Sir Lansdown

[Big Jon]

I get your point about the debts. He ain't no saint maybe an ex-gas tax avoider but leave the safe standing out of it. That is a plus, if he is behind that idea, then credit to him.

Safe standing in the eastend is fine but along the side at the bottom of the dolman will look poor and to much like a rugby ground especially since the pitch is being widened for rugby

[TRL]

Safe standing in the eastend is fine but along the side at the bottom of the dolman will look poor and to much like a rugby ground especially since the pitch is being widened for rugby

There used to be standing at the bottom of the Dolman, likewise bottom of the Williams, I don't think it really looked out of place. Guess we won't really know until we see it in place.

[TRUEBRIT66]

Like I said, i don't know and as I have pointed out, I can't believe he has been able to rip up the good financial management of the club, to riddle himself/club with debts, and no one batted a eyelid, and let him do it.

I disagree with a lot he has done, but to basically override the majority ownership rule and put us/him in mountains of debt is plain ridiculous, he has run roughshod over the club and fans for his dreams, not ours. Disgusting behaviour if you ask me. And as I already said, you only need some sort of Lansdown family falling out or a death, and Bristl City are right up shite creek without a paddle.

I couldn't give a shite about someone else taking over, my problem is with what has happened, not what is out there

Bit of a fixation there mate you doing Mrs L or know something we dont

[TRL]

Bit of a fixation there mate you doing Mrs L or know something we dont

That would be telling

[Calculus]

Will be interesting to see how the debt is handled in the end - at some point I expect that he'll write off the debt: in effect he owes himself the money.

Not that I'm an expert on these things but always remember that Steve is an accountant by trade, so you can bet your lives that when he does the write any debt off, it will be in the most tax efficient way he can do and be off set against capital gains (eg from the sale of HL shares), transfers or even inheritance tax. There will be a plan for handling he debt, of that I'm certain, but it will be at Steve's convenience and totally his call.

[Timbo7]

Just a thought

• For several years after assuming control SL picked up the tab for the club's annual losses of £1M - £2M and little if any progress was achieved
• Eventually we gained promotion to the Championship
• Then and only then did SL start talking of a sustainable future in the Premier League at Ashton Vale and hosting the World Cup
• Subsequently, SL supported and promoted expensive quick-fix transfers we could not afford and allowed annual losses to escalate alarmingly

Whilst it may no longer be true - in 2007/08 there is little doubt that that a Premier League club with a new 30,000+ stadium could have been sold (either through floatation or to a rich overseas investor) at an enormous profit.

Many on here seem to praise SL because he has given no indication of a desire to sell in circumstances where there are no buyers. Had he managed to achieve his ambition of Premier League football at Ashton Vale (and had there not been an international economic catastrophe) then circumstances would have been very different and who knows what price SL would not have been able to turn down??

The Premier League is full of clubs whose long-term owners have ultimately been unable to ignore the riches on offer from abroad - are we sure SL would have been any different?

[Timbo7]

This Government (like others) will only consider knighthoods for tax-exiles if their political donations are of sufficient size and appropriately targetted - I think it might be referred to in private by the prime minister as "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours". I have no doubt SL is well aware of this but it seems he prefers to "invest" in Bristol sport than in such things.

[Timbo7]

It is not SL's fault that professional football clubs in this country have become thoroughly unsustainable business outside the Premier League and have consequently been stolen from their supporters - but he had been a very active participant in the process,

It is not SL's fault that players' wages have outstripped supporter generated revenues - but he has been a very active participant in the process

It is not SL's fault that professional football clubs have taken action to restructure in order to avoid the FA's strict governance rules (aimed at protecting clubs for the benefit of their supporters) but he has restructured Bristol City for precisely this reason.

Like many other clubs, supporters have simply stood by without complaint while he has formed a holding company (free from FA governance), allowed annual losses to escalate making the club ever more dependent on him and taken advantage of new Companies Act legislation to make the interests of minor shareholders effectively irrelevant. Of course until and unless success on the field is achieved this has all been pretty much entirely at his own expense and this seems to be why the majority of supporters continue to heap praise upon him.

Hence we have now arrived at a truly absurd outcome in that SL is hailed a hero simply because he has failed to achieve his ambition.

If he had succeeded in spending his money to achieve Premier League football in brand new ground - even if he had resisted the the temptation to sell to the latest oil-rich Arab (or Russian) on the block he would have an asset valued in excess of the money he put in. Some of us would no doubt be enjoying the football (certainly more than we are at present) but we would be altogether less inclined to worship the man who bought it.

[Timbo7]

Safe standing in the eastend is fine but along the side at the bottom of the dolman will look poor and to much like a rugby ground especially since the pitch is being widened for rugby

In what way would terracing at the side make it look too much like a rugby ground?

I'm more concerned that regular use by a rugby team, rugby pitch markings and longer grass (if any grass actually survives use by a rugby team) will make it look too much like a rugby ground. In fact if any evidence of rugby is visible at all it will look too much like a rugby ground for my tastes!

[Big Jon]

In what way would terracing at the side make it look too much like a rugby ground?

I'm more concerned that regular use by a rugby team, rugby pitch markings and longer grass (if any grass actually survives use by a rugby team) will make it look too much like a rugby ground. In fact if any evidence of rugby is visible at all it will look too much like a rugby ground for my tastes!

I agree with you 100% how ever there is nothing we can do about the rugby coming here just don't want to have a ground that looks more like a rugby pitch than a football one

[alwaysbelieve]

i do not understand the 'lansDOWN loving', all he was interested in from the minute we got promoted was a poxy new stadium, which was never going to happen, and it's a good job it didn't. Instead of focusing about what was happening on the pitch, in improving on a poor side and getting a good manager, he doesn't. I'd like him to explain that if at the moment we are averaging 13,000 in a 21,500, how there is any need for a new stadium? its equivalant to dave whelan to say, lets extend the DW by 10,000, when they are averaging so highly below a sell out. He mentions about progressing as a club, you cannot progress with a poor team and a poor manager. We're his second choice now he's got the rugby and he will probably call it a day very soon, to which it'll be a relief as we can stop talking such b******s about a new stadium, he got it wrong with McInnes, and if we go down, it's 150% lansdowns fault, we lost 7 games in a row, we didn't win between that peterborough away game and the middlesbrough away game, which are two appauling teams anyway, we were fortunate to beat wednesday, and apart from the cardiff, palace and peterborough home win, none of the other results were convincing at all. For me being 2-0 up against bolton and losing was the last straw, should have gone then, even after that losing to such dribble as huddersfield, birmingham, charlton, derby, wolves 4-1, but lansdown still couldn't see it, i know that if he would have gone before the p'boro game then we might not have got o'driscoll, but i know we wouldn't be where we are now

[Jordan Tansley]

[redcityman]

i do not understand the 'lansDOWN loving', all he was interested in from the minute we got promoted was a poxy new stadium, which was never going to happen, and it's a good job it didn't. Instead of focusing about what was happening on the pitch, in improving on a poor side and getting a good manager, he doesn't. I'd like him to explain that if at the moment we are averaging 13,000 in a 21,500, how there is any need for a new stadium? its equivalant to dave whelan to say, lets extend the DW by 10,000, when they are averaging so highly below a sell out. He mentions about progressing as a club, you cannot progress with a poor team and a poor manager. We're his second choice now he's got the rugby and he will probably call it a day very soon, to which it'll be a relief as we can stop talking such b******s about a new stadium, he got it wrong with McInnes, and if we go down, it's 150% lansdowns fault, we lost 7 games in a row, we didn't win between that peterborough away game and the middlesbrough away game, which are two appauling teams anyway, we were fortunate to beat wednesday, and apart from the cardiff, palace and peterborough home win, none of the other results were convincing at all. For me being 2-0 up against bolton and losing was the last straw, should have gone then, even after that losing to such dribble as huddersfield, birmingham, charlton, derby, wolves 4-1, but lansdown still couldn't see it, i know that if he would have gone before the p'boro game then we might not have got O'Driscoll, but i know we wouldn't be where we are now

What complete load of drivel.

Rebuilding or building a new stadium isn't just about increasing gate capacity, getting rid of DM wouldn't not of garanteed anything, we have no devine right to beat any team, even if you think they're " such dribble ".

Now that's said, can you give me next weeks lottery winning number, or maybe loan me your crystal ball?

[Nibor]

i do not understand

You could have stopped there and made more sense.

The stadium is about revenue on the 330 or so days a year we don't have a home game. That's how you get a better team.

We lost 7 in a row and should have fired McInnes? SL stuck with GJ after a worse losing run and the following season we were promoted.

Literally nothing you say makes sense.

[Aizoon]

You could have stopped there and made more sense.

The stadium is about revenue on the 330 or so days a year we don't have a home game. That's how you get a better team.

We lost 7 in a row and should have fired McInnes? SL stuck with GJ after a worse losing run and the following season we were promoted.

Literally nothing you say makes sense.

I still think JT said it better

[NickJ]

Nobody sensible is going to say that O'Driscoll is useless and the Board are idiots, because clearly neither is true (though IMO the composition of the board is entirely inappropriate).

What I will say is, IMO, if SOD was given as long as it takes to get us out of this league, one way or another, it won't be up.

Was hoping it wouldn't be this soon to be proved correct but always feared for the worst.

We aren't down yet of course but if SOD can still save us nobody can say what a miracle worker he is because I dont think it would have been planned like this.

The bigger picture of course is that the managers are managed by the board and I still refuse to believe that a uni graduate, a professional marketeer and a few professional administrators have the requisite knowledge or experience or nous to successfully run a professional football club in the Championship.

Steve please recognize this and get appropriate people on board.

[Guest]

As the old saying goes the buck stops at the top; players and managers are employed by them, therefore we are only as good as those at the top.

[andy114]

What a man he is. His company have just sorted out my Pension.

With a bit of luck I may be able to afford a season ticket next year (as long as I don't want to eat too much)