Statement re potential sale of club

[Uncle Peter]

http://barrowafc.com/news/?article=1405

Please see link above.

[sempre contigo]

Was just about to post that.

Awful news

[barrowfan]

Awful news

Did you ever honestly believe it was going to happen?

[McMark]

Thanks Uncle Peter, sad day just when we thought things couldn't get any worse. Nobody in their right minds would invest into this shambles at the moment, good luck sir you are going to need it!!!

[Bigfathoss]

Well after one reading of that my opinion is that we are [SwearFilter] well [SwearFilter].
Sell up for a quid, plus promises of loans being repaid, and let the club progress. That's what should have happened.

[capman]

Or well that is us reel in the shit now with what has happen with bayliss

[audigex]

"It was therefore agreed that any proposal would involve the 3rd party forming a new company owned and controlled by them which would purchase the assets of Barrow AFC Limited and also require the approval of the football authorities, FA and Conference, to transfer the Football Registration to the new company."

So basically
1) The club owns a ground, and is owned by the members
2) The board spends all the clubs money
3) Board loans money to the club because they've spent all it's money
4) Board sells club in order to pay themselves back
5) The club now doesn't own a ground and is owned by some random person who we have no idea of their intentions

How was this ever a better idea? It leaves the supporters exactly where we started apart from we no longer own our club or our ground.

Bigfaghoss - this pretty much sounds like it WAS a case of "sell up for a quid plus promises of loans being repaid" - the new owner gets the ground and name in exchange for paying off the mortgage (unless transferred) and directors' loans.

[spongebobsquarepants]

I wonder whether they came across something they didn't like.

On the plus side when the club does go down the shitter we know there is someone who will likely step in.

[Bigfathoss]

"

Bigfaghoss - this pretty much sounds like it WAS a case of "sell up for a quid plus promises of loans being repaid" - the new owner gets the ground and name in exchange for paying off the mortgage (unless transferred) and directors' loans.

And who is to say that wouldn't have been ideal? At some point the members would have had to have information regarding suitability and intentions of the alleged suitor. It might have been a great deal.

[Coco Jimbo]

how is this anyone but the current bod 's fault ?

[audigex]

Because at the moment the ground
1) Is owned by the club
2) Is relatively secure, the mortgage is with a local company who would rather work with the club than against it (as exemplified by sponsoring the ground in lieu of some repayment or other?), and the only charge against the ground is Brian/Tony Keen's company (a pair who, for their faults, clearly don't want to see the club down)
3) Can only be taken off us if we can't keep up a (fairly reasonable) mortgage or if the club is totally wound up due to non-payment of tax or some other hefty bill we can't afford to pay

As a club owned by it's members, therefore, the club and ground should survive anything but the worst possible catastrophe.

If the ground was sold to an investor, our ground would be completely at their whim. If they wanted to wind up the club and sell the land to a property developer before paying themselves a massive dividend with the cash, RIP Barrow AFC.

[Reg]

The last hope has now gone.

Administration or liquidation is now inevitable under this current regime.

[barrowfan]

Wonder if the decision to back out was made before the club statement about Bayliss's 'punishment' or as a result of it?

[John Very Little]

Surely anyone wanting to buy the club would have known it was a members club, what all the assets and debts were and what would be required to take control? After the recent statements by the board I can't help thinking that there's a good deal of spin in that statement and they are intimating the so-called takeover group don't know what they're talking about - or perhaps what the board want us to think?
All this with the Constitution Working Party tomorrow, the timing is somewhat coincidental?

Like others I'm seriously concerned about the future of the club.

[K_BFC]

Wonder if the decision to back out was made before the club statement about Bayliss's 'punishment' or as a result of it?

As owner I'm pretty sure they could have the manager replaced, just pay up his contract and say goodbye.

Reading that statement makes the potential investor sound very naive regarding football and how to operate a club. It makes the investor sound like they just wanted the ground cheap and had not thought very much about the football club. Given some of their proposals according to the BOD would fall foul of the football authorities. Sounds like the investor would, after a couple of years of funding the team sell the ground up for a nice profit. Missed our ride or bullet dodged?