Crucial Period

[HungForALamb]

Ho ho ho. How's this for a more short-term scenario? Our beloved DCFC keeps flailing for the rest of this year -- then we suffer our usual post-Christmas SLUMP!

[DCFC1976]

25 minutes ago, Gaspode said:

A couple of points:

1. The EFL wouldn’t have been asked to approve the takeover of it wasn’t a genuine proposal

 2. The club wouldn’t have released a statement saying they had an agreement ‘in principle’ if they hadn’t

I appreciate the football side of things is particularly depressing at the moment, but the level of negativity displayed by some posters is ridiculous.....

Absolutely right! 
There’s no evidence to suggest the takeover, in fact the opposite, general consensus is that it happens the only unknown is to what level in terms of investment in players, ground and surrounding area etc..

[Rammed79]

A sheikh is not going to buy Derby county because he enjoys watching 0-0 draws in the championship/league1 . I think they mean business yes were in a poo position now but we are in for one crazy ride . 

[G-Ram]

Why cant the new owners just gift the club £100m or sponsor the stadium. Investment by giving the club a large loan at zero interest that we dont have to pay back for 10 year. 

Surely if the new owners want to inject their own money then they should be allowed. 

They'll be a way round things anyway

[Dean (hick) Saunders]

Scenario Z.

We go on a 20 match winning run and get promoted this year and the whole forum are gutted that it was all done with no fans watching.

[CornwallRam]

I agree with the OP - anything is possible from here.

The most likely  scenario I see is the takeover happens on Tuesday. Cocu is put on gardening leave and Rooney takes over as manager. We get relegated. The new owner turns out to be a  businessman after a profit and won't put a penny in.

We appoint Paul Williams as manager. We have a fire sale to raise the cash to keep going. Fans allowed back in in September but disappointing sales lead the club to close the East Stand. We finish 18th in League 1. We downgrade to a level 3 academy. The owner announces the club is up for sale. Several winding up orders are staved off. Our remaining saleable players leave. We avoid relegation on goal difference.

Rams Trust organise a go fund me to buy the club - it raises £723. Paul Williams leaves and Jake Buxton is appointed. We go into administration and are docked 12 points. We get relegated as the end of the season.

Peter Gadsby buys us out of admin for £1. Shaun Barker takes over as manager. That proves to be a master stroke. Five years later we're back in the Championship. Gadsby says he's taken the club as far as he can and sells to a fantastically wealthy businessman from Grimsby. Apparently this guy - lets call him Dave, made all his cash from running a website where thousands of people chatted about the club. Dave used his billions to fund a team which got promoted with the highest ever points total and is now sitting pretty at the top of the Premier League.

[CornwallRam]

17 minutes ago, G-Ram said:

Why cant the new owners just gift the club £100m or sponsor the stadium. Investment by giving the club a large loan at zero interest that we dont have to pay back for 10 year. 

Surely if the new owners want to inject their own money then they should be allowed. 

They'll be a way round things anyway

Because capital doesn't count as profit and sponsorship deals are vetted by the EFL and have to reflect a fair market value.

And yes FFP/P&S is a terrible idea.

[Topram]

1 hour ago, 24Charlie said:

So much in the offing here.

Scenario 1. New owner piles on. Stadium gets expanded to 44,000 plaza gets built. Pride Park becomes the premier destination venue for non football related stadium events in the East Midlands.
On the football side a top quality manager brought in and Owner happy to build a championship winning team in a season and a half then back heavily in the PL and we become a force in Europe.

Scenario 2. Owner is all talk and doesn’t take over leaving us with Mel who wants rid but isn’t prepared to pay Cocu off. Mood around the place becomes toxic and we nosedive to relegation.

Of course there are a multitude of scenarios that could evolve including Cocu walks. Rosenior takes over and guides us to the prem via the play-offs. Sir Liam Rosenior looks back in 30 years having guided England to their second consecutive World Cup, at the 24 years he spent at the helm of DCFC. 
 

The fact is we are at a crossroads and right know I have no idea where we are going.

Please feel free to add your own scenario.

 

Interesting time to be a Ram.

Fear number 2 aswell just doesn’t seem much truth in this guys capital, Is he rich is he not? Just doesn’t seem anything concrete in his wealth! I know we won’t hear anything from him before it’s done but if/ when it is done it would be nice to hear from him his plans etc 

[Ramarena]

Scenario 1 isn’t happening. It didn’t make sense pre Covid and it’ll make even less sense post covid!

[Steve How Hard?]

30 minutes ago, CornwallRam said:

Gadsby says he's taken the club as far as he can and sells to a fantastically wealthy businessman from Grimsby. Apparently this guy - lets call him Dave, made all his cash from running a website where thousands of people chatted about the club. Dave used his billions to fund a team which got promoted with the highest ever points total and is now sitting pretty at the top of the Premier League.

Ha, ha beat me to it. I had the same thought. I was gonna say he bought the club for a pound after the club spiralled down the football ladder to the brink of going out of business. He immediately installs Chris Martin as manager after a poll on his website overwhelming votes for him to be  appointed. @RoyMac5 vehemently denies rigging the vote which is irrelevant as CM successfully leads Derby back up the football pyramid, culminating in a Champions League final appearance. The managers son Chris Martin Jnr scores a hat trick as Derby romp to victory. In the euphoria @RoyMac5 admits he may have voted more than once in the manager poll. @David forgives him and everybody lives happily ever after. 

[Sparkle]

1 hour ago, irobinson said:

We don’t fill 33000 - lets work on that first 

Plus in addition there will be a lot less people going to football matches in the next five years especially because of the covid virus and an awful lot of people have and will be losing their jobs and can’t afford what is basically an expensive experience 

[GenBr]

1. We couldn't fill our current stadium even when we were reporting made up attendances a couple of years ago. What are we going to do with 20,000 empty seats every game - fill them with carboard cut outs like some clubs do now for Covid? If he owns another club or gets some cheap players from his compadres at Man City he could build a Championship winning club, but otherwise he is still faces the same constraints we do now thanks to FFP.

2. I miss the booing

Scenario 3. We become the Man City of League 1 (has a nice ring to it don't you think). There are no limits on transfer fees in that league - not even FFP, so we buy a crap ton of amazing players and just pay them all in end of season bonuses if they get us into the Championship and again if into the Prem.

1 hour ago, Gaspode said:

1. The EFL wouldn’t have been asked to approve the takeover of it wasn’t a genuine proposal

Luckily the EFL would never let any charlatans through their cast iron "fit and proper" persons assessment - I challenge anyone to name even one club where they might have dropped the ball. Fortunately for us we are on good terms with the EFL though, so I'm sure they will do everything in their power to make sure everything is legit here.

 

[Rab a dab doo]

I think from now on every match is crucial, not only for future of this 'great' club but also for the individual players and staff if they want to remain here. 

The wind change is about to blow through the club and who know who it will take out the door with it. 

[rammieib]

2 hours ago, 24Charlie said:

We had to turn people away in our worst team in history year. I think we’ll get another 10k with a top challenging team.

Let’s not forget it was built with this scenario in mind. It’s not like forest trying to get a 50k seater stadium built for the World Cup bid. That would really have been funny seeing the rattle around inside that.

We don't have the catchment area. People are poorer, the city is poorer, the football is a lot more expensive etc

If we turn into a Liverpool or Man City (we won't but I'm being stupid) we may get to the 35k mark but be realistic, in recent years we've just been hitting 24 to 25k (excluding away fans) and either not selling out Forest or only doing so at the last minute.

[CornwallRam]

2 minutes ago, rammieib said:

We don't have the catchment area. People are poorer, the city is poorer, the football is a lot more expensive etc

If we turn into a Liverpool or Man City (we won't but I'm being stupid) we may get to the 35k mark but be realistic, in recent years we've just been hitting 24 to 25k (excluding away fans) and either not selling out Forest or only doing so at the last minute.

We got 33k with a smaller local population. To say we don't have the catchment are makes no sense. Our catchment area is the same - but with more people in it.

Things may be tighter at present, but the prices can be reduced. Better football played at a higher level would soon bring the crowds back. As  a top ten Premier League club we could easily fill a 40,000 seater stadium.

[rammieib]

Just now, CornwallRam said:

We got 33k with a smaller local population. To say we don't have the catchment are makes no sense. Our catchment area is the same - but with more people in it.

Things may be tighter at present, but the prices can be reduced. Better football played at a higher level would soon bring the crowds back. As  a top ten Premier League club we could easily fill a 40,000 seater stadium.

So why did we struggle to fill a smaller capacity stadium in the Jim Smith days?

Cracking football and under £25 a ticket could get you 35k including away fans but that's it.

Too many illegal streams these days as well making it easy. 

I just hope we don't expand it.

[Rammy03]

13 minutes ago, rammieib said:

We don't have the catchment area. People are poorer, the city is poorer, the football is a lot more expensive etc

Last game of the lampard season we had a full stadium. We always fill it when we're doing well. If we get into the premier League and stay there we will easily fill a 40k stadium. If the unthinkable happens and we start playing in Europe, you can expand it even more. I think you underestimate the size of our fanbase.

[CornwallRam]

13 minutes ago, rammieib said:

So why did we struggle to fill a smaller capacity stadium in the Jim Smith days?

Cracking football and under £25 a ticket could get you 35k including away fans but that's it.

Too many illegal streams these days as well making it easy. 

I just hope we don't expand it.

We didn't, we averaged over 29,500 without the corner stands. 

Bear in mind we had just moved from the BBG which ended with a 16k capacity, so fewer people were in the habit of attending games regularly. 

[rammieib]

40 minutes ago, CornwallRam said:

We didn't, we averaged over 29,500 without the corner stands. 

Bear in mind we had just moved from the BBG which ended with a 16k capacity, so fewer people were in the habit of attending games regularly. 

Around 1999 it was extended to 33,500. So those last two or three seasons we were at 90% capacity including away fans, often of which back then we gave the away team the whole of the South stand.

The freak 11-point season I agree we sold out.

However as an average, we don't have the demand in my opinion and I really don't want 30,000 in a 44,000 stadium. I think it's crap when its 25k in a 33k and looks far emptier. I'd sooner have 30k - 33k and sell it out than have 30-35k in a 44k.

[Rampage]

5 hours ago, 24Charlie said:

So much in the offing here.

Scenario 1. New owner piles on. Stadium gets expanded to 44,000 plaza gets built. Pride Park becomes the premier destination venue for non football related stadium events in the East Midlands.
On the football side a top quality manager brought in and Owner happy to build a championship winning team in a season and a half then back heavily in the PL and we become a force in Europe.

Scenario 2. Owner is all talk and doesn’t take over leaving us with Mel who wants rid but isn’t prepared to pay Cocu off. Mood around the place becomes toxic and we nosedive to relegation.

Of course there are a multitude of scenarios that could evolve including Cocu walks. Rosenior takes over and guides us to the prem via the play-offs. Sir Liam Rosenior looks back in 30 years having guided England to their second consecutive World Cup, at the 24 years he spent at the helm of DCFC. 
 

The fact is we are at a crossroads and right know I have no idea where we are going.

Please feel free to add your own scenario.

 

Interesting time to be a Ram.

Option One please 24C