Would promotion help or hinder the current owner spat?

[Flatulent_Bob]

Back when we’d just thrown away two points against Millwall my real concern for the short term future of the club was staying in the championship and the Prince gaining sole control. With him looking to cut costs given he’d need to stump up the 10-15 million/season himself to keep us at the same level, possibly insisting on a DoF and unsettling the manager.
Obviously a lot of this can only be speculation however, does Promtion give us a better chance of seeing this resolved to the clubs benefit, or is it more likely to cause greater friction as there’s more financial gain to pushing one of them out?

 

[Stretch]

Not sure what the answer is to your broader question, but put it this way, whichever one loses in court is going to look like a right silly twat now....assuming we do go up of course.

 

[Dkc]

Been thinking about this. If we go up there's surely more chance of an out of court settlement. The Prince could walk away with four times the money he put in.

 

[Booker4]

I'm of the view that if we get promoted then whatever happens with the ownership we'll be in a much better state to deal with it then we would if we're facing a playoff defeat and staying in this league. I'm not really thinking about the ownership until we know where we're going next season.

 

[Boxer Blade]

Certainly adds to the uncertainty Bob, lets hope for a stable boardroom with wilder and knill in charge in the premier league,not too much to ask,surely? If, big if, everything works out over the summer we could be on for the best run of "success" for years and possibly moving further away from our neighbours ,ground improvements, floating fans especially foreign students, what a time to capitalise, best opportunity ever? I reckon under wilder it could well be.

 

[Dkc]

We could well be in a relegation fight next season. I could see the Prince wanting to change manger of we were in the bottom three at Christmas.

 

[TJB.]

It's a question I've thought about myself and honestly I've no idea of the answer. I think the way the season has panned out has put the situation to the back of our minds collectively. We'd be talking about it a hell of a lot more if we were languishing in mid-table.

For now, perhaps it's best to just enjoy the ride and hope we can do the business this weekend. The spat can go on the back burner for now. Let's just get the job done and worry about everything else once the (potential) party has died down!

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

It's a cash cow neither will want to walk away from without a fight (guaranteed £190M is the latest figure I've seen), unless the court rules one way or the other. I've no idea whether legally or contractually, either could pay the other off with club funds i.e the Prem money.

 

[Worksop II]

Been thinking about this. If we go up there's surely more chance of an out of court settlement. The Prince could walk away with four times the money he put in.

You suggesting the PL money should be used to pay one of em off ?

Or better still, just split it between themselves, and just continue the squabble till next years money lands

 

[PokerBlade]

Impossible to say because we don't know the intentions of the Prince and whether the courts will rule in his favour.

What I do think is that the potential for a disaster scenario would be greatly diminished by the financial gains of Premier League status. As it stands, with us being a Championship club, it seems unlikely that either side winning out would result in much more funding for the first team. The only way in sight for us to take that step up is to get into the Premiership now, take our share of the Sky money, added gates, better sponsorship, and the promise of parachute payments if we come down, and perhaps even put ourselves in the limelight for another investor.

 

[Sean Thornton]

It's a cash cow neither will want to walk away from without a fight (guaranteed £190M is the latest figure I've seen), unless the court rules one way or the other. I've no idea whether legally or contractually, either could pay the other off with club funds i.e the Prem money.

SUL or UTB will normally be expected to buy each other out. Even though they own the club, the PL money goes to the club. To take money out in say, dividends, the club would have to make a huge profit, £40m + just to cover the adverse profit and loss account. Add the possibility of a corporation tax bill on profits over that and it's even less easier said than done.

Judge Fancourt will decide......

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

Been thinking about this. If we go up there's surely more chance of an out of court settlement. The Prince could walk away with four times the money he put in.

But as it seems he has the upper hand in the legal side of things why would he settle for much short of the lot. That’s my concern, as Id much rather continue with the devil I know in McCabe, but I think he’s onto a loss here and I fear he’s been outmanoeuvred by the Prince.

 

[Booker4]

Certainly adds to the uncertainty Bob, lets hope for a stable boardroom with wilder and knill in charge in the premier league,not too much to ask,surely? If, big if, everything works out over the summer we could be on for the best run of "success" for years and possibly moving further away from our neighbours ,ground improvements, floating fans especially foreign students, what a time to capitalise, best opportunity ever? I reckon under wilder it could well be.

We seem to really struggle for boardroom stability in my time as a Blade 1989 onwards, but the most stable we've been is definitely under McCabe, although that hasn't always meant success has followed!

Comparing to 1990, I think Harry Bassett should have a stand named after him quite frankly for what he achieved. Take the "United" documentary for example: televised to the whole nation via the "United" documentary, our boardroom tussles and potential take over could have easily derailed the promotion, and one thing that really strikes me is the boards naivety, such as Alan Laver saying at a boardroom meeting "well I'd like to know who he is first", referring to the potential take over from Sam Hashimi. It's a fair question but talk about stating the obvious! Then you've got Reg Brearley who doesn't seem to know that we're joint top of the league after beating Oxford, which Michael Wragg(?) seems to say "well you know that?", but I'm not so sure!

Then when we get promoted, and we hope for some stability, Woolhouse moves in with Lord Lucan, wherever he is, and runs off with £750,000 or thereabouts of the clubs money! You couldn't script it!

When we finally get a new Chairman with some money behind him, he sacks Harry and brings in a past it Howard Kendall, who didn't exactly do well at Notts (give him his due he did reasonably well for us) and we know all the rest with Charles Green.

As others have said, with all due respect to the Prince, I hope if we do get promoted for an out of court settlement and McCabe gets full ownership back again and we'll hopefully get on with supporting the best Manager we've had since Harry - sorry Neil!

 

[LoughboroBlade]

I think people are seeing the potential for him to make a quick quid by selling while underestimating the lure of running a Premier League club. He took a punt on us at the time – struggling in League 1 – in the hope that we’d get to the Premier League. I don’t think he’d simply hand it over if we get there – quite the opposite in fact.

 

[PaulHalfway]

No one really knows what Kev or the Prince currently actually wants as a resolution to this
If we go up the club financially is in a different ball game to the last 4 years.
We now also may attract other foreign investment who want a PL club
Just have to wait and see I guess but if we get promoted I think this further complicates the negotiations

 

[Kev Gee]

Who ever looses will immediately launch an appeal which will probably be heard 12 months later.

Looks like we will have to rely on the judge again to decide how much money we will require.

Unless there's an out of court settlement?

 

[BladeInIreland]

The plan of the prince was always to cash in when we get to the premier league. If he wins we will be sold quickly. I think McCabe would hang on to recoup some of the money he has lost over the years.

 

[Chali 2na]

The plan of the prince was always to cash in when we get to the premier league. If he wins we will be sold quickly. I think McCabe would hang on to recoup some of the money he has lost over the years.

Says who? You?

 

[BladeInIreland]

Says who? You?

Which bit?

 

[Blade56]

Think they would both be prepared to hang us out to dry, not provide a war chest (cause neither has the money) and take the PL money we get for relegation and fight over that.

Our only hope in my unqualified opinion is if they decided to sell and split the spoils. Otherwise as Kev Gee sez it could drag on for years, it's the Blades way.

PS as an aside neither of them deserve promotion, Chris Wilder or the fans who have got us where we are despite their efforts..

 

[Millhousesblade1889]

Without being harsh on either owner as I genuinely believe they have BOTH contributed towards our recent success. I do feel its now time for them to sell, someone that will thrive on the opportunity of owning a Premier League club (hopefully).

Sheffield is one of the biggest cities in the UK, theres a real chance of taking this club to similar highs of Wolves, Leicester, Watford and we definitely have the right man in charge to spend any potential new owners money.

 

[JohnDenver]

We seem to really struggle for boardroom stability in my time as a Blade 1989 onwards, but the most stable we've been is definitely under McCabe, although that hasn't always meant success has followed!

Comparing to 1990, I think Harry Bassett should have a stand named after him quite frankly for what he achieved. Take the "United" documentary for example: televised to the whole nation via the "United" documentary, our boardroom tussles and potential take over could have easily derailed the promotion, and one thing that really strikes me is the boards naivety, such as Alan Laver saying at a boardroom meeting "well I'd like to know who he is first", referring to the potential take over from Sam Hashimi. It's a fair question but talk about stating the obvious! Then you've got Reg Brearley who doesn't seem to know that we're joint top of the league after beating Oxford, which Michael Wragg(?) seems to say "well you know that?", but I'm not so sure!

Then when we get promoted, and we hope for some stability, Woolhouse moves in with Lord Lucan, wherever he is, and runs off with £750,000 or thereabouts of the clubs money! You couldn't script it!

When we finally get a new Chairman with some money behind him, he sacks Harry and brings in a past it Howard Kendall, who didn't exactly do well at Notts (give him his due he did reasonably well for us) and we know all the rest with Charles Green.

As others have said, with all due respect to the Prince, I hope if we do get promoted for an out of court settlement and McCabe gets full ownership back again and we'll hopefully get on with supporting the best Manager we've had since Harry - sorry Neil!

Much of our history has been shaped by boardroom struggles. Was it Gary Armstrong who wrote Fit and Proper? I’ve got that on a shelf somewhere...

But anyway, if we can squeeze three or more points from the next two games, then it would be pure United to be hobbled by ownership failure when presented with a generational opportunity.

 

[ucandomagic]

If we get promoted it would seem unlikely to me that the judge would find for either party, as the club would be in an entirely different situation.

On promotion, I imagine the Prince would probably be willing to fork out 25 million for a Prem League club and assets, but McCabe would probably be very unhappy to sell it for that, so they would be arguing over ancient history. Of course McC may agree to that - but I doubt it.

Telling either side that they could buy a Prem League club for 5 million would cause a legal earthquake, and the only sensible outcome would be to declare the original offer and counteroffer void and the pre-offer agreement reinstated.

Of course the words sensible and law seldom appear together!

 

[Thomas97]

I'm not the smartest when it comes to stuff like this and admittedly I've not paid an awful lot of attention to it. What's the likelihood of them both staying? Is that even possible?

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

If we get promoted it would seem unlikely to me that the judge would find for either party, as the club would be in an entirely different situation.

I don’t understand this. Surely the judge is there to decide based on the legal documents who ultimately can buy the other party.
Like the argument about who the fans want, I see anything outside of those documents is totally irrelevant.

 

[ThatJa]

Prince would sack all female workers at the club, if rumours are led to be believed....

 

[Chali 2na]

Which bit?

The bit about the prince selling up.

 

[Gavlar]

the answer to the question is 42

 

[Proud Blade]

All the courts are doing is deciding whether Prince can buy McCabe's half for £5m without buying the ground and training complex.

If the courts decide he can't he still has the option of buying for £5m as long as he also buys all the properties, maybe £30/40m? So he buys a premier League club for around £45m tops. A bargain.

Either way, I reckon the Prince will be our new owner,

 

[AdamSufc1997]

Let's just hope that the Prince gets the cheque book out if he is to stay