Dick Knight in today's Argus

[Barrel of Fun]

You've disliked Bloom for a long time, LI. I recall you comparing him to Archer way back when you were a regular poster. I seem to remember it was to do with the sacking of MM.

 

[Beach Hut]

Well, whatever, I'm not expecting an amazingly socratic debate with you - but my bottom line is I really hope Garcia proves Poyet wrong and makes Bloom look like the perfect chairman that so many on here think he is. Garcia will be outperforming if he has the season Poyet just had, here's hoping.

The substance of your debate reeks of total hatred of perhaps not getting access to what you had before.

To berate a person who has literally put his life earnings into BHAFC sucks of jealously.

Do the honourable thing and **** off

 

[London Irish]

You've disliked Bloom for a long time, LI. I recall you comparing him to Archer way back when you were a regular poster. I seem to remember it was to do with the sacking of MM.

True, I've always been something of a Bloom sceptic because of his lack of transparency over his sources of wealth. Don't recall comparing him to Archer though but if I did that was wrong - although raising the "no single owner" question can be mischeviously misrepresented as that.

 

[Beach Hut]

True, I've always been something of a Bloom sceptic because of his lack of transparency over his sources of wealth. Don't recall comparing him to Archer though but if I did that was wrong - although raising the "no single owner" question can be mischeviously misrepresented as that.

A good journalist might perhaps find out blooms source of wealth ?

 

[Mr Putdown]

These Palace tw*ts are jumping in on too many threads now and it is becoming a joke.
We really need an away end forum now.

As a Palace fan that actually joined NSC in sponsoring the game at Withdean many moons ago simply because you're our rivals -and I couldn't imagine football without you - before the post match meal Dick Knight came in to talk to the sponsors. I was introduced to him by, possibly Simster?, as one of the enemy, a palace fan, in good humour I hasten to add.

Dick's response was to say that my money was as good as a Brighton fan's in saving the club and thanked me for actually turning up not knowing what my reception might have been.

Personally I think he played an absolute blinder for your club in getting to the point of Planning Permission for Falmer and he should unquestionably be considered a legend in the fight to save your club.

Don't sully the memory just because things were fast tracked when Bloom came forward with the funds - yup it's great and I agree your stadium is a fantastic achievement. Without planning permission you were looking into the abyss, and, as has been stated on here, prior to that point Bloom didn't have access to the funds needed to complete the package. Knight kept the ship floating when it was at genuine risk of being dragged under.

Apologies for posting my views Fosters Headband, they are obviously unwanted on the NSC these days.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

A good journalist might perhaps find out blooms source of wealth ?

The remarkable thing is that this has never happened. But, as you suggest, it might be a good idea.

The latest effort has very little of substance:-

http://www.afr.com/p/lifestyle/sport/tony_bloom_betting_on_brighton_epl_NOL7yD4DyyqVKs2iVjJl9K
PUBLISHED: 13 May 2013 00:31:24


Tony Bloom betting on Brighton’s EPL comeback

John Stensholt

As owner of the English football club Brighton & Hove Albion, professional gambler and poker player Tony Bloom is right in the thick of the action at the business end of the season.

Brighton is competing in the playoffs in the Championship, the level below the lucrative English Premier League, and if they successfully win the four-team mini-tournament, they will gain promotion to the EPL and play against the likes of giants Manchester United and Liverpool for the first time since 1983.

Promotion would bring an instant windfall of more than £60 million ($92 million) for the club through a share of the EPL’s huge broadcasting rights deals around the world, an astronomical amount for a club that loses £5-10 million annually, as most sides chasing promotion from the Championship do.

Bloom also has extensive Australian connections, owning property in and travelling to Melbourne every year to visit his wife’s family and play in the annual Aussie Millions poker tournament at Crown Casino.

Among his more than $1.5 million career prize money on the professional poker tour was the $420,000 first-prize for winning the Australasian Poker Championships in Melbourne in 2004.

“I’ve always done reasonably well here,” Bloom told The Australian Financial Review on a recent trip to Melbourne. “I enjoy playing here and it’s a great tournament. Outside of Australia, I don’t have that much time to play poker, given I have a lot of other things going on with football and business and so on.”

But most of Bloom’s wealth is from his professional sports gambling and property development interests, built primarily from the sale of gaming site Premierbet in 2004.

A lifelong supporter of Brighton, where his grandfather was vice-chairman in the 1970s and more recently his uncle has been a director, Bloom stepped in and bought 95 per cent of the club in 2009.

He then provided the £93 million the club needed to fund the building of its new ground, the American Express Community Stadium near Brighton, in England’s south, and has been funding annual shortfalls for the club since.

“I wouldn’t call it an investment, because none of my investments are done emotionally,” Bloom says.

“I was in a situation where I could put some money in and wanted the club to survive. The next step is to get it sustainable and well-run and be the bedrock of the community. The best situation is getting money repaid if we get a certain number of years in the Premiership, but it’s not the priority. I’m a fan at heart but within the business plans, we try to do things for the financial losses to decrease and for the team to be as good as possible as possible. It’s a balance.”

Brighton has been one of the best performing teams in the Championship in recent months, finishing fourth at the end of the regular season (teams finishing third to sixth compete in the playoffs for one promotion spot, with the top two teams on the table earning automatic promotion).

The club managed to attract the highest average crowds, about 25,000 per match, in the Championship this season and would likely sell out the stadium every home match in the EPL.

Bloom says it would be a dream come true for Brighton to play in England’s highest league again, but he admits it’s an expensive dream to chase.

“The costs are so high, in comparison to the different revenues you get in the league. But it’s not as if I didn’t know that. Nothing has been a surprise. It’s a very different business model, very different to the rest of the world. A lot of owners come in from abroad and they get surprised and can come unstuck.”

“The clubs that are going for promotion likely lose many millions of pounds, but on the flipside, you can make that up and a lot more if you get to the Premiership.”

The Australian Financial Review

John Stensholt
John writes about the business of sport from our Melbourne bureau.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

It's a good thing that Dick Knight has legitimised a debate about how Bloom is performing during the chaos of the past few weeks - because for me he has had a very easy ride from fans so far. The way the Bloom fanclub try and shout down any questioning of him with peasant-like foreluck-tugging idolatry of wealth is a bit pathetic. Yes, he's spent part of his fortune on great facilities for us but that doesn't buy all our silence about how he treats people.

The Oatway situation particularly rankles and ask yourself if a man of integrity like Knight would be sticking up for him if Charlie had done anything seriously wrong except show maybe self-harming loyalty to Poyet.

The Poyet stuff has been misrepresented as ego and personality but that's garbage too - it's a cold hard footballing disagreement between Bloom and Poyet about how much money we need to spend if we want to get to the Premiership. Nobody on here knows who is in the right here - only Garcia and his possible successors will prove if Poyet is right or Bloom is right.

But it's pretty clear Bloom already made a massive mistake in not paying to keep Murray and then not getting a real replacement in until 6 months ago, I think that cost us the £120m windfall that Palace now have - so that's one gamble that did certainly did not pay off for Bloom.

We're entitled to ask if replacing Poyet with Garcia is another such gamble. Time will tell and we can argue about it along the way with hopefully nobody on here arrogant enough to say they know the answer for definite now (yeh fat chance of that).

At the end of the day of course Bloom is entitled to spend what he likes on playing budget as it's mostly his money (along with a bit of ours from ST revenue) but if the aim is Premiership football we're entitled to ask whether that's going to realistically happen. Poyet gave his answer and unlike many on here I respect his honesty for walking away from a task that he didn't think had a probable chance of success.

Bloom and Poyet should call off their war, cut a deal on a proportion of his contract before we have to waste even more money and bad pubilicity fighting it through the courts. If that's what Knight means by sorting it out away from the limelight, then Dick is once again spot on.

Nicely written. Its just an argument, a hypothesis, that you've presented here, and I think it gives credit to your case that people immediately jump on you for making it.

 

[ROSM]

The substance of your debate reeks of total hatred of perhaps not getting access to what you had before.

To berate a person who has literally put his life earnings into BHAFC sucks of jealously.

Do the honourable thing and **** off

Is this bitch hut back to his best?

You're conspiracy theories seem utterly bonkers. London Irish never had access. He is no different now than then.

As for your comment about berating someone who putva considerable part of their wealth into the ckub...... Isn't that what you have done with Dick knight. Constantly? Knight is poorer than bloom but still put it in.

And whilst I don't agree with what london Irish has written, he is entitled to do so. I don't think you have the right to tell him to 'f' off.

 

[Icy Gull]

A different take from London Irish and support for Poyet that I personally don't agree with.

Beach Hut's response is laughable, just unpleasant with no substance at all and somewhat hypocritical given his swing away from our previous saviour.

I remember LI being suspicious of Bloom, I was too. Nothing to do with his wealth, more that his uncle was on the board whilst the club was asset stripped and I don't recall him even speaking out against what was going on let alone trying to do anything about it. I was suspicious when another Bloom appeared, I have been proved wrong and I am as grateful to TB as I am to DK.

 

[Acker79]

It's a good thing that Dick Knight has legitimised a debate about how Bloom is performing during the chaos of the past few weeks - because for me he has had a very easy ride from fans so far. The way the Bloom fanclub try and shout down any questioning of him with peasant-like foreluck-tugging idolatry of wealth is a bit pathetic. Yes, he's spent part of his fortune on great facilities for us but that doesn't buy all our silence about how he treats people.

The Oatway situation particularly rankles and ask yourself if a man of integrity like Knight would be sticking up for him if Charlie had done anything seriously wrong except show maybe self-harming loyalty to Poyet.

The Poyet stuff has been misrepresented as ego and personality but that's garbage too - it's a cold hard footballing disagreement between Bloom and Poyet about how much money we need to spend if we want to get to the Premiership. Nobody on here knows who is in the right here - only Garcia and his possible successors will prove if Poyet is right or Bloom is right.

But it's pretty clear Bloom already made a massive mistake in not paying to keep Murray and then not getting a real replacement in until 6 months ago, I think that cost us the £120m windfall that Palace now have - so that's one gamble that did certainly did not pay off for Bloom.

We're entitled to ask if replacing Poyet with Garcia is another such gamble. Time will tell and we can argue about it along the way with hopefully nobody on here arrogant enough to say they know the answer for definite now (yeh fat chance of that).

At the end of the day of course Bloom is entitled to spend what he likes on playing budget as it's mostly his money (along with a bit of ours from ST revenue) but if the aim is Premiership football we're entitled to ask whether that's going to realistically happen. Poyet gave his answer and unlike many on here I respect his honesty for walking away from a task that he didn't think had a probable chance of success.

Bloom and Poyet should call off their war, cut a deal on a proportion of his contract before we have to waste even more money and bad pubilicity fighting it through the courts. If that's what Knight means by sorting it out away from the limelight, then Dick is once again spot on.

I think there's a decent argument in there, but it reads a bit like the posters who claim everyone on here says one thing, and completely ignores all the posts that say the other. In this case, there have been some people on here over the last few weeks who any time anything complimentary is said about Gus and his time with us, they feel compelled to jump in, play down his part and remind everyone all the good that bloom has done. Any time there were conflicting press's statements they would blindly believe the club because bloom put so much money in.

But that would ignore the other posters, some of whom were the complete opposite, blindly believing gus's side, highlighting gus's contribution, then there are people who find the middle ground.

There have also been a couple of seasons complaining about travel, stewards, safe standing, beer selection, club staff hired by bloom, facilities at the stadium etc.

Bloom has received plenty of criticisms.

There was even a thread on here recently that descended into a discussion about how cynical we should be of bloom (or any fan should be of their club's owner). I don't understand why people are so negative about this post other than, perhaps, the first paragraph rankling, and general 'I don't like that poster' criticism.

 

[Lush]

Apologies for posting my views Fosters Headband, they are obviously unwanted on the NSC these days.

Always happy to hear from you Mr P

 

[Beach Hut]

Hopefully all the anti-Bloom brigade will ask the questions they want at the Fans Forum then this can all be put to bed.

Why they are so suspicious of Bloom is beyond me but one even stated openly he hated money men in football however seemed jolly happy when we had the stadium built.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

Hopefully all the anti-Bloom brigade will ask the questions they want at the Fans Forum then this can all be put to bed.

Why they are so suspicious of Bloom is beyond me but one even stated openly he hated money men in football however seemed jolly happy when we had the stadium built.

It would nice, but somehow I don't think some will waste the opportunity to slag off Paul Barber afterwards.

 

[Questions]

Hard to take serious a view that it was solely Bloom's decision to let Murray drift away. If Gus really had wanted him he would have made a huge fuss and certainly wouldn't have brought in a striker on 4.5 k more a week and of course the 2.5m transfer fee.
Am I a Bloom sycophant ?

 

[London Irish]

Hard to take serious a view that it was solely Bloom's decision to let Murray drift away. If Gus really had wanted him he would have made a huge fuss and certainly wouldn't have brought in a striker on 4.5 k more a week and of course the 2.5m transfer fee.
Am I a Bloom sycophant ?

Poyet went on record in the Argus that he wanted to spend more money to keep Murray but couldn't get access to the funds because they were in different pots for wages and transfer fees. As far as I'm aware, no Bloom surrogate was ever put up at the time or since to contradict this account, but maybe you can point to one. You would have a suspicion that it was very much stuff like this that began the parting of the ways.

 

[Icy Gull]

Poyet went on record in the Argus that he wanted to spend more money to keep Murray but couldn't get access to the funds because they were in different pots for wages and transfer fees. As far as I'm aware, no Bloom surrogate was ever put up at the time or since to contradict this account, but maybe you can point to one. You would have a suspicion that it was very much stuff like this that began the parting of the ways.

I believe that may have been bullshit from Poyet to deflect from his error. Bloom didn't say a negative word publicly about Poyet the whole time Poyet was here so I'm not convinced he would have contradicted Poyet's explanation by way of a public statement. It can't have all gone wrong straight after the Palace game surely? Had to be brewing for a while I would have thought even though we, the fans, didn't hear a peep from TB until the suspensions. Even then we didn't hear much.

 

[Questions]

Poyet went on record in the Argus that he wanted to spend more money to keep Murray but couldn't get access to the funds because they were in different pots for wages and transfer fees. As far as I'm aware, no Bloom surrogate was ever put up at the time or since to contradict this account, but maybe you can point to one. You would have a suspicion that it was very much stuff like this that began the parting of the ways.

I know about the two pots and not being able to dip into the transfer kitty for wages but I am presuming that CMS was on about 12 k as has been rumoured and that is still way over what we offered Murray. In fact about 5-6 above what we offered Murray who was on 3.5k a week up to our double your money offer once we had been promoted. He went for an extra 2 k at Palace. Maybe Gus wanted both players - that we'll never know but I'm convinced neither Poyet or anyone else thought Murray would bang in thirty the following campaign.
I'm not sure you'll get Bloom chatting in any great detail about deals like this so we'll never know for sure. I would take Poyet's accounts with a pinch of salt.

 

[ROSM]

Andy Naylor said that things almost blew up in the week before the palace game in march. I believe it was poyets statements that week about the Murray situation that caused that specific tension. Although it had been brewing since the sale of noone according to the journalist who first stated Gus going to reading.

 

[Ernest]

I was always surprised about the Noone comment as we were overstocked with midfield players and it wasn't like he was a regular starter

 

[clapham_gull]

Poyet went on record in the Argus that he wanted to spend more money to keep Murray but couldn't get access to the funds because they were in different pots for wages and transfer fees. As far as I'm aware, no Bloom surrogate was ever put up at the time or since to contradict this account, but maybe you can point to one. You would have a suspicion that it was very much stuff like this that began the parting of the ways.

Which is funny because at a fans club meeting I attended Poyet gave the distinct impression that he wasn't Murray's biggest fan. I've always felt that the Murray situation was far more complex than money alone.

Say what you like about the relationship between Poyet and Bloom, but I don't for one minute believe they fell out over Murray.

Pure revisionism.