Toonpack

So it'd cost £300mill to add 10,000 seats (based on prices way back when FFS thought about it) onto the ground, that'd only take about 50-odd years to pay itself back from tickets(not counting interest). Even if a hotel and casino (not allowed) were possible you'd be doing well to half the investment repayment time. Crap article. You could get a whole new stadium for that (Emirates was "only" £390 Mill)

Why would he be bricking it, if there's a drop in revenue, the only cloth that'll get cut accordingly is the clubs.

Or how often you fly

Am not sure autopilots do much more than fly at this speed, on this heading, at this height until I turn you off, could easily have changed course for any number of reasons and flown right on out to sea I guess. A couple of degrees difference is a huge deal over a long distance.

Slow decompression in weakened area of airframe that effects comms kit (known defect on 777 with an FAA maintenance advisory - hairline cracks) All on board become slowly unconscious due to small failure in aforementioned area of plane and the slow decompression Plane autopilot keeps it going until fuel runs out, i.e. it could have come down anywhere along it's route.

Took them 2 years to find the bulk of the Air France one that went down. Cruising at 6 miles up travelling a 8 miles a minute, could have come down in any direction, huge area to search. If it disintegrated most parts will have sunk and all that would float would likely be extremely small and could have spread hundreds of miles in the descent and in the currents/wind etc. once it hit.

If you want to sack someone, and avoid paying up their contract as in a normal football manager firing, you'd better be onside with employment law

He could be fecked, no doubt the club had a chat with their lawyers about what they could do and came up with the formal warning and fine, I suspect if the FA ban him for a long period, especially if that includes a stadium ban, that could make his position untenable although I'm not sure how any further punishment from the club would play with employment law given it's the one offence.

We have more resources than Everton (even within Ashley's model) the other 6 we don't at this time. By rights, I don't mean divine right, but given our respective "size" we should be able to overhaul/surpass Everton IMO.

I never said that, what I said was, we could be a lot worse off and that our "current" position is not really that bad, there are only currently 7 clubs better than us currently (one of which, Everton, we should by rights be better than).

So now you won't be happy if we do spend money, is that what you are saying ?? There are no guarantees with a management change, we as much as most should realise that.

We haven't used our TV windfall (or Cabaye cash) yet, it should all be sat there on top of our operating profit. No doubt a big chunk will get swallowed by wages, but we should still have a big chunk available.

You see I just don't get this mindset, all the good player are going to leave when evidence suggests otherwise. And yes I appreciate Cabaye left, he went to the richest club on the planet which also happens to be in the capital of his home country, he didn't go to Arsenal for £10 Mill - which would have been a profit. Soon as PSG were in we had no chance. Any player will come here if a) we're a step up from where he's at and "b" (and most significantly) if he we're the best cash/week he can get. I never said a £60Mill war chest either, I am not deluded in thinking that the club should have a significant (£30-£40 Mill) lump available based on the evidence of these last accounts and the fact we know income has exploded and costs can't have risen much, if at all, and that's without the need for Ashley to subsidise it. Unlike previous years the club must have that level of cash, I have an expectation, which I don't feel is deluded at all, when considering all the facts. There's no excuse if we don't significantly invest in the team this summer because we can do, comfortably within the austerity model we've got in operation. If we don't, ingrained lack of ambition will be proven irrefutably and Leazes will have been 100% right, it's not proven yetthough IMO.

This is worse than the relegation season ???? really ?? The owners an unreadable cunt - and always has been, people like him are, accepted and filed away in the "not for further review" part of my brain. Club is well off, minted even, been painful getting there, but we're loaded (not Oligarch or Arab loaded, but comparatively so). We're 7th in the table even after a disastrous spell of results. We're shit in the cups, well that's nowt new to me tbh. (and yes I think they tried, certainly against Citeh in the League Cup and Cardiff in the FA, we just happen to be shit at it). Oh aye it really could be worse.

Ok maybe I worded it wrong, we can, and should be easily able to spend at least £30Mill Net, maybe more, and we bloody well should and yes I expect it, because even within the prudence model we must be able to afford it, based on the lack of action and the TV income explosion, of late. But (and maybe I had my N-O head on) that still won't be enough in some quarters.

Been back this season as it happens, three ST's at this address.(renewed for next season as well btw).

No doubt it could be incredibly better, but equally, of course it could be incredibly worse. It's really, really, not all bad, in fact it's more good than bad.

You and several others should grow the fuck up. Ashley's not going anywhere, we're stuck with him, get used to it, because it could be incredibly worse (if you leave your hatred at the door and dispassionately think about it) Vincent Tan anyone ??

Erm, I think you'll find that it is, that it remains so appears to be conditional, but at the end of the day it is currently interest free. I don't know why it matters so much TBH If it wasn't because of the revilement of SD and MA no-one would give a toss, especially because when looking at both sides of the equation the club is better off (in my opinion).

FYP

It's only relevant IF you can prove that the lost revenue to the club from signage is greater than what the interest would be on £129 Mill, I don't think it would be greater. What any advertiser gets from their advert is irrelevant to the owner of what the advert's plastered on, all that matters is what is the benefit to the owner of said billboard for hosting said advert. The benefit to us is nil in income terms but is more than nil in the avoidance of a cost, the latter would far exceed (in my opinion) the income derived from sale of the advertising space if placed against the cost of interest on £129 Million. As I said earlier I don't particularly understand why he doesn't pay for it (as it's SD cash not his) but it's a perfectly equitable arrangement IMO. If it was a choice between advert income and the interest, I'd lose the advert income and avoid the interest every day of the week.

But the ONLY point of contention is the stadium signage, there's all sorts of reasons for commercial revenue performance, or lack thereof, and it's not just the margin on signage.

That is totally irrelevant.

Agreed, to get £8Mill you'd need 800 billboards (or signage locations) and get £10,000 per year for each and every one.

The money's staying in the club as far as I can tell (I haven't looked at the accounts in any detail though). The debt was £140Mill and went down by the £11 Mill he took in the accounts before these, he was due to take another £18 Mill form this last set, but it appears he hasn't. It's all accounted for I reckon, now that said, it remains to be seen if it get's invested because we certainly MUST be cash rich as we enter the summer based upon the fact our expenditure cannot have risen significantly, from these accounts, but our income undoubtedly has leapt up. I fully expect a summer of continued negativity because we won't spend £50 - £60 Mill on transfer fees, but we'd better spend £30 to £40 Mill (net) because I really think we can easily afford that and still stay within the model.