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

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.
I am surprised more OUFC fans dont support local non-league teams.
 
I think he's just manoeuvring himself so as to bleed every last drop he can out of the stadium, he's playing hard to get as far as the stadium's concerned - and in doing so increases the price.
Still believe there's a deal to be done, but getting agreement of all the nuts and bolts of it between the council, kassam and DE needs a minor miracle.
 
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.

I think the whole custodian line is used in the exact same way the club uses Grenoble Rd. School playground tactics designed to wind the other side up. At the end of the day it’s his, and he doesn’t need to do anything. It’s up to the others to put something in front of him to change that. And I’m 99.9% sure acting the billy big B*****s, threatening, pressuring and other aggressive tactics will have no effect what so ever. He’s a f*****g hard enough, difficult man to deal with anyway.
 
I don't think we disagree. Kassam will always do - and has always done - what is best for Kassam. In doing so he's out-smarted all other parties. Now we come to the crux of the matter: his actions have harmed OUFC. Undoubtedly. But he's still only done what any sensible profit-maximising businessman would do.

Keep calling him a c**t if you wish. Up to you. From your previous posts though, I suspect that's a bit beneath you.
I'm sorry, I don't mean to offend.

I agree pretty much with most on this thread. There is no point in fighting "fire with fire" with regards to Ka££am as he will always win.

In this situation / story. It seems to me that he could do the club a favour and still make Heaps more money.
 
I don't think we disagree. Kassam will always do - and has always done - what is best for Kassam. In doing so he's out-smarted all other parties. Now we come to the crux of the matter: his actions have harmed OUFC. Undoubtedly. But he's still only done what any sensible profit-maximising businessman would do.

Keep calling him a c**t if you wish. Up to you. From your previous posts though, I suspect that's a bit beneath you.
I'm sorry, I don't mean to offend.

I agree pretty much with most on this thread. There is no point in fighting "fire with fire" with regards to Ka££am as he will always win.

In this situation / story. It seems to me that he could do the club a favour and still make Heaps more money.

And I don’t think he would have an issue with that. What he doesn’t seem to want to do, is make certain people heaps more money. Like Darryl for whatever reason. Even by putting it into trust it massively helps Darryl financially. And he also seems to like the idea if it makes him look good, helping the community, wanting to keep the name as a legacy, agreeing a deal with sartori. Why sartori and not Darryl. Well presumably because it would have been appreciated in certain circles in the Monaco elite.
 
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Basically unless someone with serious wealth rocks up, we're fucked ! End of .
 
Basically unless someone with serious wealth rocks up, we're fucked ! End of .

And even if they do, Kassam can still say he's not interested in selling. Particularly if they "aren't good for Oxford United". Like he cares!
 
If we moved in with Oxford City we would be looking at 8 years of rent to pay off plus 5m to convert court place farm into an 8k stadium. Maybe much less if we put in temporary seating. I'd rather ground share and try to force kassam's hand than carry on getting screwed while the clock ticks down.
 
If we moved in with Oxford City we would be looking at 8 years of rent to pay off plus 5m to convert court place farm into an 8k stadium. Maybe much less if we put in temporary seating. I'd rather ground share and try to force kassam's hand than carry on getting screwed while the clock ticks down.

How on earth will that "force Kassam's hand"? He gets eight years of rent without even the need to pay money on basic stadium maintenance, then at the end more than likely a change of use application approved in order to knock down the stadium and make further millions for housing.

We meanwhile will be paying rent on one stadium, board on another (which won't meet league regulations even if it somehow snuck through) and have absolutely nothing at the end to show for it.

By all means explore other sites, but the "groundshare" idea being put out there is the very essence of cutting off your nose to spite your face.
 
Kassam would pay for us to leave if he was allowed to build on the current site. That's the main reason he won't sell to another investor.
 
Kassam would pay for us to leave if he was allowed to build on the current site. That's the main reason he won't sell to another investor.

If it was that simple don’t u think he would be actively pushing for that to happen ? Look what he did to get the development in the first place. If he wanted that he would be actively working with chairmen and people like Stewart to make it happen
 
We may have to ground share in 8 years time. So let's not rule it out.

Also, it's possible for K*sham to be a ruthless businessman AND a c*nt. He's comfortably both, and very successful in both I must say.
 
How much is FK asking for the ground? Or does he keep upping the price and never agreeing?
 
Personally while I don’t see the point in insulting the man, and panicking and saying we need to start ground sharing with other clubs when we still have 8 years of rent to pay and a ground that while not brilliant is still much better than any current alternative (which is why no one proposing it will name where we should go) is ridiculous, I don’t think we have to start defending him and pretending he does it only because it’s goid business.

The man is a slum landlord, was before he saved us (a ridiculous statement as he used us to make money with no interest in the football club, and still does) and with his actions at Grenoble road still is, the place has been unfinished for a decade plus and the non conference facilities are falling into a disgraceful condition, all while we pay an over the top rent and club staff are booted out at 5.30 on the dot as that’s what we pay for.

It makes no difference what you say about the multi millionaire tax exile on here, whether you praise his ‘good business sense’ or call him what he actually is, a slum landlord, but it does matter what those people who actually have to do a deal with him say to him and about him, so the calls for OxVox etc to tell him to shove it and whatever are not helpful.

Basically say what you want about him, it’s no more than he deserves but don’t abuse those who have a more important job than gobbing off on here, Facebook and Twitter for taking a more sensible approach to actual contact with the man, those people have the future of OUFC in there hands so understand what they are doing and give them some support.

On a side note I can’t say I take much pleasure in our future being linked to him being able to build houses anywhere, certainly wouldn’t buy one he built myself, can you imagine the quality? But that’s not really OUFC’s fault, more those officials who have let him get away with murder for years as it’s just good business, even if that good business has actually flouted the laws of this country many times.
 
We may have to ground share in 8 years time. So let's not rule it out.

Also, it's possible for K*sham to be a ruthless businessman AND a c*nt. He's comfortably both, and very successful in both I must say.

We actually have an option to extend the licence so we wouldn't have to ground share in eight years but personally I would be horrified if we reached that point with no viable options but to sign again on the present terms or move out of Oxford in the mistaken belief that Kassam will do anything but chuckle and make plans for the empty stadium we leave behind.
 
kasham starting to make noises lately, something he rarely does, so maybe he's got something he needs to communicate over, what that might be is any body's.
 
How much is FK asking for the ground? Or does he keep upping the price and never agreeing?


If mr bob price wants to help, why don’t the council put up 1/2 the money for the stadium? Or even lend oufc at a low interest rate ? So it’s cheaper than the rent. He’s taken from oufc ie the best seats at Wembley vip just for starters, yet is now saying in his last month of work I will do all he can to help us, to little to late, can we set up a giving page to raise a little money? It might not be much but you never know who has some to put in.
 
The reality is that until Kassam is willing to sell, and on terms that someone is willing to buy into, then nothing will change.
DE is no fool, nor are OxVox, Stuart Donald etc. All of whom have tried to sort something out without success. The council have at least tried to help, but Kassam is right, he can bid for any land and housing developments with or without a deal on the stadium.

Unfortunately, I think it will take someone willing to take a loss on the deal in order to give Kassam what he wants. And unless that loss can be spread across a number of investors I just can't see anything happening in the immediate future.
 
If mr bob price wants to help, why don’t the council put up 1/2 the money for the stadium? Or even lend oufc at a low interest rate ? So it’s cheaper than the rent. He’s taken from oufc ie the best seats at Wembley vip just for starters, yet is now saying in his last month of work I will do all he can to help us, to little to late, can we set up a giving page to raise a little money? It might not be much but you never know who has some to put in.

Not really sure you can equate getting a nice ticket to see Oxford play at Wembley with him lending us £7m of Oxford Council's money. I doubt Bob Price could sign off on that anyway and i'm not sure we should expect him to. I do think however the council can be a massive help in a combined effort that sees money raised by our fanbase (as you say), incentivising Kassam to sell (the council have and are trying this as we speak with planning on the overflow carpark), the possibility of the council providing some money via a loan when viable, potential lottery money based on future initiatives, naming rights on stands, money from new investors being put directly towards the stadium and any number of other ideas that we as supporters can provide. As Scotchegg quite rightly says above, it may be a case of spreading this loss (and it will be a loss, we won't get this ground at market price) over many different investors and initiatives.
 
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