EmersonsKev Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 While I agree that the club has moved forward under his direction, I'm not convinced his motives are entirely altruistic. He made his fortune as a financial expert. It would be naive to think that he has invested in Bristol City football club purely for "the good of the club". Like anyone else, realistically, he's in it for the money. He's a shrewd investor and has slowly been dividing up all aspects of the club, the stadium and the holding company. Since we are not financial experts and it is a private company, we don't know how he is manipulating the operating aspects of the club as a business. However, I would bet that, when he walks away from BCFC, he won't be leaving with a loss on his investment. He didn't make £40m (or whatever his worth is at the moment) by throwing money at lost causes. If this is how you feel, I would highly advise you to go along to a meeting with Steve L or get him in the car park or while he walking around the pitchside at AG on matchday. The man is in it for the love of Bristol City I can assure you that or he is a very good actor. He indeed hasn't made his money by throwing it at lost causes nor has he made his money from not knowing what to do with a business. He has always maintained the stance that he wants the club to have the best facilities the best players and best stadium the club can have but he wont jepodise the club by mortgaging the club to the hilt to achieve these things. I have also heard him say on more than one occasion that he doesn't take a penny from Bristol City Football Club. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Belgrave Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 From where I sit, I think that if you had the opportunity to custom-design an ideal Chairman to master-mind CITY's progress, adding the chief attributes required, namely: local loyalty, nous and financial acumen, you could not produce a better candidate than Mr Lansdown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whale Eye Beef Hooked Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 I spoke to him at our local Cricket fundraising do and he was so down to earth. He was also very generous on the day which helped make the day a sucess. Top Banana in my book Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCFC_Dan Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 While I agree that the club has moved forward under his direction, I'm not convinced his motives are entirely altruistic. He made his fortune as a financial expert. It would be naive to think that he has invested in Bristol City football club purely for "the good of the club". Like anyone else, realistically, he's in it for the money. He's a shrewd investor and has slowly been dividing up all aspects of the club, the stadium and the holding company. Since we are not financial experts and it is a private company, we don't know how he is manipulating the operating aspects of the club as a business. However, I would bet that, when he walks away from BCFC, he won't be leaving with a loss on his investment. He didn't make £40m (or whatever his worth is at the moment) by throwing money at lost causes. I wouldn't say he's "doing it for the money" as I think pretty much everybody understands that it's almost impossible to run a football club at a profit. I think he does it because he enjoys it, because he wants to help his home town and because he wants to give something to the world. It is clear, however, that he's protecting himself should things go badly wrong. I can't say I blame him for that. I don't think he's got any intentions of screwing the club for his own personal gain, nor do I think he's the sort to take massive risks with money the club doesn't have, but he has set things up so that his own losses could be minimised in the event of a disaster. I'm absolutely convinced that there's nothing at all to worry about, but at the same time there's no harm in supporters keeping an eye on the situation and being aware of what's going on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Club and Country Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 he supported rovers as a youngster, not that its a problem now though...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Mosquito Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 Like anyone else, realistically, he's in it for the money. He's a shrewd investor and has slowly been dividing up all aspects of the club, the stadium and the holding company. Since we are not financial experts and it is a private company, we don't know how he is manipulating the operating aspects of the club as a business. However, I would bet that, when he walks away from BCFC, he won't be leaving with a loss on his investment. He didn't make £40m (or whatever his worth is at the moment) by throwing money at lost causes. From a business perspective a football club is like a black hole for a Chairman's own dosh. This club particularly so, I believe that the only time that this club - as a business - ever paid a dividend on its shares was when we reached the FA Cup final 100 years ago. OK, Steve Lansdown might get lucky and be able to make a profit by selling his shares in this club to a rich Arab or Yank or Russian but that doesn't look likely at the moment. BCFC isn't a lost cause but the likes of Steve Lansdown generally enter football Chairmanship for the love of football and for a fair bit of media publicity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easton boy Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 I think when you see Charlton today posting a net loss of 11.5million, Ipswich losing 5.5million in a year, it almost makes our £2mill loss last season appear acceptable. How much of this is to do with SL's financial acumen as well? Surely, with clubs like Soton, Coventry and Norwich(top of head) likely to announce much greater losses than our 2m, this puts us on a good footing, not just this year, but in future years to keep moving forward at a steady pace rather than mortgaging our future away. Thank F.C.U.K. for Steve Lansdown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest big red lee Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 If this is how you feel, I would highly advise you to go along to a meeting with Steve L or get him in the car park or while he walking around the pitchside at AG on matchday. The man is in it for the love of Bristol City I can assure you that or he is a very good actor. He indeed hasn't made his money by throwing it at lost causes nor has he made his money from not knowing what to do with a business. He has always maintained the stance that he wants the club to have the best facilities the best players and best stadium the club can have but he wont jepodise the club by mortgaging the club to the hilt to achieve these things. I have also heard him say on more than one occasion that he doesn't take a penny from Bristol City Football Club. well said Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
downendcity Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 From a business perspective a football club is like a black hole for a Chairman's own dosh. This club particularly so, I believe that the only time that this club - as a business - ever paid a dividend on its shares was when we reached the FA Cup final 100 years ago. OK, Steve Lansdown might get lucky and be able to make a profit by selling his shares in this club to a rich Arab or Yank or Russian but that doesn't look likely at the moment. BCFC isn't a lost cause but the likes of Steve Lansdown generally enter football Chairmanship for the love of football and for a fair bit of media publicity. Q. How does a Chairman make a small fortune running a football club? A. By starting with a large one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Mosquito Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 Q. How does a Chairman make a small fortune running a football club? A. By starting with a large one! My reply was in response to SimplyRed's claim that Steve Lansdown is "in it for the money". If he's being BCFC Chairman for the money then he's a wild gambler. I, personally, don't believe that Steve Lansdown is in it for the money - media publicity, love of BCFC and football, kudos but not money. Alan Sugar once famously remarked - when Chairman of Spurs - that money going into a club is like the prune juice effect with money from TV, Alan Sugar's own money, sponsorship, sales etc going into Spurs and then straight out again into the players' wage packets. Running a football club is a definate drain on time and money so from this aspect how can Steve Lansdown be in it for the money ???!!! :noexpression: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rednotblue Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 ps/I also hold firm to the belief that all chairmen really are (s'pecially at the lower levels) are successful businessmen charitably giving something back to the community. Wise words indeed. I think SL is doing a decent job. What I'd really like to know though is how long before he thinks the club will break even. If he can manage that and the team still be competitive in the CCC (at the very least) then he's done a flipping brilliant job in my eyes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCFC_Dan Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 I don't think you can dismiss what SimplyRed said entirely. I don't think Steve Lansdown is running the club with the sole intention of making himself a profit, but he would certainly like to see the club running profitably in order to recoup his investment. He won't want to be pouring money into it forever. As other have said, it's almost impossible to make money out of owning a football club, but the aim must still be to make the club at least capable of standing on its own. In addition to this it looks very much like the act of forming a separate company to own the ground and converting a lot of the money loaned to the club into shares in this company is a way of protecting himself against disaster. If the club goes bankrupt then the ground is not owned by the club and Steve Lansdown will not stand to lose too much money. He would then have the option of either resurrecting the club, or selling off the ground. Steve Lansdown has done an incredible amount for the club and I think he's a tremendous person to have in charge, but I do think he has created a situation whereby his actions with the club will not affect him too negatively if things go wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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