West Ham sold

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bubbles1966
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Re: A question of the DIC

Post by bubbles1966 »

beckton wrote: I wouldn't make out to be an expert but I imagine it would be lots more difficult to buy those European brand type clubs because of the way they are set up.

English Premier League clubs are relatively easy to buy, a Real Madrid or a Barcelona would be near impossible.
Yes I agree. I just feel that any perception that they are consistently falling behind will lead to a re-think by the Spanish (and the Germans and the Italians).

They will be forced into changes that might not seem palatable at the moment, but which will become unavoidable given time. Their support will demand that they are competitive at the top level, so they will change their game, their investment etc to make that possible.
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West Dan
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Re: http://westhaminvestment.blogspot.com

Post by West Dan »

very good read
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Ironball
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Re: DIC for West Ham? Contact them (Link included).

Post by Ironball »

Arch Dandy wrote:Do you really think spamming a company email address is the best way to go?
The best way to go is to post it through the front door of the chief executive. Please do post up the relevant details if you have them.

Failing that, emailing a company email address on the offchance that somebody might click on it and consider it interesting enough to forward to someone else in the football acquisition team - well, it's a longshot but it's more constructive than doing f*** all.
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Re: DIC for West Ham? Contact them (Link included).

Post by devon_shire_class »

Print it off and send it out Ironball.

If someone knows that Indian blokes son, then hes gotta send it to him! Everton? do f*** off!
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Re: DIC for West Ham? Contact them (Link included).

Post by bubbles1966 »

West Ham really is the most potentially worthwhile investment in the Premier League.
I admire your enthusiasm but even I, virulent Spud hater that I am, can see that Tottenham and Arsenal are much better investments than West Ham.....

West Ham's "bargain value" is entirely dependent on getting a 50/60k stadium on the cheap....otherwise the club has a lower income than our competitors, a collapsing sponsorship deal, poorer facilities, empty seats at its stadium, an untested manager, lower value playing staff, and is running a loss........(most of these circumstances created by the current board). It has precious little history of success and seems pathologically intent on ballsing up at every given opportunity and paying millions in compensation to former owners/employees and associates...........

The West Ham that Brown sold was a much better investment opportunity than the one that currently exists......
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Re: DIC for West Ham? Contact them (Link included).

Post by Claretdave »

Thinking purely about the economic side of things, and accepting this will irritate a lot of people, West Ham is also best placed to tap into the diverse population of the east end. No club has a significant Asian following in terms of supporters through the door, although Man Ure and Liverpool have followings. An effort to tap into this market, combined with continued success, could bring another 20,000 through the gate week after week.

Having said that, and accepting the investment potential is huge, I would much rather we remained locally owned, locally supported and allowed these clubs run at a massive loss as the playthings of oligarchs to go and play by themselves somewhere abroad. The love of West Ham is forever, but I have a much better (and cheaper) afternoon out following FC Boulogne-sur-Mer and Dev at Hampton & Richmond.
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Re: DIC for West Ham? Contact them (Link included).

Post by cockney hammer »

Claretdave wrote:Thinking purely about the economic side of things, and accepting this will irritate a lot of people, West Ham is also best placed to tap into the diverse population of the east end. No club has a significant Asian following in terms of supporters through the door, although Man Ure and Liverpool have followings. An effort to tap into this market, combined with continued success, could bring another 20,000 through the gate week after week.

Having said that, and accepting the investment potential is huge, I would much rather we remained locally owned, locally supported and allowed these clubs run at a massive loss as the playthings of oligarchs to go and play by themselves somewhere abroad. The love of West Ham is forever, but I have a much better (and cheaper) afternoon out following FC Boulogne-sur-Mer and Dev at Hampton & Richmond.

all the asians round here are glory hunters chelsea arsenal man u shirts everywhere they are not intrested in there local club pity because west ham run such a good set up in asians in the community..
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Re: DIC for West Ham? Contact them (Link included).

Post by Ironball »

I am talking about a different criteria of investment. I am not talking about the making of a return, I am talking about the creation of a blue riband asset.

The last thing we want is a new investor who is buying a football club for purely monetary purposes. We want an investor who wants to create a flagship, to whom money is no object.

With the Olympic Stadium and with proximity to Canary Wharf and the City, West Ham is potentially a very attractive proposition. It offers the possibility of creating something new and unique. London does not currently have a signature club. Chelsea does not represent London and neither does Arsenal. In the Olympic stadium, rebranded alongside Canary Wharf, West Ham could.

Who cares about whether we won loads of things in the past. Chelsea were a two-bob operation with a **** ground who had barely won much either before Bates got Harding in. I remember like it was yesterday what a heap of crap club Chelsea was; but you wouldn't know it today - today, by people throughout Europe and the rest of the world, Chelsea is seen in a completely different way from the poxy, crumbling scummy club it was before.

Arsenal would be a nightmare to buy because of its splintered ownership. Spurs is the real worry. The big prize is the Olympic stadium. If Spurs moved in there, West Ham as a club has no future. Which is why we need for West Ham to get in there, to defend its turf, to maximise this unique chance. If there is the slightest chance of Spurs moving in there, West Ham fans will need to mobilise, to contact politicans, the mayor of Newham, to start petitions, to stop them moving onto our turf.

That's just one more reason why it's so important to be proactive, and why it is unacceptable for BG to sit on the club and do f***-all with it apart from his "nice little sustainable business" strategy. That's just Terry Brown type thinking, with a bit more money. We don't need heavy investment in players. We need the hundreds of millions that will allow the club to take that quantum leap forward into Stratford. BG hasn't got that level of money to commit, so for the good of the club and for the good of his investment, he should get out now, with a nice profit and residual rights, and put the club in the hands of an investor who can make it happen.
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Ironball
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Re: DIC for West Ham? Contact them (Link included).

Post by Ironball »

Thing is, if you miss the nostalgic and rough-n-ready style of old school football, there is plenty of it about in east London. I have been down Dag & Red and Orient on the rare occasion and I agree, it's propa.

I don't think it's right to wish for West Ham to go that way. I like to watch high quality, high profile football as much as I like to watch old school crap, and West Ham is my local club where I can do that. If the club does not keep up, then there will be no one for me to support at the highest level; I couldn't bring myself to follow Arsenal etc as my "top flight" team.

The best of both worlds is if there remains a place to go in the east end if you want to watch old school style, and a place to go in the east end if you want to watch high level stuff.

I grew up with West Ham if not winning the league every year then certainly going toe to toe with the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea and Man City. Why should my club decline relative to its competitor clubs of my youth? Screw that.
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Re: DIC for West Ham? Contact them (Link included).

Post by sicknote »

Ironball wrote:

I grew up with West Ham if not winning the league every year then certainly going toe to toe with the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea and Man City. Why should my club decline relative to its competitor clubs of my youth? Screw that.
we never won the league :wink:

although we always ruffled a few feathers, i would hazard to guess since i have been following west ham we have finished in a higher league position than everyone bar liverpool over the years
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Re: DIC for West Ham? Contact them (Link included).

Post by Ironball »

I know we never won the league!!!

We actually finished above Liverpool in 1998/99. We came 5th and they came 7th.

But I take your point. They are really the only club in living memory that we have consistently failed to go toe to toe with.
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Re: DIC for West Ham? Contact them (Link included).

Post by bobby0303 »

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Ironball
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Re: DIC for West Ham? Contact them (Link included).

Post by Ironball »

Ps for those of you who doubt that anything can be achieved by grassroots action, check this out (go to 5:50 on the video clip posted on September 5th)

this 21 year old potentially changed the winner of the 2008 US Presidential Election....

http://palinforvp.blogspot.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
joyful
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Re: DIC for West Ham? Contact them (Link included).

Post by joyful »

Ironball, I appreciate the sentiments and the hard work and I know that your heart's in the right place.

But I'm taking some time to think about this one. I'm not yet convinced that i do want a huge foreign investor for west ham.

There was an interesting discussion about this on Sunday Supplement this morning -- about the number of PL league clubs with foreign owners to give a majority on votes on significant issues -- such as moving games or more than one game overseas.

I think it was Ian Ridley who quoted Arsene Wenger as saying "Well, you could have 20 PL clubs owned by trillionaires and still only one club will win the league and three would be relegated."

Once a tipping point of mega rich owners is reached, it kind of defeats the object. And we don't yet know what kind of genies could be released -- such as the suggestion from Gary Cooke, Man City's chief exec, that we move to an American system of 12 to 14 clubs in the top league with no promotion or relegation.

And the point was also made that these "investments" are loans, not gifts. And could be recalled.
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Re: DIC for West Ham? Contact them (Link included).

Post by il_martello_di_genovesi »

Sorry, but I'd love it to happen. To be able to see high profile players playing for us again, and to compete with the top, would be brilliant. I think we forget what it was like to have Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Eyal Berkovic etc...when we finished 5th and looked great. Any player we've had since that has been a top player, and that we've admried has gone...simply as we weren't rich enough or big enough to keep them (Joe Cole, Carlos Tevez, Yossi Benayoun, Glen Johnson)...

It'd be great to be able to attract those sorts of players/at least decent ones and keep them...meaning we'd be a strong club, going for the top 6/7 every season!
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Re: DIC for West Ham? Contact them (Link included).

Post by joyful »

Don't be sorry il Martello,

I'd quite like to be convinced...just need to hear the arguments for...
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Ironball
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Re: DIC for West Ham? Contact them (Link included).

Post by Ironball »

Ha! Arsene Wenger is not a disinterested party in this. Arsenal have more to lose than virtually any other club. At the moment they have their own sweet little closed shop but from next season they face the real risk of having their revenue cut off at the knees, once the Man City revolution gathers pace. Arsenal is one of the least likely clubs to enjoy the fruits of a takeover by a giant investor because of their splintered ownership (though still possible). Arsene Wenger's comments are nothing more than an expression of his own partial sentiment - as usual.

It is unavoidable that English football is going to evolve. Aside from whether one wants it to or not, it will. That's the way of the world. It is precisely because the evolution is going to let genies out of the bottle that we need to keep up. It all depends what kind of investor we get. Some swine who plunges the club into debt - that's not good. Some swine who pays off all the debt - that's good. Let's hope for the right swine.

Fact is, if there ends up being a 39th game overseas, the world won't end. I remember when the playoffs were first introduced, there were similar howls of outrage. I can't say I am particularly in favour of it, but I'm pragmatic and I understand the way the world is developing. There are billions and billions that are going to be made by bringing the game to the industrialising hordes of Asia. If we do not hook them on English football and make that the gold standard of global interest, then they are more likely to gather momentum for creating a Chinese, an Indian league. In time, with the greater wealth they will be able to apply to it, all of the talent, English or otherwise, will be sucked out of this country and end up playing in Mumbai or Shenzen. Then, all the best players won't be playing their 39th game overseas, they will be playing all 39 games overseas. English football will be a provincial dump; anybody with a modicum of talent or competence will disappear abroad faster than you can say "Oh ****, we ****ed that up, didn't we?"

History is littered with example after example of people trying to stem the tide, trying to stop evolution, and ending up achieving nothing more than the destruction of their own domain. If you regulate and the market participants don't want the regulation, you will end up with lots of nice rules and no ****ing market because the market will go elsewhere.

Ps joyful, don't take my effing and blinding personally; it's just me spleen!
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Re: DIC for West Ham? Contact them (Link included).

Post by goggles »

I would like it to happen, i think with the XL collapse it will be very good for the club if the owners sell up, i can see the cutbacks getting more common. So keep up all the good work Ironballs and Trap and let's hope it works. By the way sending a letter would be more likely to get read, so maybe we should find some addresses and help put the club in powerful hands.
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Re: DIC for West Ham? Contact them (Link included).

Post by QuintonNimoy »

I've followed your campaign to generate interest in the club from a foreign investment company Ironball and I'm pleased to see you're keeping things moving, even though I'm in two minds about the benefits (not compared to our current lot, but in general).

For those who are embarassed or who think it's a waste of time, if you agree with the sentiment but you think what's being done so far isn't sufficient then you should get involved and do whatever it is you think needs to be done to make it work. The chief exec of DIC or someone similar must be reachable somehow - if you happen to know how get on with it. If you're convinced emails aren't going to get in front of the right people then they're hardly going to be circulated for a laugh at the board meetings.
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Re: DIC for West Ham? Contact them (Link included).

Post by sicknote »

Ironball wrote:I know we never won the league!!!

We actually finished above Liverpool in 1998/99. We came 5th and they came 7th.

But I take your point. They are really the only club in living memory that we have consistently failed to go toe to toe with.
must have misread you

forgot we finished above them that year, blimey then there isn't a team we have not finished above since at least the 84 85 season
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