There does seem to be far more questions than answers regarding James Brent at present. We are hearing that the majority of his hotels have gone into administration and been bought by other hotel groups. Why is this happening ?......is it because Brent is failing to make any profit......or is Akkeron restructioning it's organization and moving out of this field ? We as Argyle fans wonder how this leaves PAFC.......Brent has never taken on the roll of sugar-daddy.....but he has lent HIS CLUB money to see us through the season. We are told that it will not affect the running of PAFC, the club being completely apart from his other business ventures. But if he is going through hard times at present and is pulling in his reins will that not eventually affect PAFC ? The arrival of Wrathall... buying 5% of Brents PAFC holdings begs the question....has Brent got no more money to help PAFC and Wrathall has supplied that need to see us through the present season. Argyles present form might be more important than we realize.....play-off money would be extra income and a Wembley trip would be as if christmas had come early..... and might keep us away from administration which might be looming without such an end of season bonus. Will Brent tell us what is happening....I doubt it.......PASB seems to be folding with talk of its members resigning....because they are not told what is going on.....they find out after it has already been decided by the PAFC Board and when it has been put into action....a fait accompli situation. The AFT has no real recognition from the club.....but it needs to up its game and press for answers....getting them is another thing.....those that have the favour of the club....certainly won't be rocking the boat.....they have their perks to lose.....but if things are falling apart they will lose those perks anyway.
Well, I don't believe I'll be proved wrong if I say Brent won't be discussing the finances of his hotels in order to make Plymouth Argyle fans happy. The two activities aren't connected. The PAFC board has issued a statement saying the club's finances aren't affected by the hotel issue. That seems pretty categorical and so I'm not sure what else needs to be said. The actual state of the club's finances is a different matter. One thing's for sure: if Brent has been subsidising it, that wasn't going to last forever, hotel crisis or no hotel crisis. We can all agree getting to the play-offs and hopefully being promoted as a result would be a Good Thing... Let's hope for a good crowd on Saturday.
It's all designed by the gods of football to scare the living s*** out of Argyle fans and my temptation is to put my fingers in my ears and sing LALALALALALA very loudly. The problem is we don't know much and are unlikely to in the near future unless the wheels come off totally. I think the crowds will get better if they keep the run going starting this Saturday against Scunny. I predict a 7000 plus crowd. Still a bit of a long shot for me would be a trip to Wembley. The last and one and only time we went we took 35000 there and I believe it was a record league 2 crowd for a play off final at the time. TV money and all the rest would be very welcome even if a chunk of the pennies would be syphoned off to pay the other piper. It's still a long way off though. I'm going to concentrate on football and just hope the other bit goes away.
That's very much the best plan Sensible! Let's enjoy being in the top 10 instead of the bottom 5 for the first time in 5 years!
Brent has always been it for what he can get elsewere in the town .. from the brown envelope gang on the council!! He will just screw the club over.. Who else will have any money to sort this out, such a shame when the team seems to be at last going forward...
I don't even pretend to understand an inkling of this Brent guy and his running of your club over time. However, what does concern me is when owners have other business interests that may impact on a club and it leaves me with a question; What are the legal restrictions on this?
Think we were so grateful that Brent stopped our club from going under we didn't stop to think that we could be getting into bed with the devil ! BRB ...... Whatever Brent wants to do, the council seem to falling over themselves to grant his wishes !
Like i said before GAT scratch the surface make them bleed and you soon find their weakness. So if the council is falling over Brent, then the local authority is accountable to you the taxpayer. You may often experience silence out of a club but you will find those that govern our towns and cities are less likely to want unfavourable attention. I can remember some while back writing a piece on a certain local authority, amazing how quick you can get a response if kept factual.
The restrictions are in the general obligations of directors to behave responsibly towards the company concerned. That last bit is important in that if the same person has several different directorships within a group, they nevertheless owe a duty of care to each company and its creditors individually. The group's wishes are neither here nor there. Clearly when you have 100% ownership, that distinction can become blurred although there's no evidence to suggest it has been with PAFC. Whilst it's given up land to facilitate the Home Park development in return for the uncertain benefits of a new grandstand, it would have lost that land and a lot more besides if it hadn't been rescued from administration. Most of the ways a company can be at risk is by giving support to activities of a sister company which that sister company couldn't finance alone. The saving grace for PAFC is that like most football clubs, it has bu**er all assets or income that could be pledged in support of anyone else so it's unlikely to have happened! The biggest way that football clubs suffer risk from their owners isn't through business transactions as such but if the football club becomes dependent on the owner subsidising it in order to have a better team that it could otherwise afford. Brent has been criticised precisely for NOT doing that but now there are concerns the club will suffer if his businesses are in difficulties. The guy can't win!
Certainly the case with us: no "traditional" football owners interested, only property developers. Preferred bidder was an Irish property consortium which went missing very late in the process almost as mysteriously the Malaysian airliner, leaving us within, what, 48 hours of liquidation and total football oblivion. We can't claim it as an escape as the club was doomed and completely unable to save itself.. so it's a rescue. It's a rescue that won't be possible a second time either, as once the property's gone, it's gone. We'd better keep our noses clean in future.
