Lee Power

[Robinz]

Businesses tend to either expand or retrench and for these reasons this creates a feeding ground for moneymen. These sharks rip the guts out of nearly all businesses they get involved with.

That said, what goes around nearly always comes around.

The problems that STFC are experiencing today were started many years ago and possibly the last chance for real stability and success was when Bill Power and Mark Devlin left the club after the Saturday when they crashed their helicopter.

Another chance was when Andrew Fitton seemed a dream come true and with Andrew Blacks investments we were back in the saddle until PDC just pushed every boundry. Great experience but a car crash waiting to happen.

Andrew Black must take lots of responsibility for the present situation and in my opinion is / was the problem as he encouraged the Sharks to take over and rip the guts out of Swindon Town Football Club after he supposedly sold the club for just 1.00 pound   

I just hope all ends well for the club and especially the many thousands of true STFC supporters like me who live locally and around the world. Stay well

 

[Legends-Lounge]

Clearly there is money to be made out of our club, after all we seem to have had a succession of questionable owners in recent years whose words of ‘five year’ plans etc have ended up dying in the embers of another funeral pyre at SN1. I suppose though a number of you will disagree with what I am about to write but it is a forum after all and we’ll not all agree on everything.

My worry is that clearly we have been owned and stewarded by people on the make one way or another and until we do have considerate and wealthy owners ready to invest in as I said the other day both infrastructure and playing staff to get to at least a sustainable championship level (how much that will cost and how long that will take is open to conjecture) we’ll suffer regular bouts of Groundhog Day owner events.

As well meaning as Clem comes across, he is clearly looking at ground development. In other words to make a Buck or five, or millions, who knows? Which brings me to the current situation with Clem, Standing and Barry, again they’re all in it for wonga and lots of it. So for me if it goes tits up spectacularly I’ve only lost a club which has bought me much happiness and much sadness, they will have lost a fuck load of money, which they may or may not be able to afford, well tough shit.

I can always go and support Supermarine and still have live football to follow, they cannot replace their lost money. Not the same I know, but for me a good substitute and when I hand my money over the turnstile at Supermarine I at least know the club is not run by a bunch of crooks on the make. What’s more, it would be a fantastic journey to see Supermarine do a FGR or Salford on modest means and not ‘buy’ league status like the aforementioned appear to have. For the record, I do not want STFC to fold and end up disappearing from the record books going forward but I am getting fed up of lining the pockets of financial chancers.

[chalkies shorts]

Clearly there is money to be made out of our club, after all we seem to have had a succession of questionable owners in recent years whose words of ‘five year’ plans etc have ended up dying in the embers of another funeral pyre at SN1. I suppose though a number of you will disagree with what I am about to write but it is a forum after all and we’ll not all agree on everything.

My worry is that clearly we have been owned and stewarded by people on the make one way or another and until we do have considerate and wealthy owners ready to invest in as I said the other day both infrastructure and playing staff to get to at least a sustainable championship level (how much that will cost and how long that will take is open to conjecture) we’ll suffer regular bouts of Groundhog Day owner events.

As well meaning as Clem comes across, he is clearly looking at ground development. In other words to make a Buck or five, or millions, who knows? Which brings me to the current situation with Clem, Standing and Barry, again they’re all in it for wonga and lots of it. So for me if it goes tits up spectacularly I’ve only lost a club which has bought me much happiness and much sadness, they will have lost a fuck load of money, which they may or may not be able to afford, well tough shit.

I can always go and support Supermarine and still have live football to follow, they cannot replace their lost money. Not the same I know, but for me a good substitute and when I hand my money over the turnstile at Supermarine I at least know the club is not run by a bunch of crooks on the make. What’s more, it would be a fantastic journey to see Supermarine do a FGR or Salford on modest means and not ‘buy’ league status like the aforementioned appear to have. For the record, I do not want STFC to fold and end up disappearing from the record books going forward but I am getting fed up of lining the pockets of financial chancers.

Supermarine are a great little club with a chairman who is very visible and approachable and actually very likeable.
I think they will achieve promotion within the next 3 seasons to the one under conference. I'm not sure they have the clout to go further with stfc around. But what they have done over the last few years is sustainable. It's incremental growth.

[Pookemon]

Clearly there is money to be made out of our club, after all we seem to have had a succession of questionable owners in recent years whose words of ‘five year’ plans etc have ended up dying in the embers of another funeral pyre at SN1. I suppose though a number of you will disagree with what I am about to write but it is a forum after all and we’ll not all agree on everything.

My worry is that clearly we have been owned and stewarded by people on the make one way or another and until we do have considerate and wealthy owners ready to invest in as I said the other day both infrastructure and playing staff to get to at least a sustainable championship level (how much that will cost and how long that will take is open to conjecture) we’ll suffer regular bouts of Groundhog Day owner events.

As well meaning as Clem comes across, he is clearly looking at ground development. In other words to make a Buck or five, or millions, who knows? Which brings me to the current situation with Clem, Standing and Barry, again they’re all in it for wonga and lots of it. So for me if it goes tits up spectacularly I’ve only lost a club which has bought me much happiness and much sadness, they will have lost a fuck load of money, which they may or may not be able to afford, well tough shit.

I can always go and support Supermarine and still have live football to follow, they cannot replace their lost money. Not the same I know, but for me a good substitute and when I hand my money over the turnstile at Supermarine I at least know the club is not run by a bunch of crooks on the make. What’s more, it would be a fantastic journey to see Supermarine do a FGR or Salford on modest means and not ‘buy’ league status like the aforementioned appear to have. For the record, I do not want STFC to fold and end up disappearing from the record books going forward but I am getting fed up of lining the pockets of financial chancers.

If the structure of the investment is sound and for the benefit of both the club and the individual then I've no problem with an individual making money on the back of the success of the club.

The ground does need a wedge throwing at it, the town end is over 100 years old ffs.  The problem has been that the council won't develop it and no leaseholder would ever spend millions increasing the value for the freeholder so the shared ownership option seems to make sense.   Ground development can then happen and value of club will increase as will revenue (if done correctly).

By the trust owning 50% it's hard to see how anyone can make a quick buck on the ground.   However my understanding is that Clem wants Axis to build it (therefore receiving the construction income) which means he's not really financing the build so gaining asset value without incurring additional investment.   

It seems a sensible use of the resources available to him, so long as the terms are at a commercial rate of course.

[Frigby Daser]

You say that there must be money to make. I’m not so sure. We all know that football beneath the PL is a very difficult business. Even more so when you can’t drive non matchday revenue from your ground. Even more so again when that ground is 25 years past when it should have been redeveloped, means that just to get on an even level with the rest of the pack, we have to redevelop our ground.

I’ve thought for some time that the dirty secret of lower league football is that less reputable owners “buy” a club, and finance it through loan facility A, which may be secured against their own assets, and then put in place loan B, where they loan a similar amount to the football club. The interest and other terms of loan B will be far more favourable to the owner than loan A. This allows people like Lee Power to take on a club with very little risk. At the same time, the profit generating aspects of the club - such as player sales - do not go to the club, but to Power. So they take the upside, limit risk with the potential downside, make sure they win and the club never can.

[Ginginho]

Would the future training ground development (incl stables, houses, etc) be included in any club sale or is that a separate entity?

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

I doubt the land + planning permission will be part of any club sale. That’s the juicy but for Power. The training ground sounds mythical to me - an attempt at keeping the fans on board until all these skeletons came falling out. I don’t believe for a minute what Power said about a peppercorn rent that the club would pay - he would have screwed us just as Kassam has screwed the piss stains over the rent they pay him for the triangle.

Maybe he’d sell that portion of land supposedly set aside for the training ground separately to whoever ends up buying the club.

Tbh, I just want him gone, accept whatever shit comes our way and start again.

[swindonmaniac]

Tbh, I just want him gone, accept whatever shit comes our way and start again.

Can't come soon enough.

[Legends-Lounge]

Would the future training ground development (incl stables, houses, etc) be included in any club sale or is that a separate entity?

I’ve posed this question before on a couple of occasions. I cannot see there being a deal without some reference to the training ground. The club has NIL/NO value at all and massive liabilities. Why would Able buy it for a £1? I can only think of three reasons, 1) the training ground is involved (though not necessarily implicated in the deal on paper) 2) there could be some sort of kickback to power for Able to take on the club and it’s liabilities and thus sidelining Standing and Morfuni off the creditors list if and when the club goes into admin. 3) honest Lee is acting in everyone’s interests and taking one for the team himself while acknowledging his own short comings.

[flammableBen]

2

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

There is no training ground, though. There’s just Power’s golf course that happens to have a bit of land Power waffled about building one on. Even Power couldn’t have committed the club to leasing a non existent training ground. If that is what he wants - to extract copious amounts of rent - he’ll have to build it first.

[Legends-Lounge]

There is no training ground, though. There’s just Power’s golf course that happens to have a bit of land Power waffled about building one on. Even Power couldn’t have committed the club to leasing a non existent training ground. If that is what he wants - to extract copious amounts of rent - he’ll have to build it first.

You are correct, there is no training ground and you and everyone else knows there fucking isn’t going to be one either. That’s where the money is though isn’t it, not in the training ground but the houses that will eventually go on the ghost training ground.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

Well, yes. But I don’t see what Power owning some land for a housing development/stables has anything to do with STFC. He probably bought the golf course with money generated by the club but that’s about it. I think it’s a complete red herring and is not a factor in him selling the club, who owns the club or all the other bollocks surrounding it.

[china red]

Wha happened to the Nigel Eady money?

[TheDukeOfBanbury]

Well, yes. But I don’t see what Power owning some land for a housing development/stables has anything to do with STFC. He probably bought the golf course with money generated by the club but that’s about it. I think it’s a complete red herring and is not a factor in him selling the club, who owns the club or all the other bollocks surrounding it.

Sadly you are correct.
Notwithstanding Power also pays himself a sizeable salary from the club.