So exactly where is all this money coming from?

[Easy 10]

But didn't Bambers spending begin the problems that led to Archer and Bellotti's take over?

Well, you could say the reason we ended up in the hands of scum like Stanley and Archer was because of the profligance and foolishness of Bamber and the board at that time, who were throwing unsustainable, idiotic 10-year contracts around like confetti despite the relegation.

I honestly cannot put Tony Bloom in that same bracket.

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

Well, you could say the reason we ended up in the hands of scum like Stanley and Archer was because of the profligance and foolishness of Bamber and the board at that time, who were throwing unsustainable, idiotic 10-year contracts around like confetti despite the relegation.

But this all boils down to a business not being run in a self sustainable/financing manner. Club "income" throughout the Bamber era comprised a significant amount derived from the shareholders, mostly MB himself. The premature death of Keith Wickenden, the Finance Director, didn't help but neither did Bamber's ego in batting away offers of external investment - tbh the Jimmy Page story is the only one I can remember specifically. The money was nearly always spent on the revenue side, never anything significant on capital investment (apart from the Lego stand perhaps and that was only ever temporary).
In my mind, the decline to Withdean started under Bamber's tenure, nothing deliberate like the shafting by Archer and Stanley, just a short/medium term plan that was wrong and went on far too long because no alternative had been thought through.

I honestly cannot put Tony Bloom in that same bracket.

Me neither, and as was clearly stated up front by TB when he took over:
1) I will continue to support the ongoing losses associated with playing at Withdean.
2) I will personally finance the entire Amex stadium build (as opposed to just part of it - my Ed, see below).
3) The club must be self-financing when it occupies the Amex stadium.

(1) and (2) are delivered, El Pres did some calcs a while back and concluded the Albion could never have borrowed more than £25M commercially to build the Amex.
I guess we won't know for sure about (3) until the 2011/12 accounts/return get published at Companies House in March 2013. However, I don't see anything that's happened since the end of last season that couldn't be being self financed by the BHA business, even allowing for 20% VAT on income going to HMRC and the Amex sponsorship being used exclusively for community projects (eg AITC), both of which seem to be ignored by many posters.