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Post by oatcakemate on Mar 5, 2008 10:52:34 GMT
An unnamed consortium is set to make an offer to buy Port Vale having made an approach to take control of the club, The Sentinel can reveal today.
Vale directors are bracing themselves for a bid which will trigger a board meeting to decide whether to forward the offer to the club's 800 shareholders.
That will depend on whether club chairman Bill Bratt and the board members are convinced by the consortium's finances and intentions for the club.
Bratt is refusing to comment on whether he has held talks with a potential buyer. However, he says the club has not received any written offers.
He has also played down the prospect of an imminent sale and says the board would scrutinise any potential new owner.
He explained: "We have not had any written offers from anyone.
"There are always people ringing the club and finding out if they can get the club on the cheap, but we have had no written offers at all.
"We will always talk to people, but the first thing we have to do is check them out.
"At the moment there is nothing in writing from anyone, so it is all pie in the sky and rumours."
Vale have fielded longstanding interest from an unnamed North Cheshire businessman, but the latest move has come from another party.
The Vale board are not publicly putting a price on the club, but Bratt has previously said he would only consider a sale if the new owner also had the required funds to take the club forward. That could cost a potential owner as much as £5m.
A new owner could gain a controlling interest by buying 51 per cent of the club's £1.1m shares from existing shareholders, although an alternative route would be to buy more than £1.1m of new shares which have been made available by the club.
However, the board would also demand that a new owner puts in extra money.
That would be to provide funds for the team and also to reflect the fact the club has spent more than £2m improving the ground.
A further condition is likely to be a guarantee that new owners would keep the club at Vale Park.
The consortium could only buy the club if the shareholders vote to overturn a rule which prevents anyone from owning more than 24.9 per cent of its shares.
The rule can only be overturned if the owners of 75 per cent of the shares are in favour of the change.
That would make Robbie Williams's vote crucial as he owns £249,000 of the £1.1m shares.
The board haven't been close to selling the club since Gianni Paladini's £500,000 offer was thrown out in January 2004. At that point the club was close to administration and only able to resist Paladini's bid because of a £150,000 investment from local businessmen Peter Jackson and Stan Meigh.
Vale are in a stronger position this time, but will be tempted by the prospect of new investment if they are convinced by the consortium's finances and intentions.
Without new investment, the directors are bracing themselves for cutbacks this summer. Bratt has warned the player-wage budget could be cut from more than £1.6m to £1m or less next season.
The consortium's approach comes two months before the fifth anniversary of supporters' group Valiant 2001 buying the club out of administration in a £1.225m deal.
The board have consistently said they will listen to offers if they are in the interests of the club, but they will not put Vale's future in jeopardy. by Michael Baggaley Reader comments
Some people have money throw away ;D
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Post by soicowboy on Mar 5, 2008 11:03:06 GMT
To be honest would be a decent club to buy for a potential wannabe football club owner. IF they could attract players in the pre season with a bit of investment they could well attract crowds of 5-6 k and maybe take a leaf out of Bradford's book re season tickets etc
Not a great deal of money in the current climate to shell out to take control- can see the attraction to tell you the truth. If they carry on the way they are they are in danger of sinking further. Look at say Carlisle and their upturn in fortunes - if was a neutral and looking to invest in a club would look a good proposition.
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Post by werrington on Mar 5, 2008 11:04:57 GMT
They are finished?? NO BIG sleeping support to call on if things did improve??? I really do fear the worst for our friends?? Pisser aint it ;D
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Post by PONTAFCE on Mar 5, 2008 11:08:05 GMT
soicowboy are you pissed up a good club to buy? Thats the worst comment iv ever heard.They will never attract players they carnt perform and half of there fans dont want to even bother with them.So it would take a hell of alot to win them all back
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2008 11:08:07 GMT
If I was an investor, I'm not so sure I'd be interested in fail.
They would need to build the club up from scratch and entice the local population into going to watch the games - big problem is that the local population are not interested in going to see the already semi succesful local football club nevermind the failing football club.
Also, aren't the prices at fail more than at stoke? I'm sure I recall hearing some fail fan on grumble and grumble complaining that fail never have cheap deals or 2 for 1 games
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Post by mark71 on Mar 5, 2008 11:09:08 GMT
someone's got to be taking the piss there!
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Post by miffmister on Mar 5, 2008 11:10:34 GMT
BREAKIN NEWS!!!! Ive just checked my loose change and I have scaped the required amount to purchase the FAIL.............................£1.24 GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONN STOKE!!!!!
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Post by PONTAFCE on Mar 5, 2008 11:12:41 GMT
More than taking the piss mate,and the reason they never have cheap deals is cause they carnt afford to lose money per match.Theres never gonna be a change down at the fail like pjnottj says it would mean a fresh start and people aint gonna buy that.
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Post by soicowboy on Mar 5, 2008 11:14:24 GMT
'They will never attract players they carnt perform and half of there fans dont want to even bother with them'
You talk about stupid comments then post that !!!!!!!!!!
Of course they can't attract players they have no money you fool. The reason the crowds are so low is that they're bottom of the division and have a poor side- not rocket science.
Look at Carllisle- were in a far worse position and with investment they were ablt TO BUY PLAYERS AND GET PROMOTED
Think about it
'So it would take a hell of alot to win them all back ' Wouldn't at all- sucess brings crowds to any club- seen any pattern at the Brit this season????
Obviously would need a decent outlay on players
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Post by frasier37 on Mar 5, 2008 11:17:01 GMT
NOT!!!
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Post by Kenilworth_Stokies on Mar 5, 2008 11:24:02 GMT
Blimey, so they're going to cut today's woefully inadequate squad budget by over a third unless somebody stumps up £5M to take control, and there's no written offers on the table to do so as yet.
They really are screwed.
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Post by werrington on Mar 5, 2008 11:25:12 GMT
With all respect Soi Carlisle DO have a large sleeping support awaiting good times?? Fail? I dont think so mate? Thats what investors take into consideration?
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Post by future100 on Mar 5, 2008 11:27:49 GMT
Soi is right when he says the Vale would be a good investment, the value of the site as a housing estate would make it an attractive proposition for any investor. The profit the club would make could easily fund a move to another site.
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Post by Kenilworth_Stokies on Mar 5, 2008 11:35:54 GMT
The current board would never accept any bid based on moving the club to another site, they have a real emotional connection to being "in the heart of the community". Although, I guess that could depend upon how big a threat of financial meltdown there really is. But as far as V2001 are concerned any move to anywhere more remote would signal the demise of the club as a part of Burslem.
Their problem is that they are too fixated on the Bill Bell problem, an autocratic chairman with free reign to do what he wants with the club's finances. This stops them considering any 'undemocratic' bids from interested individuals for fear they might bleed the club dry. But rich and ruthless individuals are the only ones with enough money to make a football club a going concern.
Sooner or later they need to decide between a fan-owned 'democratic' club being run on a pittance or a risky individual 'undemocratic' owner with the potential to move them on. Perhaps deteriorating financial circumstances will decide it for them before long...
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Post by PONTAFCE on Mar 5, 2008 12:22:47 GMT
They will never build the crowds back and get themselves out of the shit unless a really big investor was to come in and spunk some money.Can you see it bollax no you carnt.
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Post by onemanbang on Mar 5, 2008 12:32:46 GMT
lets all go 10p's in and buy the club and plunge them into oblivion and demolish the ground rebuild the incinerator there (god i just think its make our ground look crap) and have there team playing in burslem park.
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Post by Davef on Mar 5, 2008 12:34:20 GMT
I wonder who the head of this unnamed consortium is? Please God let it be the Reverend Charlie
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Post by PONTAFCE on Mar 5, 2008 12:36:25 GMT
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Post by soicowboy on Mar 5, 2008 12:45:21 GMT
Funny you mentioned him Dave- was going to ask on here what happened to the nutter that was Machin.
PV are never going to get huge crowds but I think as an investment- leaving blinkered rivalry out of it- wouldn't be the worst club for a consortium to buy. At the lowest ebb in a long time but they do have a possible 3-4000 or so sleeping support if results were to take an upturn.
Wouldn't take a vast amount of money to build a reasonable Div 2 side .
'Sooner or later they need to decide between a fan-owned 'democratic' club being run on a pittance or a risky individual 'undemocratic' owner with the potential to move them on. Perhaps deteriorating financial circumstances will decide it for them before long'
To quote RAF- Nail and head- Kenilworth
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Post by lordb on Mar 5, 2008 13:19:33 GMT
Bill Bratt is right to be wary of outside investors
as they have 0% chance of getting their hands on any prem/SKY money in the short mid & realistically long term the only way money can be made is by selling the ground for development.
It is posssible that they could relocate & make a profit but most likely any new investors would either be looking @ running the Fail into the ground or moving them to a nearby football stadium,i.e. the Brit (or maybe Gresty Road?).
Fail fans should accept their current board although skint & despite some obvious errors are @ least Fail fans & unlike Machin are not insane.
Its hard to see Fail getting back up to their mid 90's levels for many years
edit: the Edingburgh chap who is looking to get the Vale is looking,according to the Sentinel,to redvelop the site (hotel,retail,housing). Vale Park is a relativley big site (for such a small club) so it it would be perfectly feasible to redevelop the site & keep the football ground.Vale dont really need a ground above 15000. The obvious thing to do would be to finsih the main stand & move the ptich right upto it. Then knock down the Railway stand & develop on that side with a (much) smaller stand on that side.
In this way both Vale & any developers could perhaps make money.
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Post by viewfromthecrowsnest on Mar 5, 2008 13:38:50 GMT
Oatcakemate- Interesting you made the effort to edit the original report by substituting Vale with Fail at every opportunity Eh?? The word V a l e always turns into Fail!! Is this an administrator modification??!!!
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Post by Kenilworth_Stokies on Mar 5, 2008 13:47:21 GMT
Nah, it was a direct cut and paste, the Sentinel has just taken to using the word Fail when they refer to the club. ;D
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Post by gleghornsgoolies on Mar 5, 2008 15:40:05 GMT
With all respect Soi Carlisle DO have a large sleeping support awaiting good times?? Fail? I dont think so mate? Thats what investors take into consideration? Last time Vale were in Carlisle's position in that league - heading for automatic promotion - they were averaging higher attendances than Carlisle do now. It's daft to pretend that they can't 'do a Carlisle' just cos we're Stokies...
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Post by NassauDave on Mar 5, 2008 15:41:13 GMT
The rival consortiums are said to be:
McGuinness's Scrap Yard
Steptoe and Son
The Salvation Army ;D
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Post by headsgoup on Mar 5, 2008 16:36:59 GMT
The sooner they become 'history' the better.
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Post by tuum on Mar 5, 2008 18:16:31 GMT
Can't quite understand this fixation with the Vale. As long as they are one place below Stoke I am happy. Unless you believe that they are robbing Stoke of potential supporters then I can't quite see the issue. Barring two or three seasons a few years back they have never been a threat to us. I look at them (and my brother who supports them) as a mildly annoying younger sibling who will never mature into anything of real note (the analogy does not apply to my real brother by the way). So quit mocking a club that is of no real consequence to us - I would rather have two clubs in the city than a potential 2-3000 (vale converts) extra on our attendance. The only concern I have is that if Mr Williams chooses to invest heavily into the club they may become a much greater threat. This would need some serious money & some serious marketing but he could revive their fortunes. Fortunately, he is not yet willing to do this but I suspect that he will eventually ( he may even use Peter Coates as his business model).
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Post by suttonstokie on Mar 5, 2008 18:30:56 GMT
i think all stoke fans shud put money in each buy it then just burn it to the ground
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Post by thebigmalbowski on Mar 5, 2008 19:10:49 GMT
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Post by FullerMagic on Mar 6, 2008 12:34:53 GMT
Some mysterious plumber is behind the bid, isn't he?
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Post by Mr Wheeze on Mar 6, 2008 12:54:25 GMT
If they are such a good investment how come multi millionaire fat ex member of Take That ( and i used to play golf with him ) Robbie Williams dont invest??? Could it simply be that he dont give a shit cos he now supports chelsea or that if he did invest big time, he'd just be pissing his money up the wall???
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