All Livershite posts in here please.

[tsubaki]

I suspect that after all this hoohaa has died down the RS will improve on the pitch, but still they don't have enough quality to be near the top four, maybe even top 6. I suspect they will start to haemorrhage their glory supporters. Which glory supporter wants to fly from Oslo to see their team scrap out a draw against Blackburn in a midtable clash, or travel to see them play the team currently fifth in the moldovan league in the Europa?

its not just the tourists - if the glory days fail to return (which as you point out is quite likely given utd, city, arsenal and chelsea being a lot stronger than them) then all the anti-yank banners will be back.

 

[davek]

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/live...ge-club-s-board-of-directors-100252-27422139/

Hicks saying Broughton had no authority to stop boardroom changes.


The other thing is that - as pointed out elsewhere - Broughton and the others on the board were making public statements knocking back H&G attempts to refinance the debt when they were some way down the line trying to shoehorn NESV into pole position. How can they have been deemed to be operating without a conflict interest?

 

[teppic]

Loving the twist here. Hicks is ace.

 

[neonleon]

I like the fact that people say henry did well by maximising the red sox merchandising capabilities, and so we can expect liverpoolfootballclub to improve their revenue streams this way. Given that liverpoolfootballclub already have a liverpoolfootballclub cape and liverpoolfootballclub superhero outfit, I really can't see what there is left to merchandise. liverpoolfootballclub hovercraft? liverpoolfootballclub colostomy bags?

and as for exploiting the revenue streams of india and china, where do they think all this plastic crap is made. They could knock out "unofficial" merchandise there no problem. I can't see anyone in china paying £50 for an official shirt, when they make them for £4.

This is a great post.

China as an emerging market is difficult, because of snide replicas and as the previous post says, being the centre of manufacture they can make ripoffs quite cheaply. Any attempt at capitalising on a quarter of a million fans (or whatever share they hope to achieve) is going to be difficult. Even if these fans eventually become affluent, why buy an official shirt for £30 (or the equivalent) when you can get one that looks 100% the same for a few quid?

Sure they can exploit TV money, but china is the centre of the dodgy streams, and internet piracy. I think its a huge misnomer that the global economy increasingly centres on trying to develop China and India markets - without seeing a way to effectively monetise that market and affect sales and profit from it.

The only effective revenue stream I can see from having a good position brand wise in Asia, is via sponsorship; and companies wanting to push their brand on Asia. How lucrative that can be i don't know, but merchandising in china seems laughable.

 

[Phil Neville Superstar]

Just goes to show how poor the Red [Poor language removed]'s academy is...

Adam Pepper, once dubbed the next Wayne Rooney, recently left Liverpool to join Aberystwyth Town, who play in the highest tier of the WELSH football league.

http://www.atfc.org.uk/page.php?4

Dubbed as "Wayne Rooney 2" just a couple of years ago, Adam Pepper is a highly rated youngster who joins Aberystwyth from Liverpool. Approached by Manchester City aged just 8 years old, the Liverpudlian had no less than 8 Premier League clubs after him aged 13, and at age 14 decided to switch from boyhood club Everton to Liverpool. He was a very important part of the U-18 squad at Liverpool that reached the FA Youth Cup final in 2009. Surprisingly released in the summer of 2010, he could turn out to be one of the most important signings for the club this season.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/other-sports/2003/06/26/adam-s-keeping-his-feet-firmly-on-the-ground-100252-13113466/

 

[teppic]

Good luck fella, but it's a long way to climb back up from there.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Another player to add to the list of those who left Everton and whose career stank from there on.

 

[neonleon]

Looks like the plan to ditch Everton for the ace academy across the park didn't really work out.

Still he can pat that iconic THIS IS ABERYSTWYTH TOWN sign as he jogs onto the pitch.

 

[neonleon]

Another player to add to the list of those who left Everton and whose career stank from there on.

aye, why do they even bother anymore? Even Rooney is meeting the definition. I maintain, that even though we weren't ready for him, he'd be a more mature better person and player under Moyes than under Ferguson.

Fergie's policy has been to treat him with kid gloves most of the time.

 

[tsubaki]

I feel sorry for him, I wouldnt wish Aberystwyth and its banjo-playing hinterland on anyone.

 

[tsubaki]

an interesting article (apart from the points deduction error at the bottom):

Liverpool FC’s outcome is all about possession

There is little connection between football and business but the decision by the Liverpool FC board to sell the Premiere League club to the owner of Boston Red Sox illustrates one of the fundamentals of takeovers – bids are decided by the shareholders, not the directors.

Plenty of public company boards have found that to their cost. Cadbury’s directors bitterly opposed the bid from Kraft but the shareholders were happy to ignore them and accept: in the end, the UK board saved face by backing the Americans – and following their investors.

Liverpool FC’s owners are the Americans Tom Hicks and George Gillett and it is their shares the board, chaired by Martin Broughton, thinks it is selling. If owners think their directors are not acting in the shareholders’ interest they can replace them - and Hicks and Gillett have done just that, replacing two Broughton supporters with two of their own fans.

Yet the football club has complications not seen in most public company takeovers. Broughton claims the owners told him that only he could make board changes and that he had the right to decide Liverpool’s buyers. The courts will decide if that is so.

And there is another complication. Are Hicks and Gillett really the owners? For the moment, yes, but it seems they have pledged their shares in Liverpool to the club’s bankers as security: if the bank declines to refinance the debt it can take possession of those shares and is thus in a position to sell them to the owner of the Red Sox baseball team.

The courts may well decide that too. Repossessing the shares is not automatic. At a normal company the bank could put the company into administration, become owner of the assets and sell them to another party to recover its debt. It can do that at Liverpool, but League rules would mean the club suffering a nine-point penalty – nine points Liverpool has not got and which, if it led to relegation, would, severely damage its sale value. The Red Sox group will not want to pay £300m for a non-Premier club.

Even though this is a football club, perhaps we will see a rare outbreak of common sense and compromise, but this game is about possession and for the moment, it is Hicks and Gillett who have the ball.

http://dofonline.co.uk/blogs/the-edge/football/liverpool-fc-3453454/?

The more I see this the only way this will end is for RBS to decide either to refinance Yanks I or to put it into administration and sell to Yanks II, or some other party.

 

[pfim]

NESV leveraged local television revenue streams and game-day stadium revenues. I don't think those sources are either 1. available to them or 2. aren't already maxed out with LFC.

I don't see how this group will be investing large sums of cash into LFC. John Henry already failed to make the Florida Marlins a viable franchise. Larry Lucchino was an owner of the San Diego Padres when they went through a giant fire sale, dumping all their established stars for young, unproven players. They simply don't have the cash, their success with the Red Sox was completely dependent on the revenues the Sox generated. Maybe that's what LFC wants, but it won't necessarily be as successful.

 

[pfim]

And there is another complication. Are Hicks and Gillett really the owners? For the moment, yes, but it seems they have pledged their shares in Liverpool to the club’s bankers as security: if the bank declines to refinance the debt it can take possession of those shares and is thus in a position to sell them to the owner of the Red Sox baseball team.

Again, RBS is the party with the most power in this situation. It's fairly obvious that Broughton and his cronies were brought on at the behest of RBS and if changes were made to the charter, they were done at the request of RBS to give H&G 6 more months to get out. They want out while the asset still holds value, and don't care how much debt (likely subordinate to all other debt) Hicks and Gillette hold.

This is the risk you take when you invest large sums of money and still need to mortgage your company to the hilt. Broughton didn't "hi-jack" the club, RBS did.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2010/oct/07/liverpool-takeover-martin-broughton-rbs

 

[BlackToffee]

Sorry folks, a song (Hookey Kokey)

You get ya new yank in,
throw 2 out,
in out, in out shake them all about,
Burn the yankee flag then you turn around
What's it all about
Oh, you hate the Dallas Stars,
Oh, you love the red sox yankees
now you love the red sox yankees
That's what its all about

Sorry, a bit of irony <gets coat>

 

[Muggins]

This is a great post.

China as an emerging market is difficult, because of snide replicas and as the previous post says, being the centre of manufacture they can make ripoffs quite cheaply. Any attempt at capitalising on a quarter of a million fans (or whatever share they hope to achieve) is going to be difficult. Even if these fans eventually become affluent, why buy an official shirt for £30 (or the equivalent) when you can get one that looks 100% the same for a few quid?

Sure they can exploit TV money, but china is the centre of the dodgy streams, and internet piracy. I think its a huge misnomer that the global economy increasingly centres on trying to develop China and India markets - without seeing a way to effectively monetise that market and affect sales and profit from it.

The only effective revenue stream I can see from having a good position brand wise in Asia, is via sponsorship; and companies wanting to push their brand on Asia. How lucrative that can be i don't know, but merchandising in china seems laughable.

Indeed. The hooky gear I got out there was superb.

Straight from the widely known 'fake goods' market in the Metro station stop for the Shanghai Science & Technology Museum, bang in the middle of the 08 Olympic Games.

Thats what they are working with....

my personal favourite was questioning the legitimacy of said garments to the vendor...

"Is this fake mate?"

Confused look back....

"No, this is perfect copy..."