If we were to get a fans consortium to buy the club as it stands

It's like all things, with the right people and the right intent, a fan consortium could absolutely work. With the wrong people with the wrong intent, it could absolutely tank.

If we were to sit back and analyse wealthy and allegedly wealthy owners and question how successful that is by and large? You could say the same with local businessmen.

Although a 100% fan consortium wouldn't be my first choice, some stake in the club or vehicle that owned it I feel would be beneficial and I'd leave running of the club to employees, not the fans. Though fans could be engaged with in a more serious and regular manner to give over arching direction. We shouldn't muddle administration and operations and ownership.

 

But on here…. Woodrow 5 mil +, helik 5 mil, styles 3 mil, Morris 5 mil….. now my maths says that adds up to at least an undisclosed sum that is more than the £5000000 raised ….

And what happens on the first payday? Not sure this is thought through.

 

Better making it 51%.

 

True.
Perhaps have an arrangement that the fans buy 100% for a given amount, and then immediately sell 49% to a well funded, benevolent, Barnsley loving, billionaire. There must be one. Maybe ask Mr T. He once became a Barnsley fan live on Soccer AM.

 

No I was thinking about the Gay Indian.

 

Yes @Redhelen Ann was paid out by August 2021.

 

i have no idea what the club will realise for the players but they do need around £8m to meet accumulated loses and next year’s likely loss.

In terms of paying the players each month it would continue exactly the same as it does now. The owners bought the equity of the club their only contribution to working capital has been a £750k withdrawal.

 

I'm happy to buy the club outright on my own - I'll use one of the club's 'easy payment' options. Oh, hang on wait a mo!

(Day 15 of 23 )

 

The Crynes? They already have 20%, the funds and most importantly the clubs interest at heart

ps I nearly forgot they also own half the ground

 

So what are current losses? Because without investment… we must be Pi$$ing money.

I’m just not sure 5000 who could put in £1k would be happy doing it a few times a year…. Which I’m guessing would be needed.

It was once said, “buying a football club makes a very rich man a rich man….”

 

If they want to. It seemed when Patrick sold the majority of shares in the club to PMG that they either didn't want to own the whole, or didn't feel like they had the funds to take it forward.

 

We struggled to get a few grand when we went into admin , I don’t think things have changed financially for most fans since

 

I nominate Marc

On a serious note though, yes I could get behind this.

 

This is so true - just look at what faces any investor:-

1) An underlying annual deficit of c. £3-4m
2) A further loss in revenue of c. £7m plus per annum from next season
3) Disillusionment amongst 'customers' potentially leading to a further loss of revenue annually from next season, say £1-1.5m
4) A negative working capital position which would require financing, probably of the order of £4-5m after this season
5) An organisation with virtually no fixed property assets and nothing to secure any financing against
6) Substantial costs of safety and maintenance requirements to leased property which are only going to increase
7) Declining values in the only intangible assets which are a bunch of rapidly depreciating player contracts
8) A costly legal case in the mix which may lead to a further £2.75m liability
9) A coaching and playing staff which will need significant re-development in order to challenge/stabilise/stay up in L1 (depending on your point of view)

And that's just off the top of my head! The only one that's even debatable really is 9)

If I was running a business with that kind of profile, getting out without having to put any money in would probably be the least bad outcome - even if I got little or no sale proceeds.

 

Fan ownership back then was unheard of but it’s now been proven to work if set up right.
I was just putting it out there as an alternative to the charlatans we have right now. If we ended up in administration it could be a solution?

 

That’s how it came about at Hearts.

 

As the old saying goes ‘there’s at of water gone under the bridge’ since they sold 80% to PMG. Plus if I understand the situation correctly they still haven’t been paid in full for what they did sell. There view of things will undoubtedly have changed somewhat since the original sale.

 

Both Hearts and Chesterfield are models which I feel Bfc will become eventually. The Trust employs people to run the various depts,(as now) and nominates abd elects people to non-executive roles on the board. The MD or CEO,runs the club as a ongoing business. This is no different from how a lot of organisations work, just not in football at the moment.
As mentioned in other threads,the Championship is a basket case in financial and business terms and not fit for purpose. It ought to to have far greater controls imposed by government, UEFA, FIFA and the FA, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.
The people of the town already have a interest in the club,as they own 50% of the grounds. Can enough supporters be found to make the initial investment and create a working model ? I believe yes,but will people want to make that commitment and take on the responsibility and accountability that brings? I'm not sure at the moment.
Perhaps as a Trust,we could invite the people from Hearts and Chesterfield to explain how their organisations work. Also,didn't Portsmouth fans set up something similar when they had problems, I remember being very impressed with the honesty of their financial predictions, which was 3 years of losses.
This can work in Barnsley but supporters should be prepared for a smaller club,possibly operating in League 2,requiring a higher level of voluntary involvement on match days to make it work.
The club and the stadium grounds are a valuable community asset, which at the moment neglect and doesn't involve the local community. Lots of examples around the country of football clubs playing a role,even Newcastle United have just opened a large community hub in the city. We could link in with the council,health and social services, the college, have partnerships.
The old model of football clubs is gone and not sustainable. I believe we (and other clubs), could become more community integrated and have a wider role,as well as providing professional football to support.

 

I've been involved in way more difficult turnaround projects down the years. The club isn't yet in distress, it just has to make some pretty obvious decisions, and although El Ahmed didn't want to be drawn too much, mainly due to timing, I'm sure he will realise he has some fundamental changes to make to align our finances with our soon to be confirmed status and that involves selling players to cut the wage bill and generate cash. What he can't control is whether Conway et al swoop down and decide they'd like a big chunk of it.

You could also say that there is untapped support from supporters who will only return once this ownership leave. If we can remain at league 1 level, we have a turnover base of probably around £8m and potential to improve it if we're successful on the field.

The key with turnaround is to look at your revenue base as a start and rebuild your cost base accordingly. If selling everyone of our assets is what we need to do, then thats what we need to do.

If we can find a mechanism to leverage out Conway and Lee, the restructure wouldn't be that difficult. I'd ideally like to leave a buffer every year to generate clear water profit that is ringfenced to a particular level to give us a pot of cash if external factors cause unforeseen problems, but we can surely put together a decent league 1 team by bringing more of our youth through with a few journeymen and a few experienced heads at that level.