Taking back Villa

[robbo1874]

In American Football, the Packers are a good example.
 

The Packers had allot of assistance from the local government and populace, when they needed to rebuild Lambeau Field they had a referendum to ask the town if they would pay an extra tax to fund the rebuild. They voted to have the tax and the stadium was rebuilt, and it has lots of access for the town's folk and has bars etc... inside a wonderful atrium.

The population of Green Bay grows massively on game days with 'tailgates' going on all over the place and the bars are full. Bringing in much needed revenue to local businesses.

When it works it works well, but it needs allot of support from local government and the local population to make it work.

i doubt BCC would be interested in any kind of stake or financial input in to the club for two main reasons: namely it's been starved of cash by central govt and hasn't got a pot to piss in even for vital services; secondly supporters of blues and Albion that live within its boundaries would quite rightly take objection to council money being spent on one club. Remember the uproar among villa fans when Blues were whining for a new council funded stadium?

There might be a middle way to introduce extra income from willing fan investors in conjunction with on-going ownership and financial backing from Lerner whilst he secures new ownership. My view this is that this would be the most viable way to boost our finances in the short term, but obviously raises questions Around the degree of 'ownership' the fans who buy in would have in reality for their  500 quid, 1 grand, 5 grand, 10grand or however much they chose to invest.

With randy retaining overall control, there'd be not too much change in the way the club is managed at executive and board level.

It's an interesting concept though and whilst unlikely to happen, thats not to say that it couldn't be made to work in some way, particularly with a big club such as Villa with a huge fan base and relatively benevolent owner.

Maybe Adam should change his approach slightly and canvass Randy's people to gauge his interest in exploring the idea further?

[Holte L2]

For anyone that doesn't believe buying back the club is possible, I'd urge non believers to watch the Swansea Documentary 'Jack to a King'. It's about the Swansea trust buying the club from the awful owner (who's name escapes me in the early 2000).
Admittedly they only paid £20k for the club. But it shows it can be done if people pull together.

They don't own the club - they were one member of a consortium and now own 21% with one director on the board.

Good point Dave and PeterWithe. I forgot that point.

The documentary inspired me to see a club taking positive action.

I would like to see the Trust taking a proactive movement in seeking new owners.

I don't know how achievable, but if they could generate further funds by selling shares. Maybe gain investment from local companies it would be interesting to see if we could generate enough money to get Lerner to talk.

I know it sounds unrealistic but surely it's better than doing nothing.

[class-of-82]

Surely trying to do something to is better than doing nothing. If a buyer thinks we are only worth say 140,000,000 but randy wants 200,000,000 and the fans raise the other 60,000,000 then yes you can say we are paying over the odds for the club.but surely in your hearts can you honestly say how much the villa is worth to you.
Then the new buyer issues non voting shares to the % of what the fans are putting in and we vote in a person on the board.
Is there honestly much difference to what happened in 1968 when we had the share issue when was it pat Matthews put his money in to rescue the club.
My grandad put what money he could afford to buy as many shares as he could in 68 put 6 in trust for me years later those shares was worth £1000 each and he always said I did my bit for the villa.
Wouldn't it be amazing if we could do it just because know one has done it before don't mean it can't be done.
 Then one day some of us can say I did my bit for the villa

[Holte L2]

Surely trying to do something to is better than doing nothing. If a buyer thinks we are only worth say 140,000,000 but randy wants 200,000,000 and the fans raise the other 60,000,000 then yes you can say we are paying over the odds for the club.but surely in your hearts can you honestly say how much the villa is worth to you.
Then the new buyer issues non voting shares to the % of what the fans are putting in and we vote in a person on the board.
Is there honestly much difference to what happened in 1968 when we had the share issue when was it pat Matthews put his money in to rescue the club.
My grandad put what money he could afford to buy as many shares as he could in 68 put 6 in trust for me years later those shares was worth £1000 each and he always said I did my bit for the villa.
Wouldn't it be amazing if we could do it just because know one has done it before don't mean it can't be done.
 Then one day some of us can say I did my bit for the villa

I'd rather we did something proactive about raising funds.

It would be interesting to see how much could be raised via supporters.

[class-of-82]

So let's do something like that just to see what we can raise then and take it from there. I know people on here are saying its a non starter or it will never work but how do you know unless you try.
Imagine 4 guys meeting under a Gas lamp about starting a football team for something to do when the cricket season ends, only needed 2 or 3 of them to say thats a non starter or that will never work.

[PeterWithesShin]

Starting from scratch in 1874 to start a team just to have something do isn't really any different to starting a Sunday league team now, which a world apart to raising £100M+ and then running a modern big club.

Even if we as supporters raised a million quid and donated it to the club, that's less than 6 months of Gabby's wages.

At the same time, no one is stopping anyone from trying to do it.

[dave.woodhall]

It's not just a case of raising the £150 million plus to buy the club. Just look at how much our current owner is writing off every year. Where's that sort of money going to come from?

[Holte L2]

It's not just a case of raising the £150 million plus to buy the club. Just look at how much our current owner is writing off every year. Where's that sort of money going to come from?

If a supporters group started to raise funds it could also generate publicity. On the back of this you could potentially have companies of different sizes donating money in return for shares. And our supporter base is extensive so who knows how much you could generate.

Take Real Oviedo, they have shareholders all over the world. I personally brought £40 worth.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not for one second saying we could generate £150-£200m. But it's an interesting theory.

[dave.woodhall]

Name me a company who would offer up serious money in return for having no more say than a single supporter. As for our worldwide fanbase, we've never got much more than 40,000 going to the match so getting ten times that number to pay to not attend doesn't seem likely.

[Holte L2]

Name me a company who would offer up serious money in return for having no more say than a single supporter. As for our worldwide fanbase, we've never got much more than 40,000 going to the match so getting ten times that number to pay to not attend doesn't seem likely.

I've never been to Real Oviedo. Didn't stop me from buying shares.

[gpbarr]

Name me a company who would offer up serious money in return for having no more say than a single supporter. As for our worldwide fanbase, we've never got much more than 40,000 going to the match so getting ten times that number to pay to not attend doesn't seem likely.

I'm not sure the fanbase has anything to do with it. This would be an investment vehicle - thus would attract investors, not fans. And fans would make up a small proportion of the overall funding. 

Not advocating it, just recognizing that most investors have very little allegiance per se to the interests of the companies they invest in. Its all about whether a return can be made.

[class-of-82]

Yea your right guys
Why bother why try just accept it we got no chance
Probably the same words that are said by our players before every game

[PeterWithesShin]

No one is stopping you or anyone else from trying.

[class-of-82]

Judging from replies on here it's a non starter isn't it
But wouldn't it of been amazing if we could of done something to bring it to the attention of the media and the footballing world I wouldn't have the time or know how to try and do something like it. Never mind though at Least we can all hold up a bit of paper on 74

[PeterWithesShin]

Maybe you'd like people not to give their opinion?

But you seem totally in favour of it, so instead of keeping on complaining about those that think it won't work, why not start it and see if you can prove them, including me, wrong?