What do we all think about this? For me, David Conn gets it spot on in his Guardian piece where he ponders why the Forward Sports Fund A. sold to Bates and didn't attract the attention of wealthy Arabs/Americans B. were so reluctant about making their names public but still made contact with Bates C. did not disclose the fee of the sale To me, the conclusion is obvious. Forward was always a puppet controlled by Bates and he's effectively sold the club back to himself. For pennies, no doubt. The positives have to be that Bates is now fully accountable, when we're griping about ticket prices, investment and other cockups at Elland Road, there's no doubt whatsoever that the buck stops with K.W. Bates.
I honestly don't know what I think of KB, and the ownership things tends to hurt my head. I could be easily convinced he is a complete twat though. All I know is ã516!! And **** knows how much new ST holders have to pay.
ã620 is what some on Twitter have predicted. Insane money, and I'm probably going to be paying it.
It's quite simple to understand. Bates owned Leeds before, just hidden behind a maze of companies. I believe he also owns elland road and thorp arch. Just don't expect him to ever admit it. His hand was forced with the recent "takeover", but he can't be forced into disclosing the owners of the ground or training facilities
We know that Elland Road is owned by the Teak Trading Company which is another of these offshore company mazes but Thorp Arch is owned by a property developer called Jacob Adler. I don't think he has any previous links to Bates so he could be a genuine worry if he wants to develop the land round there and we don't cough up the fee for it.
Fair enough, but surely at today's reduced construction and land costs, it would be just as cheap to build a new thorp arch training facility as buy the old one. I suspect, while thorp arch was state of the art at one time, they could probably even improve on it now. I think there has been far too much emphasis on buying it back. Eland road is a different matter as it is an enormous part of our history, training facility isnt
That's quite possible, I'm not exactly sure about the buyback details now our ã6m option has passed. I believe the only way we could reacquire it now would be a full (ã20m?) purchase from Adler - it's definitely a Premiership-standard facility but you're right, it might just be less hassle to build TA Mk II if Adler's going to hold us to ransom. Agree about Elland Road, we're lucky in that we have a fantastic, historical stadium which we won't need to move away from if we need to extend. We could build it to pretty much any accepted stadium capacity in the location it's in. A vital one to get back from Teak TC, whoever they may be.
That's quite possible, I'm not exactly sure about the buyback details now our ã6m option has passed. I believe the only way we could reacquire it now would be a full (ã20m?) purchase from Adler - it's definitely a Premiership-standard facility but you're right, it might just be less hassle to build TA Mk II if Adler's going to hold us to ransom. Agree about Elland Road, we're lucky in that we have a fantastic, historical stadium which we won't need to move away from if we need to extend. We could build it to pretty much any accepted stadium capacity in the location it's in. A vital one to get back from Teak TC, whoever they may be.
with a bit of luuk our problem will be solved---some kind deranged fan may kill the cockney bastard---very slowly may i add p.s am i deranged---?????????
