The ship looks a little unsteady......?

So, it's not a straightforward situation. We have an owner/custodian who is terminally ill but has previously expressed his desire to pass on the club to new owners with it's best interests at heart. The consortium reported to be interested involves numerous investors. The club's ground and training facilities are partially in the hands of a third party. The deal clearly involves complicated questions of company law, real property law, tax considerations and FA 'fit and proper' requirements. I've no doubt that the parties concerned would have preferred to have kept all this quiet. But the bid has been reported in the media. So naturally we, as supporters are keen to know what stage has been reached.

The delay in appointing a chief executive caused knock-on delay to our summer transfer dealings. It now seems that the lack of progress is leading to uncertainty regarding potential January recruitment. Hecky is quoted as saying that he is again having to spend too much time away from the training pitch. What, one wonders, is the current allocation of duties between Hecky and the new chief exec? What is the state of relations? Where is the club takeover at? We have done well to be in the position we are in, but it wouldn't take too much of a wobble to place us in danger going in to the second half of the season. It would be good to have some clarity on some of these matters. It bears repeating though that we are doing amazingly well given the current status quo.

 

How does a boat going through a series of locks get classified as unsteady?

 

Orsen, I have high regard for the stuff you post so I'm not having a go in response.
Other than the fact that there's a NDA in place I'd put this point of view.
I agree. I reckon the negotiations are very delicate and very complex for the exact reasons you've given. Let's face it, we're not the most attractive proposition out there and it's taken long enough to find a serious investor as it is. Presumably people are wanting not just confirmation that talks are ongoing. We all know that. What people on here are wanting is a reason for why it's not gone through yet and, given the nature of some, an opportunity to point the finger of blame somewhere.
If the club come out and say, for instance, the sticking factor is Barnsley Council how will that help? It may well harden their stance and scupper it.
If they say it's the consortium that's delaying things.......even more likely to scupper it.
If they say it's the EPL....ditto.
Any statement beyond what we already know is going to highlight a bottleneck and lead to people laying blame, whether be it posters on here or journalists in search of a juicy story.
So, yes, it's frustrating and no doubt delicate. I'd rather wait for the parties involved to sort it out themselves (or not) than rock the boat and risk blowing the whole thing.

 

When Mr Cryne took over the football club, he took the land and buildings and put them into a separate company that was jointly owned by the town council and his own family. The football club became just a football club and it rented the ground that it formerly owned from the new owners. This did two things. It meant that the football club could never again mortgage the ground, acquiring a level of debt that it could not possibly afford to meet the interest payment on or the repayment demands. In other words, the club would be forced to live within its means. In my opinion, this is a good thing because inevitably, there will always be fans who criticise the club for lack of ambition, and ambition is only sustainable with investment of huge levels of cash in the modern game. I do not want to see the club that I have supported for most of my life go up like a sky rocket and crash down to earth again as it runs out of fuel.

The second thing that it did was to ensure that any future owners would invest in the club for football reasons, rather than reasons of developing the land for profit. The amount of land associated with Barnsley Football Club and its location so close to town centre makes it an ideal business opportunity for any new owner. The temptation would be to look for an alternative site for a much smaller, flat pack ground and to redevelop the current ground, training pitches and car parks for housing development. A new owner would be sought for the new football club, with little concern about what their plans were for the future. Ah, you will say, but the area around Oakwell is currently green belt. The council will not allow it to be built on. Well, with the government currently pressing all councils to build more new housing, a clever lawyer will see just the conditions he needs in order to secure a different future for the land than that planned by the current owners. In this scenario, our new owners have no interest in any investment into the football club. They are interested only in making a profit on their investment.

I am not saying that our new owners are potentially bad owners, but I am saying that our current owner needs to make sure that the motives of any potential new owner are the right ones, and that when it is their time to move on, that they will seek the right new owner with equal diligence. By far, the simplest way of ensuring that this happens is that the land is kept separate from the club. It was the right move at the start and it remains the best plan. If the new owner is seeking to change that arrangement, then the deeds must be changed in order to restrict future potential uses of the land, and such changes make life and negotiations very difficult. I have no knowledge of the current negotiations. My musings are just that.

 

Can't argue with a word of that.

 

Churton: I agree with much of what you say. I'm not seeking to "rock the boat" - there's no way we, as fans can do. We will only be told what the people involved want to tell us. But it is a subject of interest to us, and arguably (although probably ultimately, pointlessly) a topic of discussion.

Red Rain: Again, I agree with much of what you say. The only thing I'd add is that if reports so far of the deal are true (and they may not be) then a figure of £20 million was mentioned. I would imagine that the buyers would want to take over Mr Cryne's share of the land assets at the very least. Probably more likely they'd want overall control, and therefore to buy back the council's stake in the holding company. This happened at Leeds of course, when Mr Chellino's successor took over and bought back Elland Road from the council. If there are incumbrances on the land regarding present use, they can be overcome with the agreement of those having the benefit of those incumbrances.

I think my main area of concern is how the uncertainty is affecting Hecky - particularly with Carlos again looking a bit rocky at S6!

 

Hecky is very focused. He has to be. It is not unnatural that that focus be voiced as frustration. No matter that I have a great deal of respect for him and would be very sad to lose him, the long term future of the football club is more important than any one individual, or any short term inconvenience.

 

There's some absolute cr@p being said in this thread ........ for example:

'Let's face it we are not the most attractive proposition'
Absolute total nonsense - why then should these new wealthy owners look at Barnsley?
They know they are acquiring a potentially well supported club while paying next to nothing for it FFS!!!

'Success can only be maintained with a huge investment of cash'.
Hecky last season proved this statement is totally wrong.
Do some people not keep up to date with what's happening at Barnsley and then just get on here and spew anything out!!!

'Moving to a small flat pack ground'.
Which of the present or future owners have EVER indicated anything on these lines?
Incredible!!!

When I see garbage being churned out like we see here in the answers to the initial post - then it makes it more understandable why there has been no announcements by the club regarding the negotiations relating to the new ownership.

If anyone from the club reads this thread from top to bottom they are likely to think - if we say anything - anything at all - then some fans are going to put 2 and 2 together and come up with all kinds of dream like fantasy statements.

 

Place is full of pseudo intellectuals.

 

If you think that anyone at the club takes any notice of what is written on here then you are deluded. Why on earth would they be in any way influenced by what any of us think about all of this?

 

I live MY life influenced by what is said on here, that's why I'm a gibbering wreck most of the time.

 

Hecky last season proved this statement is totally right. The events of January 2017 proved it.

 

Wrong.
Last interview I heard of Patrick's when he was talking to Whitey - Patrick mentioned me in relation to something I had said on here.
The club reads this stuff.
Obviously they will be taking specific note of what I'm saying.

 

Nope - wrong.
Example.
We didn't have to fork out £3.5 million for Hourihane.
We needed to up his wages.
Ok - that increase in wages may have cost £3.5 million in the coming years - but those years may have seen Barnsley in the Premeirship.
Same applies to all those that were sold last season to Championship cubs.

 

Of course they will
Can I get you another blanket? Or some cocoa?

 

Yep, I have to agree with the last bit. I wouldn't want PH to go anywhere. I just hope a new owner would be in a position to entice him to stay put because if we stay up this season his stock will, in my opinion, have gone up another couple of notches.

 

As I said in regard to Orsen's post. I have a high regard for what he says.

 

Massively agree with that, Churton. I guess I'm impatient to see things more settled. Ah well, at least the racing starts in half an hour or so!

 

Good luck. I had a couple of wins on the strength of your info last week. For which much thanks!