BoysInBlue
Player Valuation: £50m
I'm a concerned Evertonian, I'm 'not BU'. Nobody is 'BU'; it's not a political allegiance or a football team you support. We are all Evertonians; some of us are just more concerned and quizzical about the financial state of the club and how it is run than others. This isn't meant to patronise or disrespect anyone else, that's just a simple fact.
I respect your point of view, however there's a few things I'd like to reply to.
Firstly, the stadium issue is a complete red herring. What are Liverpool doing now - are they building a new stadium? No, they are now redeveloping their ground through regeneration of the surrounding area. Why can't we do that? It's the Football Quarter idea, again originally suggested and supported by the Blue Union group. People can knock the Blue Union, say they have no time for them, but bit by bit, their ideas are being heard and are being used by both clubs. In Everton's instance, the use of Inner City Sports investment, originally suggested by the Blue Union 18 months ago.
To say 'nobody is buying football clubs' is an utter fallacy; Leicester were bought, Cardiff were bought, Southampton were bought.
You're right, it isn't Bill's fault he hasn't got the money; however it is Bill's fault that he's asking for £120m for a club that has no assets and has £44m worth of hard debt. The asking price, coupled with the club's liabilities is the reason why there's no investment for us. There's no other reason, nothing to do with global brands etc. We've been a top 6/7 club in the richest league shown around the world for the last 7 years. People know who we are. The small time thinking that we're not in the same class as the Chelseas, Arsenals, Tottenhams etc is a fallacy perpetuated by the club, to check expectations, because their own abilities in running the club are severely lacking.
We don't need a Sheikh or a Russian, we need someone willing to invest - an Ellis Short would do, but crucially we need to be run better. It's simply not good enough to make less a season on a shirt deal and sponsorship deal than Swansea and WBA. Are those two global names?
As for the Blue Union - they have repeatedly said they only have one main aim - to have the club reasonably priced in accordance to what is truly worth and have independent individuals actively sell the club. Why should the Blue Union have plan Bs? The club don't; and they're the ones running the club.
In closing, again the stadium thing is a red herring; with some imagination and investment much smaller than 100s of millions, things could be done to improve the ground. If the club was reasonably priced it would almost certainly be sold. There is no excuse at all for the lack of transparency. The mistakes made along the way - banking £10m for Bellefield and giving it straight to the Banks, building Finch Farm and renting out for £1.5m a season on a 50 year lease, when we could have bought it outright for... £10m when it was first built, is just shocking short term business sense. There are so many other examples I could come up with.
It's such a shame that some Evertonians 'have no time for the Blue Union' when all they are doing is pointing out how appallingly run the club is and actively suggesting how the club can improve i.e.the Football Quarter idea, bringing in professionals to sell the club at a reasonable price etc. Thankfully this attitude of believing everything the club does is great is waning greatly, as shown by the 23000 mobilised to protest the badge, as shown by the Shareholders Association having enough and successfully forcing the club by legal petition to hold an EGM on June 26th at the Phillamonic Hall.
Things do not have to be the way they are, and thankfully some people are prepared to fight for the club to regain its place amongst the upper echelons in this country.
