What are your thoughts as to whether this will happen whilst Argyle are in the tenure of Brent ! With the Akkerron Hotels Group widely reported not to be thriving so much anymore, what do you think the impact will be on Argyle ? It raises more questions too:- 1. Will the plans for Higher Home Park come into fruition ? 2. Will he still be acquiring The Civic Centre (with all its serious structural faults) and turning it into a hotel. Due to the revelations the council held a meeting this week I assume to discuss the above points. It will be embarrassing for the council who only recently announced that it was moving its offices to Ballard House should this now not take place. 3. Seeing we are losing money even though we have the 2nd highest gates of the league, where the hell are we going to find the money for the balloon payment reported as being £2 million. 4. Will we ever see the "Transparency" we as fans were promised ? 5. Finally is there life on Mars ? These are genuine questions (apart from the Life on Mars one ) and I would like to know what you really think will happen and not what we have been fed will happen.
Hi Gat Q1.....I think so...with fingers crossed.....More difficulties than Brent envisaged...remember he is not experienced in doing such work. Asbestos is a problem...surely he cannot have that removed during the season....Health & Safety rules might stop him,so that would stop the starting date till later in the summer Q2.....not being local I have no idea. Q3....I would be horrified if Brent had not built that repayment into his plans. Q4.....I think Brent has been annoyed by some of the opposition he has found....he thinks it not justified.....so as we have seen with the PASB and the AFT....he will do things without the fans approval....he is not used to opposition...so they can all get lost. Q5.....Only if the TV programme comes back.
Question one. I actually don't think they will. This is based on Brent's current record of not even starting things let alone finishing them. From what I can see he hasn't started one project yet locally and some of them are a tad overdue to say the least. I'm not convinced Brent has the cash to do any of it on his own and it would appear he is having trouble convincing the market place it is a good place for them to chuck their money. Question two. Doubt it. Watch this space for cancellation. You heard it here first. Question three. This one I'm not too sure about. I would have epected there to be a surplus of cash given two things. Our gates which are much higher than anyone else bar a couple. We appear to be sticking to the 55% pay structure and even though there are other expenses on top of wages for players, I would not have expected them to equal the other 45% plus let alone put us into loss. I not convinced we will not be able to meet this payment when due and for all we know we may even be reducing that now by paying extra in advance. Without much meat on the bones of the accounts it is hard to tell what is happening financially. I take notdistant's point that business people only tell who they have to tell the bare minimum. I do find it hard to believe we are losing money. Question four. Don't be silly of course we won't. In all honesty did you really ever expect we would? We WANT to believe or rather WANTED to believe we would get an owner who was up front with everything. However, I think it has been proved beyond any doubt that info is always going to be in short supply and only what Brent wants people to know. I came to this conclusion following the supposed "consultation" regarding HHP at the Theatre Royal and the misinformation handed out. People will never accept the PASB now because it has been discredited over time. Poor elections and an age before anything is published following meetings. Only after doctoring does anything come out from there. Everyone knows it is Brent's poodle. He won't accept the AFT which the supporters would like to be the voice so it's a mexijan stand off. Question five. That's an easy one. Yes, I've seen it on Tele.
Sensible There's profit & loss and then there's cash flow I'm afraid. We may only be spending 55% on wages and therefore be making a profit. However, if that's being used to repay old debts, then the bank balance won't be as healthy as the profit figures might suggest. I don't know what the specific arrangements are, I'm just saying the above is true as a principle. On the issue of transparency, I will remind you that the fans were asked to come up with a sum of money to inject into the club (not the property developments before someone says it) in return for a place on a supervisory board which I imagine would at least have to have been privvy to the long term financial plan. Other fan groups have done more: Portsmouth and our dear neighbours Exeter come to mind. As a group, we didn't and so I don't think there's much room to complain about a lack of openness.
Q1. Yes- I've had quite a lot of contact behind the scenes with various club officials recently (NOT hhp related)- everyone I talk to expect work to start in the close season- of course they could be towing the party line, but i think they all genuinely believe it will happen. Q2. no idea and don't care, I suspect it depends on what the contract says...... Q3. I suspect the club will worry about it when it is due (but will have a vague plan)- a bit like a lot of people with an interest only mortgage. Q4. The trouble with being transparent that he will be criticized whatever he says. i.e. if he is transparent and says cash flow is a current problem some factions will claim he has mismanaged the club. Frankly the internal workings of the boardroom are not my concern so don't really care what we are told or when. He was roundly slated for saying he hoped to start the new stand after the Portsmouth match and not being able to start, so no idea why he would want to be transparent and tell joe public anything he doesn't have to. (so NO) Q5. probably
