As much as it pains me there is a very interesting thread on PASOTI at the moment which I would advise people at the least have a gander at. It's titled "Development at Home Park" and it does make interesting reading if some of the posts are a little long. It sort of spells out what Brent potentially got for his saving of the club and what he sort of stands to gain. My interpretation of it is that we still don't know if Brent will turn out to be a saint as he is now being feted as or a sinner in the long run whose only motive was to set up a damned good property development deal and will cut and run when it suits. There is plenty of food for thought in some of the postings on there. I'm not into pasting a copy of the thread on here so either somebody else will have to do it or you would have to go on to PASOTI to read for yourselves. Interested to see what some of you think of the hypothesis.
How you interpret this depends on your view of property development: is it always a conspiracy against the people or is it capable sometimes of enhancing facilities for the community and providing employment albeit with - shock horror - somebody making some money out of it. You won't be surprised that I subscribe to the 2nd view and I can't see how becoming part of a newly developed sports & leisure complex up at that end of Central Park, built from public or private finance, does Home Park or Argyle any harm. Surely it was clear that all the bidders were predominately interested in the property development. I don't see Brent as either saint or sinner - he's a businessman, of good character as far as I know, who rescued the club from the brink of annihilation. He never talked about pumping big money into the club but just putting it back on its feet so it could finance itself. It's largely now up to the fans to put the money in.
I'm not a conspiracy person by nature and I don't think Brent will turn out to be a sinner in the end. I agree also that he never promised us the moon and it seems he has kept his word so far with what has been stated. However when you sort of spell out the two scenarios in black and white and you know there are two options in the end it does kind of show what might be to the detriment of the club rather than it's gain. I don't think he wil dump the club either and what seems to be proposed cannot harm us in any way. The thing is that if the above was about Heaney and not Brent then people would be jumping up and down by now in condemnation even if the outcomes could be the same. Everyone would be expecting a building and a dumped football club.
We can only speculate what Heaney might or might not have done but you are right in saying that many were against him, rightly or wrongly, and that in itself is a benefit from him having dropped by the wayside. Let's not forget that he's been a "good thing" for Truro City's football progress, even if it is maybe getting overstretched financially at the moment. What does worry me is that those who were so keen to prejudge Heaney may turn against Brent at some point when it becomes clear he's not going to do an mini-Abramovich and buy the club success. That would be most unfair as he never said he intended to do that and we weren't exactly over-run with potential saviours!
I agree with you notDistantGreen that your second interpretation sounds probably how James Brent sees it as well. Enhancing the facilities in the Home Park vicinity can only be a plus for the football club and it's long turn value. After three years of famine for PAFC it is easy to see conspiracy theory in everything that happens around the club.........but things might now be bottoming out.......and we might bump along the bottom for awhile before we see a definate upward movement in our fortunes. OK we might lose at Torquay today and might be dumped out of the FA Cup on Tuesday............but it is more important that we lift ourselves out of the relegation spots and survive in the Football League for next season. Who knows then what next season will offer..........I might be proven wrong and Fletcher might start to pull things around............or a new manager with experience that we can afford might by then be in the driving seat.
The love affair with Brent will last a while yet but it is without doubt that it will end and the critics will come out of the woodwork if things start to look even average rather than successful. People have very short memories a bit like goldfish. They will urge the club spends this and spends that when clearly they won't have the money despite nearly disappearing. This is the way of the supporter unfortunately who have more passion for success than cash to assist in it's attainment. On PASOTI already there are people expecting purchases with the same old arguments about relegation being more expensive than splashing cash. I found the PASOTI article interesting though regarding this topic which is why I brought it up on here. It amazes me how a group of people can see the same development by two different people to be eitherr good or bad depending on which one undertook it. Perhaps it says a lot about James Brent's PR.
