The Stadium.....the clock is ticking.

I would much prefer to negotiate a ground sharing contract with a different club, in a different stadium than stay in the clutches of this spineless **** who's rinsed the club dry for so many years.

I feel if we were to renegotiate a reduced rent in 8 years time, the ole "feel good factor" would be one of the all time lows. This is our best chance to finally rid ourselves of this man.

As per the original post, we have 8 years to knuckle down options. Now is not the time for squabbling over which option is right and wrong. Everyone has different opinions on the best route forward, the important thing is to have all these options written down with as much information as we can find, positives and negatives of each etc.

Personally I think it would be beneficial for a group to seriously look into ground sharing options in 8 years time. It may not be required but I think it's hugely important to have that safety net there. It would give us more time to sort a permanent home for the club without being tied up in another long lease with the devil.
 
The latest OM headline "We are not a charity - Kassam".... Bobs mission has already failed.
 
I would much prefer to negotiate a ground sharing contract with a different club, in a different stadium than stay in the clutches of this spineless **** who's rinsed the club dry for so many years.

I feel if we were to renegotiate a reduced rent in 8 years time, the ole "feel good factor" would be one of the all time lows. This is our best chance to finally rid ourselves of this man.

As per the original post, we have 8 years to knuckle down options. Now is not the time for squabbling over which option is right and wrong. Everyone has different opinions on the best route forward, the important thing is to have all these options written down with as much information as we can find, positives and negatives of each etc.

Personally I think it would be beneficial for a group to seriously look into ground sharing options in 8 years time. It may not be required but I think it's hugely important to have that safety net there. It would give us more time to sort a permanent home for the club without being tied up in another long lease with the devil.
The latest OM headline "We are not a charity - Kassam".... Bobs mission has already failed.
As you should know click bait.
If you read the rest of the article it balances it out and there is options available, what do expect FK to say he's started at his strong point and hopefully can be moved to a better position.
 
Hardly a case of reaping now for the last time action was taken,the nature of the beast tells you that he can,has and will continue to do exactly as he pleases.
Football was lost to the average man in the street a long time ago along with the connection between club and it's supporters and the higher up the pyramid the club goes the bigger the gap will become as you'll need to be in a certain wealth bracket to be able to afford to go on a regular basis.
Whoever owns a football club will do what is best for them regardless of any spin and the next generation are not showing much interest in attending the sport let alone clubs like ours..There has been far too much of a they will just turn up regardless attitude from the powers that be and seemingly no interest or active action to attract the wider audience.Those that attend and in many cases have followed the club through good and bad times are largely ignored until season ticket renewal time and have had to put up with a 3 sided soul less wind tunnel and facilities getting worse by the year.

Various Owners have been unable to remove the stench that hangs over the club and now with a lease running down and apparently nowhere else to go to, it looks like we are stuck with it and once again will be asking which side would you like your bread buttered.
 
This will, inevitably, be controversial, but I'm going to support Kassam's stance.

It is easy - very easy, in fact - to vilify him as a ruthless profiteer who is causing our beloved OUFC to suffer financially. But look at it objectively.

Kassam stepped in to develop Minchery Farm when nobody else would. OK, it was a half-hearted development which has subsequently been left to decay, but at the time of his initial appearance I seem to remember most people were grateful. There were some notable exceptions to this who doubted his intentions were in our interests, but the prospect of a new stadium calmed many nerves.

So a three quarter ground was built and Kassam oversaw the club as Chairman. Then the biggest mistake in OUFC's history. The clown Merry did the deal to separate ownership of club and stadium. We have never recovered from this.

Kassam clearly saw his own takeover as a business deal. We all knew he had no love of OUFC - he's a Gooner FFS - and since Merry's intervention he's done what any successful businessman does: he's maximised his profits with a view to making even more money through developing land that he owns.

Forget morals, forget calling him a c**t, or whatever makes you feel better, he's done what businessmen do. He is guilty of nothing. Why should he care about the future of OUFC if it doesn't help him personally? He owes us nothing. The fact that he's not an altruistic saint is irrelevant. Perhaps he will have a road to Damascus moment and gift the stadium to the club, but I doubt it.

A tough lesson has been learnt, but Merry is the criminal here.

Bang on.

FK won’t do any form of charitable act or anything that will cost him money. Slings and arrows and barbed media offensives won’t bother him (he’s a man who made his millions as the ‘merchant of misery’ slum hotelier remember?) and he’ll pursue whatever path he chooses, in spite of any objectives. If he legally owns the land where the car park is, he’s legally allowed to whatever he likes with it. It all ties into his business-driven mindset.

That said, the one non-financial method that I can see that’s actually riled FK a bit has been putting the Asset of Community Value (ACV) on the stadium. Sure, it’s had as much an impact on us as the Yom Kippur war had on the Palestinians, but it made him sit up and take notice for a change. Unless there are other legal frameworks that can be used in deterring him to get what he wants (and I haven’t heard of any), the only way to get through to FK is via the wallet – either denying him funds or offering him an extortionate sum for something worth far less.

Playing Devil’s advocate to your point that he doesn’t give a toss for OUFC, why did he attend the 2016 JPT final? Was he invited as a guest of DE whilst a stadium purchase was in the offing or was it a genuine desire to see his tenant play a game at Wembley?
 
Don't fall for the hype.

Sometimes, People want to have a demon, a villain.

Takes the focus from something else.

Mind you dont all fall into that trap.

Kassam was a dreadful football chairman, thats for sure.

Other things, we may still need him.
 
Seperate to the above, its a difficult place to be - rent, landlords and whatnot.

Take my experience with Oxford City Stars.

We play in an arena in the center of Oxford. We pay large ammounts of rent to our landlord. Sometimes its a stuggle to get work carried out or improvements made and on a match day, we don't see a penny from the concessions - drinks, hotdogs sold during, before or after a game.

Our landlord is ultimatley Bob Price.

Our relationship is good with the Council, they dont want to be seen negatively but dont want to lose revenue.

They're more like a charity than Kassam, yet they still struggle with the concept of supporting Sport. Our fans scream at the council to support us, we also know that the council can't suddenly change how they work.

Its a long discussion, which needs people to talk face to face to get anywhere.
 
This will, inevitably, be controversial, but I'm going to support Kassam's stance.

It is easy - very easy, in fact - to vilify him as a ruthless profiteer who is causing our beloved OUFC to suffer financially. But look at it objectively.

Kassam stepped in to develop Minchery Farm when nobody else would. OK, it was a half-hearted development which has subsequently been left to decay, but at the time of his initial appearance I seem to remember most people were grateful. There were some notable exceptions to this who doubted his intentions were in our interests, but the prospect of a new stadium calmed many nerves.

So a three quarter ground was built and Kassam oversaw the club as Chairman. Then the biggest mistake in OUFC's history. The clown Merry did the deal to separate ownership of club and stadium. We have never recovered from this.

Kassam clearly saw his own takeover as a business deal. We all knew he had no love of OUFC - he's a Gooner FFS - and since Merry's intervention he's done what any successful businessman does: he's maximised his profits with a view to making even more money through developing land that he owns.

Forget morals, forget calling him a c**t, or whatever makes you feel better, he's done what businessmen do. He is guilty of nothing. Why should he care about the future of OUFC if it doesn't help him personally? He owes us nothing. The fact that he's not an altruistic saint is irrelevant. Perhaps he will have a road to Damascus moment and gift the stadium to the club, but I doubt it.

A tough lesson has been learnt, but Merry is the criminal here.

Agree on all of this...it is what it is and Kassam is a very, very good businessman. A businessman who cares about his investment and how well it's doing (i.e. the masses of cash he makes from rent and usage of the entire site), and how he can maximise it (see overflow carpark development), yet cares not one jot about us as the people most affected. It's like owning a school site and not caring about the OFSTED report.
 
This will, inevitably, be controversial, but I'm going to support Kassam's stance.

It is easy - very easy, in fact - to vilify him as a ruthless profiteer who is causing our beloved OUFC to suffer financially. But look at it objectively.

Kassam stepped in to develop Minchery Farm when nobody else would. OK, it was a half-hearted development which has subsequently been left to decay, but at the time of his initial appearance I seem to remember most people were grateful. There were some notable exceptions to this who doubted his intentions were in our interests, but the prospect of a new stadium calmed many nerves.

So a three quarter ground was built and Kassam oversaw the club as Chairman. Then the biggest mistake in OUFC's history. The clown Merry did the deal to separate ownership of club and stadium. We have never recovered from this.

Kassam clearly saw his own takeover as a business deal. We all knew he had no love of OUFC - he's a Gooner FFS - and since Merry's intervention he's done what any successful businessman does: he's maximised his profits with a view to making even more money through developing land that he owns.

Forget morals, forget calling him a c**t, or whatever makes you feel better, he's done what businessmen do. He is guilty of nothing. Why should he care about the future of OUFC if it doesn't help him personally? He owes us nothing. The fact that he's not an altruistic saint is irrelevant. Perhaps he will have a road to Damascus moment and gift the stadium to the club, but I doubt it.

A tough lesson has been learnt, but Merry is the criminal here.
This.
 
Too many apologists on this thread. Kassam looking after himself might be fine and to be expected, but let's cut out the crap about being a great businessman, custodianship and best interests, it's utterly nauseating. Nothing he has done is in the least bit admirable. Nothing.

The reality, if we have to stay at his stadium, is that we need Kassam to play ball, I think everyone knows that. Calling him names is cathartic but doesn't achieve anything. However, I have come to the conclusion that he'll never do anything good for the club. Jem Faulkner, Colin, Simon etc have spent huge amounts of their time trying to bring FK to the table and they did so with their eyes wide open. He has dangled much in front of them, but when it comes to it, he always has a reason not to follow through, whether it's arbitration, naming rights, planning etc, there's always something. I don't see that changing and he appears far to clever to ever be brought to task, or have his plans derailed, by the Council(s). He continually runs roughshod over them and does so in the name of "custodianship". It makes me puke.

I don't ever expect him to be charitable to an owner of the club, but I do think that the fortune he has made off the back of his involvement with Oxford United and its fans should mean he can afford to take a fair approach with a community trust. He won't of course and he never will.
 
The clown Merry did the deal to separate ownership of club and stadium. We have never recovered from this.
Ka££am always said that he would not sell the club without the stadium, yet he still did.

Why is this? Probably because he wanted more than the stadium was worth.

If he wanted to keep the Stadium and the Club together, why did he separate them in the first place?, because it was any easy way out, still with potential to gain an income for little or no outlay. FK has always been 4 steps ahead of the council and OUFC.

IMO Ka££am was hoping, just waiting for a Nick Merry to come along.

In any other scenario I'd applaud FK for his shrewd business acumen but because his actions have inhibited the club I love, indirectly having an affect on the quality of my life, I'll call him a c*nt and will continue to call him a c*nt.. That isn't a word that I would I use likely, I hate the word.
 
Too many apologists on this thread. Kassam looking after himself might be fine and to be expected, but let's cut out the crap about being a great businessman, custodianship and best interests, it's utterly nauseating. Nothing he has done is in the least bit admirable. Nothing.

The reality, if we have to stay at his stadium, is that we need Kassam to play ball, I think everyone knows that. Calling him names is cathartic but doesn't achieve anything. However, I have come to the conclusion that he'll never do anything good for the club. Jem Faulkner, Colin, Simon etc have spent huge amounts of their time trying to bring FK to the table and they did so with their eyes wide open. He has dangled much in front of them, but when it comes to it, he always has a reason not to follow through, whether it's arbitration, naming rights, planning etc, there's always something. I don't see that changing and he appears far to clever to ever be brought to task, or have his plans derailed, by the Council(s). He continually runs roughshod over them and does so in the name of "custodianship". It makes me puke.

I don't ever expect him to be charitable to an owner of the club, but I do think that the fortune he has made off the back of his involvement with Oxford United and its fans should mean he can afford to take a fair approach with a community trust. He won't of course and he never will.
Spot on.
 
Too many apologists on this thread. Kassam looking after himself might be fine and to be expected, but let's cut out the crap about being a great businessman, custodianship and best interests, it's utterly nauseating. Nothing he has done is in the least bit admirable. Nothing.

The reality, if we have to stay at his stadium, is that we need Kassam to play ball, I think everyone knows that. Calling him names is cathartic but doesn't achieve anything. However, I have come to the conclusion that he'll never do anything good for the club. Jem Faulkner, Colin, Simon etc have spent huge amounts of their time trying to bring FK to the table and they did so with their eyes wide open. He has dangled much in front of them, but when it comes to it, he always has a reason not to follow through, whether it's arbitration, naming rights, planning etc, there's always something. I don't see that changing and he appears far to clever to ever be brought to task, or have his plans derailed, by the Council(s). He continually runs roughshod over them and does so in the name of "custodianship". It makes me puke.

I don't ever expect him to be charitable to an owner of the club, but I do think that the fortune he has made off the back of his involvement with Oxford United and its fans should mean he can afford to take a fair approach with a community trust. He won't of course and he never will.

Not appologising for Kassam, not appologising for the others involved either, importantly.

Not appologising for Biomass, Herd and Keith Cox for getting us a half built ground and massively in debt

Not appologising for Nick Merry, who hould never ever ever split the club up from the ground and has been far more guilty of his lack of comment on the matter since then...(Or actual appearances anywhere)

The other owners never managed to get the cash together to buy the ground, which has always been for sale.

Now, we're at a pivotal point in valuation of the stadium between a few parties, there are ways out.

Becoming a baying mob with pitchforks wont get us anywhere and for one bloody good reason. Its not going to help, I guarantee it.
 
I don't advocate the baying mob; we all know it will get us nowhere.

My own view is that any strategy that requires FK to do anything other than maximise his own position, is now folly. People have tried every approach: confrontation, appeasement, flattery, appealing to his good nature (ROFL) - I could go on. None of it has worked. He chews the cud and then spits it out.

If we want to stay there, we will almost certainly have to overpay. He's not interested in any valuation other than his own.

The task is simple: come up with enough money/land or move on and use the next five years to find something new.

He will never respond to any other approach. God knows, enough have tried
 
Pete, he doesn't care if he's onside or not. Pay him what he wants and call him a c**t - he won't care.

Others disagree, but the sooner we just accept that money is the only language he is interested in, the sooner we can determine the possibility of a deal or not.
 
Too many apologists on this thread. Kassam looking after himself might be fine and to be expected, but let's cut out the crap about being a great businessman, custodianship and best interests, it's utterly nauseating. Nothing he has done is in the least bit admirable. Nothing.

The reality, if we have to stay at his stadium, is that we need Kassam to play ball, I think everyone knows that. Calling him names is cathartic but doesn't achieve anything. However, I have come to the conclusion that he'll never do anything good for the club. Jem Faulkner, Colin, Simon etc have spent huge amounts of their time trying to bring FK to the table and they did so with their eyes wide open. He has dangled much in front of them, but when it comes to it, he always has a reason not to follow through, whether it's arbitration, naming rights, planning etc, there's always something. I don't see that changing and he appears far to clever to ever be brought to task, or have his plans derailed, by the Council(s). He continually runs roughshod over them and does so in the name of "custodianship". It makes me puke.

I don't ever expect him to be charitable to an owner of the club, but I do think that the fortune he has made off the back of his involvement with Oxford United and its fans should mean he can afford to take a fair approach with a community trust. He won't of course and he never will.

I’m not so sure. I think Oxvox had got the furtherest and could have probably gone further if it wasn’t for the bad timing of the takeover breaking. He’s not going to do something that effects his other businesses in the area, and it’s pretty clear he’s not going to do a deal with Darryl. But even from that article he kind of implies that once the ownership is sorted he may be open (if it’s in the interests of the club ) now that bit I think is bulshit. But I think Oxvox and a new owner can agree a deal. I don’t think he will sell out right, but as was said at the meeting that could be a good thing that the stadium is kept separate from the club. As it stops this exact thing or worse (see Coventry) happening again. Sartori was rumoured to have agreed a renegotiation of terms so not unrealistic that a new owner or even Darryl could do the same. As was also pointed out a deal by where we get more revenue and freedom is more vital than owning especially in the champ. People are getting hooked up on the rent. Yet even in a new shiney stadium at WE we would be paying it, if it’s borrowed it could be a lot higher. And there is every likley hood that it would not be owned by Oufc but by ensco or such like
 
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True, OUFC may never own its own stadium again. But a stadium owned by the owner of the football club would be a step in the right direction (particularly with protection provide by planning consents) and a stadium owned by a community trust, a bigger step forward.

All I am really saying is that we should rid ourselves of the notion the FK will ever do anything for us, it will always be for him and only on terms that meet that aim. Treat him with respect, sure, but never rely upon his good nature to be the custodian he has claimed to be.

An acceptance of that, combined with cold hard sums, may mean that a deal can never be done for his stadium.
 
True, OUFC may never own its own stadium again. But a stadium owned by the owner of the football club would be a step in the right direction (particularly with protection provide by planning consents) and a stadium owned by a community trust, a bigger step forward.

All I am really saying is that we should rid ourselves of the notion the FK will ever do anything for us, it will always be for him and only on terms that meet that aim. Treat him with respect, sure, but never rely upon his good nature to be the custodian he has claimed to be.

An acceptance of that, combined with cold hard sums, may mean that a deal can never be done for his stadium.

I think that’s right, he probably will never do anything for us. Unless it suits him. There again would any of us do different ? Would u let someone buy ur house for less than its worth? Would them calling you names and taking u to court help change ur mind ?

Find a way like Oxvox have of putting it into community ownership (better for the club long term safety) find a way of funding it that fk is agreeable to. And keep communication with him open. We might never get it off him, fall out with him and stop talking and we Definitely won’t
 
No, but I wouldn't call myself their custodian at the same time.

That word implies that I have their best interests at heart, which would be a falsehood. If it were not, then I would do something altruistic.

The sums have been done and they don't make for pretty reading. Someone needs to do something for the greater good: FK? Good one. The Council? Not impossible but no track record in doing so, although a need for houses may work in our favour. A private benefactor? Perhaps. Without one of those, his stadium may well be out of our reach.
 
Ka££am is a c*nt!

“I am planning on providing housing for Oxfordshire which it desperately needs. I do not have to do deals in order to get planning permission so they can buy the stadium for a cheaper price.

“We are a commercial organisation not a charity.”

So not only has he screwed us over with the stadium, he's determined to remove the overflow carpark, build housing and still get over paid for the purchase of the stadium.

Surely he's made enough money out of Oxford!!!! What an A*****e.

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/sport/o...adium_deal___but_he_has_a_fight_on_his_hands/

Again Ka££am uses the excuse that he doesn't want to sell to another investor who may not have the best interests in OUFC (pot calling kettle black!!!). Of course Firoz!! it's nothing to do with the fact that your fleecing the club month in month out without having to lift a finger..
Not a C*nt. A ruthless businessman. End of.
 
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