make us more appealing to a potential new owner? Serious question. We would avoid paying rent but as this is about £100,000 (not sure if that is per season or pa but still) so it's practically a peppercorn rent. If - and I stress if - we were to make it to the promised land , one season and four years of parachute payments would make the value of the land almost an irrelevance. Also, the land is only actually worth summat if it's sold. Even if it were to be sold that would need to be offset against the cost of relocating. As far as I can see, our best assets are our Championship status and a quality young manager.
I have just agreed with your opinions on the land issue on the other thread. Where we will differ is that I believe we are still an attractive proposition for a new owner.
We currently have an large pile of cash, so yes, we are an attractive proposition. The difficulty is finding a prospective new owner whose sole interest does not lie in transferring that pile of cash to his bank account and walking away. I believe that Mr Cryne would be long gone by now if finding a new owner with the right motives was easy. It is not, and our recent sales make that process even less straight forward.
Land in the centre of town is at a premium. Land on a brownfield site at the edge of town is peanuts by comparison. If we owned the land, the club would appeal to the wrong type of investor - an asset stripper who could make a few million selling Oakwell/The Academy and relocating to Cortonwood or Manvers. As it stood last season, we were able to lose money despite 2 Wembley appearances and the 4th best attendance in the division. Who knows whether we'll make a profit this season after the accountants have gone to work? You'd have thought so with selling our prize assets (4 players) but then again, I thought that last season. So you're right, our greatest asset is our Championship status but at the rate we're self-imploding, how long will that last?
