You mean like giving us a state of the art 25,000 seat stadium for free when we were playing in front of 5,000 fans at the bottom of the bottom division in a crumbling, decaying hole and thus encouraging someone to buy the club and change the entire course of its history? Yeah those bastards really hold the club back...
Most in the council were apparently dead against the idea of the KC though. It was Pat Doyle who pushed the idea through and he is no longer the leader of the council and in no way should these lot be able to take the credit for that even if they are from the same party. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong as I was too young to really take notice of this at the time but it is what I have generally read on the situation.
Yep, you're wrong. The ruling Labour Party, in the face of huge national criticism for what was seen as wasting money which 'could be spent better elsewhere in the city with the worst GCSE results in the UK', were largely on favour of the development. Pat Doyle and Tom McVie led the project with in party support, it just happened to be that those against it - such as non sporty Colin Inglis - were extremely vocal, yet even he conceded post completion that it had merit and commissioned the obelisk in recognition of Pat Doyle's vision. Adam has said publicly many, many times that without the council building the stadium he never would've looked at buying us. The whole Lib Dem party were vehemently against the entire project.
I'd agree the local MPs do need to mediate. The thing is - the council have made it personal for a while. Gerraghty has been ready to jump on the radio and slam the Allams for anything. He was straight on there telling Mr Allam to get it sorted when the Johnny Whitely situation came about - yet was strangely quiet when it was revealed that Hull FC had consciously made a decision to stop paying the rent for those items - and was even more quiet when it came out about the 300k subsidy FC get. The council's position seems to be that of FC fans who are terrified of having their ground taken away. That's no place for elected councillors to start. They have power , but they won't use it. Most of them are old school socialists - if they are standing by their ideological belief that public property should not be sold off - then let them be honest about that, and not just hide behind the "we don't know what's on offer" card. You find out what's on offer by negotiating. As it stands it seems like the council are saying they'll be happy for things to move forward as long as everything stays the same. That's ridiculous. One thing that can't be maintained is the Status Quo. If the council are set that they will not be selling the stadium - then its their responsibility to lay out a future for it. It's fast losing it's "new stadium" shine. The annual situation with the pitch deterioration needs resolving - and that should not be funded by the Allams. The SMC should not be reliant on their generosity. How are the council planning on capitalising on the Premier League?
The same council who have turned down a chance to have the area surrounding the KC rejuvenated, a project which would have created much needed jobs and raised the city's profile. The KC was great when we were division 3 but now with the revenue being a premier league club brings in, we can't afford to not maximise the potential we have. For some reason the council seem to want to put their hands over their eyes and wait till it's over. And don't get me started on our Lord Mayor, a man who thought it was fine to slag the club off but now would happily jump at the chance to be stood on the City hall balcony basking in the glory.
I'm not really taking sides in this dispute, as both arguments have pros and cons. The main issue is that the best outcome for HCFC, the prosperity of the local area, the wellbeing of the stadium etc are all a distant second to the ideological/personal duel that is taking place. Allam has upped the stakes with this non parade fiasco. You can bet he will keep bringing it up every chance he gets with national and international media who now seek his time and words. Surely Brady & Gerraghty now realise they are being put in the firing line, and will be served up by the non local media? That's when Johnson or Milliband may have to intervene if it becomes a national embarrassment. The idiot dark side mp Karl Turner spoke some meaningless words on this on Look North but to no effect. Fasten your seatbelts.
I never said they were without fault, The Lord Mayor has made a complete cock of himself and Geraghty is a fool. However to say 'all they've done is hold us back' is very blinkered. And I have said all along on every post - you can check - that I think the council refusing to hand a £54million asset over for free is 100% the right decision.
That's pretty much my attitude. I'm a socialist at heart, so finding myself against the council and tending to lean towards the multi-millionaires on this is a bit of an uncomfortable position for me - but you've got to look at it from the point of view of what's best for the City. The council are far from powerless. If Hull CC was in No Overall Control at the minute, then the lack of movement could be justified. We have a majority council, who can get most things through now. All forms of planning and regulations can be laid down at City Hall. Yet the council behave like Allam holds all the cards. Even the Siemen's site needed the council's planning permission - so the idea that the Allams could do what they wanted with the site is frankly ludicrous. I'm not saying the Allams are 100% right, or should be allowed to do what they want because they've given gifts to the city. But the council needs to grow a pair and start acting like the majority council it is, and actually start putting some alternatives forward - if the Allam plan isn't right. We've got a second bite at the Premier League - we may not get a third. They have to get this right.
Aye, perhaps saying all they've done has held us back is a bit too far. I think it's fairer to say decisions in the last 10 years or so haven't been good enough. It seems that a lot of ideas in this city never reach their potential. The Deep, Marina and KC could be utisiled far better but instead they just sit there waiting for someone to come along and turn them into real money makers. Allam comes along and has a vision for the area around the KC but is held back by a timid council. Sure, don't give the KC up for free but the positives that can be brought into the area are too big to the council to dismiss outright.
If the Allam's want the stadium for free then I would be against that. If the Allam's wanted to buy the stadium then that is different but I can see the argument for keeping the stadium in the ownership of the "City" because then the football club would always have a home whoever the owners are. On the other hand I can see the Allam's point that the stadium would need to be extended for a prolonged stay in the Premier League and he would not want to pay for this when the place didn't belong to him. He did say on LN that long term he thinks we will move form the KC for that very reason. I suppose there are pros and cons in both these situations.
17 years old and already wiser and more savvy than some of the older gobshites on here. Adam, I'm pleased fans like you are the future of our great club.
Depends what handing that £54 million asset is worth to the city, and if they can hold Allam to his word and not allow him to get the stadium trough deceit. At face value, if Leicesters owners were proposing such a move and we had a dinosaur council who turned it down over their dislike of football, I would be extremely pissed off, in fact I would be extremely pissed off if the council didn't do their utmost to make this deal go through. Obviously there will be more behind the scenes none of us will know about. It's easy for you untrusting yorkshiremen to turn your noses up at, but I've said before, I'm extremely jealous you have an entrepreneur proposing these kind of facilities which I'd love us to have around here, and utterly bewildered your council are doing their most to turn it down. Other than ownership of the stadium benefitting the club, I'm completely neutral in regards to this situation, and as an outsider who's read a lot into both sides of the argument, it's ****ing ridiculous more isn't being done to get this going ahead. In fact it's not ****ing ridiculous, it's stupidly, ******edly, moronically, shamefully, abysmally pathetic that both sides seem to have just said "nerr **** off" and slammed the door. It's such a good idea.
The council seem to instinctively believe Allam is 'hostile' and any of his plans are to resisted. Fine. But what's the council plan to develop the area, stadium and help our football club? None. **** all. Zilch. Just sit tight and say no to any suggestions. And watch our stadium visibly rot.
