Wednesday 15 November 2017

Cashing in....

First, good news for St. Truiden that Roland Duchatelet has sold-up and freed himself of the tiresome responsibility of owning his local football club. Japanese media group DMM have stepped in to take his full shareholding after a period of part ownership. Not a bad model when you can 'try before you buy the whole shop?'

The obvious interest for Addicks fans here, of course, is that it would appear a clear sign that the ill-fated network-experiment is finally being aborted after the earlier sale of Standard Liege and the ongoing cloak-and-dagger negotiations at the Valley. The fact that the sale of St. Truiden still leaves Roland owning the stadium and associated infrastructure isn't such a bright point and something we must view negatively, especially if price becomes a stumbling block on our own sale.

The St. Truiden Chief Executive, Phillippe Bormans, speaking about the takeover said that "DMM is very ambitious and we are looking forward to it.......they have seen with their own eyes that you can't handle a football club like you treat a company." Wise words indeed Mr Bormans - ambition is precisely the issue with Roland Duchatelet, because he has none.

Elsewhere, Katrien Meire seems determined to maximise cash for Roland, something else you might expect of a departing regime. We have already seen prices for the 'Back to the Valley' dinner set at an eye-watering £95 a head which seems indefensible even taking into account a donation to the Community Trust. This week's club update on tickets sales tells us to hurry because there are only ten tables (100 seats) left! Those re the hard-to-shift ones that less well-off supporters might have coveted.

Having listened to the various complaints of those fans unable or unwilling to fork out ninety-five smackeroos for dinner, they have compounded matters this week by ramping up tickets prices for the heralded 'Back to the Valley' league game against Portsmouth. Apparently, last year's League Two opponents are now 'gold' visitors and the prices will range from £20 to £31 and that's without the walk-up Meire Tax. Not sure what Alan Sugar would make of these tactics on The Apprentice but my guess is he might have two words to say....

The other news of the week would appear to be the ongoing expectation management that Esra Konsa will follow in Joe Gomez's boots and be heading out the door to bring in several million more in the January sales. No great surprise but interesting to see Karl Robinson continuing to put it out there and actually mentioning Arsenal and Everton as prospective buyers.

In the meantime, we wait and hope for white smoke from the Valley chimneys....

4 comments:

  1. One would like to think that Roly is only interested in real estate in his native Belgium. Sadly I fear that isn’t the case. The new owners of St Truiden have made a massive mistake in not owning the ground and it’s surrounds. We know only too well what that gives rise too. Coventry and Northampton Town can testify to that too. Of course having sold one more club Roly can devote more time to improving the fortunes of CAFC!

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  2. Another 1.5% presumably although we can't expect all of that.

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  3. I think his commercial interests in and around the ground (restaurant, hotel), I would have thought would make it unlikely he'd divest himself of all interests re. STVV. Fortunately he has no such ties here, so unless he us ìnto a real estate play with CAFC any prospective buyer could reasonably expect to purchase the whole kit and kaboodle. Here's Hoping!

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  4. Kerching!! £125 for half-season ticket in lower north. That's for 12 games when the full season in lower north was £175 for 23 matches. Cashing in alright. Let's hope it's another sign they are off.

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Go on, you know you want to....