Ok, so I guess that takes us back to the Cellino promise to buy the stadium. Given this is a prime asset and one that gives anyone buying the club a major incentive to do so / tangible benefit, I don't understand why he would not do this, particularly as he wants to sell up and particularly as he gets a preferrential price on the purchase, on which he can add a mark-up. Either there is a catch he has identified, or he simply does not have the money. He has spent time trying to cut costs among back room staff and the office. Loaned the club money. And has then wasted money on hiring and firing, with potential costs to come on employment tribunals. This pattern of money management appears very erratic. Any half decent monied individual would look to invest and what better than in property, partularly if this increases in value while also saving on rental costs. In addition a property that provides you with an asset that improves your chances of a profitable exit strategy. I think someone has mentioned on the forums that GFH benefit from any stadium purchase without stumping up the cash? Perhaps this is the catch. Surely a business lawyer could sort this out. Otherwise it's back to a lack of funds.
Third option was he simply lied to get the fans on his side... The guy is not to be trusted, he has played the fans since day one, they are now starting to see through him and he is having a mini tantrum, sooner we are cleansed of him the better.
Lied about what though? An intention to buy or about how wealthy he is, or the barriers to buying it?
Doubt well ever know. Safe to say he wont ever buy it. Personally, I dont care. If he has a spare 15m, Id far rather see him buy a proper team first or whoever is next owner. The ground can be bought anytime. Wont be much use owning Elland Road with 10k fans in it in League 1
Ones I can remember... Lied three times about buying the ground, lied that the money received for Ross was going to be used to purchase the ground, said when he brought us we were debt free then later we suddenly we were'nt, selling to a fans group... http://roblufc.org/2015/11/20/so-it-was-just-another-of-your-lies-mr-cellino-by-rob-atkinson/ Lots of similar articles, search for "Cellino lies" and take your pick
History has shown he is not going to significantly invest in the team, a manager, backroom staff, scouts and training facilities. So the threat to sell needs us to be a viable investment option. Without the ground as an asset, he will remain as their are no viable or serious buyers willing to buy thin air.
Yes, but back to the business strategy, rather than his personality because we all know he's not stable in what he says and does. Buying the ground would make investment sense to any decent business person. You are reducing costs by removing rental charges, you have an asset that will add value when you sell. Currently he is in a mindset to sell, but does not have much to sell. Therefore: 1) He does not have the money to buy the stadium. 2) His business efficiencies (cost cutting) is not driven by business acumen as these are potentially offset by other poor business decisions leading to - paying unfair dismissal claims, honouring contracts of sacked managers, nurturing instability in the business and impacting income from attendances. 3) Professional business leaders have come and gone, unable to work in this environment. 4) It is apparent that potential buyers will not pay his valuation - the purchase of thin air... 5) He will not improve team performance. 6) Fans need to demonstrate for change. Rotherham was the last straw.
We are his play thing, normal kids buy Championship Manager, Cellino does it with his inheritance. I believe he wants to get us promoted but by risking as little of his own money as possible. His biggest mistake was believing the Italian second division was on par with the Championship. This year he has realised Serie B players are not good enough, credit where it is due, he did spend this year but it still isn't working because coaches/managers are not being left to get on with it.
The only solution that is worse than Bates and cellino put together. Give your head a shake mate. There are too many scammers, chancers and conmen swimming round Leeds for this to work.
With what? LFU scraped together a half million and donations and planned to raise the balance through outside investment and borrowing. Now unless Im missing something, that means the fans would own about 1% of the club and the rest would be debt. How would that be an improvement?
Seriously all this buying ER is a complete red herring, except for the anti cellinos to use as evidence of his lying. It would not be Cellino buying the ground it would be the club/company. Anybody who owns the club would have the same option to buy, for the club, ER at the fixed price available. If bought during Cellino's tenure it would not make any difference to the selling price of the club. Yes we would have an asset of owning ER but also the Liability of the money borrowed to buy the ground. Why would any prospective buyers care if we owned the ground or not when they would have the same option to buy it for the same price and their cost of borrowing may be cheaper than Cellino's. Also it is not a given that it makes business sense to buy it. I can't remember the figures off the top of my head for the purchase price and annual rent, but I know Leeds cost of borrowing will be pretty high so maybe the interest paid on borrowings to buy ER is higher than the rent paid? And maybe sometime in the glorious future we will want to build a sparkling new ground in which case it maybe be better not to own ER as you would have to sell it and hope that the land is worth more than the price paid to get it back. Serious question if ER was sold for an alternate use would it be worth more or less than the current option to buy price? I genuinely don't know
£16M to buy Elland Road - £2.2M per year rent for Elland Road and Thorpe Arch. You have already paid £22M in rent in 10 years and have nothing to show for it!! Thorpe Arch is differnt - you now have to pay the market value to buy it back!!
