Fans Forum

I can't see why Gordon Gibb/the Pension Fund would contemplate selling Valley Parade the return they are getting is a great deal for them.
But let's play devils advocate and say they were prepared to let it go and allow Stefan to purchase it, with him being an astute business man he would purchase Valley Parade through his holding company and Bradford City FC would not own the stadium, much like I believe is the situation at Posh and several more clubs.

Stefan would then become our land lord rather than Gibb/pension fund, hopefully he would reduce our rent which would then give him more finacial clout with regards transfer dealings, which again should give us a better chance of sucsess, although as we know from past experiences money doesn't always bring sucsess on the football pitch.

If Stefan ever did want to sell the club it would put him in a powerful position as he owns both the football club and the stadium.
Would potential buyers purchase the club without a ground of their own, possibly Stefan did, but I think any potential buyer would want the club lock stock and barrel.

 

i have mentioned the fans buying the stadium before. 10000 fans agree to put in £2 a week= £20000 x52 weeks =£1.040,000
per year. 7 years until lease runs out = £7,280,000, not including interest. We don't need a knight on a white charger , we need the collective will to do something about it. £2 a week , less than a pint or a burger from Mcdonalds. Surely the supporters group's could get together and organize something. you could then charge the club rent at less than the pension fund and use this money to pay people back , or improve the facility's. Could it be that simple , and another £104 , would be like paying £260 for your season ticket.

 

Reality is a bit different - Valley parade has very little value except as a football club. The value of the site, in a run down area of the City, with high site clearance costs associated with it, is quite a bit lower than what we would have to pay to buy it from Gibbs. Having an asset which is valued substantially lower than you paid for it doesnt make you company more attractive to buyers.

 

This would be the Bradford City Council who have given us no support over the years and yet took credit for our good times.

 

Fans are not going to buy the stadium.

 

As long as we play football at Valley Parade it will command a very good rent for the pension fund, other wise your correct the stadium would not command the £5million to buy Valley Parade that was quoted a while ago.
The only time Gordon Gibb needs to worry is if we cant sustain our league status then he will not get anything like what he originally paid, but the pension fund will have benefited greatly over the 29+ years
Any buyer would be keeping the stadium for Bradford City to play football I would think why else would someone purchase Valley Parade stadium but yes your correct as anything other than a football stadium it couldnt command similar money.

 

The value of a Club lies in it's assets and we are merely a play thing for our closet owner. Certainly makes you wonder regarding his intentions re his investment.

 

That won’t happen. You’re not getting 10,000 fans buying. Fans buying the club, the stadium, won’t happen. Forget about it.

 

Take all of these arguments on board and always one for progressivism, change and new ideas. But my heartfelt bottom line with the ground is that we are always at Valley Parade. Whatever funding, changes and redevelopments should always be about VP. Not only is this our spiritual home, it is where fans died supporting our club. I'm realistic. I know money and future finance is at the core of everything in football. But there are some things that most certainly are not. Humanity, love, loss, passion. A desire to give something back to those who went before us in this, our ground.

 

I've always had a problem with simple calculations on regular amounts over a specified time ever since I went on an Excel course years ago - the tutor asked the question about winning a lump sum or a regular amount....

I've just done a simple interest calculation based around £434,000 per annum lease and a lump sum of £7,000,000 in Year 1 over 25 years @ 2.5% each year...Pension Fund would be better off by £90k by selling now at £7,000,000 than getting the annual lease for 25 years...plus that's just taking that into account, if they added the £7m into the rest of the pot it would earn more, plus £7m would earn higher interest...

So from a BCFC perspective it would seem more beneficial to buy than pay rent each annum as it would cost us just the £7m for Gibb to basically get the same cash in his fund but would save us annually plus there's probably some accountancy stuff to be done about assets and one off costs that don't count and writing them off!!

More qualified people than me!! But just a thought about the long term costs....

 

It will be interesting to see what happens if Bradford's bid to become City of Culture in 2025 is successful. It might lead to major investment that would see your regeneration ideas realised, or then again, we might just end up with a few trestle tables in Centenary Square selling 'street' food and a party box of Standard fireworks.

 

City of culture lol. Place will be dead on its arse in 4 years time.

 

Youngest city in the UK mate. All together now 'I believe the children are our future.... :

 

It's the City that has no purpose whatsoever. Destined to be a cheap labour force for the Leeds City region in the next generation. A dead end to nowhere

 

What pessimism from citizens of Bradford. What it needs is good representation both locally and nationally. The concert venue being built is a decent start followed by a through railway link and then pressure on the new Mayor when he+is voted in to spend some of his vast budget on city starved of investment for years.

 

well i hope the people , that are involved in any discussions about the stadium , from a Bradford city point of view. Have more vision and optimism , than some posters on here. If not we might as well give up now.
I see Bradford City and the city as a whole, as a blank canvass , the potential is endless . It just needs the right leadership.
Unfortunately ,this has been lacking in both for many a year.

 

More culture in an Aldi yoghurt

 

Don't mistake satire and dry humour for pessimism and negativity. I agree with you, there is a huge amount of untapped potential in our city and the reason it is not being realised is 100% down to poor leadership.

 

Maybe i am just tired of reading negative comments on here and the local rag . Anything positive, is instantly put down by some. Bradford is one of the largest city's in the country and its time we made our voice heard. Yes we have problems, but which towns or city's don't

 

No ones giving up, most are just realistic. I mean, come on, fans buying the stadium. I had to laugh at that one. As for the city, its dying on its arse. It has no USP anymore other than a being an inner city run down wasteland. About 10 miles down the road is the fastest growing city in the country. Go figure.