Must be true then if you heard it from someone within the council, because they never lie and are always honest about things that happened..... Let face it, there's the council's version, the Allams version and then somewhere between both of those there is what actually happened.
Allams out
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Must be true then if you heard it from someone within the council, because they never lie and are always honest about things that happened..... Let face it, there's the council's version, the Allams version and then somewhere between both of those there is what actually happened.
I didn't know he expected to pay only £350k. How on earth would he have arrived at that figure?
Since this council member is also a family member of mine, yes. I think I would believe them over the Allams
Before he had the meeting with the council, he spoke to someone with very strong links with both City and the council. He told this person of his intended plans and was told categorically that the council would not accept them. AA’s reply was “they will come on bended knee for my money”.
I presume he took it as a personal insult that they didn’t.
I presume he took it as a personal insult that they didn’t.
Also on the table was over £100m of investment in the area. The simple fact that Assem was even willing to meet the council shows a deal was there to be had. But no 'they laughed him out of the room' instead. What a missed opportunity, what a sad state of affairs. How much investment have Hull City Council attracted to that area since? Or are they still too busy chuckling to themselves?
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What motivated someone who, by his own admission, knew nothing about football, to buy a football club? And while doing so, jumped the queue of those considering and doing due diligence?
Myth, legend, rumour number one. At some time in the past it was let known by the ruling liberals, yes the council would sell the stadium. Standing on Spring Bank, looking south and walking up Walton Street, the property developers eyes lit up. The chance arose to buy City, did so, and went to the council with a plan. The ruling labour council. As detailed above, that went well.
Myth, legend, rumour number two. Allam money had been put into the club to bail out Bartlett, the haste was to protect this interest. Which also possibly explains the outstanding amounts that subsequently crawled out of the woodwork. It was owed to them?
All just that, stories. To fully reveal on here any true insider knowledge would be a gross breach of trust. Let the stories be told.
Myth, legend, rumour number one. At some time in the past it was let known by the ruling liberals, yes the council would sell the stadium. Standing on Spring Bank, looking south and walking up Walton Street, the property developers eyes lit up. The chance arose to buy City, did so, and went to the council with a plan. The ruling labour council. As detailed above, that went well.
Myth, legend, rumour number two. Allam money had been put into the club to bail out Bartlett, the haste was to protect this interest. Which also possibly explains the outstanding amounts that subsequently crawled out of the woodwork. It was owed to them?
All just that, stories. To fully reveal on here any true insider knowledge would be a gross breach of trust. Let the stories be told.
So do you think the council should have given away the stadium and a large area of land on just the promise of investment? Do you think a perceived snub should result in the large scale alienation of the customer base to the detriment of the football club and business? Perhaps someone less arrogant would put personal enmity aside and use that first meeting as a starting point, rather than refusing any further discussion followed by blatant mistruths.
It wasn't 'just stories' The Allams had invested heavily in the previous regime and the loans were at risk. Why did they become involved in a business they had little knowledge of? By accident. They bought a box when the club was box office, this was for their staff and customers. This led, eventually, to the top table. Bartlett and Co had singled them out, with others, I'm sure. The club needed investment and they were prime targets, one loan led to another......
It was a bold and very brave decision to buy the club outright when the Bartlett regime hit the buffers. But, and I'm guessing here, the Allams had little opposition and the money they had owed to them was at risk if the club did actually go into administration.
The whole Allam regime turned sour on the name change and this came about after the horrendous meeting with the council/Terry Geraghty. The only facts there is the one we know, not forgetting, and plenty have, that Assem offered £100k to charity if the minutes from that meeting were made public. They never were. No-one is disputing a deal of some sort was on the table. We don't know the size of it, only what we have heard from, mainly, rumours. A post on here earlier said AA only offered £350k, Phil Ashcough, a prominent independent local journalist recently reproduced an article he wrote at the time after interviewing Assem and Mr Ashcough reported the deal was worth £114m. Who do you believe? Not that it really matters now because the one golden opportunity both club and city had slipped through someone's fingers long ago.
I said a deal was on the table. The council, on their own admission 'laughed it out of the room'
I see no evidence of anyone offering anything like a deal since.
The council bent over backwards to get the Siemens investment. Likewise they have bent over backwards to sell Craven Park, and surrounding land, both HCC 'assets' to HKR.
A deal was there to be had. Nothing happened and nothing has happened since. HU3 is still one of the most deprived areas in Britain, twenty years later.
If you recall, his initial reason for the name change was he didn’t want to give Hull City Council positive recognition around the world through their similarity with our name.
When even he realised this appeared petty, he presented it as a fantastic global marketing opportunity, as Hull Tigers was a shorter name than the Hull City Tigers which we have always been known as. That was incredibly insulting.
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Just because a deal was offered doesn’t mean it should have been accepted. He was advised before making the offer that it would not succeed, he could very easily have agreed to further meetings and between him and the council come up with something that was acceptable to all parties, including the tax payers of Hull. Both sides would seem to be at fault, you make it sound as though it was very one sided.
I didn’t and don’t really care about the stadium offer, the fact is that his arrogance resulted in years of supporter unrest and ultimately had a detrimental affect on the football club.
For a deal to succeed it takes both parties to agree. We heard Assem was 'laughed out of the room'. The council can hammer out deals when it suits them, as I pointed out with Siemens and HKR. Of course it wasn't one sided and I never said it was, there was fault on both sides and a golden opportunity was lost to club and city. Not that it matters now, it's gone, but at least one side did attempt to pump some sort of investment into the place. It takes two to tango.
This does ring true, if the council had adopted AA proposal the name change probably would have never raised its ugly head. When they didn't it seems the name "CITY" which was blazed on the KC stadium included in HCC badge became, as AA put it common and a dirty word and had to be got rid of. Very petty, but it probably what started the whole name change sage.
The club needed investment and they were prime targets, one loan led to another......
The Athletic has learnt Allam first held talks in January 2010 with then owner Russell Bartlett, an Essex-based businessman, proposing to invest £5 million in return for a minority stake. That never materialised but after relegation back to the Championship came an outright takeover bid.
A deal was provisionally agreed that would see Allam take on 80 per cent of the shareholding, with Bartlett retaining 20 per cent of the club he had owned since 2007. A sum of £12 million would be injected into the club in return for equity.
But by December, with the club’s financial health rapidly deteriorating, Allam proposed a new deal: ownership would be relinquished by Bartlett in return for £1. “He felt like he had no option but to agree,” said a source close to the former owner.
Reading that (lifted from this article - https://theathletic.com/2260075/2020/12/16/allams-hull-city/) I cannot decide whether money was put in, or just discussed. It is very ambiguous, "provisionally agreed". But I will accept your statement that they had indeed loaned the club money. The acceptance of this as true, could explain the other debts that far from coming out of the woodwork, he was very well aware of.
A development plan with a budget of 100 million plus is for everything on the right hand side, or left, depending which direction you stroll along Walton Street. The fairground and West Park. It was never going to happen, was it? You would be hard pushed to spend fifty quid, never mind millions, further developing the area on the lease plan. A tad unfair to bandy HU3 into the discussion. It extends way beyond Walton Street, and that was all he wanted. Or Siemens, for obvious reasons. Or really, HKR. Amazing what can happen when there is sweetness and light between the council and business people. Not daily mail front page spats.
All loans/debts must be shown in the accounts, they show there were no monies owed to the Allams until after they took ownership of the club.