The New Raith Rovers Thread

[Enigma]

7 minutes ago, Michael W said:

The real value of the stadium is not what it is built on it. 

It’s not worth much without it either in the grand scheme of things.

Edited December 28, 2022 by Enigma

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

 Far east betting syndicate anyone?

 

[Nairney]

If Sim has been talking to this group for six weeks, what was the purpose of the public appeal for investment?

Was it a way of giving fans a heads up that he was looking to sell up / open the door to foreign investors, after saying previously he’d prefer not to do that?

Or was it a negotiating tactic / threat if things were stalling?

Perhaps, like a lot of things at Raith Rovers, it was just a chaotic ramble with little sense behind it?

[Always next quarter]

Reeks of a whole new level of weirdness about to land. Folk with zero connection to the town but bundles of cash to do as they wish with a plaything.

At best we see them nurture the club to sell at profit (how many have tried before at our level?)

At worst it's curtains. Money is the only motivation accross such company's.  Should it go tits up locals whingeing will mean hee haw while they cash in an investment.

Gordon Smith is of equal concern, can't manage his own money never mind knowing what's best for us. How long till his connections smell an opportunity to make hay. 

Foreign investment bingo is already in full swing;

Nurture talent, invest in youth, sell on for profit, I'm waiting on news of the Silverbear talent school that will provide the talent. 

Why not go the full hog and rename us FC Silverbear ?

Desperately hope I review this post and feel silly in the future but ain't holding my breath.

This isn't comparable to debating with and questioning Sim. This is likely to be the biggest change at the top in our entire history. 

Thankfully all that pessimism is counter balanced by the clubs reassuring communication. Oh wait!!

 

[Rovers_Lad]

To be fair,the whole press article was a ramble full of contradictions

[Michael W]

25 minutes ago, Enigma said:

It’s not worth much without it either in the grand scheme of things.

In isolation, agreed. At risk of going all Colin McGowan, you could easily get a couple of hundred flats on that land. 

[Enigma]

2 minutes ago, Michael W said:

In isolation, agreed. At risk of going all Colin McGowan, you could easily get a couple of hundred flats on that land. 

You could probably do that elsewhere in Kirkcaldy, with less fuss.

[Rovers_Lad]

Not so sure if it would be deemed as prime land

Probably cost more to knock SP down, clear and level the land and make ready for property or whatever

[SanStarko]

1 hour ago, TxRover said:

That’s a pretty good summary of the WTF side of the equation. It would seem more likely they either represent someone trying to enter sports ownership/management or, just perhaps, someone inside Chinese football who may be trying to acquire a series teams across leagues to improve recruitment. It’s just post World Cup, and once again there was no representation from the world’s most populous (for now) country. There is a policy, at the National level, within China that is encouraging development of Chinese football talent, and a goal of World Cup participation, if not domination.

Other thought, after checking out the people at Silverbear, these two jumped out:

“DOUGLAS WIESENTHAL
Partner – Sports Investment Banking 

Mr. Wiesenthal is a US trained attorney (J.D. Emory Law School 1980) with an MBA from the IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain (1988). He has been working in professional sports in Spain since 1988.

A serial entrepreneur, he has successfully started three sports businesses, representing professional golfers, professional handball players and professional football players.

Prior to the FIFA ban in 2015, Mr. Wiesenthal was also active in third party player investment, working with football players and clubs both in Europe and in South America.

Starting with an initial investment of $500,000 in 2006, by 2012, he and his partner, Alberto Argibay, generated more than $14,000,000 in revenue from player sales.

 

ANDRÉ GIELING
Partner – Sports Investment Banking 

Mr. Gieling, 52 years old and living in Holland and Spain, is an ex football player of Ajax Amsterdam. He was playing there for seven years and was considered to be one of the biggest talents of Holland that time.

After six knee-operations (five at only one knee), his agent (the famous Cor Coster, father in law of superstar Johan Cruijff) became his companion.

The old Coster and Gieling have worked for 15 years together in the world of football transfers. Gieling is now 32 years in this business, made more than 200 deals and transferred some of the biggest names.

In all the years Gieling (and his worldwide network) have made some clubs very rich. Many times they brought very cheap or free players to clubs in Europe. Later the players were sold for huge amounts of money.

Gieling thinks and knows that it’s very lucrative to be the owner of one or more club(s). The relatively cheap players will be scouted by the network, be trained and managed through the best specialists he knows and transferred through the same network of (old) players and coaches.”

 

Reading the bio on those two does kinda hint towards why they're looking at buying us.  Have your own club to bring players in for free or cheap to then punt on a couple of seasons later for profit. You'd get far more money back from transfers if you had an English club, but that would be a lot more expensive to buy and run whereas a Scottish club is relatively cheap to buy and run and they probably don't think will cost that much to get into the top league.  They're probably looking at a £150k loss per season as pennies compared to what they expect to bring in from selling players on.

But of course they could end up going the Anelka route and bring in a load of guys who can barely play football and it all goes tits up.  

Edited December 28, 2022 by SanStarko

[grumswall]

2 minutes ago, Enigma said:

You could probably do that elsewhere in Kirkcaldy, with less fuss.

There's plenty of land available for development for that sort of thing which will as you say have a lot less fuss. 

Is Scottish football still so backwards thinking that we can accept foreign investment? Football rarely makes sense but the game has moved in this direction now. As long as the clubs future is secure then we just need to accept it and hope it works out. Hopefully they value the fan aspect of it and continue to have fan representation on the board etc. 

[grumswall]

4 minutes ago, SanStarko said:

Reading the bio on those two does kinda hint towards why they're looking at buying us.  Have your own club to bring players in for free or cheap to then punt on a couple of seasons later for profit. You'd get far more money back from transfers if you had an English club, but that would be a lot more expensive to buy and run whereas a Scottish club is relatively cheap to buy and run and they probably don't think will cost that much to get into the top league.  They're probably looking at a £150k loss per season as pennies compared to what they expect to bring in from selling players on.

But of course they could end up going the Anelka route and bring in a load of guys who can barely play football and it all goes tits up.  

Maybe we finally end up being the third force of Scottish football like he promised

[Broken Algorithms]

4 minutes ago, SanStarko said:

Reading the bio on those two does kinda hint towards why they're looking at buying us.  Have your own club to bring players in for free or cheap to then punt on a couple of seasons later for profit. You'd get far more money back from transfers if you had an English club, but that would be a lot more expensive to buy and run whereas a Scottish club is relatively cheap to buy and run.  They're probably looking at a £150k loss per season as pennies compared to what they expect to bring in from selling players on.

But of course they could end up going the Anelka route and bring in a load of guys who can barely play football and it all goes tits up.  

Probably worth mentioning, if they're bringing in players it'll likely be UK based. We had to wait an age to get Frederiksen in due to work permits. 

[TxRover]

40 minutes ago, Michael W said:

The real value of the stadium is not what it is built on it. 

 

3 minutes ago, Michael W said:

In isolation, agreed. At risk of going all Colin McGowan, you could easily get a couple of hundred flats on that land. 

So I figure it’s between 4 and 4.5 acres of land, with a very poor shape. Is there actual demand to build there? I suspect the only way it would be truly development viable was if you could acquire the properties on the west side of Pratt Street all the way to the old ICI station, and perhaps the properties north of Mill Street. You add those in, you’ve got an easy 6 acres or so with good road access and a developable shape. But the costs involved would seem to make this a much less attractive proposition than any number of other areas.

[Broken Algorithms]

24 minutes ago, grumswall said:

There's plenty of land available for development for that sort of thing which will as you say have a lot less fuss. 

Is Scottish football still so backwards thinking that we can accept foreign investment? Football rarely makes sense but the game has moved in this direction now. As long as the clubs future is secure then we just need to accept it and hope it works out. Hopefully they value the fan aspect of it and continue to have fan representation on the board etc. 

Honestly, if you're building flats in Kirkcaldy, there's probably few areas as undesirable as the land on Stark's Park. Firstly, you're going to piss off about 2000 people off the bat. Even if you're not bothered by that, then the area Stark's isn't going to offer great money. If you look on any property search, you'll see the flats on Pratt and Mill Street up at relatively cheap prices. Even if you're not buying for yourself, the buy to let market seems to be going down the shitter (which is fucking tremendous news but that's a side point). 

Edited December 28, 2022 by Broken Algorithms

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

2 minutes ago, Broken Algorithms said:

Honestly, if you're building flats in Kirkcaldy, there's probably few areas as desirable as the land on Stark's Park. Firstly, you're going to piss off about 2000 people off the bat. Even if you're not bothered by that, then the area Stark's isn't going to offer great money. If you look on any property search, you'll see the flats on Pratt and Mill Street up at relatively cheap prices. Even if you're not buying for yourself, the buy to let market seems to be going down the shitter (which is fucking tremendous news but that's a side point). 

Construction/demolition adjacent the railway has it's hassles, f**k having Network Rail telling you what you can and cannot do, and if it involves closing the line, they charge you a Kings randsome for the privelige.

[Frank conner]

8 minutes ago, Broken Algorithms said:

Honestly, if you're building flats in Kirkcaldy, there's probably few areas as desirable as the land on Stark's Park. Firstly, you're going to piss off about 2000 people off the bat. Even if you're not bothered by that, then the area Stark's isn't going to offer great money. If you look on any property search, you'll see the flats on Pratt and Mill Street up at relatively cheap prices. Even if you're not buying for yourself, the buy to let market seems to be going down the shitter (which is fucking tremendous news but that's a side point). 

There's enough building going on in Kirkcaldy as it is the land that Stark's Park is on is virtually worthless. 

[TxRover]

7 minutes ago, Broken Algorithms said:

Probably worth mentioning, if they're bringing in players it'll likely be UK based. We had to wait an age to get Frederiksen in due to work permits. 

Honestly, if they are looking to do this kinda thing, I’d expect to see them also buying into an English team around Tier 4 or 5 (League Two or National League). Gives you a chance to expand your recruitment and switch things up. Run a small academy with the two teams, possibly a youth setup at both teams and the academy in Scotland (for the lower costs).

[lellywong]

I'm one of the wait and see what happens.  No point in surmising until we know what is actually happening.  Maybe a good thing, time will tell 

[TxRover]

1 minute ago, lellywong said:

I'm one of the wait and see what happens.  No point in surmising until we know what is actually happening.  Maybe a good thing, time will tell 

But that doesn’t keep the thread up top on P&B!

[Beachbum]

7 minutes ago, TxRover said:

But that doesn’t keep the thread up top on P&B!

You do that all by yourself most days.