Rage Online

Did anyone else notice in the recent Oxvox minutes that the club and Firoka have entered formal arbitration regarding the service charge and level of service received for that charge - whilst I can understand why the club have taken that action, it doesn't bode well for any stadium negotiations.

To get to a formal arbitration stage, both parties will have exhausted the relevant escalation routes under the Tenancy Agreement and so it suggests that things are not rosy at present.

Or it suggests that the only way to deal with FK is to get heavy on his ass. I have heard stories of people who have had to look to, if not take court action against him to get paid, so maybe this, for him, is 'negotiations' and I for one am quite glad that the club has finally had the balls to stand up to him and get some action. Something needed to happen: there is only so long you can sit on the lav trying to shit; if it does't move, you need to get some professional help.

recordmeister wrote: there is only so long you can sit on the lav trying to shit

I wouldn't sit on the lavs at the Kassam if I could help it! One of many substandard aspects of our current home. I'm not sure that's necessarily FK's fault though - are Firoka or OUFC responsible for matchday maintenance and cleanliness? I think the stadium is being neglected by all concerned.

There are clearly trust and communication issues between the two parties though. The silence on the fourth stand after planning permission was granted is deafening. And the refusal to call the stadium by its proper name shows that relations have broken down rather alarmingly.

Kernow Yellow wrote:And the refusal to call the stadium by its proper name shows that relations have broken down rather alarmingly.

Yes, I'd noticed that. Not sure to what extent it's a pointed snub at Kassam or just a marker that the club is no longer his plaything - but I suspect you're right that it's more of the former than the latter.

Well, well:

http://www.oxvox.org.uk/kassam-stadium/

Sounds promising but I'll believe it when I see it. Interesting to note that there is no mention of OUFC being involved in any discussions...

Blah, blah, blah. Let us know when it's done.

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/sport/14790 ... m_Stadium/

I think this brings up a lot of questions. Obviously there's been a fall out between Eales and Firoz, but why is Firoz's reaction to that to enter into talks with OxVox? Do OxVox really think this is going to happen, or are they just using it to boost their profile/membership?

Most importantly imo is what is Firoz's endgame here?

joepoolman wrote:what is Firoz's endgame here?

£££

Kernow Yellow wrote:

joepoolman wrote:what is Firoz's endgame here?

£££

Without doubt but how do these negotiations get him that?

RadOx are saying that Eales has spoken to them today and told them that he has made THREE bids to buy the stadium from Firoz, TWO of which have been rejected. He hasn't said what happened to the third bid......

Arch this space?

It's going to be interesting because as we move up the leagues (!) the attendances will naturally grow and therefore so will the revenu from the stadium. FK is in a pretty good negotiating position because Eales is tuning it around of the pitch- the irony that the better the team does, the more it's gonna cost Kassam to let the stadium go.

So I'm voting Appleton out! ;)

recordmeister wrote:It's going to be interesting because as we move up the leagues (!) the attendances will naturally grow and therefore so will the revenu from the stadium. FK is in a pretty good negotiating position because Eales is tuning it around of the pitch- the irony that the better the team does, the more it's gonna cost Kassam to let the stadium go.

So I'm voting Appleton out! ;)

I would bet that increased attendance has more more of a positive effect on the financial position of the club when compared to its effect on the stadium company's finances, so I don't think what you suggest makes much of a difference. Indeed, the effect is almost certainly the other way: improved attendances=greater club revenues=more money to buy the stadium. By far the the most important source of revenue for the stadco is the fixed rent. The rent's predictability means that refinancing and other financial engineering techniques can be used to generate artificially high short-term investor value, as has happened in the past. This may have served as an added incentive for Kassam keeping the stadium.

On another point, its interesting that the OM report that Kassam seems minded to view the stadium as a community asset, in the context of talks with OxVox, give Kassam's past legal challenge to Oxford City Council over their designation of the stadium as an 'asset of community value'. Does this demonstrate some further validation of OxVox's long-term strategy?

Here's a disturbing thought: perhaps 500k p/a is actually quite cheap now, given the extent to which land prices have increased in the ten years since Nick Merry's infamous rent deal?

I'd argue that of all the things we've spent £500k on recently, rent is probably the least of our wasted outlay.

Caught a brief snippet of the Radio Oxford
sports bulletin where Eales appeared to call
Ka££am's bluff. Eales believes completion
could occur in around 12 weeks (the average time
taken to buy a house) if Ka££am is serious
about selling the stadium to a community
trust property holding vehicle.

That could imply that funding
is there. Who knows what the price is
however!

Difficult to know exactly what to make of this. My initial reaction was, WTF are OxVox doing? Pissing off our financial underwriter is not a clever thing to do when we owe him millions and have nothing to repay him with.

OxVox have clearly not got the money, nor will ever have the money, to fund the purchase of the stadium.

That means if they are serious, and I don't think Kassam would bother with them unless they could show they are serious, they must have one or more financial backers. Even if there was some hair brained scheme about filling in the corners with flats to fund the deal, it would require significant capital outlay at the start.

The vital question then becomes, who is/are the backer(s)? Anyone can put the words "Community Trust" into the name of an organisation, and it means diddly squat. It is the underlying legal agreements that may or may not validate any protections for the club.

The possible financial backers are Firoz Kassam himself, Daryl Eales himself, or a third party unknown to us, who has access to £multiple millions.

If it is Kassam, perhaps OxVox have made some sort of proposal that Kassam sells the stadium to a "Community Trust" for a nominal amount in exchange for no quibble housing development somewhere on the site.

If it is Eales, it would be pretty sneaky for OxVox and Eales to form a deal behind Kassam's back and then present it as a "Community Trust" to get Kassam on board. Not only would that piss Kassam off and potentially scupper a deal, but I think Eales initial reaction of knowing nothing about the talks, suggests Eales genuinely had no prior knowledge.

If it is a third party, we would be talking about one or more of the County and City councils, maybe the Donald family, or someone else possibly including a mortgage.

It is the last option I would be most concerned about. Not the councils, but third parties who have previously shown no interest in the club. There is always money to be made in property deals.

A Community Trust scheme to permanently put the ground in the club's control forever, is a great idea, but is that what is really being proposed?