Redevelopment Closer Than Ever?

[Melbourne Cobbler]

To compete in League 1 is our immediate goal, something we haven't done in over 50 years.
You being of sound business mind would know a community football club is unlike a normal business and can not be subjected to asset striping as say a distressed retailer or manufacturer, for an outsider to come in hoping to profit unconditionally from a community asset is some what without much ethics.
Let's look at the £5.5m debt,  you say investment into the infrastructure of Northampton town is too big a risk, its known £3m would allow to expansion of 3000 extra onto the grounds meager capacity and would also allow a basic fit out of the boxes,  this would allow our club to increase revenues by £1.5m a season as a L1 club, help attract and sell on players for proper fees, the amount of money our club lost having to suck up the nonsense of Cardoza/Thomas is incredible..Now let's take a look at the £5.5m debt that will probably evaporate into our share of Thomas's good fortune from land grabbing..
They are not football men but land speculators who are causing untold damage to Football club of Northampton, yhat is a community asset.
Let's get the club into the hands of those who only care for the club and its future and not profiteering passers by.

Posted this the other day. The tools for you to prove this is as attractive as you say are right here? Get some like minded people onboard and crack on. You could potentially raise the capital to buy the club and develop the ground, what could possibly go wrong?https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertkidd/2018/09/20/soccer-clubs-ask-fans-for-investment-but-promise-financial-return/

[BedsCobb]

You can't help yourself, can you Boris? Line one. Lie one. We got to the play offs in 1998. You can justifiably argue that in that season, we competed in league one.
I didn't even bother reading the rest, I saw you'd written some numbers so I automatically assumed they're made up.

Carry on.

It's s nearly 2020 now so over 22 years ago we last had a decent L1 season but in the blink of an eye relegation followed, unfortunately we didn't have the infrastructure to sustain football at level and still haven't to this day.. You not only proved my point but highlighted it in neon signs🤣
Come on, you know its the end of the road for Thomas as one who can be taken seriously..
At this conjecture we all need some enlightenment as to what will happen to our club should his error strewn business dealings with our club continue unabated.
For the record I blame us the supporters more than Thomas for allowing this crap to drag on.

[guest3086]

Every so often this thread goes cold. Then for no reason whatsoever, Boom! I love it!

p.s. Thomas and the other fellow are massive dorks as the Ramones would have said.

[Why?]

How many of us can get £100k backing to make a take-over bid?

[CobblerForever]

How many of us can get £100k backing to make a take-over bid?

Quite a few of the older supporters with fully paid for homes, private pensions and savings could if they wanted to.

[Deepcut Cobbler]

Quite a few of the older supporters with fully paid for homes, private pensions and savings could if they wanted to.

As long as they don't expect a return from it?

[CobblerForever]

As long as they don't expect a return from it?

I would certainly regard it as far too risky to invest without a considerably greater knowledge of the detail. However, there are regular contributors to this forum who might believe otherwise. There's one......…………………...

[BedsCobb]

How many of us can get £100k backing to make a take-over bid?

The club is only worth what Thomas paid for it, £1 and that is what he'll get for it.
No one will pay for his business failures in saddling the club with £5.5m of unsustainable toxic debt.
Our only hope is the council hold firm, don't cave in and starves them out.

[singcobb]

The club is only worth what Thomas paid for it, £1 and that is what he'll get for it.
No one will pay for his business failures in saddling the club with £5.5m of unsustainable toxic debt.
Our only hope is the council hold firm, don't cave in and starves them out.

The club is worth -5 million or so. That is what you would have to pay to clear the debts just to get it on an even keel. So after spending 5 million you then have a club worth 1 quid.

[Melbourne Cobbler]

Jesus, let me try and explain this from a personal perspective. When we started the Australian business we chucked in about a million. If we at some point need to get out for whatever reason we take what’s on offer. Imagine the figure was 100k, you either take it or walk away with F all. The point is that million was only relevant to us. The trick is not to put the money in unless you know you get a return. We did and we have, if we hadn’t bye bye investment. That is how Directors loans work. KT might want his money back, but if he can’t get the land deal through and no one is prepared to pay that figure then he either walks away with the best offer or stays indefinitely. Either way the 5 million means 5hit to no one but him and DB. Hope that has finally cleared this up once and for all?

[Melbourne Cobbler]

It's s nearly 2020 now so over 22 years ago we last had a decent L1 season but in the blink of an eye relegation followed, unfortunately we didn't have the infrastructure to sustain football at level and still haven't to this day.. You not only proved my point but highlighted it in neon signs🤣
Come on, you know its the end of the road for Thomas as one who can be taken seriously..
At this conjecture we all need some enlightenment as to what will happen to our club should his error strewn business dealings with our club continue unabated.
For the record I blame us the supporters more than Thomas for allowing this crap to drag on.

Heres your chance to sort it out. You’ve been saying what a great fool proof plan you’ve got, here’s the tools to put it into practice. No excuses, using this lot you can raise the capital. All you need is to get enough people on board. What are you waiting for, nows your chance to take the club where you have always dreamed it could and should be?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertkidd/2018/09/20/soccer-clubs-ask-fans-for-investment-but-promise-financial-return/

[CobblerForever]

Jesus, let me try and explain this from a personal perspective. When we started the Australian business we chucked in about a million. If we at some point need to get out for whatever reason we take what’s on offer. Imagine the figure was 100k, you either take it or walk away with F all. The point is that million was only relevant to us. The trick is not to put the money in unless you know you get a return. We did and we have, if we hadn’t bye bye investment. That is how Directors loans work. KT might want his money back, but if he can’t get the land deal through and no one is prepared to pay that figure then he either walks away with the best offer or stays indefinitely. Either way the 5 million means 5hit to no one but him and DB. Hope that has finally cleared this up once and for all?

FWIW Absolutely correct.

[guest3086]

The problem is that the £5 million could bust the company.

[GrangeParkCobbler]

We are going round in circles!

Melbourne, its alright for you to say the club is worth next to nothing.....and you're probably right. The fact is though that those directors loans that you refer to, the ones you said you wouldn't put in without getting a return....well KT and DB are not going to walk away without a return!

Wasn't there a deal mooted about 14 months ago.....all rumours here but I believe that there was an interested party who had a couple of million in the bank, but KT and DB were holding out for £4m....therefore to them the club is worth £4m....because they want their money back!

They are not going to sell for a pound, they are not going to sell for a million......!

Part of me wonders whether lumping in the CDNL leases and attaching them to the club was just to make the club more saleable, because it doesn't seem like there's much appetite for KT and DB to actually "do" any development. Didn't KT say that DB was not a property developer and had little interest in it?

So yes, there is a debt, and whilst it may be a paper debt hidden behind shell company after shell company after off shore company, the sad fact is that the majority shareholders want a return, ie they want some/most/all of their money back. So to them, the club is worth considerably more than anyone else thinks it is!

[BedsCobb]

Heres your chance to sort it out. You’ve been saying what a great fool proof plan you’ve got, here’s the tools to put it into practice. No excuses, using this lot you can raise the capital. All you need is to get enough people on board. What are you waiting for, nows your chance to take the club where you have always dreamed it could and should be?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertkidd/2018/09/20/soccer-clubs-ask-fans-for-investment-but-promise-financial-return/

There is no fool proof plan or one even needed, For 20 years we have been a Cardoza/Thomas owned facilitation point to extract large amounts of free valuable land from the local council. This takes lots of protection mainly from local businesses or other groups who may be interested in taken on the football club, so part of the protection is load unsustainable debts into the clubs account and be very secretive in their dealings whilst putting out suggestions of good will, pretending to give a stuff for the poor football club.
The only plan needed is to get these parasites out and give the club back to the town and county of Northampton as an all welcoming community asset that is open for business, investment that seeks a new generation of local support base.. Then watch us go!
It really is that simple. 

[Vintage Cobbler]

We are going round in circles!

Melbourne, its alright for you to say the club is worth next to nothing.....and you're probably right. The fact is though that those directors loans that you refer to, the ones you said you wouldn't put in without getting a return....well KT and DB are not going to walk away without a return!

Wasn't there a deal mooted about 14 months ago.....all rumours here but I believe that there was an interested party who had a couple of million in the bank, but KT and DB were holding out for £4m....therefore to them the club is worth £4m....because they want their money back!

They are not going to sell for a pound, they are not going to sell for a million......!

Part of me wonders whether lumping in the CDNL leases and attaching them to the club was just to make the club more saleable, because it doesn't seem like there's much appetite for KT and DB to actually "do" any development. Didn't KT say that DB was not a property developer and had little interest in it?

So yes, there is a debt, and whilst it may be a paper debt hidden behind shell company after shell company after off shore company, the sad fact is that the majority shareholders want a return, ie they want some/most/all of their money back. So to them, the club is worth considerably more than anyone else thinks it is!

Both Melbourne & GPC are right but I think are both missing what may be afoot.  By lumping in the CDNL leases as GPC puts it a route opens for our owners to be repaid the £5 million and more of "debt". 

What seems to be in progress with NBC is KT persuading the powers that be to back their (unpublished) development plans and obtain planning permission.  At that point the value of CDNL rises to several millions and KT/DB sell the club's shares in CDNL to a major developer who then goes on to buy the freehold interest in the leasehold land (price agreed in 2013/14 with CDNL was over £6 million), the Council recover the "missing millions" and what was community land is lost to the people of Northampton for ever. The club is in receipt of the proceeds of sale of the CDNL shares but it is used to pay off the "debt" and the East Stand remains unfinished.  At that point in time our owners are more than happy to sell the club for £1.00 and leave the East Stand to the new owner to finish at his expense. 

This is pure conjecture and KT could easily rubbish this with a clear unequivocal statement of the owners' true plans, demonstrating that the owners do indeed have the club's best interests at heart and that the land was always for the club and not for themselves and that all profits will be for the club alone which will be used first for completing the stand and investing in the club's infrastructure.   

[GrangeParkCobbler]

Is it really that simple?

I was struck yesterday by the fact that fan owned Exeter, with their new stands and improved ground couldn’t attract 4000 to an attractive top of the table clash.

I don’t know what Lincoln did to increase their fates from 3000 to 8000 almost overnight....but there was certainly more community involvement there than I’ve ever seen at a club before...

Some clubs can make a go of it better than others it seems....

[Vintage Cobbler]

GPC, I'm not you if your comment is directed at or Beds but it is all down to our owners and silence continues from them. Nothing meaningful has been said by KT other than the usual nonsense about "progress" for a very long time.  Therefore, it is entirely right that serious questions should be asked about the owners' intentions. 

On the community aspect KT said on 26 November 2015 that the Supporters Trust would "play a big part of the running of the club in the future".  Not under his ownership he should have added.

[Melbourne Cobbler]

By lumping in the CDNL leases as GPC puts it a route opens for our owners to be repaid the £5 million and more of "debt". 

I think you may have missed bits of some of what I have posted Vintage (and frankly I don’t blame you) but I would guess this is exactly the plan? Possibly, they could then claim (somewhat tenuously) that it has benefited the club by removing the debt, even though that debt isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.

[Melbourne Cobbler]

We are going round in circles!

Melbourne, its alright for you to say the club is worth next to nothing.....and you're probably right. The fact is though that those directors loans that you refer to, the ones you said you wouldn't put in without getting a return....well KT and DB are not going to walk away without a return!

Wasn't there a deal mooted about 14 months ago.....all rumours here but I believe that there was an interested party who had a couple of million in the bank, but KT and DB were holding out for £4m....therefore to them the club is worth £4m....because they want their money back!

They are not going to sell for a pound, they are not going to sell for a million......!

Part of me wonders whether lumping in the CDNL leases and attaching them to the club was just to make the club more saleable, because it doesn't seem like there's much appetite for KT and DB to actually "do" any development. Didn't KT say that DB was not a property developer and had little interest in it?

So yes, there is a debt, and whilst it may be a paper debt hidden behind shell company after shell company after off shore company, the sad fact is that the majority shareholders want a return, ie they want some/most/all of their money back. So to them, the club is worth considerably more than anyone else thinks it is!

I didn’t say the club is worth next to nothing, just a directors loan is worthless other than the desire by the said directors to get a return on it? I reckon you might be right about the leases increasing the attractiveness of the club though?