Clarification from Paul Barber on Dick Knight Selling his shares

[Stat Brother]

The point is the Bloom family had been connected with the Albion for decades and DK was the new guy on the block. Saving the Albion could have been a Bloom family initiative but only DK stepped up to the plate. We are talking survival, not building the Amex here.

You seem to be finding it very easy to spend someone else's millions on a massive loss making business with no assets.

 

[Buzzer]

I don't think anyone, least of all DK, has suggested that a few shares will give anyone a say in how the club is run. Have they?

You just did by saying that fans could raise concerns about how the club is run, at AGMs. I'm saying that those concerns can be said now at fans' forums just as effectively.

 

[Buzzer]

Of course. But fans are entitled to question some of the details. For example, the catering arrangements that seem to be selling 1901 Club customers short - to the point that sales volumes have crashed.

Oh, I agree but those are details, aren't they? I thought your statement was directed more at the ethos of the club.

 

[Jim D]

............Dick......... had envisaged a symbolic handover at the first match at the stadium (either Spurs or Doncaster), with Dick them stepping down. But Bloom wanted the chairmanship from day one.........

Could this entire issue be over the fact that TB didn't want to run the risk of getting the handover at the first match at the 'Dick Knight Stadium' and didn't want to allow DK any time to lobby the Board and the fans for this to happen?

 

[Commander]

Even today, there are those who question whether the drive to maximise income has delivered quite the football club we would want.

I guess that depends on whether you want a successful football club or an amateur old boys club. The club wouldn't be about for much longer at this level if it didn't drive to maximise income. But then it often feels like that's what some people want, a lower league club that they feel as though they are part of and can mingle with the Directors and feel as if they are heavily involved in. I understand that, but that club isn't Brighton & Hove Albion, it's any number of clubs in the Sussex County League.

 

[Simster]

That's fine with hindsight and to date everything has turned out well - in fact better than well - but who knew how well it would turn out before TB was handed total control over the club?

It's easy to forget just how bad it can get when a "wrong'un" is in control.

But Dick Knight was selling to a family with historical links with the club going back three generations. So where exactly is this risk of him being a "wrong 'un"?

And if that was true then, why did Knight sell to Bloom at all? Ah yes, because it was losing money hand over fist at Withdean, and because he couldn't deliver a stadium after 12 years at the helm.

Plus, nobody in any walk of life, drops £120m and then lets the other bloke dictate terms of how and when ownership changes hands. It really is that simple.

 

[Goldstone1976]

You just did by saying that fans could raise concerns about how the club is run, at AGMs. I'm saying that those concerns can be said now at fans' forums just as effectively.

Indeed. If individual fan shareholders turn up at the AGM, it will simply be another fan's forum. There's nothing wrong with that, and, personally, I think it's a laudable aim for fans to be shareholders in their clubs (as I do employees holding shares in their employers), but absolutely nothing would change.

In terms of voting on resolutions, the vote will go something like: "Resolution 1: I have ~90% [minimum] in favour. All those against? 0.05%. OK, resolution carried. Resolution 2 ......". Repeat ad nauseam.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

It's the only way of looking at it. It's nothing but egotistical nonsense on the part of DK to suggest Bloom shouldn't be running the show as soon as he liked, given that he's chucked hundreds of millions at the club, and given the fact that DK was unable to deliver on a stadium after TWELVE years without him.

And as Ernest points out, where was DK's experience in this field before 1997?

The "twelve years" remark rather conveniently ignores the fact that the stadium plans were held up by planning inquiries, which delayed what might reasonably have been expected to take a much shorter time - and been sorted before the global economic downturn. I'm not sure any member of the Bloom family could have secured planning approval any sooner than DK - and his army of able helpers, which includes Attila, his Lordship, Lady Bracknell and others - did.

 

[Creaky]

But Dick Knight was selling to a family with historical links with the club going back three generations. So where exactly is this risk of him being a "wrong 'un"?

And if that was true then, why did Knight sell to Bloom at all? Ah yes, because it was losing money hand over fist at Withdean, and because he couldn't deliver a stadium after 12 years at the helm.

Plus, nobody in any walk of life, drops £120m and then lets the other bloke dictate terms of how and when ownership changes hands. It really is that simple.

As I said - fine in hindsight to make such confident statements.

 

[Ernest]

It shows something about the EGO of Dick Tight that he kicked up a fuss because his name as Life President in the programme is not top, give me a f**king break

 

[symyjym]

You seem to be finding it very easy to spend someone else's millions on a massive loss making business with no assets.

No, I'm just making the point that DK was the only man who could have saved the club as he was the only one who could connect with the fans with his social marketing and entrepreneurial skills, not forgetting that he was also the only one who had the balls to take it on.

The club needed the fans and the fans needed a spokesman and leader, DK was that man and he had the charisma a determination to see the project through.

He made the right decision to bring TB in, and I am also saying that we need to remember that he did all the hard work.

 

[Gritt23]

Bloom & Knight couldn't be more different. Knight was never a 'corporate' CEO type, a lot of things were run similar to Withdean, very village hall committee style, where as Bloom is a billionaire, investment type, used to deal with massive corporations. He has bought in a management team and bunch of directors from top accountancies, executives from American Express, Paul Barber etc, to make sure things are run well, and his investments are protected, and things run well. I think that is the problem

That could well be it. Just different, incompatible, management styles. That would be fine with me, we would all run things differently from the last person, and if that is all, then .... well, that's what I'm hoping too. The problem as a fan comes if the different approach of the current ownership extends too far down the road of extracting every penny out of the fans. Barber gets a harsh press on here, when the truth is that we are happy to slag him off because we owe him nothing. However, all he is doing is carrying out the job Bloom has asked him to do, but for obvious reasons we wouldn't want to lay into Bloom, because we owe him so much. So we give Barber stick.

I think THAT is my real worry. Fan involvement was a big thing with Dick, and this just smacks of him feeling he has to make the point that Bloom doesn't want ANY fan involvement, other than from our bank accounts. That would be a real shame if true, as there would be no club without Knight, barely a club without Bloom, but also there would be no club without the fans either. We are more than just paying customers.

 

[Simster]

As I said - fine in hindsight to make such confident statements.

I don't really think you need hindsight, quite frankly.

No-one worried about his level of competence when Knight took over did they?

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

You just did by saying that fans could raise concerns about how the club is run, at AGMs. I'm saying that those concerns can be said now at fans' forums just as effectively.

"Raising concerns" is a very long way from having any influence.

 

[Creaky]

I don't really think you need hindsight, quite frankly.

No-one worried about his level of competence when Knight took over did they?

After Archer anyone had to be better!

And he only held 49.5% of the shares.

 

[Stat Brother]

No, I'm just making the point that DK was the only man who could have save the club as he was the only one who could connect with the fans with his social marketing and entrepreneurial skills, not forgetting that he was also the only one who had the balls to take it on.

The club needed the fans and the fans needed a spokesman and leader, DK was that man and he had the charisma a determination to see the project through.

He made the right decision to bring TB in, and I am also saying that we need to remember that he did all the hard work.

I couldn't agree more, for that reason plus countless others DK's position as an Albion great should never be questioned.
Making this episode, at best, somewhat cheap.

But that's not the point you made "Saving the Albion could have been a Bloom family initiative but only DK stepped up to the plate".
Saying that is very easy, about a time when there was very little to save.
The fact that DK did step up has to make you doubt his sanity!!.
Calling out the Bloom family for not being that stupid with their money is a bit s***.

 

[Simster]

"Raising concerns" is a very long way from having any influence.

The point is that spreading a tiny number of shares across 1000s of fans is not going to make any difference whatsoever. The fans forums already provide this service.

After Archer anyone had to be better!

And he only held 49.5% of the shares.

True, although it could quite easily have been the case that the club was sold to someone who didn't have a clue what was needed.

Meanwhile, this flimsy argument of yours that things are easily said in hindsight needs debunking. The Bloom's have been part of the Albion for 3 generations. Quite what Bloom was going to "learn" from somebody who ran the club as a bit of an old boys club, when it haemorrhaged money for over a decade and failed to deliver a stadium under his own business model, really does baffle me.

 

[symyjym]

And who was it who turned up in Archer's team of two, to do battle with Dick Knight on the occasion that Knight first met Archer?

Not Greg Stanley, not David Bellotti, but ... Ray Bloom.

Correct me if I am wrong; the Goldstone Groundsite was sold twice in a matter of months, originally for £9m and then a few months later changed hands again for £18m?

 

[ROSM]

I don't really think you need hindsight, quite frankly.

No-one worried about his level of competence when Knight took over did they?

Except Bill archer and bens grandad

 

[Ernest]

Except Bill archer and bens grandad

And me