RagingBull wrote: ↑Mon Sep 28, 2020 1:12 pm
I mean if that was too happen I would just stop caring about club rugby.
Ironically I would feel better about a pure merge with Saints than having anything to do with Wasps.
I think any great merging of existing Premiership clubs would be the end of club rugby as a professional pursuit in the minds of many. I know I'd be much harder pushed to drag myself away from Bishopton vs Glasgow Medical to watch England Region Midlands vs England Region South West even if they called the merged clubs Leicester and Bath.
Few clubs have much of a local identity these days so I'm not sure it would matter so much. The idea of a Tigers homegrown player these days usually means they come from Lancashire or Norfolk. Or Samoa.
I just enjoy watching a good game of rugby.
I don't see how it would achieve much though. Surely two bankrupt entities merging equals one bankrupt entity. As I understand it, the problem with Welsh rugby was that there weren't enough fans to support so many clubs long term. English rugby has a very different problem at the moment - no fans temporarily resulting in a shortage of cash. Therefore, the solutions need to be very different too. Merging two Welsh clubs resulted in one bigger club with just enough fans to make do. Merging two English clubs right now will just result in one club that still doesn't have any cash and is still screwed.
I really don't think the club should be soliciting more donations. Obviously if an individual wants to do it that's their prerogative.
The board have different options. We were told that the board turned down a proposal for the players to get shares in the club in exchange for reducing their salaries. That still sounds like a pretty reasonable idea to me and why it was rejected has never quite been made clear.
I mean there is a very obvious reason why Tom Scott might not want to dilute his share, but let's park that for second.
If the club needs to raise funds it can:
a) get a loan from a bank/extend current bank loans. Thanks to prudent management we have relatively low debts and lots of assets.
b) get funding from other sources of debt such as the bond market. Exeter have bond for purchase which is renewing their old one. We could be in reasonable position to sell a 8 year bond and be in position to replace it with more usual forms of borrowing in 2028.
c) get a loan from one of our directors.
d) have our directors donate money in the same way the fans have
e) they can issue more shares for purchase by the general investing public (with the current shareholders either purchasing to maintain their share, or not)
Option B would be the best way to generate c. £5m in the short term I think. Well option e) would be better for the club as a whole but I can't see Tom Scott allowing it really.
Regarding the worst case scenario of a potential insolvency the prudent previous financial management means we have a lot of assets to sell before we get into that situation. Last year we had c.£8M of debt to the bank with 20 years to pay it back. The stadium was valued at around £50m. There was £8m in the bank at June 2019, with c. £2.5m already ear marked for the reduction in receipts because of the CVC deal. Taking Scott at Peter Tom's word he has been "supporting" the club since the lockdown, whether that is in loans or gifts is not clear. Assuming interest free loans (this is the most normal set up for sports clubs and I struggle to see him gifting it without getting the positive publicity this would deserve) it is simply impossible to be in a position where either Scott or the bank could force us into insolvency without profligate spending that has been impossible to see.
Good post by sk88 above, there are lots of different options.
It might also be worth pointing out that the things organisations claim (e.g. we're all about to go bankrupt) whilst lobbying a government to change a policy are not always 100% true. If they say "this is really inconvenient and we'll lose some money, but generally we'll be fine" then that isn't going to persuade government to change the policy and therefore it never gets said.
The first rule of begging is that you need to look desperate.
A campaign to lobby the government for support - requesting that supporters email local MPs and/or the Ministers responsible for sport.
If you do want to email the ministers directly, (Oliver Dowden or Nigel Huddlestone) better to use their Department email addresses rather than their parliamentary ones, unless you happen to live in their constituency - [email protected]
A campaign to lobby the government for support - requesting that supporters email local MPs and/or the Ministers responsible for sport.
If you do want to email the ministers directly, (Oliver Dowden or Nigel Huddlestone) better to use their Department email addresses rather than their parliamentary ones, unless you happen to live in their constituency - [email protected]
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Bump!
This is discussed at the end of the latest LTTV with Peter Tom and Andrea Pinchen, as well as being on the Club website. Just asks supporters to help the Club by sending an email their local MPs.
The link gives a suggested letter (or compose your own) and so it takes only a couple of minutes.
ads wrote: ↑Sat Oct 03, 2020 10:10 am
I live in Leeds so I donlt think my MP will give a toss, but I have emailed the copy and paste text to the office for culture, media and sport....
& do we think they will?
Sport is in the same situation as live entertainment, which is probably in an even bigger hole especially the massively important smaller venues.
[quote="Wayne Richardson Fan Club" post_id=754150 time=1601720359 user_id=4125]
Having just watched last nights LTTV anyone who doubts our chairman's drive & determination for Tigers should watch, listen & learn.
[/quote]
I have emailed my local MP Dr Luke Evans, it might some time before I get a reply as I had an automated response saying only COVID-19 related emails would be prioritised, which is fair enough I guess.
Formerly of Burbaaage (not Inkleh), now up north at uni
Not sure if this has been suggested before but could the club generate some income selling "digital season tickets" I know there was a deal post covid to allow season ticket holders access to all matches but people like me who don't live super close and have other commitments that mean I only normally make 2-3 games a year. I can't just but a season ticket, but I don't tend to watch BT sport so I don't want to go and just buy that completely.
Could the club come to an arrangement with BT to access just their matches (like what they did this season) and send out match passes.
Ok so it's not going to generate loads of cash for the club but I don't mind it not being super cheap if I know a decent portion would go to the club.
Used to run around with an 11, 14 or 15 on my back.
What follows is my own personal opinion. Debt is just stealing from future earnings unless it’s an investment in something that will make money in the future. As such, I think that new equity should be issued. It would quite literally make fans (and those with a interest in Rugby or Leicester) more invested in the club and its future (as it would have with players) and give an injection of physical cash into the balance sheet. Fans would buy out of a sense of being closer to their club - profit would not be the main motivator.
Yes, it would dilute the owners share but so what? The impact of a millionaire losing a little future profit is peanuts compared to the impact of the redundancy on a low paid worker at the club. They where more than happy to try and flog the club off for a substantial profit before the crisis and then during the crisis make people redundant, cut Wages and persuade fans to either donate their ST and other ticket money to the club or leave it in. I accept much of this was necessary but it would also show the owners are part of the solution, something that would not be forgotten. As has been said, they are looking at all options. So as something that can make a major impact on the balance sheet this is surely a main option?
