Anindya Bakrie

OxfordYankee said:
Sure.

I’d like to see broad targets and timescales. For example, Championship football with 3 years, stadium situation resolved within 3 years.

Then I’d like to hear more detail on how they propose to deliver and what significant choices they believe may lie in front of them.

It would be nice to hear more detail on their plans for their marketing, community engagement and supporter liaison activities.

I don’t expect to be kept up-to-date with every single detail and realise that specifics on investment or plans for a new stadium will be confidential until things have been completed.

I don’t think the above is unreasonable and frankly I’m amazed that everyone isn’t demanding to hear from them on these topics.

Eales and Ashton may not have had a plan for the stadium but they came with a plan for how they were going to run us. They communicated that well, for a time.

Do you think that’s an unreasonable request? Would you not feel reassured?
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Tiger has stated that he wants the club to be in the championship, and hopefully PL one day but wouldn't give any unrealistic timeframes. He said that this would be done by providing competitive budgets but also developing our own stars of the future. This including increased investment in our youth programme and the introduction of the under 23's. This is already proving successful and a number of our younger players have already had first team experience with many more to come. Tiger has said numerous times about marketing the Oxford brand and taking our club out into the global market. Also looking locally to attract fans of the future with improved family events and will continue to strengthen links with the supporters. We've heard that a number of sites are being looked into, including staying at the Kassam and the intention is to get a stadium we can actually call home. This is progressing and information was fed back to the board on Saturday.

So, what you're asking for has been said. The problem is that many don't believe it or want to see proof.

The same would apply if Erick and others set out their plans or expectations.
 
OxfordYankee said:
Sure.

I’d like to see broad targets and timescales. For example, Championship football with 3 years, stadium situation resolved within 3 years.

Then I’d like to hear more detail on how they propose to deliver and what significant choices they believe may lie in front of them.

It would be nice to hear more detail on their plans for their marketing, community engagement and supporter liaison activities.

I don’t expect to be kept up-to-date with every single detail and realise that specifics on investment or plans for a new stadium will be confidential until things have been completed.

I don’t think the above is unreasonable and frankly I’m amazed that everyone isn’t demanding to hear from them on these topics.

Eales and Ashton may not have had a plan for the stadium but they came with a plan for how they were going to run us. They communicated that well, for a time.

Do you think that’s an unreasonable request? Would you not feel reassured?
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If nothing else it would be nice, as the clubs supporters, to feel that they consider us important enough to divulge some information with us. It would be a mistake on their part to disenfranchise the fanbase. I’m sure announcements will come as soon as there’s news to share though. Maybe they’re waiting for the season to finish first?
 
OxfordYankee said:
I’d like to see broad targets and timescales. For example, Championship football with 3 years, stadium situation resolved within 3 years
Click to expand...

I remember hearing Tiger saying he'd like us to be a Championship club in the next couple of years. He can't promise that.

Its also widely known that the club are looking at sites for a new stadium. It's quite reductive to say "I'm going to fix all this within X timeline". It's a complex issue, we've just backed down from our legal case, and tensions are still fraught.

He's said he won't sell key squad members unless an extreme overvaluation of the player comes in. He's said from the start than 'Brand Oxford' was a big part of getting involved with the club.

OxfordYankee said:
I don’t expect to be kept up-to-date with every single detail and realise that specifics on investment or plans for a new stadium will be confidential until things have been completed.
Click to expand...

You've acknowledged that we're unable to hear specifics until the club has sorted out how it intends to move forward, but you realise that the very sorting out of the future is what 'a plan' is?

OxfordYankee said:
It would be nice to hear more detail on their plans for their marketing, community engagement and supporter liaison activities.
Click to expand...

We get quarterly updates from the head of marketing and finance. I also feel that any ideas regarding community engagement and supporter liaison activities are also shared.

We've brought in Singha as a sponsor, which was a great move until Kassam ruined all the commercial opportunities for said sponsor. I imagine we'll see more sponsorship from the Far East friends of our Directors. It's a huge market to have access to.

OxfordYankee said:
Do you think that’s an unreasonable request? Would you not feel reassured?
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I'm reassured with our new training ground. I'm reassured by our promising youth setup. I'm reassured by our stable squad.

The things I would like to hear:

1) Tiger has said the budget is reduced for next season in comparison to this one, but does that take in to account the funds needed for the training ground and U23 squad last year?

2) How the club plans to ensure payments will be made to HMRC and the staff on time, if a contingency fund in the UK is not an option?

Those are the key things I would say the majority of fans want to hear as a minimum. As a football team, we've made significant gains on the field since October. We have additional infrastructure and staff off the pitch too, and a whole summer to fix the key issue behind the scenes.

Bear in mind, I can't remember hearing much lately what the plans are for any club outside of ours. There's always ambitions ("We want to win the Champions League in the next couple of seasons"), but when do you hear an actual outlined plan from any chairman about what exact changes they're going to make?
 
beyondthefourth said:
I remember hearing Tiger saying he'd like us to be a Championship club in the next couple of years. He can't promise that.

Its also widely known that the club are looking at sites for a new stadium. It's quite reductive to say "I'm going to fix all this within X timeline". It's a complex issue, we've just backed down from our legal case, and tensions are still fraught.

He's said he won't sell key squad members unless an extreme overvaluation of the player comes in. He's said from the start than 'Brand Oxford' was a big part of getting involved with the club.



You've acknowledged that we're unable to hear specifics until the club has sorted out how it intends to move forward, but you realise that the very sorting out of the future is what 'a plan' is?



We get quarterly updates from the head of marketing and finance. I also feel that any ideas regarding community engagement and supporter liaison activities are also shared.

We've brought in Singha as a sponsor, which was a great move until Kassam ruined all the commercial opportunities for said sponsor. I imagine we'll see more sponsorship from the Far East friends of our Directors. It's a huge market to have access to.



I'm reassured with our new training ground. I'm reassured by our promising youth setup. I'm reassured by our stable squad.

The things I would like to hear:

1) Tiger has said the budget is reduced for next season in comparison to this one, but does that take in to account the funds needed for the training ground and U23 squad last year?

2) How the club plans to ensure payments will be made to HMRC and the staff on time, if a contingency fund in the UK is not an option?

Those are the key things I would say the majority of fans want to hear as a minimum. As a football team, we've made significant gains on the field since October. We have additional infrastructure and staff off the pitch too, and a whole summer to fix the key issue behind the scenes.

Bear in mind, I can't remember hearing much lately what the plans are for any club outside of ours. There's always ambitions ("We want to win the Champions League in the next couple of seasons"), but when do you hear an actual outlined plan from any chairman about what exact changes they're going to make?
Click to expand...

Exactly this. And for a good reason, because if it doesn’t happen to that timescale people will then moan that it hasn’t.

A lot of the people calling for tiger to put a timescale on promotion, are the ones who state Karl should keep quiet about transfer targets until they are done.

As scotch egg says above, the plan has been given imo, just in separate bites rather than under a big - here is the plan headline.

Build the infrastructure including training ground, marketing and academy.

Use the academy/ u23 to develop our own sellable talent, and acquire players like jones and elechi who have been released from top academies.

Invest in targets like branagan, whyte and Sykes.

Improve the brand and merchandise.

Sort stadium situation, sorted arbritation so talks can start on renegotiation of lease short term, while considering long term options including moving.

Aim to build a sustainable club on these points and get promoted to champ and poss. prem
 
Foley said:
That's pure speculation as well.
The Council appeared to want to be involved in making the ground a community asset.
I assume that the new investors want to make money out of leisure facilities round any new ground. Maybe it could be a win win?
Making the club sustainable of course also costs the owners less and increases the value of the club when eventually they look to sell.
Let's hope Oxvox are open and challenge once it all comes out. They can't take the attitude that whatever happens wont be for the benefit of the club.
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Maybe a new stadium transaction could be similar to DC United.
Their stadium was built under the ownership of Erick Thohir. The initial 30 year lease costs DC United a peppercorn rent of $1 per year.
From years 11 to 30 they also have to pay $2 per ticket sold to the local District (Council).

Soccer Stadium Transaction Details and Documents | dmped

Amended and Restated Development Agreement
dmped.dc.gov dmped.dc.gov
 
beyondthefourth said:
I remember hearing Tiger saying he'd like us to be a Championship club in the next couple of years. He can't promise that.

Its also widely known that the club are looking at sites for a new stadium. It's quite reductive to say "I'm going to fix all this within X timeline". It's a complex issue, we've just backed down from our legal case, and tensions are still fraught.

He's said he won't sell key squad members unless an extreme overvaluation of the player comes in. He's said from the start than 'Brand Oxford' was a big part of getting involved with the club.



You've acknowledged that we're unable to hear specifics until the club has sorted out how it intends to move forward, but you realise that the very sorting out of the future is what 'a plan' is?



We get quarterly updates from the head of marketing and finance. I also feel that any ideas regarding community engagement and supporter liaison activities are also shared.

We've brought in Singha as a sponsor, which was a great move until Kassam ruined all the commercial opportunities for said sponsor. I imagine we'll see more sponsorship from the Far East friends of our Directors. It's a huge market to have access to.



I'm reassured with our new training ground. I'm reassured by our promising youth setup. I'm reassured by our stable squad.

The things I would like to hear:

1) Tiger has said the budget is reduced for next season in comparison to this one, but does that take in to account the funds needed for the training ground and U23 squad last year?

2) How the club plans to ensure payments will be made to HMRC and the staff on time, if a contingency fund in the UK is not an option?

Those are the key things I would say the majority of fans want to hear as a minimum. As a football team, we've made significant gains on the field since October. We have additional infrastructure and staff off the pitch too, and a whole summer to fix the key issue behind the scenes.

Bear in mind, I can't remember hearing much lately what the plans are for any club outside of ours. There's always ambitions ("We want to win the Champions League in the next couple of seasons"), but when do you hear an actual outlined plan from any chairman about what exact changes they're going to make?
Click to expand...
Thanks for taking to respond in a manner that isn’t just “I’ve taken a happy pill and anyone who thinks that bad things can’t happen isn’t listening”.

Perhaps it’s the style of communication. At best it’s sporadic and at worst it’s after the horse has bolted.

I think they need a professional sports CEO with the comms skills to match. We most certainly don’t have one of those. Think of someone like Ashton.

If they’re going to take Oxfordshire on a journey and get the county engaging and supporting the club, they need to step up their communications game. If we really want the growth experienced by Reading or Brighton, they have no other choice.

If they’re as wealthy as some on here are telling us, I expect them to deliver in those things very quickly.

Fingers crossed.
 
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Dave T said:
Exactly this. And for a good reason, because if it doesn’t happen to that timescale people will then moan that it hasn’t.

A lot of the people calling for tiger to put a timescale on promotion, are the ones who state Karl should keep quiet about transfer targets until they are done.

As scotch egg says above, the plan has been given imo, just in separate bites rather than under a big - here is the plan headline.

Build the infrastructure including training ground, marketing and academy.

Use the academy/ u23 to develop our own sellable talent, and acquire players like jones and elechi who have been released from top academies.

Invest in targets like branagan, whyte and Sykes.

Improve the brand and merchandise.

Sort stadium situation, sorted arbritation so talks can start on renegotiation of lease short term, while considering long term options including moving.

Aim to build a sustainable club on these points and get promoted to champ and poss. prem
Click to expand...



A lot of the people calling for tiger to put a timescale on promotion,

Didn't Ian Lenagen say that but it was "a five year journey"
Hmm? said that every year.
 
Do you not think they have one, Bazzer? How else could they measure progress?

Targets are not guarantees but they give us, the paying public, a sense of direction and their ambition.
 
They didn’t all turn up on Saturday for the air miles; that’s for sure.

In other news Albert Solo has started following me on Twitter.

Something’s afoot.
 
OxfordYankee said:
Do you not think they have one, Bazzer? How else could they measure progress?

Targets are not guarantees but they give us, the paying public, a sense of direction and their ambition.
Click to expand...

And how many other clubs give theirs ?
Have Man Utd ever said when they think they will be back challenging for the title?

Have Liverpool owners ever said in how many years they wanted klopp to win the league ?

Have Man City ever said what timescale pep has to win the champions league.

It doesn’t happen in football, if it does like Bazzer says above its just used as a stick to beat people when it doesn’t happen. Darryl didn’t lay out a full plan including stadium situation, in fact he didn’t even consider the stadium important to start with. What he did do, was just get on with it, building behind the scenes. (Before disassembling the good work) and put things in place that helped achieve promotion.

While there are clear mistakes and things to improve on, I think some of the good being done is getting missed.

The communication that people say is poor is actually better than for a few years, we’re getting regular updates from the academy, and marketing/ticketing department.

There is a working group set up for fans to put forward their ideas and concerns direct to staff on the ground, and the ifollow and social media are as good as they ever have been.

The infrastructure has given us a new state of the art training complex which we’ve been lacking for decades.

An academy is producing some serious talent, the likes of which we haven’t had in these numbers for a long time.

And an u23 team, which bridges the gap to the academy as well as giving injured players vital game time.

We’ve employed a load of new academy staff, coaches and scouts and are probably not far off gaining a rise in our status level.

And we are seriously considering a move away from the Kassam, which is the furthest down the line it has probably ever been since we moved there.

But hey what’s the plan
 
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Dave T said:
And how many other clubs give theirs ?
Have Man Utd ever said when they think they will be back challenging for the title?

Have Liverpool owners ever said in how many years they wanted klop to win the league ?

Have Man City ever said what timescale pep has to win the champions league.

It doesn’t happen in football, if it does like Bazzer says above its just used as a stick to beat people when it doesn’t happen. Darryl didn’t lay out a full plan including stadium situation, in fact he didn’t even consider the stadium important to start with. What he did do, was just get on with it, building behind the scenes. (Before dissembling the good work) and put things in place that helped achieve promotion.

While there are clear mistakes and things to improve on, I think some of the good being done is getting missed.

The communication people say is poor is actually better than for a few years, we’re getting regular updates from the academy, and marketing/ticketing department.

There is a working group set up for fans to put forward their ideas and concerns direct to staff on the ground, and the ifollow and social media are as good as they ever have been.

The infrastructure has given us a new state of the art training complex which we’ve been lacking for decades.

An academy producing some serious talent, the likes of which we haven’t had in these numbers for a long time.

And an u23 team, which bridges the gap to the academy as well as giving injured players vital game time.

We’ve implored a load of new academy staff, coaches and scouts and are probably not far off gaining a rise in our status level.

And we are seriously considering a move away from the Kassam, which is the furthest down the line it has probably ever been since we moved there.

But hey what’s the plan
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I think sometimes fans need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. They get wrapped in short term results/league table positions. Now there is nothing wrong with that but the bigger picture shouldn't be forgotten about.

If you go back through this forum I think you will find that what is happening now is what a few posters (I'll blow my own trumpet and say I was one of them!) were predicting would happen during the time the team were shipping 3 or 4 goals a game.

This has a been a big year for OUFC off the pitch and a lot of good has happened to build the club for the future. That also includes all the mistakes that have been made that I certainly wouldn't expect to see happen again next season.
 
Dave T said:
Exactly this. And for a good reason, because if it doesn’t happen to that timescale people will then moan that it hasn’t.

A lot of the people calling for tiger to put a timescale on promotion, are the ones who state Karl should keep quiet about transfer targets until they are done.

As scotch egg says above, the plan has been given imo, just in separate bites rather than under a big - here is the plan headline.

Build the infrastructure including training ground, marketing and academy.

Use the academy/ u23 to develop our own sellable talent, and acquire players like jones and elechi who have been released from top academies.

Invest in targets like branagan, whyte and Sykes.

Improve the brand and merchandise.

Sort stadium situation, sorted arbritation so talks can start on renegotiation of lease short term, while considering long term options including moving.

Aim to build a sustainable club on these points and get promoted to champ and poss. prem
Click to expand...
Do you not think if the remaining time on the lease of 6 years is not long enough for things to evolve, the backers will be long gone onto a project that will come to fruition.
 
Dave T said:
And how many other clubs give theirs ?
Have Man Utd ever said when they think they will be back challenging for the title?

Have Liverpool owners ever said in how many years they wanted klop to win the league ?

Have Man City ever said what timescale pep has to win the champions league.

It doesn’t happen in football, if it does like Bazzer says above its just used as a stick to beat people when it doesn’t happen. Darryl didn’t lay out a full plan including stadium situation, in fact he didn’t even consider the stadium important to start with. What he did do, was just get on with it, building behind the scenes. (Before dissembling the good work) and put things in place that helped achieve promotion.

While there are clear mistakes and things to improve on, I think some of the good being done is getting missed.

The communication people say is poor is actually better than for a few years, we’re getting regular updates from the academy, and marketing/ticketing department.

There is a working group set up for fans to put forward their ideas and concerns direct to staff on the ground, and the ifollow and social media are as good as they ever have been.

The infrastructure has given us a new state of the art training complex which we’ve been lacking for decades.

An academy producing some serious talent, the likes of which we haven’t had in these numbers for a long time.

And an u23 team, which bridges the gap to the academy as well as giving injured players vital game time.

We’ve implored a load of new academy staff, coaches and scouts and are probably not far off gaining a rise in our status level.

And we are seriously considering a move away from the Kassam, which is the furthest down the line it has probably ever been since we moved there.

But hey what’s the plan
Click to expand...

Well I guess we’ll see how the paying public respond, Dave.

It’ll be interesting to see how sales of season tickets go.

I’ll get one, but I always will. I don’t need to be sold to but plenty do.
 
OxfordYankee said:
Well I guess we’ll see how the paying public respond, Dave.

It’ll be interesting to see how sales of season tickets go.

I’ll get one, but I always will. I don’t need to be sold to but plenty do.
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See I think the paying public are more swing by on the pitch performances and style of play than they ever will be on being sold a plan or promise, that in football everyone knows is no guarantee. Just ask the Sunderland fans that were sold a dream of decent football and a stroll straight back up as champions.
 
Sure, certainly the pay on the day people.

How will they be convinced of that before the season starts?

Anyway, I’m glad that lots of people are excited. I wish I was.
 
LondonRoader said:
Do you not think if the remaining time on the lease of 6 years is not long enough for things to evolve, the backers will be long gone onto a project that will come to fruition.
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No idea, they haven’t told us the plan [emoji6]. Who knows what will be happening in 6 years time or where we will be. But I don’t really see that as any different under tiger to under Darryl. What I will say, is training ground, academy and u23’s 1/don’t come cheap. And 2/ are long term projects for the good of a football club, if ur here for a quick turn around by getting promotion and selling, u don’t invest £m’s into an academy and infrastructure that comes out of ur potential profit and only benefits future owners
 
Dave T said:
See I think the paying public are more swing by on the pitch performances and style of play than they ever will be on being sold a plan or promise, that in football everyone knows is no guarantee. Just ask the Sunderland fans that were sold a dream of decent football and a stroll straight back up as champions.
Click to expand...

Exactly.

I've never heard any chairman say anything like, "Listen, even if we sold out all our season tickets, and had a packed stadium every week, we're unlikely to be anything more than a lower mid-table club."

I can understand not contributing to club coffers as a form of protest, but are we really at that stage because we're not hearing a 'grand plan'?

Personally, I won't be happy until a get a phone call from Tiger, and hear him start off by saying, "Can you keep a secret...?"
 
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