Nalyor goes on the attack against Knight in the Argus

[The Large One]

Am I right in thinking that most of the Withdean gate receipts go to Brighton and Hove Council in rental for our crappy ground? I can't see how we can be losing money on each game otherwise. If the Council really wanted to help the club in its current financial predicament, it could try waive its exorbitant charges for a start.

Agreed.

I think a properly co-ordinated online petition/campaign to the council politely requesting (we don't need to go wading in with size 9s - yet) that they re-consider the financial arrangement would be well in order.

 

[clapham_gull]

Am I right in thinking that most of the Withdean gate receipts go to Brighton and Hove Council in rental for our crappy ground? I can't see how we can be losing money on each game otherwise. If the Council really wanted to help the club in its current financial predicament, it could try waiving/reducing its exorbitant charges for a start.

The council can't be seen to subsidise the club though.

I would presume they are very accountable in the ways they spend / make money.

 

[Southover Street Seagull]

Agree with a lot of the article, but the stuff about McGhee, Hinshelwood and Gritt is total crap, they all had to go in my opinion.
Why wasn't Naylor writing these articles last season when we were in the shit then?

 

[bigc]

The council can't be seen to subsidise the club though.

I would presume they are very accountable in the ways they spend / make money.

Yes, spot on.

Especially after the '80s local government reforms, no Derek Hatton style spending allowed.

Most of it is outsourced from the council anyway, hence us having to deal with Ecovert South for years.

And as we both know, out sourcing rarely works, just look at Metronet.

 

[ditchy]

I now have a COLUMN in the Stockport Express each week........at the princely rate of £15 p.w.

No thats your rent boy add that you pay to place in there !

 

[The Large One]

I do agree with Clapham Gull about public accounting and responsibility, but can the council not offer to help the club by reducing the rent by a certain percentage, but they recieve the balance of the shortfall once we are at Falmer, or continue paying that lower rate until the balance is settled?

Thinking about it, it's probably not feasible, but I wonder if the club and council would entertain the idea.

 

[Mr Burns]

In my view, the chairman of any club should leave the football to the football experts. He should back the manager's judgement in the transfer market to the best of his financial ability, without his own opinion of players clouding that process.

I know, from past conversations with previous managers, that has not always been the case during Knight's reign. The recurring theme is that he tries to exert too much influence.

Never a truer word spoken. This January.

Dean Wilkins. " I want this striker"
Dick Knight "No you can't have him. I will sign you this striker though"

He needs to allow his managers to pick the players they want to sign. If he wants to sign player, than appoint himself manager.

As much as Dick Knight will always be remembered as the man who saved Brighton & Hover Albion, he is in danager of becoming the clubs latest hate figure. Maybe a bit harsh, but if things dont improve fast, than I can hear the faint cries of "Sack the Board" being heard at the Withdean before the seasons out.

 

[ditchy]

At the end of the day Naylor just like DK has a job to do .. His editor is screaming at him to come up with stories to sell the paper just as he/she is at other departments within the paper.. All he is doing is providing that story with a few opinions and a few facts dragged up over the years . The fact that he has got (7pages so far ) on here is proof that he is doing his job .

 

[The Large One]

Never a truer word spoken. This January.

Dean Wilkins. " I want this striker"
Dick Knight "No you can't have him. I will sign you this striker though"

He needs to allow his managers to pick the players they want to sign. If he wants to sign player, than appoint himself manager.

That would indeed be an outrage IF that were the case. However, aside from Andy Naylor's gossip column - and his agenda has been raging for quite a while - what evidence do we have to suppose that this was actually the case? Don't know about you but I'm going to reserve judgement on this until I have heard the other side of the story, assuming Dick wants to dignify this article with a reply.

As much as Dick Knight will always be remembered as the man who saved Brighton & Hover Albion, he is in danager of becoming the clubs latest hate figure. Maybe a bit harsh, but if things dont improve fast, than I can hear the faint cries of "Sack the Board" being heard at the Withdean before the seasons out.

Then those people would need to take a reality check - really they do. It is getting quite bizarre to keep saying it over and over and over again, but (at least as far as we're aware) there is no-one in the wings to take over. So what would sacking the board serve apart making a bad situation 100 times worse?

It's one thing identifying a problem, it's another thing identifying the solution. It's a further thing again putting that solution into practice.

Even in the short time before it is published in the paper, this story already is in danger of having a life of its own - especially when some fans feel obliged to have a scapegoat (often without looking at themselves as well). I would rather find out what Dick and/or Dean's right of reply is before presuming Andy Naylor is the new Messiah.

 

[SussexSpur]

Shock. And indeed, horror. Local journalist expresses brief shade of opinion within regular Albion reports.

Have people not been complaining previously that his reports are too bland?

Why should Andy Naylor bite his tongue any more than any indignant NSC contributor?

And is anyone suggesting his partiality towards McGhee in his writing is anything more sinister than... say, partiality towards McGhee? I.e, he feels sympathetic to McGhee? Even if they did play golf every day, doesn't mean Naylor necessarily has to pit a McGhee spin on every swing of a Withdean door - or is suppressing all his heartfelt anti-McGhee emotions just for, just for...?

Ah, but anyway.
I still reckon Naylor killed Kennedy...

 

[mona]

Having read football reports in local papers in all the towns and cities I've worked in (Manchester, London, Newcastle, Ipswich, Portsmouth, Coventry amongst others), Naylor is the only journo to adopt an antagonistic attitude towards the local club. Yes, Knight and all the managers he's appointed have made mistakes and part of Naylor's job is to criticise but Brighton are operating under unique circumstances. Why doesn't Naylor ask some questions of a local council that will happily use public money to fund a huge gay festival but does little to encourage sport? Perhaps it's easier to sneer at the Albion.

 

[BensGrandad]

You will be accused of being homophobic by casting aspertions on the Gay Parade, which incidentally stops us having a home game that day because the police cannot control both on the same day.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

1) cap in hand to the supporters claiming two million to survive, then sell players worth a total greater than 2 million but still claim we are skint.

That's because the supporters DIDN'T STUMP UP THE TWO MILLION.

It's not rocket science.

 

[BensGrandad]

That's because the supporters DIDN'T STUMP UP THE TWO MILLION.

It's not rocket science.

In all honesty would you have expected them to, I certainly wouldnt 7000 supporters paying £285 each

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Your comments about finance make sense, so why have the club arbitrarily stated a 12000 figure if there are so many unknown variables? Does not make sense.

Can I help?

The figures were produced at the Public Inquiry (but not broken down in any great detail - for reasons of commercial confidentiality).

The Club used current (ie 2005) costs and prices as the basis for the calculations and made a number of assumptions about Football League income levels and player salary-capping criteria. They also took account of the stadium costs and any site-specific grants that are available to offset the need for loans.

Incidentally, the break-even attendance figure for an expanded stadium at Withdean was estimated to be 18,000 - larger than the capacity that is achievable there.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

The key variable in determining the viability of a stadium isn't the attendance, but the percentage of the Club’s annual turnover that would be needed to repay the loans that would finance the project. The Club intends to commit itself to keep within the newly developed Football League guideline that no more than 60 per cent of a Club’s turnover should be spent on wages. With 15 per cent of turnover required for other running costs, it means that 25 per cent of turnover is available to service debts.

In order of affordability, the debt repayment charges associated with building a stadium at each of the eight sites considered at the Inquiry were reported as these:-

Falmer – 20.70 % of turnover
Sheepcote Valley – 21.82 %
Shoreham Airport – 28.88 %
A redeveloped Withdean – 32.74 %
Toads Hole Valley – 34.16 %
Upper Beeding – 35.16 %
Waterhall – 42.36 %
Shoreham Harbour – 50.88 %

 

[ditchy]

The key variable in determining the viability of a stadium isn't the attendance, but the percentage of the Club’s annual turnover that would be needed to repay the loans that would finance the project. The Club intends to commit itself to keep within the newly developed Football League guideline that no more than 60 per cent of a Club’s turnover should be spent on wages. With 15 per cent of turnover required for other running costs, it means that 25 per cent of turnover is available to service debts.

In order of affordability, the debt repayment charges associated with building a stadium at each of the eight sites considered at the Inquiry were reported as these:-

Falmer – 20.70 % of turnover
Sheepcote Valley – 21.82 %
Shoreham Airport – 28.88 %
A redeveloped Withdean – 32.74 %
Toads Hole Valley – 34.16 %
Upper Beeding – 35.16 %
Waterhall – 42.36 %
Shoreham Harbour – 50.88 %

Just out of curiosity LB why is Waterhall so high ?

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Just out of curiosity LB why is Waterhall so high ?

From the summary of the Club's evidence in the Report of the Second Inquiry:-

Waterhall:-

Can a stadium be built without incurring unaffordable development costs on the site?

4.90 No. The cost would be unaffordable; costs would far exceed available funds. Unlike Falmer there would be no New Deal for the Communities Funding and the site is only rated as Tier 3 for SFIE by SEEDA. As regards a possible railway station, this has been costed specifically (BHA 1/0/21) whereas FPC had obtained the cost of a generic station (FPC/11/0/1). Either way it is unaffordable.

4.91 Total development costs, excluding the cost of relocating the exiting facilities, but including site specific costs such a new road access from the A27/A2083 roundabout, an at grade junction on the A23 and bridge over the railway plus access, a new railway station and holding area, and an upgrade of the pedestrian bridge over the A27, together with aquifer protection works, and assuming no land acquisition cost, would be £66.54 million. £25.22 million would be needed to make up the funding deficit, annual repayments for which would be some £4 million or 42% of the development’s projected annual income.

 

[The Clown of Pevensey Bay]

However, what is the story of Naylor's litigious actions and against which fanzine? I must have missed that one.

A fanzine (I forget which one) published a a version of the Stoke City fans' song "Delilah", with the lyrics changed to

"A-A-Andy Naylor
Journalistic failure"

It was quite funny. But his lawyers wrote threatening legal action. The cock.

 

[ditchy]

It seems to me that we as a club have to bend over backwards to accomodate every concievible objection to any site throughtout the brighton and hove conurbation.. If you look at new deveopments stadia wise over the past 10yrs at least 90% of them would not have passed the criteria that we have to go through ..