[Archived] Rovers Sold ??

[Ste B]

who you calling stupid ,paul

if you dont think people wont go visit blackburn and ask around ...

If you cant work that out, then its probably proving his point.

Of course if you asked around blackburn people will use that as an excuse.. probably rather than use the "cant be arsed" or "its kick off times" or "too expensive" argument. Will no doubt make them a "man of the people"

Given theres no facts at all about this deal at this stage, then how anybody can make a rational decision on whether the takeover is good or bad is beyond me.

Once the FACTS become known, and its seen how we will be affected from a football point of view then you may find far more people standing against the takeover... or perhaps even supporting it. There are obvious potential issues wherein if the buyer imposed their cultures on the existing fans then people will react accordingly and vote with their feet. At the end of the day though, the buyers will be in it to make money so will hardly be seeking to drive people away from the club. Time will tell.

[Bazzanotsogreat]

I for one don’t care what religion or race any potential consortium are, as long as they plough money into Rovers. If it’s the same group that nicko states then it appears they didn’t how anywhere near the required capital to buy and finance the club.

[nicko]

I hope this latest takeover interest establishes a few things:

1 - how much do the trustees want? Is it £42.5 m, lower or higher?

2 - how much does a bidder have to guarantee in spends?

I know some have said it runs into massive figures, I'm not so sure.

But it would be an idea to know what exactly it takes to buy the club and take it out of the the present financial position - which is a bit cash-strapped but safe.

Interesting times.

[Will]

Just a note:

If the 'so called' consortium does consist of the people from Time.

Well, didnt they go bust ? They were an awful company to work for and awful for the service they provided.

They were about cheap labour and profit.

I for one hope it is nothing to do with them.

The club will be ruined.

[Jan]

The question you should be asking Jan is if she would have a problem with a protestant investing in Celtic. I have no doubt of the answer Jan would give. Banter is one thing, what you are suggesting is simply ridiculous and you should be embarrassed to even bring it up.

As a Protestant (lapsed) myself I couldn't give two hoots if it gives Celtic more money

[Gav]

Just a note:

If the 'so called' consortium does consist of the people from Time.

Well, didnt they go bust ? They were an awful company to work for and awful for the service they provided.

They were about cheap labour and profit.

I for one hope it is nothing to do with them.

The club will be ruined.

Couldn't agree more.

[Tris]

Reasons its good for us:

Potentially a great deal on the cards for Blackburn Rovers if they have the right financial backing and the money men can provide money for signings. Aslong as it is good for my football club then im all for it!

Asian owners would surely help attract Asian fans as they should know what will help attract; a market that if we could touch, could be a gold mine for us. If we could get only 10% of all Asians in Blackburn and Darwen alone then we are talking an extra 5000 fans straight away at ewood – if you add that to our normal home crowd of approx 19,000 then we are talking 24,000 home fans + away = back to the days of SOLD OUT!! The 10% of Asians is possible as we get way over 10% of the local population at the moment, yet it doesn’t include many Asian fans. That’s excluding surrounding areas like Preston, Chorley, Bolton & Accrington where im sure we could attract far more from.

It could also open a new marketing option for us in Asian countries, as at the moment not many football clubs have attracted major companies and interest from places like Pakistan, India etc. Imagine if we could get a major company from one of those countries interested and get a lucrative Sponsorship deal with someone like an outsourcing company or maybe a major brand used in the UK.

Maybe play 2 friendlies each pre-season in 3 countries to promote our club – It could help boost our profile as well as help us tap into the market and maybe get extra merchandise sales (when we finally get our own merchandising back). We could play in countries such as India (1.12 billion), Pakistan (161,488,00) Saudia Arabia (24,735,000). (Estimated Populations of 2007 in brackets)

If we could tap into an Asian Market then we could take the next step and set up Rovers TV, where it is available in countries like those mentioned and also in the UK. It could show our friendlies in countries as mentioned earlier and also show highlights, re-runs of our games. (As most wouldn’t want live games anyway due to the time difference). Even if we could only get 50,000 subscribers total (which isn’t a lot if we can attract interest in Asian countries + in the UK) at a bargain price of say £5 a month then straight away we would have £3 million a year extra from that. Just an idea!? I mean they might not even support Blackburn, but just want to watch Premier league football?

Hughesy - please would you go into politics and stand for Prime Minister as soon as possibe? The worlds ills will be fixed within days!!

Some people have a glass half empty, some have a glass half full - Hughesy has a massive great vat overflowing with the best champagne - quite refreshing really!

[DanLad]

Quite a few people weren't keen on Dan Williams being a ginge.

Funny!

[AndyR]

In a town like Blackburn I think this is a reasonable discussion, open the debate up a cosmopolitan city like Manchester and they were up in arms because the new owners were ......... American.

Liverpool are now in the similar situation, but the difference is they want to back their Spanish manager, against the US overlords.

Interesting to note that United didn't seem bothered when the Manc Yanks bought Hargreaves (£18m) Carrick (£18m) Vidic (£7m) Evra (£4m) and added Tevez etc to the squad etc. Winning the Premier League title in the first season did quieten the protests. The FC United breakaway hasn't really affected them either.

Its different for the Rovers because we haven't got waiting lists of fans wanting to step into stay aways shoes, but as mentioned if we could tap into 10% ofg the local asain community te full houses could see us REALLY challenge for places in Europe.

I'm open minded but accept there will be an awful lot of people in the town who don't see it that way. Would be interesting to see what would happen if there was success brought to the club through investments however.

[Ste B]

Just a note:

If the 'so called' consortium does consist of the people from Time.

Well, didnt they go bust ? They were an awful company to work for and awful for the service they provided.

They were about cheap labour and profit.

I for one hope it is nothing to do with them.

The club will be ruined.

If it was the Moron Brothers, I'd have to think very seriously about ever putting money in their pockets.

Having worked for the cowboys, I couldnt agree more that they would be seriously bad for Rovers. I imagine they would run them into the ground and into administration, having already taken the rich pickings out of the club. Everybody else would be left in the proverbial, much like when Granville went bust.

Nothing to do with the colour of their skin, its just that in my opinion Tahir is a grade A c***

[Guest Kamy100]

Just a note:

If the 'so called' consortium does consist of the people from Time.

Well, didnt they go bust ? They were an awful company to work for and awful for the service they provided.

They were about cheap labour and profit.

I for one hope it is nothing to do with them.

The club will be ruined.

From what I have learnt it has got nothing to do with the guys from TIME. If any of them were involved in this deal I would be very worried, but thankfully they are not.

[Guest fernhurstblue]

I have great concerns about this proposed takeover.

A, We know hardly anything about these people, their intentions, reasons & commitment.

B, As somebody has mentioned before, why have they left it so late when we are so close to the end of the transfer window.

C, On a non football issue, Blackburn is the most segregated town in England, highlighted in the panorama documentry of last year. Living in the area I must admit that it is obvious that there is no community cohesion and hardly any socialisation between asians and whites. Lets be honest how many people on this site in the Blackburn area regularly socialise with asians. I have no problems with asians coming to Ewood so long as we don't have to change the culture of our club to accomodate them. This has happened in lots of areas within our society. As long as these investors continue to run the club (but with added funds) the way it has always been then I welcome them, however I also believe that there may be a number of local supporters who will turn their back on the club because of the current climate within the area.

i think that sums up the feelings of a lot of people quite well .....

[USRoverME]

Just for the record Kamy just how much say do you think John Williams will have in who the club is sold to?

imo it's as much say as either you or I have ..... but probably not as much as both of us.

That may be the case, but one would hope, that if the so called "best for Rovers" clasus exist int eh trust documents, that the trust would at least listen to JW's thoughts in terms of the sale's impact on the club.

so he might not have any "say" in that he won't have a vote, but his input shold at elast make them think, and a lot more than anything we might say.

[Gav]

Quite a few people weren't keen on Dan Williams being a ginge.

[Tris]

But surely approx 10% (if you are right) is statistically a representative sample.

Not really Fife. (1) demographics of computer ownership / internet access (therefore disposable income). (2) Look at the geographic locations of those who visit this site. Nowhere near a statistically representative sample of the Ewood Park crowd I'm afraid.

[Eddie]

But there are reasons for that too, as a foreign fan you are more likely to want to be a member of an fan site as it's a good source of information and a chance to chat with fellow supporters. I'm sure a good number of us who live far from Ewood wouldn't be on this site, certainly not anywhere near as much, if we had the chance to have a season ticket.

[thenodrog]

But I do wonder what it says in Jack Walker's will about some of the 'issues' this will bring up...

Ay there's the rub!

[Ronin]

Maybe Vinjay has found some backers he was always on about.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

All 99.9% of Rovers fans are concerned with is that ANY potential 'money men' linked to this grand old club of strange oaths and uncouth garb is that they simply have its best interests at heart long term.

If they dont?.......they can go to hell!

[philipl]

A quick scan of the newswires and it certainly appears that nobody except the Sun is carrying:

Keegan about to bid for Bentley, or

Rovers about to be sold

If a consortium were about to make a serious offer for the Rovers then I doubt there could be a better or more positive statement than to tell the thieving Geordies (and by extension anyone else) that if they would be so daft as to put in a bid, they would not only be dealing with the club as it stands today but also some nebulous force which effectively would have the veto on any transaction.

Effectively, everybody has been warned off every Rovers player just in case they were thinking about trying it on before the transfer deadline.

That has got to be a damned good thing as unspent millions get itchy in chairmen and managers' pockets.

There are some great posts on here- particularly hughesy's.

To nicko's point about wanting every detail of the transaction down to the inside leg measurement, I would suggest that a sure sign that there is no deal would be the moment that info went public - certainly if the Dan Williams episide is anything to go by.

To the half dozen or so who are worried by the ethnicity of the potential purchasers, have any of you ever sat at Ewood next to a Walker Trustee or even know the national origins of the folks sitting in the offices in Jersey? Do you expect the buyers (if there are any) are going to be sitting next to you or if they do whether you or more likely to be smelling of last night's curry than they are? Apart from providing a great stadium and a remarkably good team and management, how have the Walker Trustees impacted on your football-going? Could the Walker Trustees or any other owner seriously change your football-going experience if they wanted to be a commercial organisation?

The things which have massively changed going to the Rovers- all seater stadium, kick-off times, no smoking and so on have all been imposed from outside the Rovers' ownership.

I think this is all a fuss about nothing.

[Dingle Basher]

This sentence in the quoted post intrigues me, having admittedly never stepped foot in blackburn, and hopefully I'll get some sensible reposne to my question.

What parts of the club's culture are we unwilling to change.

Obviously there are some Sacred" things, the blue and white halves cheif among them, but what is off limits? Are we talking pies vs. kebabs?

Nobody knows anything about these people so we can not predict what may or may not be changed. I suppose looking at how things have changed in society, I could make up a wild estimate of worse case scenarios.

The local asian community likes to stick together and often consider all other muslims as family, in the long run the worst that could happen is that if we do attract a large number of asians will they blend into the rest of the crowd or will they try to all sit together creating separate areas within Ewood park itself and causing more tension within the area.

Will we have to stop selling alcohol?

Have to sell halal meat?

Islamic translators or writing?

Would we become a laughing stock for narrow minded supporters of other clubs?

Ok, not big deals but it would change the experience of watching football. And as I said these are extreme possibilities that are unlikely to happen.

On the other side of things it may help to improve local relations, build friendships by creating a common social bond between the 2 communities.

Some people might welcome change, or as I said nothing may change and we could break into the champions league and keep hold of Hughesy and our star players.

One things for sure we do need investment and untill we know more there is no need to panic.

[T4E]

There are some great posts on here- particularly hughesy's.

I think I can hear the last remnants of your credibility slowly slipping away....

[Ste B]

Can we keep this on the topic of a potential FOOTBALL takeover.

Otherwise, it will be closed.

[B.R.F.C]

Maybe Vinjay has found some backers he was always on about.

As for some of the thoughts and feelings on this thread with regard the background of those in the supposed consortium it is rather disappointing.

Without investment Rovers will continue to fall behind the rest and go backwards trying to compete...backward somewhat similar to some of the attitudes on here

[kingsleyamis]

I can't believe the racist views espoused on here are allowed to go unmoderated!!! That said, much credit to the sensible majority, especially Hughesy, who have made rational, intelligent and tolerant comments.

For what it's worth, I was brought up in Blackburn and in my opinion the major divide isn't between white and asian, but between the educated and the ill-educated. Picking on people who are in someway different from yourself is just an easy outlet for feelings of self-loathing and disappointment about your own poor choices in life.

Rather than looking for a supposed negative in what could actually prove to be great news for the club and the fans, why not try doing something positive for yourself? Perhaps read some books, try to see something of the world and, most importantly, take time to form your OWN opinions (rather than repeating tired cliches culled from the right-wing gutter press). It might even make you feel a bit more fulfilled!

Patronising rant over!