The lack of financial transparency and the fact that he feels the need to hide absolutely everything then make claims without proof in his interviews is enough.
The amount we buy it for is a set figure. You talk about Bates trying to bend teh facts to make his point seem more valid, this is exactly what you are attempting to do. Marko, the lack of investment in the squad is worrying. I do understand that we need some money put together to buy back ER and TA however it still seems as though we could spend more on playing staff in the short term. Also business is a dark art, you don't want every **** and his cousin knowing what your doing so yes you do generally keep it a secret. Its always been like this, Bates isn't the first to do so. But then he can't win, fans are asking for transparency so he gives it and tells exactly how much we are spending on wages and gets shot down for it. Keeping it secret is best for him personally as well as the club as well as the fans
The numbers change every time he mentions them as well. He's not to be trusted at all. We've seen plenty to give us cause for concern, very little to argue the other way. He'd get away with a lot more if he were more understanding of the fans views instead of talking down to us as if we're insignificant and he's our lord and savior. That's another thing, he never admits fault. For anything. The transfer policy is appalling, the lack of transparency means he's no evidence to back up his ridiculous claims that aren't consistent with what we're seeing or even with what he's said in the past. Where's this iron-clad contract that says the ground and TA must be sold back to us at a set price that doesn't change?
We have. It was months or even years ago. Too many shady deals for him to be defended. All evidence points towards something being wrong and since he's not providing any evidence to prove he's doing best by the club, I've no option but to distrust him. With the size of this club there's no way we can only afford such a pitiful transfer budget with the amount we're paying for tickets, merchandise and pretty much everything. The sales of Delph and other players should have paid for the development work so where is the rest of the money going? There's been well over £8 million in profit from player sales, and that money certainly isn't going into wages with such a tight budget. On top of that, all the merchandise money and ticket money, where the hell is it all going?
Marko, it's academic anyway. As I recall, Leeds City Council wouldn't loan us the money to buy at the agreed rate, so from now on it's market rate.
Exactly. I just worked out that with a very conservative estimate of the average ticket price per game of £27, we're pulling in over £14 million a season with an average attendance of 23000 over the 23 league games we play at Elland Road. On top of that there's an obscene amount of merchandise and all the player sales and program sales, booze and food and drinks and whatever. Then there's TV money, and cup games. The scum game will have brought in about a million just in ticket sales. Where the hell is all this money going?
Well ok fair enough so lets say the attendance money pays for player wages and agent's fees (its a little bit more but in the big scheme of things not that much more). You've then got the managers wages and coaches wages and what not along with the annual salaries of everyone else at the club to cover. You've then got the money that we spend yearly on renting the stadium and thorp arch, we then spend around lets say 500k to 1mil a year on buying players (as in we spent on Lonergan, Pugh). Bates has openly said we have around 25%-50% of the gradel money still and we also have the Howson money, whether that will be spent on players I dont know. We are also saving money to buy Elland Road and Thorp Arch so we probably have a decent size of money saved already in preparation for that. We also reportedly spent 3m on the Stadium with the company who owns it spending 4m (overall cost of the developing of the stadium was 7m). To me, its all about there. I don't see much else that is supposedly being 'hidden in monaco'. All my point is is that just because you don't understand why Bates is doing something doesn't mean its not in the best interest of the club
How much would you estimate that is though. I mean what i said was a hell of a lot more than 14m, more likely around 25m. I've heard the number of 27m a year everything included is what we get but I can't say for sure because I have no source (unlike boab).
Why do you think Bates didnt want to buy it back for the set figure (small in comparison to what he will charge us when all the works have been complete) He co owns Elland Road with Caddicks, its run the same way leeds was through a company in the offshore isles!
Josh, any other person running Leeds United in this way and I probably wouldn't question it because on the surface it all sounds perfectly reasonable, and he plays on that. But the man cannot be trusted. His business history and the frequency with which he lies is enough to not trust him. He is totally unsympathetic with the fans and always has been. The way he treats us alone should be enough to want him out. If he could let go of his ego, show understanding of the fans point of view and just admit he's made a few wrong decisions - which he has, even if he is a shrewd businessman, he's not infallible (I personally don't think he is) - then we'd all just let it go. People often say Leeds and bates are a perfect match because everyone hates us both, I do not agree. He's got the "me against the world" mentality down to a tee, but he lacks one quality typical of Yorkshirefolk - honesty. How you can want a man in charge who constantly shows he shouldn't be trusted is enough to question anything he says.
