Why A Chinese-American Investor Brought Moneyball To A Sleepy English Town

But he hasn’t become a billionaire by just blowing his money, he’s first and foremost a businessman, i for one would never tell a extremely successful set of business people what they should and shouldn’t do, we are extremely fortunate that they chose our football club to invest in (and I don’t mean by chucking millions at it) and I’m quite happy for them to run it how they see fit, end of the day they are going to want us to be successful but they’ll try do it in the correct way, let’s just sit back and enjoy the ride.

 

Of course we are a business- why say we aren't? Yes, us fans don't want to see it that way, and PC probably didn't because he was one of us, but I'm sure that's how the new owners see us. Their main aim will be to make us financially viable and self sufficient and increase the share price/return for the investors.This usually goes hand in hand with succcess, but I imagine it could also be increased at our club by increasing/creating other revenue streams.

At the end of the day the truth is you are a customer of the business just like you're probably a customer of Asda or Tesco or Morrisons. That's what makes it laughable when people say things like 'why aren't the club putting out statements/telling us what is happening' etc. Do Kelloggs and Coca Cola issue such statements?

 

Just staying in this league by the skin of your teeth is depressing.

 

That is what's wrong with some folk today ... I guess tha thinks we are all commodities.
Suppose the club could relocate to Milton Keynes or Shanghai, wud tha be oreight widdat?
Football may be in part a business .. but it's a sport that is beholden to fans ..
Maybe tha should go on cornflakes forum see what they have to say

 

I don't think there are many examples of relegation being a positive thing.

When Coventry got relegated from the Prem, I was working there and I heard many people saying it was a "godsend" - look at them now.

 

Not if there is the prospect of improvement and consolidation next season as there obviously is now.

 

Huddersfield spent £500million last season.

They woulddn't have gone up without signing Dybala from Juventus for £130million and giving him a quarter of a million a week, as I recall.

 

Wish it was obvious to me pal. I just can’t see it happening.

 

Who's

It don't matter what you or I think - unless you stumped up the cash to buy the club.

And who mentioned relocating?

 

They spent more than we ever will.

 

Thanks for posting that article. It is interesting, but adds little depth to what we already knew. It is merely a more wide spread re-statement of what was said in the press conference when the new owners took over.

Most posters were shocked when I did not greet our new owners with open arms, when I queried their motives and their aims. The lack of clarity in their ownership structure still worries me. The flip chart that was meant to clear that up was never referred to at their press conference, and has never been referred to since. We are still left guessing. Just to clarify what we know -

Our new board of directors is

James Cryne (British)
Chien Lee (American)
Dickson Lee (American)
Paul Conway (American)
Grace Hung (Chinese)
Gaultier Ganaye (French)
Neerav Parekh (Indian)

That is clearly the board, but for all practical purposes, the company is run on a day to day basis by Gaultier Ganaye alone who will consult with James Cryne. The board meets infrequently, if at all. Billy Beane has never been mentioned except in the press conference and in articles. It is as if his name is there to give the whole thing some credibility. As I say, the ownership structure has never been referred to other than to say that the Cryne family retains 20% of the club, presumably through Oakwell Holdings Ltd. We do not know whether Mr Crynes loan (about £7m) has been repaid, or how much the new owners paid for the 80% of the club that the Cryne family no longer own, or indeed whether they have injected new money into the club, although share capital has doubled and it looked like £6m or so had been raised through that share issue. It is presumed that the owners of Barnsley FC share capital are -

Oakwell Holdings Ltd
Chien Lee (or perhaps his holding company)
Grace Hung (or perhaps her holding company)
Neerav Parekh (or again perhaps his holding company)

We do not know the numbers of shares owned by each so we do not know where the balance of power lies, but we assume that Chien Lee owns the majority of the shares simply because Mr Lee seems to do all the talking. The original investment in the company would have been agreed between the investors, but it is not clear how further investment, should it be required, is to be funded. The arrangements at Barnsley FC are clearly different to the arrangements where one person, or one family are in sole control. Then any decisions, any capital injection is straight forward. The sole owner decides and the sole owner does it. Our structure is far more complex. Any new investment requires approval of all share holders because any new capital potentially changes the mix of ownership.

Personally, I still have concerns about the motives of our owners. Even if anyone has the answers to these questions, it still looks like they are testing the water to me.

 

Who's Dickson Lee (American)? First time I've seen his name.

 

Chiens Son, as far as I know.

 

According to Companies House, his full name is Dickson Kong Lee and he was born in September 1997 which makes him just 20 years of age. From that I presume he is the son of Chien Lee.

 

Difference between Tesco and Barnsley FC is that I don't pay hundreds of pounds up front for my shopping.

Barnsley is a football club. It may be run as a business but it is a football club. A sporting club who's primary objective is and has to be football success. If the new owners see it solely as a business with little care given for how the team performs then frankly they can **** off. I very much doubt they do though.

 

I think it comes down to semantics and subjectivity. Disaster to me is a strong word. I'd hate us to go down. With the new owners in place it would be especially disappointing at a time when we're all looking upwards in terms of ambition at last.
However, you read this board and you see, DISASTER, SHAMEFUL, DISGRACE etc etc thrown around if we so much as lose a game or have even failed to sign a player by 5pm on transfer deadline day.
I'd probably tend more towards disaster if we were in a similar place to the last time we went down. We're not.

 

I don't have any concerns. Last time l was this excited about our football club were during the summers of 1993 & 1997.

 

To precis :

You've made your mind up and that's that.

 

But would you if you shopped there every week and they offered you a discount to pay up front rather then weekly?

Also, everyone's idea of success varies. Some see success as remaining in the league and making little improvements year on year. Others only see success as throwing money at it with the aim of promotion and **** the consequences - especially as the owners are worth billions.

 

Out of interest what bad motives could they have considering they don't own the ground?