Fan's Forum
Fan's Forum
Anybody going to the forum tonight? What are the chances of getting any sort of clarification on the big question?
I voted for "still be clueless", mainly because I don't think that they know themselves when/if it's going to happen. Hopefully I'll be proved wrong, and when we rock up there tonight the big sign on the front will read "The United Stadium" (or similar) and we will be informed that it's already gone through.
I'm a bit concerned though that with Kassam's dodgy ticker, he might have left the ground to Nilu in his will.
I'm a bit concerned though that with Kassam's dodgy ticker, he might have left the ground to Nilu in his will.
For me I think even more confused is the most likely outcome. They've obviously been worried about holding such an event because they haven't got any good answers to give and they may get caught out by some questions and leave everybody even more confused about hat the true situation is.
Interestingly the news item about the forum on the official site says that it will be hosted by the owners of the club Woodstock Partners Limited AND the directors of Oxford United. Could it be that Ian Lenagan is going to put in an appearance?
Interestingly the news item about the forum on the official site says that it will be hosted by the owners of the club Woodstock Partners Limited AND the directors of Oxford United. Could it be that Ian Lenagan is going to put in an appearance?
Does the stadium becomes an asset (or something) of Firoka at the end of this season?
If that's the case, would FK pay less tax upon selling it? Would that drop the price? Is this what everyone is waiting for?
This is a story I've heard from someone who claimed to be in the know (not anyone connected to the club I hasten to add).
Can any business folk out there shed any light on this possibility?
If that's the case, would FK pay less tax upon selling it? Would that drop the price? Is this what everyone is waiting for?
This is a story I've heard from someone who claimed to be in the know (not anyone connected to the club I hasten to add).
Can any business folk out there shed any light on this possibility?
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GodalmingYellow
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GodalmingYellow
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Re:
He doesn't earn money from it. He is losing shed loads from it. (Though the value of the land may be increasing, that is no good to Kassam whislt he has a long term tenant)."Geoff" wrote:I'm resigned to the fact that we'll never get the stadium. While Firoz can earn money from it, he will hang on to it or expect top dollar.
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GodalmingYellow
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This sounds like a mix of stories to me, probably related to somone incorrectly thinking they understand capital gains tax. The stadium is already owned by one Firoka Company."YF Dan" wrote:Does the stadium becomes an asset (or something) of Firoka at the end of this season?
If that's the case, would FK pay less tax upon selling it? Would that drop the price? Is this what everyone is waiting for?
This is a story I've heard from someone who claimed to be in the know (not anyone connected to the club I hasten to add).
Can any business folk out there shed any light on this possibility?
You'll know this already Dan, but there are lots of people both on the inside and on the outside, claiming to know things which are in reality just pure speculation.
I heard one rumour that Kassam was demanding that Merry pays his CGT bill on the sale. Given the build costs and likely sale price, there wouldn't even be any CGT to pay.
Re:
It's always been an asset. The 2005 stadco balance sheet shows a tangible fixed asset of £10,348,870. I'm not qualified to comment on the tax liability but I can't see anything that would change it dramatically this financial year compared to last financial year. The sale would be subject to capital gains tax. Exactly how that would be calculated though is beyond me."YF Dan" wrote:Does the stadium becomes an asset (or something) of Firoka at the end of this season?
If that's the case, would FK pay less tax upon selling it? Would that drop the price? Is this what everyone is waiting for?
This is a story I've heard from someone who claimed to be in the know (not anyone connected to the club I hasten to add).
Can any business folk out there shed any light on this possibility?
The only reason I can see why it hasn't been sold is that Kassam wants more than WPL are prepared to pay. Whether thats because Kassam is asking too high or price or WPL are offering too low a price is open to debate and depends on your point of view I suppose. Seeing as we don't know what the price offered and required is then its hard to comment but I've thought of a couple of interesting questions to ask.
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GodalmingYellow
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Re:
Firoka is not Monaco based. Kassam is Monaco based."YF Dan" wrote:Isn't Firoka Monaco based? Does therefore it have different CGT rules? Accountants out there?
Firoka is a group of companies, not a single company. The controlling parent company is Firoka (London Park) Ltd. Kassam is the sole shareholding of that company. Firoka (Oxford United Stadium) Ltd, which owns the stadium, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Firoka (London Park) Ltd.
The sale of the stadium would not be subject to capital gains tax, but profit on the sale would be, subject to certain allowances. As the cost of buildin the stadium was nigh on £11m, and the supposed asking price is £12m, when the tax allowances are taken into account, there would be no capital gains tax to pay.
Well I was wrong. We do know a bit more about the stadium purchase and surpriisingly we now know a lot more about the club's finances and plans.
For those that didn't attend, the star of the show (and it was a show) was Ian Lenagan who talked for about an hour with the aid of a comprehensive PowerPoint presentation. Why on earth didn't they wheel him out 12 months ago. Much more credible than Nick Merry.
As for the stadium he said Kassam was asking £13 million and he even conceded that based on its cost and the value of the stadco conference centre business this was a realistic valuation. He even said that Kassam had offered to sell 50% now and 50% later if it would help things but they had declined to take him upon this.
They plan to acquire the stadium but aren't going to borrow the money to buy it outright (quoted cost of £910,000 p.a.
Their plan is to get some sort of partnership funding (the University was mentioned) involving the development of the East stand void. This wouldn't happen next year so 2009 is what they are looking at.
On the whole I'm much more reassured about their plans and competence after tonight but I'm still worried about the stadium situation. I can't see Oxford University getting into bed with a lowly football club and I think Lenagan's going to have an uphill battle going down that route.
Kelvin Thomas is going back to Florida so there's a vacancy on the board - I wouldn't be too surprised or disappointed to see Ian Lenagan take his place. Effectively he's the real chairman and Merry even introduced him as his senior partner.
Loads of other interesting stuff came out of the presentation (some of which is a bit over ambitious) but I'm sure there'll be plenty of reporting and debate about that over the next few days.
For those that didn't attend, the star of the show (and it was a show) was Ian Lenagan who talked for about an hour with the aid of a comprehensive PowerPoint presentation. Why on earth didn't they wheel him out 12 months ago. Much more credible than Nick Merry.
As for the stadium he said Kassam was asking £13 million and he even conceded that based on its cost and the value of the stadco conference centre business this was a realistic valuation. He even said that Kassam had offered to sell 50% now and 50% later if it would help things but they had declined to take him upon this.
They plan to acquire the stadium but aren't going to borrow the money to buy it outright (quoted cost of £910,000 p.a.
Their plan is to get some sort of partnership funding (the University was mentioned) involving the development of the East stand void. This wouldn't happen next year so 2009 is what they are looking at.On the whole I'm much more reassured about their plans and competence after tonight but I'm still worried about the stadium situation. I can't see Oxford University getting into bed with a lowly football club and I think Lenagan's going to have an uphill battle going down that route.
Kelvin Thomas is going back to Florida so there's a vacancy on the board - I wouldn't be too surprised or disappointed to see Ian Lenagan take his place. Effectively he's the real chairman and Merry even introduced him as his senior partner.
Loads of other interesting stuff came out of the presentation (some of which is a bit over ambitious) but I'm sure there'll be plenty of reporting and debate about that over the next few days.
What would be interesting is to get hold of a copy of that PowerPoint presentation.
I talked to Chris Williams about this afterwards. Obviously there is a lot of data in those slides that is commercially sensitive (even though we all read it on the night!!!) so I suggested that he redacted the parts that were sensitive and released the rest of it as a download from the official site. But we shall see.
As for the key point for me, then the plans to purchase the stadium in association with other partners (maybe even the University) sometime in the next 2 years seem a little over-optimistic so I agree with Mally on that one.
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A very good attendance, I thought, and good to see that at last Lenagan has come forward as the senior partner of WPL. A pity that from where I was sitting you could not quite see the strings above Merry's head, but I don't think anyone was left in any doubt as to what his role is as "Chairman" of Oxford United.
I talked to Chris Williams about this afterwards. Obviously there is a lot of data in those slides that is commercially sensitive (even though we all read it on the night!!!) so I suggested that he redacted the parts that were sensitive and released the rest of it as a download from the official site. But we shall see.
As for the key point for me, then the plans to purchase the stadium in association with other partners (maybe even the University) sometime in the next 2 years seem a little over-optimistic so I agree with Mally on that one.
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A very good attendance, I thought, and good to see that at last Lenagan has come forward as the senior partner of WPL. A pity that from where I was sitting you could not quite see the strings above Merry's head, but I don't think anyone was left in any doubt as to what his role is as "Chairman" of Oxford United.