I'm not sure where those numbers come from but Barnsley's payroll for the year to 31 May 2020 is £11.1m. Luton was £14.2m according to their accounts.
Hi what is OCAL ownership? Also I'm sure in the past I've heard mention of Barnsley being the biggest land owners in the English football leagues, don't know if that's one of the sticking points regarding any ground sale, plus selling it to folk who would actually pay up. As for coal I would think it more of a liability that an assett. If there's any coal near the surface it is likely to have been worked in the past, leaving potential stability issues for future development. There's no market and little possibility of making much, if anything if you tried to dig it out.
You're Patrick Cryne you buy the football club. Why do you sell off half of the land you now own to the Council and start paying rent on it? It doesn't make sense.
My guess, and it is no more than a guess is as follows. The Barnsley FC prior to Administration got into trouble because it borrowed money it could not afford. It could do that because the borrowing was secured against the ground. When the bank brought in the Administrator, they knew that they would get their money, because their debt was secured. It is a condition of membership of the Football League that all football debts are fully paid, so the one who lose out are all the unsecured creditors. I guess that he did not want that to happen again in the future, so he took their clubs only mortgageable assets out of their control.
There's a plan for the coal don't you worry - If you wait Oulare's big @rse will have sat on it long enough to create diamonds - job done, Conway's a genius.
I still think the Council will want top dollar for their share. They have an obligation to getting that for their constituents.
So going back to the original post who would invest in Barnsley FC if the present 80% were to sell up and move on, the answer is------nobody unless somebody has a massivee Euromillions win. Not much e positive about then.
I do not think that Barnsley FC ever bought the land from the Administrator. I believe OCAL bought the land. The Shares Ocal are owned 50/50 by Patrick Cryne and Barnsley Council and the Share Capital is what was used to buy the land, but Barnsley FC has not owned the land since Administration. If Barnsley FC had bought the land, then Patrick Cryne would have had to fund BFC with an additional £6m in share capital.
Why is it nobody? The question will come down to how much the 80% group hold out for. If we're in league 1, we naturally are less valuable, especially if we've sold assets that simply plug losses. The big question is what will the owners do when we are relegated, or when they concede we are going to be relegated? My suspicion would be they'll cut costs to operate on the new level of revenue and await appreciation of new players bought in at lower amounts and hope we gain promotion again. I don't see them selling at a loss or even at breakeven, nor do I see them allowing the club to go bust, nor do I see the putting new capital into the business. I think they are content to simply sit on their hands and wait for something good to happen. I do get the feeling they want to buy a Scottish Club though given Conways multiple pieces in the media re the Scottish League and his legal action that never materialised when he was blocked from buying Hearts. So BFC is a block on them doing that. They have more scope of the illusion of success in Scotland than they do with us. If thats their next step, I suspect them to try and engineer a sale that is palatable which may mean they use sales to extract the original purchase price and then sell at a lesser amount, but still net a profit. I'm not sure how they manage that though with a legal case pending. But let me put it this way. If I wanted to buy BFC. I wouldn't be making a move to do so yet.