New Owner

[madcapmilkdrinker]

6 hours ago, allyo said:

Just take a step back though. 

We know very little about the TfE proposals, but they only emerged yesterday.

We know very little about the New City proposal, and they emerged in June.

One group is local and is obviously only interested in Partick Thistle.

One group is international and we don't have any understanding of why they've chosen us.

One group is funded by a benefactor who has previously shown that he's not looking for money back.

One group is focussed on shareholder profit.

One group has no prior experience, as far as we know, of running a football club.

One group has prior experience, and the verdict on its performance is fairly mixed.

It's all full of uncertainty. I can fully understand why people would be cautious either way.

Are you able to explain why you are so suspicious of one group, and yet have been nothing but positive about the other?

 

Out of likes but this post nails it. Neither proposal is foolproof but at least we can be sure that TFE’s motivations are more in keeping with most Thistle supporters. Especially given that we have zero insight into the consortiums plans/ motivations.

The best thing about a fan takeover is that, should this situation ever arise again, the new shareholders will have to be a lot more responsive to stakeholders than the current mob have been when confronted with a similar set of circumstances. 

[javeajag]

6 hours ago, Pinhead said:

Anyone that thinks multi billionares are going to spend £1 million to get £3 million is nuts!

I agree with you ....so why are they bothering to buy us at all ? 

[scotty]

46 minutes ago, javeajag said:

I agree with you ....so why are they bothering to buy us at all ? 

To set a precedent?

[javeajag]

There are rumours that Chien Lee and Paul Conway have fallen out and that Lee will no longer be  involved in buying the club. 

They are from two different groups Lee is New City Capital and Conway is Pacific Media Group, they came together in a consortium to buy Barnsley.

its now reported the Conway along with a Robert Zuk the Barnsley Finance Director will be buying us.

There is almost no information available publicly on either of these two groups and I mean none.

looking at the Barnsley fans forum they still don’t know why these guys bought them !

we should at least know the entity that is buying us, who they are and why they want to buy us .

[javeajag]

3 minutes ago, scotty said:

To set a precedent?

I doubt that....whatever these guys do it involves making money 

[sandy]

Just now, javeajag said:

There are rumours that Chien Lee and Paul Conway have fallen out and that Lee will no longer be  involved in buying the club. 

They are from two different groups Lee is New City Capital and Conway is Pacific Media Group, they came together in a consortium to buy Barnsley.

its now reported the Conway along with a Robert Zuk the Barnsley Finance Director will be buying us.

There is almost no information available publicly on either of these two groups and I mean none.

looking at the Barnsley fans forum they still don’t know why these guys bought them !

we should at least know the entity that is buying us, who they are and why they want to buy us .

We know as little about the ‘fans’ bid to be fair.

[scotty]

3 minutes ago, sandy said:

We know as little about the ‘fans’ bid to be fair.

But we do know the motive behind the fans' bid.

[scotty]

10 minutes ago, scotty said:

To set a precedent?

 

6 minutes ago, javeajag said:

I doubt that....whatever these guys do it involves making money 

And if they can go on to buy more clubs with greater potential returns?

[javeajag]

11 minutes ago, scotty said:

 

And if they can go on to buy more clubs with greater potential returns?

If the Barnsley fans after two years don’t know why they were bought then we may never know....ego is also a big driver for these guys 

But most strategies to make money out of football fail 

[javeajag]

20 minutes ago, sandy said:

We know as little about the ‘fans’ bid to be fair.

Untrue

[alexander livingstone]

9 hours ago, laukat said:

The comment below is from a barnsley supporters forum on a thread about the barnsley owners buying Thistle

"Alan Nixon at the weekend said Conway is looking to buy the club with Zuk. In past reports he said with Lee. If plans have changed it will add fuel to the fire of the rumours that Lee and Conway have fallen out."

No idea if its true but if it is there is no billionaire backing in the consortium so how are they funding the bid and how do they intend to recoup their outlay?

It is a pity than Alan Nixon could not give this information to Thistle fans on twitter who ask about what I'd happening at Firhill.He gives supporters of English teams in the process of takeovers more information about what is happening at their clubs.

[Garscube Road End]

2 hours ago, javeajag said:

Untrue

What do we know, what are their full plans?

[javeajag]

4 minutes ago, Garscube Road End said:

What do we know, what are their full plans?

We know I think ....

who some of them are

the source of their funding

their high level plans 

there is a faq on their website and they answer email, Twitter and Facebook enquiries etc 

to say the consortium or whoever that now is have done the same is just not true 

[Firhillista]

8 minutes ago, Garscube Road End said:

What do we know, what are their full plans?

https://thistleforever.org/

I get that this is a situation where there are so many permutations of what might happen it's difficult to get complete clarity on anything, but TfE have at least publicly put forward some information about how they see things progressing.

I'd copy the link to the website of the international consortium too, but, hey, doesn't exist...

[javeajag]

Thistle for Ever now taking questions via twitter , Facebook etc for a fans q and a ... opportunity to ask all those questions .,,

[bell]

The guy behind the TFE group was previously behind a shambolic takeover at  Stirling Albion, runs a group which claims to speak for all fans in Scotland and has had no apparent connection with Thistle until this opportunity came about. To me that suggests TFE is more to do with the ego of a wannabe than anything. At least if a consortium of billionaires wants to buy a 'fixer-upper' and sell it at a profit later, the club will then be improved in some ways. Letting people with either poor or no records of running a club take over will most likely see us becoming part time at best.

[laukat]

11 hours ago, Pinhead said:

Anyone that thinks multi billionares are going to spend £1 million to get £3 million is nuts!

If its only Conway and Zuk financing the takeover we are no longer being taken over by a Billionaire.

I'm not even sure that Conway or Zuk are in the millionaire category so for them spending a £1million to make £3million is a different propostion.

Also much more difficult to see how they could clear the dual ownership rules or commit any time to Thistle as they are very much part of Barnsley's board

[javeajag]

11 minutes ago, bell said:

The guy behind the TFE group was previously behind a shambolic takeover at  Stirling Albion, runs a group which claims to speak for all fans in Scotland and has had no apparent connection with Thistle until this opportunity came about. To me that suggests TFE is more to do with the ego of a wannabe than anything. At least if a consortium of billionaires wants to buy a 'fixer-upper' and sell it at a profit later, the club will then be improved in some ways. Letting people with either poor or no records of running a club take over will most likely see us becoming part time at best.

He’s one guy not the guy .... and it’s looking like the guys buying us are not billionaires at all 

[Dick Dastardly]

For me, the difference is that the Thistle community would remain in overall control. If we were to sell to outsiders, it would be the end of the club as we know it, and become a franchise for whoever has the next great idea. While that may be OK with the current consortium/splinter group, we have no say down the line of who takes over next, or after that.

Actually, I am unhappy with either offer at a personal level. I have been outspoken about the English Premier League teams being taken over as billionaires play things and predicted that the smaller teams (like Bury and Bolton) would suffer, resulting in the inevitable casualties. It would be hypocritical of me to continue to support Thistle if they went down that route and with Weir now onboard with TFE, that becomes a big problem for me.  

[Semi Nurainen]

44 minutes ago, bell said:

The guy behind the TFE group was previously behind a shambolic takeover at  Stirling Albion, runs a group which claims to speak for all fans in Scotland and has had no apparent connection with Thistle until this opportunity came about. To me that suggests TFE is more to do with the ego of a wannabe than anything. At least if a consortium of billionaires wants to buy a 'fixer-upper' and sell it at a profit later, the club will then be improved in some ways. Letting people with either poor or no records of running a club take over will most likely see us becoming part time at best.

Sounds familiar: reminded me of Caldwell's record at Chesterfield.

[Firhillista]

48 minutes ago, bell said:

The guy behind the TFE group was previously behind a shambolic takeover at  Stirling Albion, runs a group which claims to speak for all fans in Scotland and has had no apparent connection with Thistle until this opportunity came about. To me that suggests TFE is more to do with the ego of a wannabe than anything. At least if a consortium of billionaires wants to buy a 'fixer-upper' and sell it at a profit later, the club will then be improved in some ways. Letting people with either poor or no records of running a club take over will most likely see us becoming part time at best.

It is a scheme which will be familiar to almost every football fan in Scotland as they will have witnessed similar schemes at Hearts, Motherwell and St Mirren, in recent times. Dunfermline Athletic, Annan Athletic and Stenhousemuir have also embraced this ownership model and followed Clyde and Stirling Albion. Every one of these clubs adopted this scheme to protect their clubs from future concerns over who owns and ultimately controls their club.

 

[Firhillista]

This isn't about one individual. I've no axe to grind here and I wouldn't know Paul Goodwin if I met him in the street, but the proposal he's put forward isn't just about furthering some ego trip, even if he thinks it is! There's a model here which is already a proven success in other Scottish clubs, not to mention in many others across the globe. We have an opportunity to set Thistle up as a community club and secure the future of the club as such. Do we want to? I don't know the answer to that, but I do think we should consider it on it's own merits, not on whether we think the person proposing it is a good guy or not. If the model was implemented as suggested, Mr Goodwin would have no more influence than any other shareholder/fan.

[delurker]

15 hours ago, Jordanhill Jag said:

And pray explain how TFE and Colin Weir are going to work 

I have No idea how they make Money from us - Im not buying the Club - we have No Idea if Barnsley or Nice Fans "hate them " according to TFE they speak for Thistle Fans   - so you could have the equivalent at Barnsley & Nice - not happy as they want it for themselves 

We do have an idea; Nice fans organised a season ticket boycott in protest at them and how they were running the club.

[allyo]

1 hour ago, bell said:

.... At least if a consortium of billionaires wants to buy a 'fixer-upper' and sell it at a profit later, the club will then be improved in some ways.

 

You have such an optimistic view. I wish I could share it.

[javeajag]

43 minutes ago, Semi Nurainen said:

Sounds familiar: reminded me of Caldwell's record at Chesterfield.

I think many people on here know Allan heron who is also mentioned at TFE so let’s not pretend this isn’t a Thistle fan group funded by another Thistle fan unless we are expected to believe Paul Conway dreamt of owning Thistle ....