Well today was P day where PCC did their best or worst for our football club. The planning application was passed. To be honest I never thought it wouldn't be but a bit of me hoped that somebody somewhere might stick an oar in and Brent would be forced to up the size of it. I never thought they would but there is no harm in dreaming otherwise we wouldn't be football supporters. This, unless somebody somewhere throws up obstacles, condemns Argyle to a pint sized ground which, from what I can see will generate pretty much bugger all for the football bit. A sad day for the club and supporters or a glad day? There are arguments for both but I nail my colours to the sad day pole. It's not so much the size that matters in this case because to make an argument for bigger seems quite futile when you look at our support over the last 10 years or so. Without the blinkers in place that argument gets shot to pieces quite easily. It's the revenue from the development which I was led to believe would belong to the club solely when the plans were first shown in the Theatre Royal but seems is not destined for them at all. Infact it seems now that either little or none will be coming our way unless people book conferences every other day. All the rest of the revenue it appears now goes to pay for the new grandstand. So much for getting it for nothing. The more I see of the way Brent wheels and deals, and lets face it downright lies through his teeth, the more I think it was a sad day that we didn't just let the club fade away. Keeping it alive on life support just to make a few quid for the Owner seems like picking a dying entity clean before casting it out and makes him worse than a vulture. I don't mind the guy making a profit on development but misleading the people to get it is another matter. We all thought Heaney would be a disaster but would he have been any different or worse? Doubtful is my take now.
Been out all day and just heard the news.......I haven't dared look up the views on ATD....but I can guess their comments without being clairvoyant...do it tomorrow.
Another stitch up.. Brent and the council.. i wonder if that person Pengelly was involved some how!! I suppose once its all complete Brent will clear off.. Hope fully the team start to perform soon or we will have a great new grandstand and development with a non league team!! does not make any sense to me.. Just have to keep hoping and going!!
Brent is an excellent poker player is all I've got to say .... reluctant bidder my arse .... still one day we might get an owner who truly loves footy !
I'm not sure how anyone could have come to believe that Argyle were going to get the income from an hotel, ice-rink and sundry other developments. That makes no sense and if it was the case, how was the £50m capital cost going to be paid for? The football club has to stand on it's own 2 feet and it is getting a brand new stand which it could never find the money for itself to replace what is a rotting embarrassment. The capacity being provided is I'm sorry to say sufficient to accommodate the numbers we attracted last time we were in the Championship. If we do get back there, let's face it, ticket prices are going to go up so there will be extra income from that direction. People will moan but it's a fact of life that the higher up the league you are, the more you have to pay to watch it, generally speaking. If, and it's a huge if, we ever got to the Premier League, then the Big TV Bucks kick in and all sorts can be done. What does worry me is that Brent has said that the new stand and related facilities alone will earn an additional £1m p.a. for the club. I hope that's not fully in the cash flow forecasts because I can't see it myself..... £1m net from weekday conferencing and events? In Plymouth? Ambitious. £1m extra on match days compared to the old stand? How? I hope he's right but it sounds like a made-up figure to me. All in all, a good day for Plymouth for me.
Its all made up with Brent.. he is in it for him and him only.. he does not give a toss about the club...
You have it all wrong notdistant as I never said anything about the Hotel and Ice Rink revenue. Those are not in the new grandstand. However retail outlets are and it was that in it's entirity that was supposed to be part of the football clubs income. That is what I was originally told by the man in the Theatre Royal when I asked him about revenues. Now it seems that the club are only going to benefit from "hospitality". There is not a cat in hells chance that will raise anything like £1m a year. It will be lucky to raise £100,000. The bottom line to this is that the man in the Theatre Royal lied. I do not believe it was ever the intention to give the club this revenue. What has happened since it was first put out there is that it has been watered down and watered down again until we get to the real intention which was for diddly squat for Argyle and everything to pay for the build which was meant to be free to the club. How the F*********** hell can it be free when the revenue streams are being taken away before it has even started. He is using the rent from these outlets to repay himself for every brick. I said previously that it was hard to argue for a bigger capacity given the history. I can see that is difficult to justify but, given that Brent is going to re-coup every cent he pays out then why be so stingy at the outset. Building for a possible future now would just take him a bit longer to get his pennies back is all. I don't know about a great poker player Gat but Brent is going to be seen as the Arch Satan character because he has lied about his intentions from day one despite the great support he has enjoyed originally. But, I don't think he cares one jot. As long as his pension fund has screwed every bit it can out of Plymouth he will walk away a happy man without a backward glance at the ruins he leaves.
It's odd how people see different things. I ALWAYS understood the extra income was from match day entertainment and (probably) non match day conferencing etc, never for one moment did I think the club would benefit from retail units other than its own club shop possibly. We live in a capitalist economy: money gets these things built and money demands its return. In truth, most of the finance is probably not Brent's, he'll have put together a financing package, that's how these things work. The point is though that the club would NEVER have raised £50m or even the £10m for the stand, so none of this would have happened at all, probably ever, if it wasn't for Brent. I say again, a good day for the club and just as importantly, a good day for the city.
Whether it is good for Plymouth remains to be seen but I bet Brent is sooooo pleased that he had his arm twisted to buy Plymouth Argyle FC as he wouldn't have stood a chance to make all those millions of pounds profit if he hadn't ..... Perhaps all of those people who see Brent as the 2nd Messiah will finally wake up and smell the coffee !
And if Brent hadn't bought PAFC, would we be 0-3 up at half-time at Cheltenham? No, we'd be playing the non-est of non-league football on a park pitch in Plymouth somewhere. Not quite jumpers for goalposts but no goal nets in all likelihood. You have such short memories......
I haven't forgotten Notdistant and sometimes I think that maybe starting from scratch might have been a good idea. I am under no illusion that Brent bought us to save us since his plans for Central Park were unveiled .... spratt to catch a mackerel springs to mind !
Meanwhile, back to the football... You were absolutely dominant today, with Morgan and Reid winning almost everything in the air and Boco scorching down the left wing. Hourihane's shot and the 40 yard crossfield pass to release Boco for the third goal were outstanding. Slight hiccup in the second half but you were always the better team and finished very strongly. MOM for you IMO (even though it sticks in my craw to say so) was Blizzard who sat in front of the back four and pretty much controlled midfield. Your fans were magnificent, even though there was a display of bare, flabby, white torsos in the second half that had the more delicate Cheltonians reaching for their smelling salts. Good game.
Thanks for that Tewksbury, we needed a pick me up after the first two games and the results off the pitch. One win doth not a season make as somebody said somewhere but it shows they can do it. What I need and all the other home fans need is one of those performances at Home Park and preferably next Saturday. Last weekend Argyle were pants which gives the boo boys all the ammunition they need. String a couple together and the mood changes. Notdistant, I have no idea what revenue was or wasn't intended by Brent for the club itself. What I do know is what I was told by the Akkernon bloke in the Theatre Royal. He told me as said above and clearly lied. I now think that at that stage they would have said anything the fans wanted to hear. So much for openess and transparency. I was always aware that Brent was not in it for the football alone. I was not aware how much he would strip and use the club for his personal gain however. I did think he had some integrity but then again, given his background, why should I be surprised when it turns out he has none. We must beg to differ regarding it being a great thing for the club. Like Gat I think on balance now I might have prefered starting life 4 leagues down and rising again. Too late though.
Back to the money - are you SURE it was an Akkeron bloke in the Theatre Royal? I would have thought that was public consultation, in which case it would have been Council run with nobody from the commercial side present - council officers only. That's the way it's normally done. Thanks Tewkesbury, it can't imagine how good it is to hear unbiased positive comments after the torrid decade we've had. You also confirm I think that our manager has got to grips with the faults from last Saturday's game against Fleetwood, when our midfield gave the back 4 no protection at all and our strikers were isolated & ineffective. Far better a win if it's intentional rather than accidental!
Well Brent had his arm twisted bt then Councillor Pengelly!!(Mayoress Now!!) So its obvious it was all planned out before he bought Pafc and she had a lovely reward i bet.. as she has always done.. she needs to take a look back? after all she was always getting freebies from Pafc, trips to SA for that famous world cup saga, she was involved with that other clown Fletcher on the world cup panel Fletcher.. next no world cup bid wins.. Argyle go into admin and so did Derrys who was Mr Fletchers concern.. So i wonder if she will be involved with Mr Brent and his associates once she has ben kicked off as the Mayor Crooks!!
I am absolutely 100% sure notdistant. This was nothing to do with PCC or planning at that time it was the Brent Show and nothing but the Brent Show. It was not a consultation either it was the unveiling of the plans. Plans I might add that got smaller Argyle Football Club wise as well. Brent's PR is crap and his assertion that he is open and transparent is the same. I may not be the brightest resident of the City but I'm far from daft. I was there and I know who the person I spoke to represented.
Not sure I really want to go over all this again, having been accused (amongst other things) of being Brent's love child which trust me I am not, but you did ask the question. As pointed out before, having only lived here for 27 years not sure if I am entitled to an opinion but without JB the club probably wouldn't exist today and talk of starting again is just pie in the sky. Too many people in Plymouth have already demonstrated their apathy as far as the football club is concerned so it needed someone like JB with a clear vision and business strategy to rescue the club. The end result is that he makes a reasonable profit in a few years and either stays or sells up at some point in the future, but also that the club have an improved infrastructure, new stand (albeit smallish) and shops, ice rink, cinema , hotel etc all within walking distance of some of the most densely populated parts of the city. So, on balance it is a great day for the club and city because there was no viable alternative. I happen to believe that JB has a genuine interest in the club and that PAFC can be successful on the field whilst he sees a good return for has capital outlay-I really don't get any of the other arguments because no one has come up with any other plan....
I don't disagree with most of that LG....some would get quite uptight with Brent's way of doing things.....once a banker always a banker syndrome comes to mind, some cannot see beyond that ever......if you repeated your comments on the ATD website you would have to do it from behind the settee and having planned your escape route out of Plymouth in the dark of night.
yes I know and the same with PASOTI. Don't get me wrong I would have loved a billionaire to turn up and invest a huge amount in the club and want nothing in return except the kudos of being a football chairman, but in the absence of a sugar daddy a business man with a track record of success will do. Obviously he wouldn't have done it without a way of making money but in the real world that is how the system works.
