Knight and Perry - liars?

[Easy 10]

Totally agree. It was obvious a while back the club were struggling to secure funding.

Struggling to find outside funding, but with a guy sitting there next to them with £93m burning a hole in his pocket.
OK, Bloom paying for the WHOLE LOT was a safety net in case we couldn't get anything from the banks. But the fact remains, the safety net was always in place, it didn't get put up yesterday. And we've used it.

 

[beorhthelm]

The 93m comes from £66m building contract which is the figure that has always been quoted since Buckingham came on board plus additional figures for the planning process, inquiries, club fees to get to building etc. The project cost is £93m.

No-one has been lied to.

you say that like its common knowledge. it wasn't. we all thought the total cost was the £66m and even that raised eybrows (twice as much as St Marys built a few year's ago). havent the planning proceess and inquiries already been paid for by the club as it went along? hasn't the land already been purchased? How are "fees" to get into the building not part of the total project cost?

i dont think theres much underhand, but i do want... no demand transparency so we know there is nothing underhand and avoid years of binfestery.

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

What is becoming obvious is that had Tony Bloom not stepped in Falmer would have probably not happened and we would possibly have gone out of existence.

I think you can take the words Probably and Possibly out of that sentence.

We all know that without Falmer the club has no long term future.

No Falmer - No Albion.
No Bloom - No Falmer.

 

[Easy 10]

i dont think theres much underhand, but i do want... no demand transparency so we know there is nothing underhand and avoid years of binfestery.

This is NSC my friend. There would still be BINFESTERY (great word) if we were top of the Prem and European champions.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

I don't think Martin Perry discovered yesterday that "Bloom saved the project".

I'm going to bite..................

How do you know

Because, as a member of the Falmer For All team, I was at a meeting well over six months ago when Martin Perry was talking about how the Club was going to manage to get the building work started at Falmer in December, using "internal" funding.

I don't expect it does any damage to reveal that now.

 

[maffew]

It's SO f***ing SIMPLE. The analogy above clearly wasn't simple enough. The funding has always been in place because Tony Bloom has always been ready to step in IF needed. Simples.

Halle f***ing lujah, well said and i am with that and Easys comments today this one really needs putting to bed, I cant get how people are moaning jeeeezzzz

we're actually better off blooms doing it interest free than a bank loan anyway happy days, bring next season on and lets get to the championship

 

[Lord Bracknell]

i dont think theres much underhand, but i do want... no demand transparency so we know there is nothing underhand and avoid years of binfestery.

TOTAL transparency? What good would that do?

For example ... announcing that negotiations with the banks are proving difficult doesn't make it easier to negotiate with a contractor. It is much more likely to get the contractor to increase the price of the job, or even pull out, because it looks a bit risky.

One thing I am absolutely certain about is that Tony Bloom doesn't play poker with transparent playing cards.

 

[SICKASAGULL]

I have queried for months where the money was coming from but no details were released,any number of supporters have praised Knight for the huge sum obtained but he made no effort to come clean on this situation,now we have the truth and a new Chairman,things can only get better.

 

[Easy 10]

One thing I am absolutely certain about is that Tony Bloom doesn't play poker with transparent playing cards.

Oooh.

I liked that.

 

[Easy 10]

I have queried for months where the money was coming from but no details were released,any number of supporters have praised Knight for the huge sum obtained but he made no effort to come clean on this situation,now we have the truth and a new Chairman,things can only get better.

What a ridiculous statement.
Was anyone ever under the impression that Knight was responsible for personally supplying the funding ? Did anyone ever praise Knight for "obtaining the huge sum" ? And what was there for him to "come clean" about ? Its not like this is some dirty little secret we've finally found out about. A member of the board has got the financial clout to pay for this thing out of his own personal fortune, and as the banks won't loan, that exactly what he's doing.

Can you explain what Knight is supposed to have done wrong here ? Or how you perceive he has in some way led us up the garden path ?

 

[bhadeb]

I was always under the impression a few years ago that the funding was in place but knew more recently that it wasn't - this maybe where people are thinking that DK and MP could be classed as liars beacuse the money wasn't in place with the banks - Thankfully though Tony Bloom is to fund all of it so the future is surely bright

 

[beorhthelm]

There would still be BINFESTERY (great word) if we were top of the Prem and European champions.

of course, but id rather not on this issue, prefer wether or not El-Abd should still be playing RB against Real and if Mcghee would have got us to the Euro with the same resources

TOTAL transparency? What good would that do?

Total? not much but we're past the stage of negotiations arent we? dont you care that the advertised price has shot up 50%, or the cost of a whole stadium for others? i just want the outline of whats going on rather than the rumour fest that creates conspiracy and speculation.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Total? not much but we're past the stage of negotiations arent we? dont you care that the advertised price has shot up 50%, or the cost of a whole stadium for others? i just want the outline of whats going on rather than the rumour fest that creates conspiracy and speculation.

There are people who, had they known a year ago that funding from the banks was proving as difficult as it has, would have used that fact to try to stop the stadium going ahead.

A further delay would have pushed the costs up even more.

 

[sparkie]

Because, as a member of the Falmer For All team, I was at a meeting well over six months ago when Martin Perry was talking about how the Club was going to manage to get the building work started at Falmer in December, using "internal" funding.

I don't expect it does any damage to reveal that now.

Amazing! The truth is now out.

So when the funding was discussed extensively on here in relation to the credit crunch, and certain prolific pro-club posters kept treating anyone who was slightly sceptical as an idiot, then it was just club spin?

I remember ridiculous positions being taken that because the club was not applying for a domestic household mortgage, then the credit crunch wasn't an issue.

Dear oh dear.

 

[Easy 10]

Dear oh dear what ?
We were assured time and again by Knight and Perry that the funds would be in place when needed. They never went into specifics, which seemed to irk those who wanted to cast doubt on the whole thing, but at the end of the day, the money WAS there wasn't it.

What part of their statements has turned out to be false ?

 

[sparkie]

Dear oh dear what ?
We were assured time and again by Knight and Perry that the funds would be in place when needed. They never went into specifics, which seemed to irk those who wanted to cast doubt on the whole thing, but at the end of the day, the money WAS there wasn't it.

What part of their statements has turned out to be false ?

You know I have no problem with what Knight and Perry have said, and what they decided was too sensitive to broadcast.

My gripe is purely with certain posters on NSC who agressively shouted down anyone who dared suggest that the credit crunch could be a problem for bank funding, and in doing so treated us like idiots who didn't have a clue. Pretty insulting to people who work in finance.

The big picture is that the funding is there, of course, but I hope the chef is digging out his recipe for humble pie.

 

[Easy 10]

You know I have no problem with what Knight and Perry have said, and what they decided was too sensitive to broadcast.

My gripe is purely with certain posters on NSC who agressively shouted down anyone who dared suggest that the credit crunch could be a problem for bank funding, and in doing so treated us like idiots who didn't have a clue. Pretty insulting to people who work in finance.

The big picture is that the funding is there, of course, but I hope the chef is digging out his recipe for humble pie.

I dunno. I don't think I was one of the ones vocifiracely shouting down any doubters (cue dug up post from a year or two ago by someone). But I've never made secret of the fact that I trust DK and the board implicitly. Perhaps that just makes me a mug. But time and again, the people running this club have come up with the goods, and shown that they have the best interests of this grand old institution at heart.

When they told me that the funding was in place for this thing, I believed them. I always did. Perhaps it was hopeless sentimentalism that made me think "they wouldn't even be starting it all if they couldn't carry it through". But the assurances have been borne out - Tony Bloom always had the clout to make it happen. And as he's said himself, its taken a lot more out of his wallet than he ever envisaged - but his wallet was always there for this.

Thats what I believe anyway. Sentimantal idiot that I am.

 

[Easy 10]

Firstly, you're clearly not someone who is guilty of shouting down others. I don't think anyone will disagree with that.

As for the main point though, I feel there are two very seperate questions being discussed. 1) Would funding for the stadium be secured by any means? Well the answer (thanks to Tony Bloom) is yes, so you were justifiably trustworthy towards Dick Knight and the board. 2) Were the club ever going to be able to loan that money from a BANK, and did certain ex-shopkeeping nsc'ers and assorted lickers go way too far in their condemnation of anyone who expressed doubts? For me, yes, and it's those people who look stupid right now, because as brilliant as Tony Bloom is and as much as Dick did his job, there are people on this site who shouted over the top of others who knew a bank loan would be hard to come by.

I think a large part of the doubts was just down to the overall "vagueness" of the financing for the stadium though. For every specific (and justified) question about how the hell we were going to finance this thing, the only answer coming from the Club was a bland kind of "the finance is in place and will be there when needed".

I don't think any of us were fully aware of the sheer SCALE of TB's trousers when this answer was being trotted out though. Well,I certainly wasn't. I was just lulled in by the assuredness of the Board. Doesn't mean I can "lord" it over the doubters by any means - these were legitimate questions - but I always just kind of felt that Dick and Martin wern't full of shit, and they wouldn't let me down.