[Official Site] OAKWELL - WE'RE HERE TO STAY

The vast majority of commercial premises in the country aren't owned by the company that occupies them, but they still spend hundreds of thousands of pounds fitting them out! Thirty years is more than long enough to see a return on investment.

 

I would have thought any efforts to increase non matchday income, would indirectly help increase a better matchday experience

 

I'm joining everyone else in this in feeling like it is good news, but that is tempered by my drastic lack of understanding of all things financial - including in my personal life!!

I'd love it if one day some of the clever people can put together and up-to-date visio or flow chart of who owns what, like we have seen before.

Main thing for me to get my head around ........ :
1) Oakwell Community Assets Ltd used to be owned 50/50 by Crynes and BMBC. Correct?
2) It is now owned solely by BMBC. Correct?
3) The club will pay a rent (for 29 years and 364 days) to BMBC to use Oakwell. Correct?
4) Before the deal, did the club still pay rent to BMBC to use Oakwell?
5) If so ......... from a BFC point of view, what has changed on that score? Surely we pay OCAL going forward, as we have done thus far?
6) And if Oakwell is now ripe for commercial opportunity (concerts, conferences etc) under BMBC, why wasn't it already ripe under joint ownership?

These are not digs - I'm going to buy into it - I would just love some clever person to clarify my points.

TIA

 

Poor old Khaled only been gone a month..

 

1) Correct
2) Correct
3) Correctish (the rent will still be paid to Oakwell Community assets which is 100% owned by BMBC)
4) They paid rent to Oakwell Community assets (last year was £100k, reduced from the championship level of £150k)
5) What has changed is that they have agreed a new lease deal which was due to expire and potentially the level of lease payments and the onus on repairs
6) Nothing has changed there

 

Just a complete guess but with Beevor Court being a better access than grove St how long before offices or commercial premises spring up on the East stand car park.

 

Thank you.

So, the 'risk' was that the lease we (the football club) paid to OCAL could have potentially expired soon and they could have looked at other parties to rent it out to in any new lease (theoretically?).

And there is a potential downside (as nobody will know the figures) that the new rent that we (the football club) has to pay is more than the old lease? Which means the football club *might* be worse off, but that is tempered by the fact they have a ground to play on for thirty years?

 

I reckon at minimum 30 years considering it has just been leased to Barnsley FC for 29 years and 364 days.

 

They’ll get more fans turning up than if they did a ground share with Rotherham and it’ll cost less than building a new stadium.

 

Better hope the owners are "here to stay" for thirty years then. Because if the sell the club to someone else, that group may decide that instead of purchasing Oakwell back so the club rightly owns where they play, they build a brand new stadium somewhere for the Football club and then the council end up with no team playing at Oakwell.

 

That's pretty much it. It also sounds like the upkeep of the stadium and who is responsible for that is now formalised much better than in the previous contract. Let's be honest, Oakwell has been pretty much left to rot for 20 years. Hopefully that can be readdressed.

 

Says its "cost neutral"

 

As I Read/ understand it the club can now look to staging other events with confidence (providing improvements to stadium allow) concerts, boxing etc, just had a thought though, remember when Peter Doyle became owner and he said he was looking to ‘sweat the assets’ it didn’t go down well, it that was probably down to the mistrust around him at the time

 

But your forgetting that the 30 year lease will be payable irrespective. So that wouldn't make sense to move the club elsewhere

 

Don't trust Barnsley council in the least and also as i think i've mentioned in the past the mob now running the club have almost wiped out 60 odd years of my affection for the club.

 

They’re obligated to pay rent for 30 years though so they’re unlikely to pay that and build a new stadium. That might happen in 30 years yes, but if they owned it all themselves they may have decided to sell it for houses before then anyway. We might actually want a new stadium in 30 years, who knows? Most of the current fans won’t be around then anyway.

 

I would take your point if the "mob" now running the club were the Lee/Conway iteration. However, the current board aren't doing anything different to pretty much any other Board in the club's history.

 

Some of the things I am reading in this thread are laughable. The moaning chuffs are beyond belief. It was not long ago that moving to another stadium (Wigan) was mentioned . This statenent puts all that away. This has got to be good news.

 

Now this is good news. No qualifications just very good news.