The Everton Board Thread (Inc. Bill Kenwright / Blue Union)

Is it time for Change...???

  • Kenwright an the Board out, We need Change.

    Votes: 503 80.0%

  • Im Happy with the way thing are. Kenwright an the Board should stay

    Votes: 126 20.0%
  • Total voters
    629
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milks said:
Can't disagree with much of this. My concern at the pishpoor commercial management of EFC is all over here. However, given that the playing assets are our most valuable asset, and given that we have a far superior track record than any other club of producing Premier League talent, then perhaps such a high investment in the academy and player training is warranted?

I'd love for us to be able to increase that revenue stream sufficiently to reduce the "85%" figure, but where we are at the moment is telling, and buying cheap and selling high remains the current board's income stream.
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A recipe for disaster in the long, or even medium, term though. Let's hope that things (i.e. the Board) change soon.
 
milks said:
somuchfun beat me to the punch here. Don't read into this too literally. 85% of our income does not go to paying the rent on Finch Farm or 'servicing this arrangement', more that it's supplementing the salaries and investing in the coaching and development aspects of the club.

I have the particulars for Finch Farm here. It was being remarketed as an investment opportunity at a guide price £15m last year. Not sure if it transacted as I'm out of the property industry these days and have lost touch with many of my contacts. EFC pay approx £1.2m pa and this is paid directly out of the Sky TV revenue to offer a guarantee to the buyer.
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I think i got a bit carried away writing that; i know we don't pay 85% towards just Finch Farm, otherwise we wouldn't be operating anymore and we really would be in trouble.

My rant was more aimed towards the remaning 15%, and as pointed out how can you transform a falling 'business' on such a tightrope; this takes me back to my initial comment and my aggression at things like the Kitbag deal and just the Senior Managements outlook on an even balance sheet, regardless of the long term affects on the club. There will be no growth within the club, thats the scary part; unless the idea is to produce young talent and sell them off one after the other because i don;t think there is much left in the club to sell

I know you mentioned that we pay £1.2m per year in rent, but i'm sure there are other costs associated with it. Can't remember where i heard it but i'll search the net after and see if i can dig up the article
 
Funny how every one is now slating as when they were put in it was seen as a decent deal 4 us and a vast improvement on the messing about we got from jjb
 
milks said:
Can't disagree with much of this. My concern at the pishpoor commercial management of EFC is all over here. However, given that the playing assets are our most valuable asset, and given that we have a far superior track record than any other club of producing Premier League talent, then perhaps such a high investment in the academy and player training is warranted?

I'd love for us to be able to increase that revenue stream sufficiently to reduce the "85%" figure, but where we are at the moment is telling, and buying cheap and selling high remains the current board's income stream.
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A mere assertion.

chris_b said:
Funny how every one is now slating as when they were put in it was seen as a decent deal 4 us and a vast improvement on the messing about we got from jjb
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Everyone certainly did NOT take that view.
 
Funny - I must remember wrong then - but JJB were slated cos despite the fact they were our partners they never sold any of our stuff in their shops as we were drowned amongst the big boys.

The first think Kitbag did was to open Everton 2 - which people complained before about us not doing.

People need to face facts that when it comes to selling Everton merchandise outside Everton shops - there is limited appeal - nobody bought it - thtat was why JJB stopped selling it in the first place.
 
chris_b said:
Funny - I must remember wrong then - but JJB were slated cos despite the fact they were our partners they never sold any of our stuff in their shops as we were drowned amongst the big boys.

The first think Kitbag did was to open Everton 2 - which people complained before about us not doing.

People need to face facts that when it comes to selling Everton merchandise outside Everton shops - there is limited appeal - nobody bought it - thtat was why JJB stopped selling it in the first place.
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It's not the British market that needs to be targeted as much, we need to be targeting the likes of Thailand, the US and Australia, where we already have some influence. Just look at the Australian and American posters who have to use the Everton Store online, which has a less than brilliant delivery service internationally. We ought to be moving into these markets, but because of the exclusivity deal with Kitbag, we can't easily.
 
chris_b said:
Funny - I must remember wrong then - but JJB were slated cos despite the fact they were our partners they never sold any of our stuff in their shops as we were drowned amongst the big boys.

The first think Kitbag did was to open Everton 2 - which people complained before about us not doing.

People need to face facts that when it comes to selling Everton merchandise outside Everton shops - there is limited appeal - nobody bought it - thtat was why JJB stopped selling it in the first place.
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Fair to say people were relieved JJB were gone and gave a cautious welcome to Kitbag. It was all a desertion of in-house principles though...another lazy 'give us the wedge upfront' attitude from an ownership who just dont care about doing things properly.
 
Yes lcs do i nice range in leisure wear,and hit the retail target, that being the fans who want to buy Everton merchandise.
With the decline in high st retailing and the fast growing trend towards online shopping,this has been a smart move by the clubs commercial department.
Though I've no doubt many will have a different view on this.
 
Followeverton.com joins BU

FollowEverton.com statement: Why we’re backing the Blue UnionFollowEverton.com today announce our affiliation with the Everton fans group “The Blue Unionâ€. As a group of fans we have become disillusioned with our club and cannot sit by and watch it slowly die in the way it is at the moment. We believe Bill Kenwright and the current board have made significant failures in the running of the club, we believe the fans have been lied to on more than one occasion and that if things continue it won’t be long before we’re watching 20 second highlights of our team on the BBC’s “The Football League Showâ€. We believe the reason we have not been sold is an unreasonably high asking price and that it should be lowered to give us a fighting chance.FAILURES OF KENWRIGHT AND THE BOARD:

The King’s Dock: The King’s Dock would have been a fantastic stadium for Everton Football Club, a state-of-the-art 55,000 capacity stadium on the Albert Dock waterfront. Bill Kenwright called it the “best in the worldâ€. He claimed the £30m required for the deal was “ringfencedâ€. It fell through.

Fortress Sports Fund: In 2004 we were told that an investment grouped called The Fortress Sports Fund were to invest £30m into Everton. We were told the money would be in the bank by Monday. It never arrived.

The Dan Gosling affair: In 2010 the young Everton player was out of contract, the club agreed a new deal with the player but forgot to put in writing, Gosling changed his mind and walked out for free meaning the club lost out on compensation which should have been due because of the player’s age.

Everton place: In 2010 the club proudly announced their plans for a new development to be built at the Park End. It was meant to host a new club shop, a cafe, offices, a museum and hospitality. It was due for completion in 2011 but nothing has happened and it has been shelved. Former Director of Communications Ian Ross blamed “IT issuesâ€, CEO Robert Elstone blamed “insurance problemsâ€. Its turns out Everton didn’t own the land in the first place.

NTL: Under Walter Smith Kenwright thought he’d got a deal with media company NTL worth £27m. Walter Smith was allowed to spend some of the money under the pretence that this would happen. It fell through.

Rooney: Bill Kenwright claimed he’d only sell Wayne Rooney for £50m, he sold him for £27m.

Kirkby: Much money and effort was spent in trying to move Everton Football Club out of the city of Liverpool to Kirkby. We were promised a world class stadium with fantastic public transport, what we would have got was not what we were promised. We were promised an effectively free stadium funded by Tesco, the public enquiry found this to not be true, with the actual cost to Everton being over £70million. Like all of the above, the plan ultimately failed.

AGMs: Everton have now banned AGMs where fans get a chance to ask questions to the board. The club now claim they speak to fans through their “Fans Forumâ€. Yet the people on this forum are chosen by the club and have discussed hard pressing matters such as whether to play Z Cars before the second half or not.

The finances: This is the real issue. Until Darren Gibson signed for £500,000 (the sort of fee a League One club would expect to pay for a big signing), Everton had not purchased a senior player in 2 and a half years. This is despite the sales of: Mikel Arteta, Jermaine Beckford, Yakubu, James Vaughan, Steven Pienaar , John Ruddy and Lukas Jutkiewicz. Not to mention countless outgoing loans which carry fees, including two season long loans for Joseph Yobo, a few James Vaughan loan moves, a Yakubu loan move and various other youngsters heading to Football League clubs. Add into the equation the fact that we sold Bellefield for £9m. This is quite frankly not acceptable.

Assets: Everton Football Club has few assets. The club’s superb Finch Farm training ground was sold to raise cash and is being leased back at a high rate which will cost the club a lot of money in the long run, a quite frankly idiotic business plan. The only assets the club have left are the 120 year old stadium and an ageing squad of players.

Debt: Despite selling all these players and not paying for new players, our debt has remained stable. Robert Elstone highlights the stability of this debt in his blogs as a good thing. Does this mean we have to keep selling our best players without replacing them to keep the debt stable? If so expect Rodwell or Barkley to go this summer. We cannot continue to sell players without giving David Moyes the proceeds and not expect to get relegated sooner or later.THE SALE OF THE FOOTBALL CLUB

Bill Kenwright has claimed there is no better salesman for Everton than him. But after searching 24/7 for investment for however many years it is now this is quite clearly not true. All we have got close to is selling to a man in a 2 bed flat in Manchester. We keep being told about these “interested partiesâ€, there’s normally 3, we tend to hear about this around the time of protests and nothing ever happens.

Asking price: In an interview with Sky Sports News a few months ago, Keith Harris, appointed to help sell Everton, was asked if £150m would be enough to buy Everton. “You’re not far wrong†was his reply. We find this simply staggering. We have no assets, they’ve all been sold, we have a lot of debt, why on earth would anyone want to pay £150m for a club with no assets and debt? On top of that a new stadium is required, the training ground needs to be bought back, and new players are desperately needed. So it seems plainly obvious why we’ve not been sold. If Kenwright really loved the club he would lower the asking price and give it a chance of being sold, making a profit should not be on the agendaLIES

We’ve been lied to on a number of occasions and highlight just 2 of these below, this should not be tolerated at all.

Goodison safety certificate: When trying to move the club to Kirkby Bill Kenwright told fans in an interview on ITV4 that Goodison would soon fail its safety certificate. 4 years later it still hasn’t and there no longer appears to be an urgency to move which you’d think there would be if Goodison was to soon be declared unsafe.

Arteta money: We all knew we were in financial meltdown so when we received £10m for him from Arsenal we all knew it would go straight to the bank (minus the sell on fee owed to Real Sociedad). The Liverpool Echo knew it too and reported that that was where the money would go. Everton made them retract this and apologise as it apparently wasn’t true. Yet a few weeks ago David Moyes said it had all gone to the bank and he thought everyone knew that.WHY WE THINK IT’S WORTHWHILE PUBLICLY BACKING THE BLUE UNION

We feel that are far too many fans who are uneducated as to the true facts. There are some fans whom will only use the official website for Everton news and are thus being fed spin and propaganda from the club and are believing every word. This was highlighted no more so than in the leaked emails where Robert Elstone sent an email planning a string of interviews with former and current players telling the fans nice things about the board just before the first Blue Union protest, as well as claiming the Liverpool Echo “owe themâ€. We feel the more websites there are who are publishing the facts of Kenwright’s reign, the more chance there is of Evertonians learning what is actually going on which we feel is important. We think pressure on the chairman and the board needs to be kept up, and if our fans can be united in that pressure then that can only help.THE OTHER SIDE OF COIN

We hate the fan base being split, but it’s even more frustrating when the arguments from the other side of the debate who are against the Blue Union are so weak and bereft of facts. The most common things said are: “but he’s an Evertonianâ€, “protesting is for kopites†and “Bill’s trying his bestâ€. The fact that Bill is an Evertonian is irrelevant, we’re all Evertonians but that doesn’t mean we’re fit to run the club. He has been able to get away with murder because he’s one of us, if he wasn’t an Evertonian he’d have been hounded out of town a long time ago. We’ve held off protesting for a while now, but it is at the point now where doing nothing is not option, the club is dying in front of our eyes and we have to try whatever we can to urge Bill Kenwright to forget about making money, and just sell the club for a reasonable price to someone who can take it forward. If Bill is trying his best then quite frankly his best isn’t good enough.If we continue down this path we will unquestionably be relegated, the message from us is simple: Please Bill, lower your asking price, find the right buyer and get this club sold before it sinks into oblivion. If you love the club, let go
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You cant ignore the tide is turning....
 
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