This is how the media works. It's likely not unhelpful for those who wanted the information to be in the public domain.
Or it’s just the club using this as strong-arm tactics. Yeah, not ideal in the public arena, but as tenants they have to try and secure the best deal they can for staying at Oakwell. Put absolutely everything to one side - I’d hope any owner of our club would fight tooth and nail to secure the best tenancy at Oakwell for the club itself. And that includes improvements and rent agreements. If that means ‘stirring the pot’ then so be it. It happens in the normal business world every day.
The council helped preserve Oakwell.as the home for Barnsley FC I don't want strong arm tactics from Barnsley FC to force concessions that aren't in the best interest for the club and town in general for years to come.
The only party (parties) I can think of that would benefit from leaking this "news" are the Crynes or the council. If either of them leaked it then they can't care about the fans as much as they say they do, because all it does is sows worry amongst us. Really irresponsible journalism in my view, nothing concrete in the story at all, yet they publish it knowing that it will fracture the relationship between the club and the fans even more.
Agreed. There should be no circumstances IMO under which the link between the ground and the town, via the council, should be severed.
Can I suggest Birmingham City? Might put a few off, but it's an easy bus ride for me, and it didn't do Coventry much harm.
Fgs!! This charade just keeps going on and on and on! Give me the good old days! When football clubs weren't so much a business, but something a fan (obviously with a bit of coun)took over and gave it a good shot! Balancing the books as best they could! Most other clubs in the same predicament. The club being the pride of the community etc! These days; everything is just so money orientated in the game. It truly grieves me!! Give me back those days when footballers actually felt part of the set up - club/community - where they genuinely had time to spend time with supporters and so on, instead of whiney or false 'gee up' comments on Twitter! When Sky bought up everything in 92 so many people forecast the heart and soul of the game would go! How bloody right they were!!!
It’s in the best interests of all for the club to stay put. But that has to be workable for the club, regardless of the owners. Oakwell needs serious cash throwing at it - it’s had nothing since the Dennis era, and it shows. The council cannot sit there and pretend otherwise. Whilst I agree the sentiment of buying it in the first place was correct, they also have to plan for the fact that like all commercial developments, they need money throwing at them, or they become irrelevant or in this case, worth less rent.
I'd say its just journalism. They've a trusted source. The source wants the information in the public domain for whatever reason. YP publish it and put information in the public domain that is of interest to BFC fans. It's not the YPs position to decide whether to keep BFC fans in ignorance. Apply that to politics and we'd expect it to be in the public domain. Its difficult to know who has leaked this. It could be a general source who is concerned about the goings on who isn't in the ownership group. I don't think it would be the council as they wouldn't be party to the talks. It could be ConLee as Dub says, to publicly leak the talks knowing the fans want to stay at oakwell and apply leverage to discussions to get more concessions from BMBC and the Crynes. It could be Bradford, but I doubt that. We've now been made aware of Wigan, Rotherham and now Bradford. It also mentions a second lancashire club. It may be worrying. But I'd rather know whats going on that not. And if the source was directly quoted and therefore known, it could be that the YP no longer gets to hear of internal stories.
May as well be, I can't see many fans going to a ground outside Barnsley, and if our owners think we will they are going to get a big shock. This is not America and we are not a franchise.
Why have talks about doing so with other clubs then? Also, were well into November so what's the latest with these specialist reports about the West stand wall and goods under the stand?
Ask yourself why the YP would bother I’d it wasn’t. They aren’t in the business of sensationalist journalism really are they.
I've no idea about the West stand, I know as much as you do. And as far as I know, the only info about ground sharing talks are from newspaper chatter, unless you can point me towards something direct from the 80%ers, Crynes or council. Thank you in advance if you do.
Well, they've shut 1/3 of the home end with disputed justifications and have yet to provide details of it reopening or even what needs doing. They've taken money out of the club when they said that would never happen. Khaled said he'd answer that question, but has yet to. And almost certainly won't. They asked Rotherham about a groundshare. Conway won't deny the possibility of our being moved. Hardly a stretch to imagine that a future step will be them saying: sorry we tried to buy the ground but have failed and can't make money without doing so, so we're moving. We don't care what fans think.
I'd reframe your question and instead ask... "In what circumstances would it be advantageous for the ownership group to groundshare away from oakwell?"
If there was a way for them to financially benefit from it, or avoid spending money, they'd do it in a heartbeat. Given all the other ways in which they've succeeded in alienating supporters, what makes you think that they wouldn't be prepared to do this?