Thetownend.com

Apologies if this has already been posted but how long can these crooked ***** get away with it?????


Businessman Andrew Fitton has not ruled out reviving a bid to take control at Swindon Town - but admits the chances look slim after a proposed takeover deal collapsed yesterday.

Wiltshire-based Fitton and his consortium withdrew their offer amid a stalemate over ownership of lucrative County Ground development rights.

The rights, which would yield significant profits from any future property deal, are owned by a seperate holding company. Fitton wanted them returned to the club as part of his transaction. He abandoned the bid after a phone call made it clear the issue was unlikely to be resolved quickly.



Fitton said: "I had warned the people at the club that these things have a lifespan. I am angry and exasperated with these people because they are messing with other people's lives. Our consortium is one of high-level business individuals with a lot of money involved and they have other things to do with their time."

Fitton claims the current owners agreed to transfer the development rights back to the club when the deal was hammered out in principle. But that transaction failed to materialise.

"The only way they could get it back on now would be to come and apologise to us and do everything they agreed to at the outset," said Fitton. "They were happy to do the deal but said they couldn't give us the development rights straightaway. They asked us to trust them and said that they would sort the problem out later. We couldn't take that chance - and that was the real key issue.

"We expect people to do what they say they are going to and if they don't then we don't want anything to do with them."

Swindon were last night exploring other options, with the threat of a winding-up order hanging over the club.

"They asked us to trust them"

What a fucking joke. Trust the least trustworthy person in Berkshire!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/fastshow/characters/images/chris_jackson.jpg

I'm a little bit wooo, a little bit weee.....I'm a geezer

"They asked us to trust them and said that they would sort the problem out later"

That's like asking a convicted paedophile to babysit, If I was Fitton I would make these Bastards beg for a reprieve.

Im glad he didnt fall for it.

The club is an utter disgrace.

Like this bit.

ok i'm clutching like i've never clutched at straws before but just maybe fitton has done this to make them realise he wont be fucked about and they will come back to him and take his original offer.

see quote below


"The only way they could get it back on now would be to come and apologise to us and do everything they agreed to at the outset," said Fitton. "They were happy to do the deal but said they couldn't give us the development rights straightaway. They asked us to trust them and said that they would sort the problem out later. We couldn't take that chance - and that was the real key issue"

I don't think so.

If they do what he requests, then he'll talk. But I don't think he is trying to force the hand,  I don't think this is a hollow threat. I think he will walk away.

not a hollow threat as yes i do agree he will and lets face it as it stands has walked away. but maybe he did this as it was the only way he can get them to do as he says and shift it towards the deal he wants.

Plan B it is then.

Oh.

It is down to us a as fans now to force these cunts to sell to Fitton, we need to make their personal lives hell.

I 100% agree.

I still don't see how they can charge for the development rights?! they don't own the fucking ground! and there are no plans!  :wall:

how can they charge money for something that doesn't exist!

They sold the development rights to the Shaw Park Development holding company which is part owned by Wills/Diamandis/St Modwen. They basically hold the rights to any future ground redevelopment, apparently. The reason they can't sort this out is that they owe £2.5million to St Modwen who won't release their proportion of the rights until they get their cash back - which is fair enough.

I don't know this, but I'm guessing that MD/SSW are also trying to hold on to their share in the hope of recouping their losses - so if Fitton bought the club but not the development rights he'd end up running the club, building a new ground, then sending off a proportion of the profits to MD/SSW/St Mod afterwards.

The first bit fact, second bit guesswork.

The idea seems to be that the Football Club business has sold on any future profits from any development associated with it.  This is not specific to the County Ground, but refers to any development associated with STFC.  Presumably it is a "potential" future asset that you cvould trade liek this because Football clubs have been well known as Trojan horses to get developments granted.

Yep - that's pretty much my reading of the situation too.

The long and short is I'm convinced current people are hanging on with hope that some mug will build a new ground then give them cash from it after. To be fair you'd have to be an utter fucking mug of a businessman to agree to that.

Which is why no investor will ever agree to it

For once, you're very correct.

A few years back SSW cash was benefactor money, now it's a loan at 12%, now he wants it all repaid ...

I'm not against him getting his cash back but I am against him benefitting from something the club *might* do in the future. Why should him and MD get money from something the pair of them failed to do while in charge? Fuck off and let someone else do the job properly.

when will diamandis realise that no one is stupid enough to agree to that! why the fuck should fitton or anyone else give him any future profits!!! greedy cunt!

It's as good as saying: I've got a field. It's got a shed on it, and you can have it all for £500,000. Oh, didn't I mention that when you buy it you might want to build a five bedroom mansion on it. I'm selling this to you with the potential for that development ... it's just we haven't quite got around to it yet.

Not forgetting. 'oh and we don't actually own the field, but don't let that worry you.'

So all you'll really own is the shed but not the ground beneath the shed. But the house will look nice when you build it.

no, you're renting the shed from someone else, and the pitchfork you keep inside.

oh and you are only allowed to use the ground for having a shed and keeping a pitchfork inside it - you could probably build a bigger shed if you liked, but if you wanted to add more sheds and sell them off it wouldn't actually be allowed anyway.

You'd actually be renting a battered shed, and paying for the fork and rake inside it with someone elses money.

You'd then be selling the rights to rent the shed and own the fork and rake inside it.

It'd then come with a clause that says when you buy a field to build a bigger shed and that shed can hold loads of new flashy equipment, like lawn mowers and cultivators (that you're able to rent and profit from) we want a cut on that profit because we rented the previous shed and ruined the rake and fork.

It's fucking pathetic.

If the club goes under the only thing our current board get is, fingers crossed, a tasty bit of bird for not meeting their obligations. Yet they can sell at Fittons original offer, cut their losses and avoid the love shack. Its stooopid.

I thought the club owned a couple of the stands, though, so surely they'd own the shed ...

See - this is the problem - the club's in such a mess nobody knows who owns what now!

Sorry I'm lost now,
Who owns which shed?
Why is there a pitch fork inside it?
And who would want to batter a field?
 :?

There is whoever, one slight problem with plan B. Its bollocks.

I can see how it could be turned into a paint roller, but how can it herd sheep !?

There is no shed.

What about the trust's shed?

See the trust's shed ....

I am aware of it.

That's your new house, that is.

See that Diamandis,
That's you that is.
That's you on a good day in your best clothes.

Badiel, Newman, just kiss and make up so TMWE can return.

I wish they'd repeat it on UK Gold or something, but for some reason it has never been rerun. Not fair.

My understanding is that we (essentially) own the fixtures and fittings of the County Ground,  but rent the land it sits on from the Council.

Is this correct Terry Tibbs?

Well I was under the impression that we owned the Arkells and Nationwide stands ... but not the other two ... but I think the whole thing is so shrowded in mystery we may never know.

we potentially own the Nationwide stand, subject to it being used as an asset whcih may now have a charge against it.  So it's like we own one wall of the shed, rent the space the shed is on the the 3 other walls, but we've actually used the wall to mortgage against so someone else can pretty much take that wall of the shed.

And, of course, for a football club we don't own the most important part of the ground ... the fucking pitch.

I don't like talk of "3 walls" at all sir

This may be a stupid idea, but here goes...

I recall that the present occupiers of the CG have pissed the Council off, slagged them off in the press etc.

As landlord wouldn't a simple letter/press release from the council confirming that they would never work with this shower of shit to develop the ground make the issue if development rights essentially void?

Hence the 'Oh'.  :D

Oh.

Interesting idea.

Seriously doubt there is enough profit in the CG for fat boy anyway. They'd surely look at larger alternate sites and piggy back other developments on the back of STFC.

if some deal was signed and diamond shithead was still involved I honestly can say I would vigorously oppose any planning application I could, no matter how brilliant the new plans would be.

Yep, it's not tied to the current site, the development rights seem to be drawn up to cover any site anyone at the club may choose.

How the hell can somthing like that be legal?

I could understand it if a site had been identified, paid for, planning permission obtained etc etc.

Just how on earth can you tie up rights to somthing that doesn't exist?