Merry speaks

[boris]

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/369461 ... ew_crisis/

It's not a crisis - it's just tittle tattle on internet boards.

Well done OM - at last (although I see it's not got a Jon Murray byline).

Jon Murray's a sports reporter - this came from the Newsroom.

I gather that Radio Oxford have announced that &quota source&quot has told them that the club is not going into administration. I guess that's either the club's way of issuing a statement to reassure the baying masses, or else it's the equivalent of a boardroom's dreaded vote of confidence in a manager, just before he's sacked.

[Mally]

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/369461 ... ew_crisis/

It's not a crisis - it's just tittle tattle on internet boards.

Well done OM - at last (although I see it's not got a Jon Murray byline).

Jon Murray's a sports reporter - this came from the Newsroom.

I know - I only said it to wind Peña up

[Snake]

Now Kassam speaks (a bit, and as much as Merry).

We’re slowly, slowly getting to the bottom of this.

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/headli ... _finances/

[scooter]

And the riposte from the man with naked ankles.
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/oxfordunite ... statement/

We appear to be approaching a denouement.

[Snake]

“However, whilst a serious possibility, it would be so frustrating and annoying for the board and for all Oxford supporters for us to fail when we are closer than ever to a realistic partnership which, within 12 months, could return the stadium to Oxford United.

[Pe├▒a Oxford United]

So, 25th or 29th?

I mean payment times in contracts of various kinds tend to be reasonably clear in my experience.

So what's it all about?

[OUFC_Gav]

[quote=&quotSnake&quot]“However, whilst a serious possibility, it would be so frustrating and annoying for the board and for all Oxford supporters for us to fail when we are closer than ever to a realistic partnership which, within 12 months, could return the stadium to Oxford United.

[Pe├▒a Oxford United]

Yeah right, but still no details again from the club owners about how they are going to do this - and now we are being told to wait for another 12 months.

Maybe, but I seem to recall that other club chairmen thought it appropriate to keep details of potential business partners under wraps unless and until the deal was actually done, so that people didn't get scared off by media attention, or because of commercial confidentiality, or whatever. (I still remember the &quotMr X&quot episode with particular affection. This was considered perfectly acceptable reasoning by supportive parties at the time.

[Baboo]

[quote=&quotSnake&quot]“However, whilst a serious possibility, it would be so frustrating and annoying for the board and for all Oxford supporters for us to fail when we are closer than ever to a realistic partnership which, within 12 months, could return the stadium to Oxford United.

[Mally]

My take on this is that it is all a diversion which plays into Merry's hands. Firoka and therefore Kassam have gone way over the top in the way they acted yesterday. A few meals,and cups of tea are neither here nor there even in the context of £450,000 of rent, but pale into insignificance compared to the price tag on the stadium.

All this has allowed Merry to do is attack Kassam for being unreasonable and evade the real issue. Which is of course - how are they going to stop the losses and how long are they prepared to keep supporting the club should they fail to stem the losses. Neither of which are answered or even hinted at in Merry's statement. It just leaves us (the fans) pondering whether he is so stupid and arrogant that he believes he can get away without saying anything about the real issue, or whether they have no way of stemming the losses, no more money and the club is about to go down the plug.

[Pe├▒a Oxford United]

Well, quite. But there's nothing unusual about that - it's been standard operational practice under a succession of Oxford United chairmen.

[boris]

One of the interesting things about those articles is that they actually put figures on the payments. Assuming that they pay the same every quarter, that makes the club shop rental almost £30k a year, which is incredibly expensive for somewhere tucked out of the way, and means that it must be very difficult to use it as a generator of significant income. How many replica shirts would we need to sell before we broke even?

[Mally]

One of the interesting things about those articles is that they actually put figures on the payments. Assuming that they pay the same every quarter, that makes the club shop rental almost £30k a year, which is incredibly expensive for somewhere tucked out of the way, and means that it must be very difficult to use it as a generator of significant income. How many replica shirts would we need to sell before we broke even?

It does sound quite a lot considering the location and I'm sure the club is tied into a long term lease/rental agreement. Even if they weren't the only alternative would be to set up a shop on Firoka land which would require their permission so the club are stuck with it.

To put it into context though, for the 06/07 season the forecast cost of sales was £143,624 with other expenses of £65,044 (presumably the rent and staff costs) against an income of £323,589.

As for the stadium rent and service charges. These were 294,011 and 125,002 in 05/06. A total of £419,033. 3 years on it appears the quarterly rent is £117,103 or £468,412. A compound interst rate of approximately 3.75%.

[GodalmingYellow]

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/369461 ... ew_crisis/

It's not a crisis - it's just tittle tattle on internet boards.

Well done OM - at last (although I see it's not got a Jon Murray byline).

Jon Murray's a sports reporter - this came from the Newsroom.

I gather that Radio Oxford have announced that &quota source&quot has told them that the club is not going into administration. I guess that's either the club's way of issuing a statement to reassure the baying masses, or else it's the equivalent of a boardroom's dreaded vote of confidence in a manager, just before he's sacked.

There must be at least 2 office doors between them. Maybe they don't speak to each other.

[GodalmingYellow]

One of the interesting things about those articles is that they actually put figures on the payments. Assuming that they pay the same every quarter, that makes the club shop rental almost £30k a year, which is incredibly expensive for somewhere tucked out of the way, and means that it must be very difficult to use it as a generator of significant income. How many replica shirts would we need to sell before we broke even?

If accurate, that would be a huge amount. To give a comparison, a shop of similar size in Haslemere High Street (the town where I work) attracts annual rental of about £20k, and that is regarded as expensive.