Stefan Rupp Interview

Ultimately, he's spent 10 years learning about football and how to own a club.

We appear to be taking an approach that we were desperate for after SM's first season here, but Rahic royally screwed that up.

Honestly, I'm loving how the club has made the progress it has in the last 18 months. It seemed very unlikely, but it's been done and hopefully it'll continue as we build on last season.

 

Lucky or smart compared to say Nagle?

 

The behind the scenes structure has improved no end, we now see the rewards of excellent stewardship.,

Sparks has learned how to do the job by making mistakes and the club is now seeing the rewards
Ditto Rupp has become an engaged owner
The introduction of David Sharpe , overseeing the footballing side has been a relevation .
Commercial revenues remain on an upward trajectory .

 

Reading between the lines, it seems there was a lot to sort over the years in terms of how the club was run and how we sought corporate sponsorships, investments etc. So whilst it might have been nice to have a sugar daddy to come in and throw money at City, it might have ended up going down black holes just trying to tread water.

But having some stability at the top, along with what seems like a more competent board & backroom has got to a position where we can (or at least should) be able to hold our own at L1 level whilst building for a Championship push. After over 20 years of spiralling backroom chaos, that can only be a good thing, and that puts us into a better place for future investment or takeovers which could mean we attract better options instead of dodgy actors with a bit of cash to splash. I feel more confident in how the club is being run that I have since the early Richmond days.

Bantam Progressivism is making a comeback!

 

OK having the moment in the sun but it's what goes on after do we really want another epic fook up like we had in the early 2000s where we nearly went bust and magically thousands of HARDCORE City fans went missing................just see what happens over the next few years because I think a hell of a lot of clubs are gonna be in bother because they also wanted there day in the sun

 

Well he is German after all .

 

There will be more downs than ups (that’s the way football works), the foundations have been laid for the club to move forward and I would like to see us progress as we have done over the past few years, throwing money at getting the club higher up the leagues is not the way to go. We need to continue to build the club to allow us to be sustainable and still be competitive too whether it’s in this league or however high we get.

 

We’ll see, people have been saying clubs will go pop for years. Just look at Sheffield Wednesday, clubs have more lives than a cat. Heck I don’t like it but I want my club to be competitive and sadly that means running at a loss.

 

With a fanbase like that there always gonna be fine it's a lot if the smaller clubs that are in for a tough ride sooner or later ..........course I want us to be competitive but if that means us going to the brink then sod that.

 

Agree with alot of that but not owning the stadium is reflected in the price. Its an asset so whether we own it or not its still the same cost to a potential owner when you add the two together. Same with the training ground. I dont see either as an issue as the lease cost on both becomes irrelevant as we climb the league ladder.

One thing this club does have is potential. Our ceiling is higher than most EFL clubs without the need to throw Wrexham money at it.

 

Its a tough one for me, im quite proud we do things properly (and some may say fairly). But like you say, to become a competetive and go to that next level, its probably going to take 7-8 figure losses.

 

Our ceiling was certainly higher than the rest of League 2 and we are one of about 8 similar teams in League one but in the Championship we would be out of our depth.

 

Rupp has said in the past that he's not actively trying to sell the club but if the right investors come along he would sell having done due dilligence.
We have been the subject of hundreds of vlogs over the last 2 seasons because of our promotion and a great league one season last term. Our stadium has been praised, the VP atmosphere is envied, our fans are lauded, home and away and the team has been largley admired..
Why has there been no interest that we know of. I think something would have been leaked if there was a big bucks investor making moves.
All we have is a new Sponsor/Partner with some vague injection of investment ...but not ownership.
There has to be a reason, if our stock is supposedly on the rise, if it's not infrastructure and/or geography, what is it?

 

Certainly much bigger clubs than ours there but we can definitely be competitive with the right funds. Millwall seem to be managing just fine and look at teams like Brentford, Bournemouth and Brighton. Where they were 10-15 years ago to where they are now.

 

I've heard from a few people there has been interest - but its either not the right profile or people who aren't prepared to pay Rupps asking price.

 

The Bradford factor?