Takeover / stadium

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Kairdiff Exile
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Takeover / stadium

Post by Kairdiff Exile »

What do we make of this news then?

New balance of ownership
New ambition (rise from Div 3 to Div 2 in two years)
New stadium?!?
Kernow Yellow
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Re: Takeover / stadium

Post by Kernow Yellow »

Where to start really? We're still owned by a collection of varyingly wealthy individuals from (or based in) the far East. It seems that the balance of ownership is changing towards those who actually have the big money, although it is not at all clear what is holding up any official announcement of this. There remain some people involved in our ownership who have never really stepped out of the background, and who were/are apparently involved with Reading FC and some associated land. Whether that remains the case if/when Bakrie and Thohir take overall control, who knows?

I am certainly more impressed by Bakrie (judging by that interview) than by Tiger. But Bakrie is a busy man, and I wonder how much of his energy he is putting (and will put) into OUFC if things don't start falling into place fairly quickly. The clear ambition to win promotion within two years was interesting, and puts a bit of pressure on Robinson. I'm pretty happy with what's going on on the pitch at the moment, and wouldn't want us to throw that away for a desperate tilt at the Championship, though of course promotion would be very welcome.

Reputable people seem very convinced that the stadium is happening, but I'll believe it when I see it. I hate the Kassam for many reasons, but is a new ground even further out of town in the other direction going to make things much better? I guess I'm just weary of so many years of talk of improving our stadium situation, and knowing how it didn't work out for Us last time we did it.

As an aside, I noticed that Tiger wrote the notes for the Morecambe programme, and spent most of it imploring more fans to turn up to games, which seemed slightly odd timing with everything else apparently going on.
slappy
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Re: Takeover / stadium

Post by slappy »

Spotted on the other forum, I don't know how long this has been on the website, but the club has finally announced who are the shareholders behind the holding company.
https://www.oufc.co.uk/club/information/

Under company info
Ownership: Oxford United Ownership
Sumrith Thanakarnjanasuth, Horst Geicke, Supranee Piamph, Erick Thohir and Anindya Bakrie own more than 10% of Oxford United Football Club Limited shares

Technically it is a look through to the ultimate ownership of the shares in Oxford Investments.
Supranee Piamph is we think wife of Theekharoj Piamphongsarn.

It is mostly the same people who have been associated with Tiger from the start either as Directors or advisors or previous business contacts or associates from their Reading FC days.

Quite what they have planned for the stadium, who knows, I guess it all comes down to identifying the land and getting the right people and authorities on board.

Oxvox's latest email says the club should not be split from stadium, but it's pretty much out of our hands what they do. I think the council tried to do a shared ownership when the Kassam was being built, but Kassam I think threatened to pull out unless he had 100%.
recordmeister
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Re: Takeover / stadium

Post by recordmeister »

From the interview it seems (reading between the lines) that if there is to be a new stadium, the owners would look to slipstream that into the year our agreement to play at the Kassam ends (2025?).

Does anyone know:

- what could happen to the stadium after we leave, after that date (is there a covenant that ‘professional football’ must be played there)?

- what could happen to the stadium after we leave, before the agreement is up?

I guess, ultimately for both OCC and FK, a whole new housing dev on the current Stadium site would tick lots of boxes.
Geoff
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Re: Takeover / stadium

Post by Geoff »

From memory, I believe the ‘professional sport’ clause was for 25 years.
Kairdiff Exile
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Re: Takeover / stadium

Post by Kairdiff Exile »

recordmeister wrote: Sat Nov 13, 2021 11:43 pm - what could happen to the stadium after we leave, after that date (is there a covenant that ‘professional football’ must be played there)?
Any half-competent lawyer worth their salt can get round a covenant on a piece of land - especially if, as in this case, there wasn't a willing tenant anyway.
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