AFTER attending a sale and leaseback meeting where we were told we would have an excellent chance of survival by Abdul and Peter Phillips if we sell our stadium and follow their new business plan, you can just imagine my utter shock to be told just over a year later we are on the verge of bankruptcy.
Since the sale of the stadium we have sold Brian Stock and James O’Connor for a fee of £300,000 and we have also recieved at least £500,000 as an initial down payment for the land behind the East stand. I have also read today that the new consortium has already put in £250,000. So in total we have received an extra £1,050,000 of windfall money in the last 12 months!
It has been approximately 16 months since the sale and leaseback and not only have we lost over a million in extra windfall money, we have just been told a six-figure sum will be required leading up to the EGM just to keep us trading!
So, in 40 days we need at least £100,000 just to keep us going - this equates to losing £2,500 a day or £912,500 a year.
How dare the people in charge put us in this position. Is it any wonder why the CM board were deliberately not able to see any accounts for months on end, despite demanding numerous times?
I also take issue with what Mr Mostyn says about potential investors looking at the books and then drifting away. I know of one other that wanted to join the consortium but was turned down, the reasons being that they didn’t think they could work with this person.
This man has put far more into AFCB than any other fan or board member I know. The consortium should put personal differences aside and welcome fans like this with open arms.
If this last paragraph doesn’t set an alarm bell ringing I don’t know what will!
Marcus Preen
I could easily write a book about the way the club I have avidly supported for 25 years has been run and let’s just say that there would be no doubt that it would be found in the ‘Fantasy Horror’ section of any good bookshop.
This latest debacle just goes to show that the stadium sale was a joke; we seem to be in as much debt now as the ‘savour sale’ allegedly was going to solve. Where has the money gone?
The new ‘consortium’ consists of existing investors in the club, at present in tandem with the fans, but for how much longer?
Is there a long-term property deal being manufactured in the background? Let’s hope not as otherwise we will be experiencing the hapless situation that Cambridge United currently find themselves in.
If these men really want to “save” the club then let’s stop the bravado and doom and gloom tactics in the press and let’s see their money in their existing capacities as directors.
I fear that this scheme creating the new ‘consortium’ may be the vehicle designed to eradicate the protection of having a fans’ influence in the decision-making process at the club.
What has happened to the “community club” philosophy that was being banded around only a short period of time ago?
Why, at this club, can we not work together? I feel that, slowly but surely, Bournemouth fans are having the patience drained from them by the never-ending wrangling of people who may have a degree of financial backing behind them but seem unwilling to come clean about their aspirations for the club.
If Messrs Mostyn, Jaffer and Sly really want any cloud of cynicism lifted they only have to answer, in public, the direct questions being put to them by the fans and involve them more in the running of the club.
But let’s not let the relationship between the fans and directors degenerate any further – only a combination of business interests and fans support at the highest level will steer this club away from what is looking like a disaster waiting to happen, both on and off of the pitch.
I have two messages: The first is a plea to AFC Bournemouth supporters everywhere to turn up and support your club on match days because if you don’t, there may not be a club to support the next time you fancy a bit of sport on a Saturday afternoon.
Secondly, if you really want a challenge then invest in the club.
I, for one, am sure that with a balanced structure and realistic ambitions in place, over time we can make AFC Bournemouth a success.
Neil Seaney-Smith
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