Goldstone secret history

[triptolemus]

It's generally accepted we keep losing managers because we have no stadium. But there is another aspect to the loss of the Goldstone that has still not been examined closely enough. It is hidden away in the files of the now superseded Hove Council Planning and Development Committee, who approved the planning application that allowed Chartwell to acquire the ground. One would expect to discover here a tale of sweeteners being paid to Tory councillors in cahoots with their chums in the property business. But, in this case, a quite different story emerges. The minutes of the meetings of this committee reveal there were in fact three attempts to obtain planning permission on the Goldstone Ground, and surprisingly they all predate Archer's chairmanship of the club and Belotti's appointment as Chief Executive. It appears that, from 1992 onwards, before Archer's and Belotti's involvement, another faction of 'Albion supporters' inside Hove Council were pressing for retail planning permission to be granted in order to raise the value of the ground, and thus reassure the club's creditors. Who were these supporters ?

 

[Jambo Seagull]

I think we should be told.

 

[perseus]

Have you gotta mortgage?

If you get Planning Permission to build a supermarket in yer back garden, it ups the value of your property, which means they (bankers) will let you go on a spending spree. You don't have to build the supermarket or even intend to. It is not even really sinister.

Borrow your way out of debt, and then you die. But companies and football clubs have to be killed.

 

[Albionite83]

It's generally accepted we keep losing managers because we have no stadium. But there is another aspect to the loss of the Goldstone that has still not been examined closely enough. It is hidden away in the files of the now superseded Hove Council Planning and Development Committee, who approved the planning application that allowed Chartwell to acquire the ground. One would expect to discover here a tale of sweeteners being paid to Tory councillors in cahoots with their chums in the property business. But, in this case, a quite different story emerges. The minutes of the meetings of this committee reveal there were in fact three attempts to obtain planning permission on the Goldstone Ground, and surprisingly they all predate Archer's chairmanship of the club and Belotti's appointment as Chief Executive. It appears that, from 1992 onwards, before Archer's and Belotti's involvement, another faction of 'Albion supporters' inside Hove Council were pressing for retail planning permission to be granted in order to raise the value of the ground, and thus reassure the club's creditors. Who were these supporters ?

Ivor Caplin was 1 of them (although I hasten to add that I disassociate myself from your remarks about any sweeteners). Caplin's initial support for the Goldstone redevelopment planning applications is no secret and is documented by The Argus. The idea was to increase the value of the Goldstone so the club could pay off urgent debts (to the taxman etc). Later, Archer and Stanley bought out the other board members and we all got shafted.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

There's nothing very secret about any of this. The Supporters' Club was actively lobbying Hove Borough Council to give Outline Planning Permission for the redevelopment of the Goldstone Ground. Ivor Caplin was supporting them.

But read on ...

The reason for this was NOT to leave the Albion homeless. The Club was in debt and facing bankruptcy. It needed to borrow money and it needed to have a more valuable asset than a football stadium to use as collateral. With outline planning permission for a retail development on the site, that asset would have enabled more loan funding to be secured. Hove Borough Council were being invited to make it a condition that no construction should start until the Club had a new ground. So this plan wasn't about selling the Club down the river.

Despite heavy lobbying by the football club, supporters and the Labour group, the Tory ruling group on Hove Borough Council threw out the planning application, mainly because there was counter-lobbying by Hove traders who didn't want to see major competitors coming into town and taking the profits out of their pockets.

A murky bit of history, if you care to look at it that way - but the failure of this plan was one of the reasons that the door was opened to Stanley and Archer.

With hindsight, we might care to debate whether we would really have been better off if planning consent had been given then (or whether it was a naive plan that would have ended in bankruptcy anyway).

 

[Albion Rob]

I don't really understand football club finances very well, but as a club are we in thee red or the black at the moment?

I think we must be in debt, but then again wasn't the £7 million from the sale left in the club because Arsehole and Wankalotti got caught out removing the clause.

The thing that sticks in my throat is that Chartwell sold the land on a year later for £25 million (I think). Imagine if we had had that kind of clout behind us. We'd have moved back to Falmer rather than Withdean!

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

There's nothing very secret about any of this.

Its a great thread title though. Certainly better than all the coppell one's.

 

[Hunting 784561]

A Pandoras box really.....with hindsight its easy to say that its OK getting planning permission as long as you have no intention of exercising it, but all it then takes is one greedy fecker, ie Archer, and those grand intentions go out of the window.....

To me the worst part of this scandal is why the whole site was sold on to Abbey Life only a year later for three times the amount originally paid ?

If the club was going to be screwed over, why the hell did they do it so cheaply ?

 

[Lord Bracknell]

I don't really understand football club finances very well, but as a club are we in the red or the black at the moment?

I would guess that we are losing money at the moment - mainly because of the occupancy costs of Withdean. But the prospects look good for Falmer and this keeps the long-term financial prospects rosy.

If Falmer is turned down, we are in deep doo doo.

 

[magoo]

At last!
Something interesting.

 

[triptolemus]

I am not suggesting sweeteners, Albionite, as my first post clearly states. But the plot thickens. The Tory dominated Planning Committee issued a warning to the 'Albion supporters'. According to the papers, a second application was presented to Hove Council in February1993. This was the warning recorded in the minutes:

It was natural that some Members of the Council might have a strong loyalty to BHA which had been part of the cultural fabric of Hove for many years, but whether the financial position of the Club was a material consideration was doubtful. If planning permission was granted for the development it would give the Club a valuable asset against which to borrow money or assist in a possible transfer. However, even if members felt that the application was for 'valuation purposes' only, they ought to be aware that a consent would be a real one which could be operated by the applicants or any future owner of the ground.'

The second application was refused, but in spite of the warning, a third application was made in June 1993. Curiously, at this point the discussion went behind closed doors. The decision was deferred until September. The minutes of this meeting are contained in the so-called 'Blues', the council papers that are not accessible to the public. Why did it become a secret discussion, and what happened to change the committee's mind ?

 

[Lord Bracknell]

The 1992 supporters' campaign was called STAN ("Save The Albion Now")

This is a text of a Press Release they issued at the time:-

The Press Association

BY FACSIMILE

Dear Sirs,

The current plight of many football clubs around the country is making news - all for the wrong reasons; namely the financial stability or otherwise of many. Brighton & Hove Albion is currently under a very real threat of a winding up order in two week's time, and the FANS of football in Sussex have formed an alliance with the acronym S.T.A.N. (Save The Albion NOW!). The main purpose of our involvement is twofold:

a) stave off the potential disaster of winding up by the High Court following the petition brought by the Inland Revenue, and

b) convince Hove Borough Council that we must retain a football club in Sussex – wherever that may be.

We are hoping that all responsible citizens will lobby the Council with a view ensuring that planning permission for the redevelopment of the Goldstone Ground will go ahead at the full council meeting to be held on 7th January 1993.

The attached narrative explains our plight, and the small 'flyer' will be handed to everyone entering the Goldstone on 5th December for the FA Cup match against Woking. We shall also be 'pavement bashing' in the morning around the immediate vicinity of the ground in an attempt to coopt the backing of all the locals, some of whom would dearly like to see the club disappear from their back yards! but not necessarily from existence.

Should you require further information, I will be delighted to answer any questions about our campaign. Although coordinating this particular activity, I am also Vice Chairman of the official Brighton & Hove Albion Supporters Club. However, in the interests of the Albion as a whole, we have formed an alliance with the Brighton Independent Supporters Association (BISA) to ensure that ALL football supporters in the area are involved.

We hope you feel that our activities merit mention in as many news outlets as possible - Aldershot being the fírst, recent, tragedy got plenty of coverage - we want to ensure the same plight doesn't happen to us, and by definition snowball to other clubs in a similar situation.

Any coverage you can give us will be appreciated.

 

[Captain Sensible]

The finances of the club from the 70's right through to 1995 were in shaddows. No-one ever knew how much money they had and hoe much they could afford. This was evident with fans. Fans are more patient today than ever. Mainly because we know the resrictions of our club and most of its affairs. Fact is in the 25 years mentioned, Us fans never kew whether a 100,000 player broke the bank or whether the club were being tight. Everyone knew the club used to avoid paying taxes by not declaring the real attendances. We didn't know if they were pocketing the money or what was happening. The mistakes made during those years have lead to Bellotti and Archer, which inturn have left us where we are now.

 

[Hunting 784561]

Theres certainly a lot more transparency now than there was then. This message board, for example, helps spreads the word on any given subject, instantly....

Re Falmer though, does anyone know for certain how the £ 45 Million+ costs are being funded ? Nobody I've spoken to knows for certain.......

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Re Falmer though, does anyone know for certain how the £ 45 Million+ costs are being funded ? Nobody I've spoken to knows for certain.......

In detail, no. This point has been fully covered at the Public Inquiry. The City Council have said that their independent advisors are satisfied that the Business Plan stacks up. The opponents (in particular, Falmer Parish Council) have asked for the Business Plan to be made public. The Club have refused (on the grounds that it is commercially confidential). And the Inspector has accepted that the Business Plan will not be made public.

In other words, the funding is secure, but we're not going to be told precisely where it's coming from. Some of it will be from regeneration grants, some of it will be from loans and a mortgage, some of it will be from grants from sports funding bodies, some of it will be from sponsorship (including Stadium naming) and some of it will be from "securitisation" - borrowing against future season ticket revenue.

 

[glosterseagull]

Isn't there are big grant from the FA as well?

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Isn't there are big grant from the FA as well?

That's included in "some of it will be from grants from sports funding bodies".

 

[triptolemus]

Sorry if this is familiar territory for some, but the sequence of events is important. It was quickly proven that the warning of the Planning and Development Commitee was not an idle one. In the following months, the Club was finanicially restructured. Archer bought the Albion and took over its debts. A holding company, Foray 585, was introduced to control its affairs. The shares in the company were owned by Archer and Stanley, with Belotti as chief executive. The rest, the cynical sell-off of the Goldstone, is all too well-known. If the initial applications were merely a naive attempt to raise the financial credibilty of the club, which were hijacked by property-speculators, then the 'BHA supporters' who instigated it made a catastrophic mistake. Is this what really happened behind those closed doors in September 1993 ?

 

[y2dave]

Around 93/94 I heard Lloyd ALLEGEDLY twatted Archer when he put the skids on a planning application for a new ground (apparently with some council backing).

 

[triptolemus]

Desert Orchid. When I read the committee papers, they mentioned a deferral of the decision until the September. Were you also at the September meeting, and are the minutes for that meeting accessible to the public ? I wasn't able to access them and was informed they were in 'the Blues'.

Also: what do you think happened. It's a bit odd isn't it. Tory councillors warning against planning permission, labour councillors pressing for it, then profiteers moving in. It sounds the wrong way round. Or were the Albion supporters simply naive, imagining it was just phantom permission and nobody would act on it ?