If there was a takeover in the next 12 months...

[Glen hump]

5 minutes ago, Ska Junkie said:

Imagine trying to untangle BCFC from the rest? No idea how that would work but we could end up tenants / homeless in the worst case scenario, a la Coventry City.

Very concerning if we are sold outside of the Bristol sport umbrella IMHO.

Sl isn’t getting any younger, he wants out in my opinion, what’s he going to do with the club he can’t hand it over to Jon boy can he .

[Ska Junkie]

3 minutes ago, Glen hump said:

Sl isn’t getting any younger, he wants out in my opinion, what’s he going to do with the club he can’t hand it over to Jon boy can he .

Totally agreed Glen and I wouldn't blame him tbh.

I'm just a little concerned, as many would be, as to where the football club stand outside of the Bristol sport / Pula umbrella IF we were sold separately. It would definitely take some untangling!

Edited August 27, 2023 by Ska Junkie

[WarksRobin]

The first consideration is that any owner has to be prepared to put in an average of £13m per year, just to stand still. The alternative is to cut operating costs (player wages) or increase revenues (player sales or promotion) to run the club more sustainably. This is what has been happening over the past 2-3 years but we are yet to see how successful this has been. 

I'm sure we would all welcome investment into the playing side if we had a wealthy investor keen to see us promoted, but there are no guarantees that spending lots more results in success and at some point FFP becomes a limiting factor again. 

[W-S-M Seagull]

31 minutes ago, BUTOR said:

At the same time it is to the absolute credit of our current owner that not just any interested party has been allowed to go beyond just interest. How many owners in the EFL could you say the same of? 

SL gets a hell of a lot of crap from our fans, but the vast majority of FL clubs would love him to own them. 

We are sometimes guilty of taking his ownership for granted. 

So many clubs have dodgy owners. 

As long as SL is here we will always have a club. 

[Mr Popodopolous]

7 minutes ago, WarksRobin said:

The first consideration is that any owner has to be prepared to put in an average of £13m per year, just to stand still. The alternative is to cut operating costs (player wages) or increase revenues (player sales or promotion) to run the club more sustainably. This is what has been happening over the past 2-3 years but we are yet to see how successful this has been. 

I'm sure we would all welcome investment into the playing side if we had a wealthy investor keen to see us promoted, but there are no guarantees that spending lots more results in success and at some point FFP becomes a limiting factor again. 

I mean revenue streams. E.g. SL could in theory sell naming rights for Ashton Gate, as a stadium, each stand individually and even maybe the HPC.

In theory we could run on less than £39m in 3 years but that could limit progress. Run on more for a time, if it doesn't pay off we stall or maybe even fall foul eventually.

Edited August 27, 2023 by Mr Popodopolous

[Glen hump]

15 minutes ago, Ska Junkie said:

Imagine trying to untangle BCFC from the rest? No idea how that would work but we could end up tenants / homeless in the worst case scenario, a la Coventry City.

Very concerning if we are sold outside of the Bristol sport umbrella IMHO.

I’ve been a critic of sl but I honestly don’t think he’d sell us to any Tom dick or harry, I would imagine he’d make sure whoever buys us are doing it for the right reason 

[sh1t_ref_again]

Just now, Glen hump said:

I’ve been a critic of sl but I honestly don’t think he’d sell us to any Tom dick or harry, I would imagine he’d make sure whoever buys us are doing it for the right reason 

You have perhaps answered your own question, it may not be about lack of interest or being too expensive or bristol sport, but SL not wanting to just sell to anyone and see the progress he has achieved undone or the club put at risk.

[Glen hump]

1 minute ago, sh1t_ref_again said:

You have perhaps answered your own question, it may not be about lack of interest or being too expensive or bristol sport, but SL not wanting to just sell to anyone and see the progress he has achieved undone or the club put at risk.

Yes maybe, but don’t think apart from the yanks we’ve not really had any other concrete interest 

[Winterstoke toad]

44 minutes ago, Glen hump said:

We’ve been for sale for a couple of years now, apart from some interest from the USA nobody’s overly interested.

There is a lot of interest in teams from a city like Bristol and huge catchment areas like ours the thing that’s stopping interest turning into talks is having to buy Bristol sport and not just the football club . Steve Lansdown has made us much harder to sell by lumping us in with the rugby and other sports.

[ExiledAjax]

20 minutes ago, Ska Junkie said:

Imagine trying to untangle BCFC from the rest? No idea how that would work but we could end up tenants / homeless in the worst case scenario, a la Coventry City.

Very concerning if we are sold outside of the Bristol sport umbrella IMHO.

No. It's a simple corporate structure. You don't need to untangle anything in terms of which company owns which.

There might be some contracts between some of the companies that would need terminating or novating, and some assets might need to move around, but it's all fairly simple really.

BCFC Holdings, which owns the Bristol City Football Club Ltd (the "club") and Ashton Gate Ltd (the stadium), is directly owned by Pula Sport (plus residual fan shareholders. That's it basically.

It would be pretty easy to sell the club, stadium, Failand, and women's team.

[Glen hump]

Just now, Winterstoke toad said:

There is a lot of interest in teams from a city like Bristol and huge catchment areas like ours the thing that’s stopping interest turning into talks is having to buy Bristol sport and not just the football club . Steve Lansdown has made us much harder to sell by lumping us in with the rugby and other sports.

I agree with you but it’s the football club that’s for sale, the stadium is a problem though with the rugby sharing it 

[cidercity1987]

Up until this year I have never understood the attraction of a new investor. Whether they have 500million or 500billion we are only allowed to lose a certain amount due to FFP and we have been at the limit.

However now I perceive that SL is not reinvesting in the team correctly at the moment and there are many clubs of similar finances going for it in a way that we are not. I also fundamentally disagree with his attitude to Pearson and ultimately the fact we have never really challenged for the Prem is a big stain on SLs chairmanship.

It's not necessarily time for new money, as FFP as FFP but it's time for new thoughts at the top.

[redkev]

1 hour ago, Sir Geoff said:

Why would anyone want to blow the last 2/3 years of steady financial re alignment to just blow it all again. FFP and parachute payments are all stacked against us. We have to continue building slowly and hope we get lucky with building a squad organically that is good enough to compete around the play offs for a couple of years and then hope we get to a play off final and actually win it.

Agree but we must at some point put the brakes on with the selling of our best players ( most saleable assets ) for a couple of years to at least have a chance of making the promised land or all we are gonna do is tread water at best .

[sh1t_ref_again]

Never understood the hatred of Bristol Sport or how it could be a negative in a sell.

The possible additional cost of having Rugby and Basketball, would be a tiny part cost of selling, but it brings in other revenue streams and utilisation of the stadium which otherwise is stood doing nothing. Bristol Rugby are an internationally recognised premier team and in my view makes the whole deal actually more attractive.

As for the stadium, it was separated off years ago to protect it should the football club ever have problems, any investor with that sort of money is not going to be stupid enough to buy a club without either owning the ground or long term agreement to use.

[Ska Junkie]

2 minutes ago, ExiledAjax said:

No. It's a simple corporate structure. You don't need to untangle anything in terms of which company owns which.

There might be some contracts between some of the companies that would need terminating or novating, and some assets might need to move around, but it's all fairly simple really.

BCFC Holdings, which owns the Bristol City Football Club Ltd (the "club") and Ashton Gate Ltd (the stadium), is directly owned by Pula Sport (plus residual fan shareholders. That's it basically.

It would be pretty easy to sell the club, stadium, Failand, and women's team.

We would become tenants of Ashton Gate holdings then Exiled? Given what happened to Coventry, I'm not sure how comfortable many fans would be with that TBH.

Purely hypothetical at the mo, I appreciate.

[Winterstoke toad]

Just now, Glen hump said:

I agree with you but it’s the football club that’s for sale, the stadium is a problem though with the rugby sharing it 

Yeh I agree . Funnily enough I took some friends who support other teams to Ashton gate not long ago and they said if they weren’t with me they’d have no idea that it’s Bristol city’s ground . No badges or anything representing city on the outside of the stadium and when you look through into the concourse all you can see is rugby pics .

[Mr Popodopolous]

3 minutes ago, redkev said:

Agree but we must at some point put the brakes on with the selling of our best players ( most saleable assets ) for a couple of years to at least have a chance of making the promised land or all we are gonna do is tread water at best .

I'm hoping the Scott sale will be the last one for a couple of years. Maybe 3 years.

[Ska Junkie]

2 minutes ago, sh1t_ref_again said:

Never understood the hatred of Bristol Sport or how it could be a negative in a sell.

The possible additional cost of having Rugby and Basketball, would be a tiny part cost of selling, but it brings in other revenue streams and utilisation of the stadium which otherwise is stood doing nothing. Bristol Rugby are an internationally recognised premier team and in my view makes the whole deal actually more attractive.

As for the stadium, it was separated off years ago to protect it should the football club ever have problems, any investor with that sort of money is not going to be stupid enough to buy a club without either owning the ground or long term agreement to use.

As an overall business model, I totally agree but, if the club is potentially being sold as an independent unit or potential new buyers only want the football club, its suddenly not so simple is it?

[Superjack]

1 minute ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

I'm hoping the Scott sale will be the last one for a couple of years. Maybe 3 years.

You haven't been listening to his latest interview.

If any player is worth selling, he'll sell them.

[Glen hump]

7 minutes ago, cidercity1987 said:

Up until this year I have never understood the attraction of a new investor. Whether they have 500million or 500billion we are only allowed to lose a certain amount due to FFP and we have been at the limit.

However now I perceive that SL is not reinvesting in the team correctly at the moment and there are many clubs of similar finances going for it in a way that we are not. I also fundamentally disagree with his attitude to Pearson and ultimately the fact we have never really challenged for the Prem is a big stain on SLs chairmanship.

It's not necessarily time for new money, as FFP as FFP but it's time for new thoughts at the top.

Totally agree, your absolutely bang on 

[Mr Popodopolous]

8 minutes ago, cidercity1987 said:

Up until this year I have never understood the attraction of a new investor. Whether they have 500million or 500billion we are only allowed to lose a certain amount due to FFP and we have been at the limit.

However now I perceive that SL is not reinvesting in the team correctly at the moment and there are many clubs of similar finances going for it in a way that we are not. I also fundamentally disagree with his attitude to Pearson and ultimately the fact we have never really challenged for the Prem is a big stain on SLs chairmanship.

It's not necessarily time for new money, as FFP as FFP but it's time for new thoughts at the top.

In theory we could be saving up for a big 2-3 year push next year. Feels like we are a bit light to me atm however.

However new ideas are always welcome. If SL sold say 40-50 pct of the club or group that could bring fresh thinking irrespective of the cash.

[Glen hump]

9 minutes ago, sh1t_ref_again said:

Never understood the hatred of Bristol Sport or how it could be a negative in a sell.

The possible additional cost of having Rugby and Basketball, would be a tiny part cost of selling, but it brings in other revenue streams and utilisation of the stadium which otherwise is stood doing nothing. Bristol Rugby are an internationally recognised premier team and in my view makes the whole deal actually more attractive.

As for the stadium, it was separated off years ago to protect it should the football club ever have problems, any investor with that sort of money is not going to be stupid enough to buy a club without either owning the ground or long term agreement to use.

Do the rugby club or basketball make a profit, does Ashton gate make a profit?

[sh1t_ref_again]

1 minute ago, Ska Junkie said:

As an overall business model, I totally agree but, if the club is potentially being sold as an independent unit or potential new buyers only want the football club, its suddenly not so simple is it?

You think if that's the deal it could not be done, of course it could, but I fail to see why anyone would not want Rugby as well.

But let's say, it was a deal breaker, as Bristol Rugby were effectively homeless, I doubt a deal that brought them here means they have a long term contracted right to use the ground, even if they did, if SL wants to do a deal he Could say fine will move them to another ground with investment in that ground, with the money that is involved these type of things can be resolved 

[Mr Popodopolous]

1 minute ago, Glen hump said:

Do the rugby club or basketball make a profit, does Ashton gate make a profit?

Rugby makes a modest loss, no idea on Basketball not checked.

The surprising one is that Ashton Gate Limited is not profitable or at least break even. That side is closest to a stand alone business a more normal business but it would appear not!

[eardun]

1 hour ago, Sir Geoff said:

Why would anyone want to blow the last 2/3 years of steady financial re alignment to just blow it all again. FFP and parachute payments are all stacked against us. We have to continue building slowly and hope we get lucky with building a squad organically that is good enough to compete around the play offs for a couple of years and then hope we get to a play off final and actually win it.

This is where I am. And, as I’ve said before, I don’t feel the desperation that we have to get promoted this season or even next (2025-26 would be lovely though, exactly 50 years since last time!) 

[sh1t_ref_again]

3 minutes ago, Glen hump said:

Do the rugby club or basketball make a profit, does Ashton gate make a profit?

Not sure of the overall return of the rugby club once ticket sales and money spent at the ground is taken in, suspect overall they make a loss, but tiny in comparison to bcfc

[tin]

1 hour ago, Glen hump said:

We’ve been for sale for a couple of years now, apart from some interest from the USA nobody’s overly interested.

Plenty of interest in BCFC, apparently; little interest in Bristol Sport - SL’s Barcelona replica pipe dream.

[ExiledAjax]

16 minutes ago, Ska Junkie said:

We would become tenants of Ashton Gate holdings then Exiled? Given what happened to Coventry, I'm not sure how comfortable many fans would be with that TBH.

Purely hypothetical at the mo, I appreciate.

Not necessarily.

The stadium is owned by a separate company to the football club, but any sale of "the Club" either could, or could not, include that stadium holding company.

Personally I suspect that finding a new owner who would be happy to buy the Club but not the stadium would be very hard. Would you want to spend £50m buying a football team and not own the stadium they play in?

I think your hypothetical scenario is unlikely to materialise.

[Ska Junkie]

13 minutes ago, sh1t_ref_again said:

You think if that's the deal it could not be done, of course it could, but I fail to see why anyone would not want Rugby as well.

But let's say, it was a deal breaker, as Bristol Rugby were effectively homeless, I doubt a deal that brought them here means they have a long term contracted right to use the ground, even if they did, if SL wants to do a deal he Could say fine will move them to another ground with investment in that ground, with the money that is involved these type of things can be resolved 

Once again, I do agree but let's turn that around and it's BCFC that are effectively homeless rather than the Rugby? That is grounds for concern isn't it? No foregone conclusion that we don't come out thr losers IMHO.

There's a resolution somewhere albeit slightly convoluted.

Nice discussion on a boring Sunday regardless.

[sh1t_ref_again]

5 minutes ago, tin said:

Plenty of interest in BCFC, apparently; little interest in Bristol Sport - SL’s Barcelona replica pipe dream.

So you have inside knowledge? Do tell more