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Proposal for fan ownership


TheAuthority

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Proposal for fan takeover and ownership of AVFC
Lerner should walk away now with some semblance of dignity left (lol) and sell the club to the fans for £1 and forgive the debt.
You came, you tried, you’ve failed more miserably than anyone could even conceive of, now for the love of God get lost.
Campaign for Ellis to give back what he sold the club for. He claims to be the biggest Villa fan in the world, well prove it.

Please stay with me here: Here are the economics:

August 2006 Ellis sells for £63 million.
If he had got a very modest 5% interest per year since then he would now have £100.15 million. If his financial planner was average he probably has done much better than that.
So Mr. Ellis. We don’t want any of the money you made off the sale of AVFC, you and your family keep the minimum of £40 million you’ve made since you sold us. We just want back what you paid for us because you are “Mr. Aston Villa.’ £63 million to the club.

25,000 season ticket holders (or regular game attending fans) buy 1 ‘A’ share (voting share) for £1,000.00

With this purchase comes voting on the running of the club and includes a 20% discount on your season ticket for 3 years with prices frozen for 3 years.

We have approximately 300,000 worldwide fans. Estimate 100,000 of them buy a ‘B’ share (non-voting) for £250. Own a piece of the club and help save it from the current imbecile who runs us.

Fans now own 51% of the club and they can never own less than this. The remaining 49% could be sold off in the future to raise capital if needed - hopefully that would never be needed. 

This would give us:

£63 million from Ellis

£25 million from season ticket holders

£25 million from sales of ‘B’ shares

£55 million from parachute payments (1st season)

£45 million parachute payments (2nd season)

£20 million parachute payments (3rd season)

 

 

Season 1 would see £168 million in the bank for a complete rebuild of the squad with the aim to get back to the Premier League within 2 seasons.

I’m not a financial person I’m just so depressed that I had to write down some sort of escape plan. Now please in good old VT fashion, go ahead and rip the idea apart and show how it could never work. :D

 

This is just my amateur idea. Has anyone else got any hope of how a fan takeover could happen?

 

Edited by TheAuthority
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3 minutes ago, gilbertoAVFC said:

I'd be totally on board but Ellis won't buy us back and nobody can expect him to.

The best option is to get another super-wealthy fan involved.

I'm saying he should donate the money back to the club. Actually be altruistic instead of painting himself that way in the press.

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Obviously, there are very many reasons why it couldn't work, though I appreciate the effort you went to to think of all that. 

Problem 1: Ellis wouldn't buy us back. 

Problem 2: It would be difficult in the current climate to persuade 25,000 fans to pony up a grand. That would be a big increase on an average season ticket, and fans will probably buy many fewer season tickets for a season in the Championship. 

Problem 3: £250 is a huge sum for a non-voting share. I really doubt a third of the clubs global support base will give up that sort of money when it doesn't buy them anything at all - probably a third of the global support couldn't even afford it, I know I couldn't, I've barely got that much in my current account. 

Problem 4: Lerner - according to some on here - doesn't actually want to sell us. 

As I say though, I appreciate the effort. Fan ownership would be great, but the nature of capital-raising for it means we'd have to drop a long way, and for a long time, before it became a practical option. 

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6 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

As I say though, I appreciate the effort. Fan ownership would be great, but the nature of capital-raising for it means we'd have to drop a long way, and for a long time, before it became a practical option. 

So we essentially have to hope we drop far enough that the value of the club becomes so low that poorer folk can afford?

Sorry if the post about Ellis is not clear. I'm not suggesting he buys us back, I'm suggesting he gives the club the money out of the goodness of his heart :D

Also what are the theories as to why he wouldn't want to sell? tax write-off?

Edited by TheAuthority
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13 hours ago, TheAuthority said:
So we essentially have to hope we drop far enough that the value of the club becomes so low that poorer folk can afford?

Sorry if the post about Ellis is not clear. I'm not suggesting he buys us back, I'm suggesting he gives the club the money out of the goodness of his heart [emoji3]

Also what are the theories as to why he wouldn't want to sell? tax write-off?

 

So....even less realistic than him buying then...

The best option is to set up a coherent supporter's trust, and gradually raise money like Portsmouth.

This would:

  1. increase pressure and perhaps tempt Lerner to sell the club he so adores.
  2. attract interest and investment from very wealthy fans.
  3. aid the creation of fundraising events/auctions/etc.

There are ways to do it so money is legally pledged but doesn't come out of accounts until a target is reached.

Edited by limpid
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13 hours ago, TheAuthority said:

So we essentially have to hope we drop far enough that the value of the club becomes so low that poorer folk can afford? [1]

Sorry if the post about Ellis is not clear. I'm not suggesting he buys us back, I'm suggesting he gives the club the money out of the goodness of his heart :D [2]

Also what are the theories as to why he wouldn't want to sell? tax write-off? [3]

  1. Yes, partly, and partly that the asking price would rapidly diminish as well. He'd have to reduce it to almost nothing in League One or League Two, especially if we'd been in or close to administration during that time. 
  2. I don't know how long you've been following the club, but Doug Ellis is a famous miser. That's his main, defining, personality trait, the thing everybody knows him for, more than anything else. Any plan that involves him giving anybody a present is doomed to failure. 
  3. I'm not sure, other posters have advanced the theory a lot in recent weeks, but I have to admit I haven't really been following closely. 
Edited by limpid
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Ellis hasn't got anywhere near £100M at least not from selling the club. He didn't get all that £65M, at the time I remember being surprised to read that it was quite a low figure that he actually received, might have less than half of the £65M.

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Firstly good on you for trying. 

I floated this idea a week or so ago and was staggered by the zero interest, as you will be, but even that is better than the negative stuff from the slightly older thread started by Mike Mkenna I then discovered !

Anyway, at this stage my only constructive suggestion is this..... I wrote to Tom Fox asking how we go about a buyout, and got a reply from Bank of America in which they stated, amongst other things, that the first step was to demonstrate to them and Randy Lerner that there were funds in place.

I haven' t acted on this yet, due to pressing domestics, but the main thing it raised for me and those I chatted to, was, how can fans know whether they have the funds, when no selling price has been announced ?

Then we thought, in fact, that there has been virtually no publically available information as regards the sale.

So the next step, IMO is to petition/lobby the Board to meet with a selection of fans and explain exactly what the price is and  what it entails. In other words, to ask the Club to show US what we need to do, rather than us just guess that we can't do it.

I should have thought that IF there is a genuine desire to sell, they would welcome the chance to do this, as it will presumably either result in an increased chance of a sale, or ,at worst from their point of view, they would be able to say " well you've seen the books and said you couldn't do it, so don't blame Randy"

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Firstly good on you for trying. 

I floated this idea a week or so ago and was staggered by the zero interest, as you will be, but even that is better than the negative stuff from the slightly older thread started by Mike Mkenna I then discovered !

Anyway, at this stage my only constructive suggestion is this..... I wrote to Tom Fox asking how we go about a buyout, and got a reply from Bank of America in which they stated, amongst other things, that the first step was to demonstrate to them and Randy Lerner that there were funds in place.

I haven' t acted on this yet, due to pressing domestics, but the main thing it raised for me and those I chatted to, was, how can fans know whether they have the funds, when no selling price has been announced ?

Then we thought, in fact, that there has been virtually no publically available information as regards the sale.

So the next step, IMO is to petition/lobby the Board to meet with a selection of fans and explain exactly what the price is and  what it entails. In other words, to ask the Club to show US what we need to do, rather than us just guess that we can't do it.

I should have thought that IF there is a genuine desire to sell, they would welcome the chance to do this, as it will presumably either result in an increased chance of a sale, or ,at worst from their point of view, they would be able to say " well you've seen the books and said you couldn't do it, so don't blame Randy"

Excellent. And also well done to The Authority for bringing it up, I am in a bad mood hence scepticism.

I do suspect the reason Lerner has made nothing public is because he would take a lot less than initially speculated/stated (can't remember which). This would ultimately reduce offers further.

I do agree this is a good approach though.

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I have said in the past that I would stump up a reasonable amount and I know others would too. But the Ellis part is a complete non starter. Beyond the tens of thousands he put into the Consortium in the late 60s and some loans later which were repaid with interest, he never put another penny into the club. 

I don't want to rain on your parade and wish something could be done, but.....

  1. insufficient fans would contribute the amount of money to make a difference
  2. Lerner will want to his full whack
  3. There is absolutely no chance Ellis would give anything

I would love to be proved wrong and wish anyone who wants to give it a try lots of luck. 

Edited by limpid
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I have e-mailed ( just now) the MD at Bank of America ( the guy who replied to me) asking him whether the Club or Representatives are willing to meet myself and other supporters to discuss selling price, assets etc, stating that I am sure he appreciates without this knowledge we cannot progress.

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2 minutes ago, terrytini said:

I have e-mailed ( just now) the MD at Bank of America ( the guy who replied to me) asking him whether the Club or Representatives are willing to meet myself and other supporters to discuss selling price, assets etc, stating that I am sure he appreciates without this knowledge we cannot progress.

Before they give you anything, they will ask for evidence of funds. You will get no further information and they will not be prepared to meet if you cannot say where the money would come from. The ideas outlined above or anything like them are not "evidence of funds". Sorry but that is how it works - you will wasting your time. 

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37 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

[2] I don't know how long you've been following the club, but Doug Ellis is a famous miser. That's his main, defining, personality trait, the thing everybody knows him for, more than anything else. Any plan that involves him giving anybody a present is doomed to failure. 

I've been following Villa for 35 years so he was the only owner I ever knew before Lerner.

I saw an article last week that Ellis gave £10,000 to the QE for a machine for Steve Strides son's treatment. It got me thinking about how much Ellis has made in interest off the lump sum of £63 million he got for Villa. I'm positive that the gift he gave to the QE was so he could write it off his taxes and get some publicity about how gracious and kind he is.

I started fantasizing about what if he changed the habit of a lifetime and on his deathbed turned from a miserly old skinflint and gave the fans a huge gift to buy the club from Lerner. I suppose I just need to hold on to some sort of dream after the last 5 years.

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13 hours ago, MikeMcKenna said:

I have said in the past that I would stump up a reasonable amount and I know others would too. But the Ellis part is a complete non starter. Beyond the tens of thousands he put into the Consortium in the late 60s and some loans later which were repaid with interest, he never put another penny into the club. 

I don't want to rain on your parade and wish something could be done, but.....

  1. insufficient fans would contribute the amount of money to make a difference
  2. Lerner will want to his full whack
  3. There is absolutely no chance Ellis would give anything

I would love to be proved wrong and wish anyone who wants to give it a try lots of luck. 

Maybe a concerted media effort would start the ball rolling? I know a lot of people dislike him but didn't Howard Hodgson try something?

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10 minutes ago, terrytini said:

I have e-mailed ( just now) the MD at Bank of America ( the guy who replied to me) asking him whether the Club or Representatives are willing to meet myself and other supporters to discuss selling price, assets etc, stating that I am sure he appreciates without this knowledge we cannot progress.

The board seem to view us fans with such contempt... I would imagine they would want all sorts of Non-disclosure agreements signed?

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