Rage Online

Looks like he's had enough time to spill the beans to that John Lennon character too! Why?

When it's all over and we look back at it in a few years time what will we call it? Ashtongate?

Hog wrote:Looks like he's had enough time to spill the beans to that John Lennon character too! Why?

When it's all over and we look back at it in a few years time what will we call it? Ashtongate?

What, we're being taken over by Bristol City?

Is this all coming about due to the housing situ

We have the right to buy the ground for 13m that includes the 4th stand area and corners (not much of the car park as I remember) is the issue the if someone/firoz went for planning and got it we could simply activate the clause and buy the ground, sell the corners to a developer and have our stadium and firoz would not gain.

I can only assume it must be something along those lines otherwise the club is worth £1

Steppers wrote: "... we could simply activate the clause and buy the ground ..."

Ha ha ha! etc etc

Steppers wrote:Is this all coming about due to the housing situ

We have the right to buy the ground for 13m that includes the 4th stand area and corners (not much of the car park as I remember) is the issue the if someone/firoz went for planning and got it we could simply activate the clause and buy the ground, sell the corners to a developer and have our stadium and firoz would not gain.

I can only assume it must be something along those lines otherwise the club is worth £1

The club is not worth £1, unless Lenagan wrote off his debts.

And you really think the corners are worth £13mill?

And you really think the price tag would still be £13mill with planning permission?

Building in the corners was exactly what Ashton tried at Watford before a power struggle forced him out.

I thought £13m was a clause in the contract ie can't go up, no I don't think the ground is worth £13m,hence my question re could it be brought for the original £13m with the planning is that the issue.

Laughing at us paying the £13m. I was simply try to say that it would be a pass the parcel from the developer to firoz.

I also don't think the club is worth the £1 I mentioned that is the usual token payment when acquiring debt (I am also a trained accountant so I do understand)

Re value of corners and back of 4th stand, I don't know that was the question, depends on number of floors, rooms etc.

Was just trying to speculate as to why firoz was so bothered re the stadium protection and why not one but 2 would be interested in paying for a business that losses £500-£1m on a regular basis.

Finally, you lot can be bloody negative to someone just trying to spark conversation, I don't talk in CAPS or anything and have been a regular poster/lurker from the mzuri days

Ashton is firmly at the front of the queue and has been for a while so it is now at the stage of payment plans, bonus for achieved etc etc

I have googled and whilst I can see a lot of forum type stuff I haven't managed to really find his crime apart from trying to claim is bill when he left and being a bit of a big I am. Anyone got a summary of the specifics.

Again just trying to understand his crime as he might be looking to repeat or he might have learnt from prior issues and we will benefit. There are plenty of successful businesses men that have had success the 2nd time, been a git etc etc.

Steppers has a point about the tone of some posts: please be fair to those of us with little financial background in a situation which seems to confuse the experts.

We are here again (yawn) at the point where community and business clash over football. Fans expect potential owners to have an interest in promoting football, and OUFC in particular, but in fact they have no obligation at all; they may just see it as a business opportunity, and everyone (at least on here) knows that. This raises three questions for me:
1. Does Mr Ashton (as a former footballer) have any interest in football (which might become an interest in OUFC), or does he just use his knowledge of football as part of his business strategy?
2. Can the local councils use their influence (over planning etc. to promote the good of the club (as a community resource / activity), or are they obliged to be strictly neutral? So if Plan A put the continued existence of the club at risk, but Plan B appeared to guarantee a secure future, could they favour Plan B when considering planning applications? This seems to be the case elsewhere.
3. Why was Kassam so opposed to the OxVox success in listing the stadium as an asset of community value (apologies if the terms are inaccurate)? This surely may be crucial in the current situation, as perhaps it prevents a deal being done including the sale of the stadium to the disadvantage of the club.

I would imagine Question 1 is unanswerable at the moment, but can someone answer Qus 2 & 3, please?

Steppers wrote:Again just trying to understand his crime as he might be looking to repeat or he might have learnt from prior issues and we will benefit. There are plenty of successful businesses men that have had success the 2nd time, been a git etc etc.

Agree with this. Providing someone learns good lessons from previous failures, then while it sucks for those left behind, it's great for the beneficiaries of the experience. Most people don't go around trying to intentionally screw things up.

Old Abingdonian wrote:3. Why was Kassam so opposed to the OxVox success in listing the stadium as an asset of community value (apologies if the terms are inaccurate)? This surely may be crucial in the current situation, as perhaps it prevents a deal being done including the sale of the stadium to the disadvantage of the club.

Because it changes the asset from being 'a plot of land with a football stadium currently on it' to 'a football stadium'

It effectively reduces the value of the land underneath to zero, since it can't be redeveloped and is non-productive in agricultural/mineral terms. So on paper, the decision has probably cost him a lot of 'money' (if that term really applies to a drop in a notional asset value)

A celver accountant will probably use the situation to write off a whole load of tax anyway, so I doubt he'll be in too much pain.