Yes the Council didn't want to run it. The original intention was for an arms length company to run it. That fell through and Adam Pearson took it on. He then sold it to Bartlett, who in turn sold it to the Allams.
I thought there was a requirement that the SMC had to be sold with the club. This was put in to prevent another Lloyd situation where the club was locked out of the ground.
The Council own the freehold. The SMC own a long term lease which gives them the right to use the stadium and the Airco etc.
As I said, I suspect that's exactly what we are hearing via interviews such as this. The fact that they're not doing it themselves is good news in my eyes, shows they don't want to completely burn bridges.
£6m for the same company (SMC) that the Allams have previously attempted to say was loss making and would continue to be for the foreseeable future!!!! Laughable! Realistically in the past I believe they mentioned 'discovering' c£1.3m worth of debt in the SMC that was not disclosed at the time of the take over and which they have since had to settle as part of their corporate responsibilities. No doubt though this would be subject to a seperate claim against the previous owners and/or third parties involved in the DD and the transaction. If this genuinely is the reason the sale isn't going ahead then frankly does reflect well on either the sellers of the prospective buyers.
Why does it not reflect well on the buyers in your opinion? If you'd agreed to buy a car then as you were about to take possession the seller said: oh by the way I'm keeping ownership of the keys. If you want to use the car you'll need to pay me an annual fee, which I'll be setting. Unless you pay me an additional fee to buy them too. I think you'd feel you'd been taken for a ride....rather than going for one as you had expected.
I'm looking at it simply from a point of principle and terms/positioning of any prospective take over deal. It should have been indellably part of the deal to such an extent that Allam would not see it has any sort of an opportunity to extort further funds as part of the deal. Then again in fairness to the sellers they are not at face value dealing with individuals who give a jot for any of their stakeholders If the rumoured new sponsorship deal to be announced shortly has changed the terms of the deal I can understand
I guess the point is that very early in a sale negotiation, the buyer needs to be certain about what it is he is buying.
It sounds like they knew what they were buying. The Allams realised how much money the Americans could make by developing the site and changed the goal posts. The Americans then walked out. If they are still interested the price of the club is likely to fall if we struggle over the coming months.
I'd like to see how they come to the £6m figure for a company they said was loss making only a very short time ago.
Los of companies make a loss but their shares trade higher by the day... It's abut future potential, not how much it makes now. And why are people STILL comparing this with buying a car. It's on a way different level....
It was either plucked from the air by Assem Allam has he ate his breakfast or else he knew broadly what the Americans planned to do with the area around the ground and how much money it would generate.
