Post by Macmoish on Jul 22, 2011 6:52:55 GMT
Guardian/The Digger - Mattl Scott
Mystery of £1m deal for Gillingham to buy back Priestfield Stadium
• Club plan to buy back ground they sold for £10m in 2008
• Gills owner Paul Scally says he cannot comment on deal
What is going on at Gillingham? The club sold their Priestfield stadium for £10m in May 2008 in a deal that was funded by a loan from the taxpayer-owned Bank of Scotland. Now, little more than three years later, an AGM has been called at which Paul Scally, Gillingham's owner, will authorise the sale of the ground back to the club for only £1,050,000 – which works out at roughly a 10th of its previous value.
The vendor is Priestfield Developments Ltd, a company linked to the Gills through Scally's ownership via GFC Holdings Limited, which has been the club's and the stadium company's parent since the 2008 deal was structured. The cash at the time was used to repay £9m of the football entity's then £12.6m bank loans. But the total indebtedness of Gillingham and Priestfield Developments had grown by May 2010 to £15m. With the club now in League Two, that picture is likely to be worse. Even so, the Gills must find a little over £1m to buy back the stadium.
Perhaps Scally has provided his own security from offshore assets – he has been living in Dubai – but there has been no explanation. It is all very odd. Digger asked Scally on Thursday for the reason behind what is seemingly an extremely generous decision either by Scally or the bank to hand over the stadium for what seems such a relatively small sum. "These questions are for the shareholders to ask," he said. "I can't discuss it with you because I am bound by confidentiality agreements and it would be inappropriate to comment."
There are no regulatory restrictions on Scally talking about the matter: Gillingham, a plc, is not in a takeover period. Still, shareholders had better get their questions in quickly at the 5 August AGM – its second resolution is to amend the company's articles of association "so as to remove the requirement for the company to hold AGMs".
Rangers go online
Rangers will make internet historyon Saturday when they become the first UK football club to stream a league fixture, against Hearts, to domestic fans on the web at the same time as Sky are showing the match. Rangers' internet following may be limited because the game will be shown on a pay-per-view basis, but usually Sky's broadcast contracts would forbid such simulcasts since they could interfere with subscription numbers. Sky has stressed the event is a one‑off but there will be plenty of English clubs looking at this innovative setup with a view to providing more match coverage once the 2010-13 rights deal expires. The Premier League has historically been concerned about the impact blanket coverage would have on ticket sales, and currently only 138 of the Premier League's 380 games are broadcast by Sky and ESPN. Yet a leading sports-broadcast executive said on Thursday that clubs may consider the potential returns to exceed those at the gate, pushing for more domestic games to be opened up to satellite or internet screening. What effect that would have on crowds and atmospheres remains to be seen.
Fulham lose in court
Digger wrote a while back that Fulham were fighting the Premier League chairman, Sir Dave Richards, through the courts for allegedly having "facilitated" the transfer of Peter Crouch to Tottenham Hotspur instead of his moving to Craven Cottage. But three court of appeal judges have dismissed Fulham's challenge against a high court decision that the matter should go to arbitration. Fulham will now appeal to the supreme court, and whether or not that succeeds, their wish that Richards should "cease to be chairman" will come true sooner or later: Richards will have to retire from the post on or before he turns 70 in just over two years.
Harvey has form
The irony of Shaun Harvey's recent election to the Football League board has not been lost on many in the game as the League seeks help to combat the threat of offshore ownership of clubs. Harvey, the Leeds United chief executive, had the misfortune of being the 11th-hour replacement for Ken Bates, the chairman, to give evidence to the parliamentary select committee inquiry into football governance in March. He said executives did not know who owned the club. Seven weeks later, Bates announced he had bought Leeds from the discretionary offshore trusts no one had ever been able to penetrate. Harvey, who became the Championship representative on the League's board at its summer conference last month, will also eventually be among those adjudicating on events at Plymouth Argyle saga, where the former Leeds chief executive Peter Ridsdale hopes to take over the club for £1.
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/jul/21/gillingham-buy-back-priestfield-stadium
Mystery of £1m deal for Gillingham to buy back Priestfield Stadium
• Club plan to buy back ground they sold for £10m in 2008
• Gills owner Paul Scally says he cannot comment on deal
What is going on at Gillingham? The club sold their Priestfield stadium for £10m in May 2008 in a deal that was funded by a loan from the taxpayer-owned Bank of Scotland. Now, little more than three years later, an AGM has been called at which Paul Scally, Gillingham's owner, will authorise the sale of the ground back to the club for only £1,050,000 – which works out at roughly a 10th of its previous value.
The vendor is Priestfield Developments Ltd, a company linked to the Gills through Scally's ownership via GFC Holdings Limited, which has been the club's and the stadium company's parent since the 2008 deal was structured. The cash at the time was used to repay £9m of the football entity's then £12.6m bank loans. But the total indebtedness of Gillingham and Priestfield Developments had grown by May 2010 to £15m. With the club now in League Two, that picture is likely to be worse. Even so, the Gills must find a little over £1m to buy back the stadium.
Perhaps Scally has provided his own security from offshore assets – he has been living in Dubai – but there has been no explanation. It is all very odd. Digger asked Scally on Thursday for the reason behind what is seemingly an extremely generous decision either by Scally or the bank to hand over the stadium for what seems such a relatively small sum. "These questions are for the shareholders to ask," he said. "I can't discuss it with you because I am bound by confidentiality agreements and it would be inappropriate to comment."
There are no regulatory restrictions on Scally talking about the matter: Gillingham, a plc, is not in a takeover period. Still, shareholders had better get their questions in quickly at the 5 August AGM – its second resolution is to amend the company's articles of association "so as to remove the requirement for the company to hold AGMs".
Rangers go online
Rangers will make internet historyon Saturday when they become the first UK football club to stream a league fixture, against Hearts, to domestic fans on the web at the same time as Sky are showing the match. Rangers' internet following may be limited because the game will be shown on a pay-per-view basis, but usually Sky's broadcast contracts would forbid such simulcasts since they could interfere with subscription numbers. Sky has stressed the event is a one‑off but there will be plenty of English clubs looking at this innovative setup with a view to providing more match coverage once the 2010-13 rights deal expires. The Premier League has historically been concerned about the impact blanket coverage would have on ticket sales, and currently only 138 of the Premier League's 380 games are broadcast by Sky and ESPN. Yet a leading sports-broadcast executive said on Thursday that clubs may consider the potential returns to exceed those at the gate, pushing for more domestic games to be opened up to satellite or internet screening. What effect that would have on crowds and atmospheres remains to be seen.
Fulham lose in court
Digger wrote a while back that Fulham were fighting the Premier League chairman, Sir Dave Richards, through the courts for allegedly having "facilitated" the transfer of Peter Crouch to Tottenham Hotspur instead of his moving to Craven Cottage. But three court of appeal judges have dismissed Fulham's challenge against a high court decision that the matter should go to arbitration. Fulham will now appeal to the supreme court, and whether or not that succeeds, their wish that Richards should "cease to be chairman" will come true sooner or later: Richards will have to retire from the post on or before he turns 70 in just over two years.
Harvey has form
The irony of Shaun Harvey's recent election to the Football League board has not been lost on many in the game as the League seeks help to combat the threat of offshore ownership of clubs. Harvey, the Leeds United chief executive, had the misfortune of being the 11th-hour replacement for Ken Bates, the chairman, to give evidence to the parliamentary select committee inquiry into football governance in March. He said executives did not know who owned the club. Seven weeks later, Bates announced he had bought Leeds from the discretionary offshore trusts no one had ever been able to penetrate. Harvey, who became the Championship representative on the League's board at its summer conference last month, will also eventually be among those adjudicating on events at Plymouth Argyle saga, where the former Leeds chief executive Peter Ridsdale hopes to take over the club for £1.
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/jul/21/gillingham-buy-back-priestfield-stadium