Its something thats been mentioned in passing on other threads, and I think it would be interesting to think what the pros and cons would be with a Cardiff style takeover to push us into the Prem.
I think that we are far more attractive to an investor (Im probably talking about a foreign one here) then a club like Cardiff. Heres why:
We have a large chunk of London and Kents population to grab more supporters from.
We already have a premiership quality stadium that can be extended if we managed a Malaga CF style surge into the Prem Top 5/Champions League.
The simple fact that we are based in London, arguably the greatest city on the planet, and a plethora of further opportunities that could make the club more money.
All of the above would make it easier to attract players, from home and abroad.
A lot of foreign investors seem to like clubs with a half decent history and few stories to tell from the past, we have bags of that.
Already have decent crowds by championship standards that can easily be built on with a sustained period of Premiership consolidation.
A few of those can probably be lumped together, but those are my thoughts....
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'Safe' image, a family club, that's fairly popular with neutrals
Plus
We already play in red, so no need for a Cardiff style rebrand :-)
It's all about location.
We have a large chunk of London and Kents population to grab more supporters from.
Yes but were also competing for the same support with West Ham and their new 60,000 seater stadium, Spurs, Chelsea & Arsenal aswell as Millwall, Palace and even Gillingham on a more local level. Cardiff for instance have a massive city to themselves aswell as other sizable towns such as Barry, Newport etc... fair enough they do have to compete with the more popular Rugby Union .
If rumours are to be believed we've had a few interested parties this season who have walked away when they've heard the price and/or seen the books.
I do not think that Charlton has the capacity, location and stadium to be regarded as a potential superclub.
Most recent takeovers by megarich foreigners have been of clubs with little local competition and fairly new stadia. The exception might be QPR, but the super oops are located near the west end and near to monied areas.
I really hope that I am wrong. I'd love to see us hammer Barcelona in a Super Euro Cup final before I die.
At the expense of familes homes and food
Should be able to self fund and compete but this business is not like any other
(Not even counting Reading, Watford, etc.)
Obviously all speculation but rumours that TJ is pricing himself out of any potential deals would have a massive impact on Cash cutting his losses and getting rid. With him out of the equation it may be easier to find investment.
All conjecture of course, but it might be the only way to get his dosh back. So, why not him as the new/old sugar daddy rather than a foreign moneybags?
It's no secret the board want to be in the Premeirship - that's where the big money is. Especially with the new TV deal (3x the amount of the current one), the income is ridiculously high for Premiership clubs now.
Firstly the cost of getting there is getting closer and closer to the total TV revenue for the one season that a club is guaranteed to be there. Without investing some of that money the club will almost certainly come straight back down again - and may well do so anyway.
To establish a club in the Premier League would cost so much money that it would be unthinkable that a new owner would buy it for the cost of getting there plus a mark up.
TJ is, allegedly, discovering that buying a club for a pound and loading it up with debt to get promoted doesn't make it worth £35m more inside thirty months.
I, honestly, can't see anyway anyone can make any money owning a football club. The sheer cost of financing the players wages seems to prevent any club from doing anything other than losing money. Sure, this is possible with a massive club with the history of success and almost unlimited demand for tickets for games, but if you wanted to buy, say, Arsenal it would probably set you back a billion pounds. It would take a long time to earn that back from trading profits, and let's remember that they have not won a trophy for something like eight years.
Buying Charlton (even for £1) with £40m of debts and a squad that is probably not good enough to get promoted to the Premier League means that with a £10m transfer budget and another £10m loss next season you would (if successful enough to win promotion - no mean feat) benefit to the tune of a £70m TV windfall with £60m of debt, and another c.£10m+ trading loss.
If anyone was stupid enough to pay £35m to buy the club in those circumstances they would, almost certainly, lose a fortune.
I suspect that the cash injections that have been made since the last takeover are directors loans and are repayable in the event of a change of ownership which suggests that the, actual, cost of buying the club for £35m is closer to £50m. Very few people that can afford that are stupid enough to ever consider doing it, in my view.
I may be dim tho', if we were able to start again, and our annual income was, say, £10 mil. Would not the sensible thing to do be only spend £9,999,999?
Yes it would mean tumbling down the leagues, certainly at first, but would mean the club has a chance of survival.
The only alternative is to go out of business altogether, or be a rich persons plaything, or win the euro millions, or get a sugar daddy, or hope that the cargo cultists are right!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult
I do think we should sit them in the East stand it looked minging from the West stand for Bolton and with the pitch too really desolate.
or we would have new owners by now i think.