Derby County Administration (with the slight possibility of Liquidation still there)

[atherstoneram]

37 minutes ago, sawley_ram said:

We are and should always be Derby County! Changing to an awful name like “Derby City” would alienate so many people, hundreds of thousands, who like I live in Derbyshire and always follow the Rams!

The answer really is simple no City,no County just Derby RAMS

[i-Ram]

19 minutes ago, jono said:

I understand and in many ways agree with your sentiments, especially as we are now teetering on the brink. Mel has made a series of poor decisions that rest solely at his door, they have landed us where we are. 

I just wonder though .. how good was our underlying position really was before he came along. ? The Americans realised it wasn’t going to work financially. We had that blip with Mac 1 and the play off final but the underlying picture was frail. Prices of wages and players were going up. Losses were increasing. They weren’t prepared to splash any cash and wanted out. Mel came along and tried to keep the blip going by investing heavily .. to a certain extent he succeeded, for a while .. we had how many play off chances ? We flirted with the upper end of the league for large parts of his tenure … but was that because of inward money and support from him ? If that hadn’t happened where would we be and would we all be saying ? .. Here we are scrapping away at the bottom of the league and he never invested in any quality players, got cheap loans in. Didn’t have any ambition ? With hindsight that might have been better ! No argument. (Now …) 
 

We have been on a cliff edge since Cocu arrived I reckon. We might just have scrapped through but Covid threw us off the edge …. Now I am not saying we weren’t on the edge of that cliff for any other reason than leadership failings and choices; with prudent business conduct we should never have got that close to it, Mel should never have let us, he was in charge, it’s his failing but how we got there and where we might have been in another reality is a hugely nuanced story 

I think I read the other day that wages were running at c£15m p.a. when the Americans were in charge, but in a few short years Mel had it up to c£40m p.a.  COVID was the reason. Choices Of Vain IDiot.

Edited September 22, 2021 by i-Ram

[G STAR RAM]

11 minutes ago, i-Ram said:

As you acknowleged in your response to @The Scarlet Pimpernelabove, we dont know enough about the structure of the debts for anyone to answer accurately. In respect of the MSD debts, which I think will be in the Club's name, I fear MM would probably want the Administrator to seek redress from the club first of all, and he personally then might only settle anything still outstanding under the terms of the guarantee he has provided.

Morris suggested, ironically, that this has all come at a time when the club has a sustainable model. The model will be completely different when we are in League 1 or 2 in terms of TV revenues, sponsorship deals, season ticket and matchday revenues, etc.  Another reset of costs will be appropriate for that period, unless we have an Angel on a White Horse gagging to rescue us.

A long term mortgage to a football club is unattractive to most, if not, all mainstream lenders. The security itself is pretty unattractive because of limited alternative uses, and I cant imagine the land plus the stadium is worth anything like £80m on an earth, bricks and mortar basis. It is only really worth £80m on an investment basis when it is being used to optimum capacity; again unlikely when we are in L1 or 2. Secondly, there is reputational risk in respect of a Lender supporting a Football Club. No lender particularly a Bank wants to be seen to be winding up a 'Community Asset'. The work in dealing with the fallout from fans complaining, protesting, closing accounts, etc.

I suspect MSD only took on the Loan for a short-dated period, and at 9% interest I read somewhere, not because they thought they were secure having a stadium or training facilities in support, but because they took the view that there might always be a mug out there who would take on the club and buy out Mel (the Administrator) or worst case they could fall back to the guarantee offered to them by one of the richest men in the UK. There is a third possibility. MSD, or Michael Dell, wants to own a football club.

I had always believed that the MSD loans were taken out in the company that owned the ground.

Having just looked on Companies House I can see that this is not the case.

Also looks like the ground has not been paid for, surely this will be the first port of call for the administrators.

[Van der MoodHoover]

5 hours ago, Miggins said:

I knew that some people who Derby owe money to have to be paid in full whilst others don't, but until this morning I didn't realise that people who are directly associated with football, such as Football agents have to be paid in full, whereas those not directly associated such as bakers or butchers only need to be paid in part. That is scandalous. What a dreadful rule.?

It exposes the EFL for what they really are....not so much of a regulator, more a protection racket.... 

[BramcoteRam84]

Whatever happens I’m sure we will have the use of Pride Park in some capacity, as Derby County FC or FC Derby County and this is how the club will bounce back, it’s a bit presumptuous to say we will all of a sudden be ground sharing with Mickleover Sports. We are on average between 15th-20th most supported club in the country. A bit different to Bury and Macc, even Macc are still playing at Moss Rose!!

[RoyMac5]

12 minutes ago, i-Ram said:

Morris suggested, ironically, that this has all come at a time when the club has a sustainable model. The model will be completely different when we are in League 1 or 2 in terms of TV revenues, sponsorship deals, season ticket and matchday revenues, etc.  Another reset of costs will be appropriate for that period, unless we have an Angel on a White Horse gagging to rescue us.

Yes, this really pisses me off! He's slashed players & wages et al to the point where we're a (potentially) sustainable Championship club and so he ditches us into admin which will make us an unsustainable (at our current level) League 1 club. FFS!

[RoyMac5]

 

[TuffLuff]

40 minutes ago, sawley_ram said:

We are and should always be Derby County! Changing to an awful name like “Derby City” would alienate so many people, hundreds of thousands, who like I live in Derbyshire and always follow the Rams!

I think this is an underrated point that I’d love to go into more in a more appropriate thread, but I don’t think Mel, and other supporters, realised the uniqueness of Derby County that we are largely a one club, one sport county and how important the football club is to such a large community. The closest you get to it is Norwich/Ipswich and Newcastle/Sunderland

[MackworthRamIsGod]

4 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

 

The end is nigh.

[CornwallRam]

2 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

 

Hard to put into words how this feels - my Dad took me to the BBG aged 5. I took my eldest daughter to PPS when she was 6. William Morley was a distant cousin. Derby County is quite literally in my DNA. 

Disbelief, anger and despair...then hope that this might be beginning of the next chapter.

[RoyMac5]

 

[MackworthRamIsGod]

Who would have thought Mel Morris ends up making Fawaz look like Alan Sugar 

[sawley_ram]

1 minute ago, TuffLuff said:

I think this is an underrated point that I’d love to go into more in a more appropriate thread, but I don’t think Mel, and other supporters, realised the uniqueness of Derby County that we are largely a one club, one sport county and how important the football club is to such a large community. The closest you get to it is Norwich/Ipswich and Newcastle/Sunderland

I absolutely agree and places like those are good examples, with there only really being one or two large centres of populations. The last thing I'll say about it here is that I've walked/rambled/hiked a lot of Derbyshire and often the people of the villages and small towns we've walked into don't feel a huge connection to Derby 'city'. The one thing that I've found as a common thread though, is the love and following of DCFC -- the emphasis being on "County". Doesn't matter if you're from Derby or Buxton or Edale... there's always someone you'll meet out there on the hills or in the last pub on the way home with a Ram on their shirt. 

[The Scarlet Pimpernel]

15 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

I had always believed that the MSD loans were taken out in the company that owned the ground.

Having just looked on Companies House I can see that this is not the case.

Also looks like the ground has not been paid for, surely this will be the first port of call for the administrators.

So, in layman's terms, hasv Mel gone down this route to distance himself from the EFL and at the same time force a sale? Looks like eventually we will have plenty of cash as long ad Mel isn't broke personally. 

[i-Ram]

Derby County compete in the Sky Bet Championship, the second tier of English football. 

The 137-year-old club, currently managed by former England captain Wayne Rooney, was one of 12 founder members of the Football League in 1888, and last played in the top-flight in 2008. 

The two-time champions of England play their home games at Pride Park Stadium having moved from its original home of the Baseball Ground in 1997.

Did they do that bit of padding out for half fans like me? Every day is a school day.

[Ram-a-lama fa fa fa]

12 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

 

a sad day ??

[RoyMac5]

Just now, i-Ram said:

Derby County compete in the Sky Bet Championship, the second tier of English football. 

The 137-year-old club, currently managed by former England captain Wayne Rooney, was one of 12 founder members of the Football League in 1888, and last played in the top-flight in 2008. 

The two-time champions of England play their home games at Pride Park Stadium having moved from its original home of the Baseball Ground in 1997.

Did they do that bit of padding out for half fans like me? Every day is a school day.

Lol!

I presume they're saving on comms work - one press release for all.

[Gringo]

Strange filings to day at Companies house from DCFC, 314 pages of documents all prior to 1995 covering all charges on the BBG and articles of association dating from the inception of the club dating back to the 1800's no idea why this has taken place, housekeeping going back over 100 years more than weird.

[Kinder]

It’s just so sad. I’m actually relieved my dear old Dad isn’t around to see this.

[England Ram]

Galling, infuriating, maddening. 
 

What an absolute travesty. 
 

We fans are not to blame for this, but we will be the ones left to pick up the pieces of our club, and broken hearts, for years to come.