$200 Million Takeover

[foreveryoung]

Ahhh, remember the days other clubs were interested in our players and we couldn't keep the likes of Young, Downing etc. Cant wait for those,days again??

[AValon]

When you're hated by the Hull City's of this world, it really can ruin yer weekend!

 

 

[AlwaysAVFC]

When you're hated by the Hull City's of this world, it really can ruin yer weekend!

For every neutral that thinks we're a 'proper club' I've come across another that hates us anyway, but I'd rather them not hate us because we're that team that just won't go down, because everyone knows eventually they do. Edited May 11, 2014 by AlwaysAVFC

[dn1982]

I agree with there fans I hate our fans who say 'our massive club'. We are a big club a top 10 in the country club we have a big amount of potential but it stops there take out stuff that happened over 50 years ago and our record is crap for a big club.

Accept your point, but 1981/82 is well less than "50 years ago"

True enough but even that is over 30 years ago!

Top 10 is where we are size wise we shouldn't pretend we are bigger than that. Of course if Ellison buys us and throws 500m at us we can argue we are in a few years legitimately

 

When are you going to get your head around FFP? Some posters on this thread do not seem to understand the ramifications of it.

FFP will collapse under a law suit and anyway even IF broke the rules and was successful the fine is equivalent to the increase in TV money we have just received for 1 year or a good CL campaign so essentially a tax not a punishment!!!

[kurtsimonw]

Sad how man y clubs hate us ....

 

http://www.ambernectar.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7989&sid=c0e889fbbf690d47d362559779fd79d3

The funniest thing about that was them saying "they won the European Cup in 82, not that they ever mention it..." followed by them talking up Wembley because it's such a rarity they ever get there, we've been there a few times recently, big deal.

[HeyAnty]

http://www.readytogo.net/smb/threads/paul-lambert-and-aston-villa.915679/page-1 This is a little bit surreal. Sunderlands biggest fan sight and they basically have an 8 page thread arguing about how shit Villa are, they really hate us

Very subjective comment. On the contrary, I would suggest that they realise how the mighty have fallen. Sunderland were like Villa a massive club and some of their fans empathise:

"Your living in the past fella just like many safc and av fans............. av were a big club and so were sunderland.................av have won the european cup....but so have derby!..............look at the history of both clubs and there are a lot of parallels............. sunderland like av were once the best in the land but no more !sad but get real at this present time av are no better than sunderland end off!"

Derby won the European cup, must have missed that one. He/she would need to look at them Parallels himself.

[BleedClaretAndBlue]

Who gives a shit what Sunderland and Hull fans think of us. We are so small time thesedays.

[blandy]

3 Feb:“I can categorically confirm Aston Villa Football Club has absolutely not been put up for sale and that Randy Lerner is not actively looking to sell the club.” Paul Faulkner. At the same time there were stories of a new contract for Lambo.

 

20 April: “As regards my personal role at the club and the steady rumours of a sale, I will address these after the season.” - Randy Lerner.

 

Currently: Player contract talks on hold. Same with manager.

 

Clearly something's changed. Clearly RL is going to say something about his "personal role" and it will be a changed one.

Clearly he is not able/willing to continue to chuck money at losses. Clearly he is not able/willing to have the level of personal attention needed from an owner. He knows the remote thing isn't working for him or the club. He knows the combination of finance and attention hasleft the club a long way from what he envisaged when he bought us.

 

The next step is what to do about it.

For money, he needs to find another "supply" - either a partner or a buyer.

For attention, he needs to find someone who knows what they're doing or who can appoint someone who knows what they're doing on their behalf.

 

All the actions re contracts etc. suggest the "someone" is anticipated to, or is known to want to, decide what happens next with players and manager. Clearly Randy and PF are not making that decision right now.

 

If he is going to say (only) I'm looking to sell, or I'm looking for fresh investment, then not to resolve contract issues is remiss and a failure. Therefore something more than "looking" is going to be announced, you'd expect.

 

Now if he's therefore already agreed something, (or agreed something in principle via a memorandum of understanding, based around survival in the Prem), we have to look at his two words "personal role" for clues.

Human behaviour suggests that there's a chance he might want to carry on with a connection (as Ellis did). Otherwise the two words might have been different. I believe he wants the best for the club and wants to see it thrive, but recongnises he can't make that happen on his own. His dilemma is what he can do to make it better, within the constraints of his world. He has wealthy connections via U.S. Rugby team owners and so on, and the moneyed circles he lives in. Do any of these people want to buy or buy in? Yes, they do. The details of negotiations and discussions have been fluid - like with Ellis, there's the conflict of the personal and the best for the club and the desires of the parties willing to buy/buy-in. They all conflict. Resolution isn't quite done.

The contracts thing points to outright or majority ownership and control moving to another owning company (probably also incorporated in Delaware, for tax reasons).

If I were the interested sort, I'd be looking at that area for clues.

 

Because there is a short time window to sort out contracts (they run out at the end of June) there needs to be time to renegotiate new ones before then, so we're talking early June at the latest for the new decision maker to have decided what they want. This means a change needs to be well in place by late May. A sale or contractual change in ownership arrangement will be quick - there's no other shareholders involved. Early re-payment of loans outstanding may need to be agreed as part of any price for sale/part sale, and this gives some credence to the retention of RL to an extent - it will be cheaper overall for a new party, for Randy Lerner to retain a role and not have loans repaid immediately as the flip side of it.

Ifhe leaves completely, repyment of all monies owed to him would be factored in the price for that.

 

So I predict that this is or was the hold up area. I also predict that a definitive announcement of change of ownership will not come tomorrow. A holding statement may be issued in the next couple of days (U.S. time) promising further information in the next 2 weeks.

 

And then there will be more leaks and speculation

 

so that's my guess. I don't know nuffink, mind.

[nazvfc]

 

Dermot ‏@dermotkeller  19m

Wow very interesting exclusive news from KNX. Larry Ellison is set to become owner of a new Premier League team. #avfc #Premier League #thfc #takeover #Premier League

 

Well Liecester,Burnley, and one of the play-off teams are a 'new premier league' club. Villa are an established club!

[leviramsey]

I suspect that we'll be seeing a bit of a feeding frenzy from American sports owners for the PL.

The PL will auction the next round of US TV rights in about 18 months.

Here are the ratings for Premier League games on NBCSN from March 31 and the ratings for Major League Baseball games on Fox Sports 1 for the same period (NBCSN and FS1 have roughly comparable levels of distribution: NBCSN is in something like 81 million homes and FS1 is in 90-ish million)... my source apparently took the week when he would have published the April 14-20 ratings off, so I have nothing for that week.

Premier League  Sun 27 April         900am:  940k
Premier League  Sun 13 April         825am:  740k
MLB (DET @ KC)  Sat  3 May           700pm:  652k
MLB (LAA @ NYY) Sat 26 April         100pm:  629k
MLB (unknown)   Tue  8 April         800pm:  618k
Premier League  Sat  3 May           955am:  587k
Premier League  Sun 27 April        1105am:  528k
Premier League  Sun 13 April        1056am:  494k
Premier League  Sat  5 April         955am:  469k
MLB (BOS @ NYY) Sat 12 April         105pm:  467k
Premier League  Sun  4 May          1056am:  452k
MLB (PIT @ STL) Sat 26 April         417pm:  446k
Premier League  Sun  6 April         819am:  428k
MLB (SF @ LAD)  Sat  5 April         400pm:  421k
MLB (MIN @ CLE) Sat  5 April         100pm:  380k
Premier League  Sat 12 April        1000am:  344k
Premier League  Mon 28 April         249pm:  338k
Premier League  Sun  4 May           824am:  305k
MLB (STL @ CHC) Sat  3 May           100pm:  295k
Premier League  Sat  3 May           739am:  288k
Premier League  Mon 21 April         247pm:  249k
Premier League  Sat 26 April         739am:  249k
Premier League  Sat  5 April         739am:  222k
Premier League  Mon  7 April         250pm:  138k
Premier League  Mon 31 March         250pm:  123k

NBCSN is paying $83m for the PL

Fox is paying $600m for MLB

The PL is getting much better ratings in the key (age 18-49) demographic, while Fox's deal does include postseason rights.

There's no reason not to expect that between NBC, ESPN, Fox, and CBS that the PL could get something like $300m a year from the US in the next round.

[RichiBoi11]

Hi guys, not sure how true this is but some of my friends from when I worked in America have told me that the press are starting to report over there that Ellison has bought Villa and it's essentially a done deal to be announced 'soon'

Not sure if there is any truth in it as I can't find any solid stories on it anywhere, but two separate people have contacted me saying this has been reported over there today! Fingers crossed hey, although knowing my luck they're trolling me...

[Davkaus]

If one journalist gets something published a hudnred others will write articles on the same story without doing any further research, it doesn't lend it any further credibility, IMO, it's the same story from a couple of weeks ago.

[NoelVilla]

Interesting post Levi. The Red Sox-Yankees game on the 12th get less in rating than the PL 5th april when they probably showed Chelsea-Stoke or Newcastle-Man Utd. Show us the money! 

[Brumstopdogs]

 

Monday or Tues - If the status quo is remaining - I would do it first thing Monday - when the back pages will covered with the title race.

 

I imagine we'll hear something pretty soon if they are doing any more concerts and if they'll be rockin' all over the world.

[avfcwills10]

The longer the announcement takes the better news I would imagine it would be in terms of getting taken over.

 

Releasing a statement simply saying more to follow or something on Monday would be a good sign too, albeit a little annoying.

[krisagg75]

off topic i know(sorry),but can't believe red sox@yankees got so few viewers.

[lexicon]

Ellison would be too good to be true, surely?

[krisagg75]

i aggree with gentleman,don't think we'll hear anything till after the end of season do on tues.would make sense to wait till after that otherwise could be potentially uncomfortable for the players/club officials their.

Edited May 11, 2014 by krisagg75

[useless]

Ellison would be too good to be true, surely?

 

Or too random to be true. He's probably no more likely or less likely than Bill Gates or Carlos Slim or any other Multi Billionaire.

[Kwan]

Also note that the relative viewing of MLB games isn't seen as a necessity throughout the season. It would be interesting to see the comparable numbers when the MLB are in the playoffs mode when more viewers turn in.