How have Brighton paid for the new stadium and academy ?

[Guinness Boy]

Genuinely interested.

One of you stated it was a £29m academy in another post, and I was lambasted (rather lamely I thought) for going off topic, but I guess the Amex cost way more than that, so both together thats a shitload of cash, and my understanding is that you went bankrupt in 1997 and lost the Goldstone (happy to be corrected here if not so) and then were at the Withdean, which are not the environs of a cash rich club I would say.

So is it a benefactor a la Abramovich, a shedload of debt (this would explain losing £8m a year ??) or something else ?

Not taking the piss at all, just wondered how you did it, because we could certainly do with some of that !!

Cheers

What happened was this. Tony Bloom, a well known gambler placed a £1 bet at 29million to 1 that you'd still be posting this ill informed, disingenuous trolling on our board instead of doing proper research when the sun started coming up before 7am. He's just cashed in. Would you like to host our "Ladbrokes paid for our academy and are looking for a White Knight" party? It's the least you could do.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

By the way, did David Bellotti used to be 'one of us'?

In the Brighton v Doncaster programme of 1996/97, he regales how he bought a season ticket from 1973 onwards, the horror of his memories of the Walton & Hersham and Bristol Rovers games, the tears of joy around him as Brighton ran out against Arsenal in 1979, his experiences of watching from the Lego Stand etc....

 

[Willy Dangle]

Still haven't read it but think i will give it a go.

Just nabbed a copy off ebay

 

[The Buttery Biscuit Base]

Youth development facilities aren't covered by FFP regulations, so however the training ground is funded, it doesn't need to be within the earnings of the club.

I know this doesn't really answer the initial question but hey-ho. But there's my two peneth...

 

[kevo]

By the way, did David Bellotti used to be 'one of us'?

In the Brighton v Doncaster programme of 1996/97, he regales how he bought a season ticket from 1973 onwards, the horror of his memories of the Walton & Hersham and Bristol Rovers games, the tears of joy around him as Brighton ran out against Arsenal in 1979, his experiences of watching from the Lego Stand etc....

That must have been in the 'official' programme rather than the supporters' programme which most of us bought instead...

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

Handy. Seems like you have won the equivalent of the football lottery, based on what I read here.

Thanks for the replies, was just reading up on the history as much as I can find, but its all pre-amex - interesting stuff.

Yes, a fair assessment.

Without Tony Bloom, we'd be bouncing around league 1 or 2 now, at Withdean, waiting for the economy to pick up so we could raise money from the banks to build a ground. Or worse.

We are very lucky to have Tony, and lucky he had the right family ties to the club.

 

[Giraffe]

By the way, did David Bellotti used to be 'one of us'?

In the Brighton v Doncaster programme of 1996/97, he regales how he bought a season ticket from 1973 onwards, the horror of his memories of the Walton & Hersham and Bristol Rovers games, the tears of joy around him as Brighton ran out against Arsenal in 1979, his experiences of watching from the Lego Stand etc....

No point changing history, long before Belotti took on the role as chief exec he was an Albion fan. I remember listening to him on the radio years before when he was an MP and he clearly loved the club.

For me that made it do much worse when he then got into bed with Archer and did the things he did. Shameful.

 

[Pondicherry]

Sorry to repeat what I have previously but although no one can deny the stadium has been built and paid for and the training ground is being built (and will presumably be paid for) by Tony Bloom, the actual source of the money has never been made clear. In the style of Mr Benetez:

Fact - it did not come from his poker winnings
Fact - it did not come from the sale of his online gambling company
Fact - it did not come from his visible business interests in the UK

It may have come from overseas property and venture capital assets but no one on this board has ever identified a single one of these.
Tony Bloom may be a very wealthy individual but again the only evidence of this on this board has been anecdotal.

I have no axe to grind and I am very grateful for the new ground and team but a lot of assumptions are made about Mr Bloom which may or may not be true. I don't know the answers myself.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

No point changing history, long before Belotti took on the role as chief exec he was an Albion fan. I remember listening to him on the radio years before when he was an MP and he clearly loved the club.

For me that made it do much worse when he then got into bed with Archer and did the things he did. Shameful.

That's very interesting. I always took his Albion-supporting backstory with a pinch of salt, but what you've said has changed things. As you say, in some ways it makes it much worse.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

We lost the Goldstone through Messrs Archer,Stanley and Bellotti who bought into the club for penny a share a total of just over £65....who then set up a company to sell the ground to for £7m so this other company could resell the the ground with building permission for £24m....giving their company a £17m profit....alledgedly.....but thanks to sharp eyed fans this was found out.....hence all protest...the club owed the revenue quite a sum of money.We sold our assets to pay the revenue and went back to basics. Bellotti arranged for us to play our games at Gillingham. Paul Scally was Bellotti s mate. For two years we were at Gillingham until the chance came to get back into Brighton via an old athletes field used mainly for amatuer and school games. The rest was bought about by the Bloom family who have a long association with the Albion.

A small detail, I know, but ...

The deal to play at Gillingham was a deal between Scally and Archer, rather than Scally and Bellotti. I know this for a fact, because at the time it happened I was involved in organising a local government conference in Eastbourne, where Bellotti was a delegate. He was suddenly summoned by Archer to attend a meeting (in Birmingham) that Archer had arranged with Scally; and Bellotti had to pull out of one of the conference events in order to be there. Part of my job at the conference involved organising transport for the delegates and Bellotti asked me to arrange a taxi to take him home and onwards to Eastbourne Station, so that he could go to Birmingham. I asked him what was going on in Birmingham and he told me that Archer wanted him to join him at the meeting with Scally. Shortly afterwards, the Gillingham groundshare was announced.

PS ... I should also make it clear that Bellotti was told that the taxi journey he wanted me to arrange for him was nothing to do with the business of the conference and he would therefore have to make his own transport arrangements.

 

[Buzzer]

Excuse me but I seem to recall a rule about Palace trolls not being allowed to start wind-up threads. You'd need to have the brains of Mongo aka we-8-Brighton not to see this as a fishing thread.

 

[nomoremithras4me]

Sorry to repeat what I have previously but although no one can deny the stadium has been built and paid for and the training ground is being built (and will presumably be paid for) by Tony Bloom, the actual source of the money has never been made clear. In the style of Mr Benetez:

Fact - it did not come from his poker winnings
Fact - it did not come from the sale of his online gambling company
Fact - it did not come from his visible business interests in the UK

It may have come from overseas property and venture capital assets but no one on this board has ever identified a single one of these.
Tony Bloom may be a very wealthy individual but again the only evidence of this on this board has been anecdotal.

I have no axe to grind and I am very grateful for the new ground and team but a lot of assumptions are made about Mr Bloom which may or may not be true. I don't know the answers myself.

None of us know the answers & are never likely to! The Bloom family have been involved with us since f*** knows when, they were just waiting for one of them with enough poppy to take over and captain the ship IMO

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

None of us know the answers & are never likely to! The Bloom family have been involved with us since f*** knows when, they were just waiting for one of them with enough poppy to take over and captain the ship IMO

I have wondered what would have happened if Ray Bloom was not invited back - would Tony have got involved with the club?

 

[nomoremithras4me]

I have wondered what would have happened if Ray Bloom was not invited back - would Tony have got involved with the club?

Don't know GR, would like to think Ray was putting up with all of the old bollox years ago knowing TB was waiting in the wings? Mrs Nomore used to work for Ray in 90's, he had plenty of dough but obviously not enough! I believe R was grooming T for the future, again just my opinion!

 

[Lord Bracknell]

None of us know the answers & are never likely to! The Bloom family have been involved with us since f*** knows when, they were just waiting for one of them with enough poppy to take over and captain the ship IMO

I have wondered what would have happened if Ray Bloom was not invited back - would Tony have got involved with the club?

I do know that, shortly after Tony Bloom became Chairman, Ray Bloom was heard to say that it was good to have the football club "back in the hands of the family". I know it's speculation, but I suspect that this had been the plan for some time.

 

[Mellotron]

Parrish and his 3 mates might have £30m each to do the same?

Tony Bloom has a lot, lot, lot, lot, lot, lot more than £120m.

 

[nomoremithras4me]

I do know that, shortly after Tony Bloom became Chairman, Ray Bloom was heard to say that it was good to have the football club "back in the hands of the family". I know it's speculation, but I suspect that this had been the plan for some time.

Agree LB, ref the post above yours. When the old woman worked for him, whenever I was in his company all he talked about was footy & the Albion. I think this is one f***ing huge master plan finally coming to fruition!

 

[Buzzer]

No point changing history, long before Belotti took on the role as chief exec he...

...was a no-good double-crossing two-face lying bastard. You don't suddenly become as sneaky, as low, as cold-hearted as he was. That takes years of work. He tried to put our club out of business. No fan who "loves" the club and is aware of it's history and its importance to Sussex would have done what that bastard set out to do.

 

[Seagull73]

...was a no-good double-crossing two-face lying bastard. You don't suddenly become as sneaky, as low, as cold-hearted as he was. That takes years of work. He tried to put our club out of business. No fan who "loves" the club and is aware of it's history and its importance to Sussex would have done what that bastard set out to do.

This. That piece of shit who is still not good enough to be called a wank stain saw pound signs, and put that over any feeling he might have had a few years back for the club.

He sold out and must NEVER be allowed to forget it.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

Excuse me but I seem to recall a rule about Palace trolls not being allowed to start wind-up threads. You'd need to have the brains of Mongo aka we-8-Brighton not to see this as a fishing thread.

Maybe it was a gentle piece of trolling or a fishing trip but it has been a good thread and also rather polite. The OP didn't strike me as aggressive or insulting. Surely you can't have a problem with that?