Kassam has always reacted to fan pressure, buying Moody, sacking Wright Rix and like you say selling the club pretty sharpish.
Once we've brought the stadium it will be too late to do anything. If he is demanding an unfair amount of money that Merry is refusing to pay or attaching conditions to the sale I would hope that OxVox would lead a protest, as they were going to do before, to draw public attention to this matter.
As he lives in Oxfordshire still and has buisness intrests here negative publicity will affect them and him I think.
However, not knowing what the hold up is in the stadium deal (it seems Merry doesn't want to buy it at the moment) it makes it rather hard to protest about it.
How much for the stadium?
My guess is that Merry and his backer(s) simply haven't got the money to buy the stadium. They were bounced into buying the club without the stadium because of Kassam appointing Bill & Bren and although they have an option to buy should anybody else come along and show interest they aren't able to do the deal at the moment. Which of course raises the question - what is the option worth if they can't afford the asking price?
They would need a large amount of cash to be able to do such a deal as nobody would lend anywhere near the asking price securd against the stadium itself. They may be able to get somebody to buy the stadium and lease it back which would at least give them 100% control of its use and income streams, but would be an expensive way of doing thngs.
They would need a large amount of cash to be able to do such a deal as nobody would lend anywhere near the asking price securd against the stadium itself. They may be able to get somebody to buy the stadium and lease it back which would at least give them 100% control of its use and income streams, but would be an expensive way of doing thngs.
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[quote="Snake"]“
What is certain is that a lot of the negative anti-Kassam stuff being put out by people like Jon Murray won’t be helping, because as Mally says he does like to get emotional when attacked, and that’s not going to help the deal - and let’s face it, he’s not exactly pushed for readies.
My point is that it would have been far, far, better for the press etc to have made less of a fuss when Merry took over the club and let Mr. K. have it with two barrels after he’d “left the building
What is certain is that a lot of the negative anti-Kassam stuff being put out by people like Jon Murray won’t be helping, because as Mally says he does like to get emotional when attacked, and that’s not going to help the deal - and let’s face it, he’s not exactly pushed for readies.
My point is that it would have been far, far, better for the press etc to have made less of a fuss when Merry took over the club and let Mr. K. have it with two barrels after he’d “left the building
I very perceptive and acurate summary of the situation I'd say. As to what motivated Murray's stance against Kassam, we'll probably never know the full story but Jim Rosenthal boasted on more than one occasion how he could get his mates at "his old shop" to help in with a PR battle against Kassam.
Added to that Kassam trod on a lot of local toes to rid the club of debt and get his various planning permissions and legal battles won. The CVA was perhaps the biggest example of this and meant that many local businesses lost a lot of money. Of course by the time Kassam came along the CVA really was the only viable way forward so a large part of the blame for it should rest with Herd and Cox who got the club so deep in the brown stuff in the first place.
It was the Gang of Four's refusal to entertain the CVA that played a big part in FOUL's decision not to support their take-over attempt.
Added to that Kassam trod on a lot of local toes to rid the club of debt and get his various planning permissions and legal battles won. The CVA was perhaps the biggest example of this and meant that many local businesses lost a lot of money. Of course by the time Kassam came along the CVA really was the only viable way forward so a large part of the blame for it should rest with Herd and Cox who got the club so deep in the brown stuff in the first place.
It was the Gang of Four's refusal to entertain the CVA that played a big part in FOUL's decision not to support their take-over attempt.
“I honestly don’t know whether there are more sinister reasons why Jon Murray developed such a hatred for Kassam or whether it was purely out of a sense that the man was ruining the club he loved, but in the end I cannot help but think that the desperation that typified what became a vendetta against FK only served to work against the very outcome he was trying to achieve.
Have you ever spoken to Jon Murray, Snake? If you have, I think you'll have found that his love for Oxford goes a lot deeper than just what it adds to his pay packet. He's got a dream job, in a way - being paid to write about the football club he supports. It's a shame that he doesn't make a better fist of it, but that's up to his employers to sort out (a bit like how you can't blame a crap footballer for being crap, you have to blame the manager for selecting him).
Anyway, I've heard from a fairly reliable third party that the final straw that drove Kassam to sell the club wasn't the fans' demonstrations, but the avalanche of emails that the Ally Pally administrators received from Oxford fans, which came very close to blowing his deal for that place. It's not a surprise to me if it was his commercial instincts that drove the sale, rather than anything else.
Anyway, I've heard from a fairly reliable third party that the final straw that drove Kassam to sell the club wasn't the fans' demonstrations, but the avalanche of emails that the Ally Pally administrators received from Oxford fans, which came very close to blowing his deal for that place. It's not a surprise to me if it was his commercial instincts that drove the sale, rather than anything else.
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Re:
Time to get emailing again then I'd say."boris" wrote:Have you ever spoken to Jon Murray, Snake? If you have, I think you'll have found that his love for Oxford goes a lot deeper than just what it adds to his pay packet. He's got a dream job, in a way - being paid to write about the football club he supports. It's a shame that he doesn't make a better fist of it, but that's up to his employers to sort out (a bit like how you can't blame a crap footballer for being crap, you have to blame the manager for selecting him).
Anyway, I've heard from a fairly reliable third party that the final straw that drove Kassam to sell the club wasn't the fans' demonstrations, but the avalanche of emails that the Ally Pally administrators received from Oxford fans, which came very close to blowing his deal for that place. It's not a surprise to me if it was his commercial instincts that drove the sale, rather than anything else.
I’ve spoken to Jon a few times over the years, but not seriously or in any kind of depth. The last time I saw him was when I was sitting directly behind him and the rest of the Press Gang at the last Fans Forum, but the other 701 people (yes, I counted them) were kind of distracting so that was another opportunity lost to have a proper chat.
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It seems like there is a rumour going around that Paul Powell may be coming back.
It’s a shame that FK turned down a bid from Newcastle United for him of £1m is all that I can say, ‘cos that kind of cash could have been used for all sorts of things.
Tsk, the mistakes that man (FK) made…
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It seems like there is a rumour going around that Paul Powell may be coming back.
It’s a shame that FK turned down a bid from Newcastle United for him of £1m is all that I can say, ‘cos that kind of cash could have been used for all sorts of things.
Tsk, the mistakes that man (FK) made…