1) Maintain Continuity
- include Murray and Chappell in the press announcements.
- find a guiding role for Murray in the continued running of the club.
- confirm upfront the commitment to the free season ticket deal and the desire to be able to finally award it to loyal season ticket holders.
- give Alan Pardew a firm reassurance about his current contract and a commitment in terms of January transfer funds and expectations associated with those.
- ensure a close working link with the supporter-base via elected representation.
2) Fire the Imagination
- commit to the long-delayed completion of the Valley development. This is a no-brainer given the funds are available. The price would be modest in relation to player fees. Planning consent has been given and the work could be started more or less immediately with the ordering of the steel with a view to an end of season/Summer build. The only thing stopping this would be any real prospect of a purpose built stadium in the locality with massive parking and better transport and I don't believe that space is available. Plans for development of the Greenwich Peninsula are well advanced and the build is all mapped out. In any event, the planning and building process would likely take 10 years and we would hope to be in the Premier League with 40,000 full houses before then.
- lay the plans for the next 5 years with modest/realist expectations. Immediate clearing of any remaining debt should be a given and I'd like to see a view on typical expenditure. We should set the expectations of other clubs - paying silly money just to get what you want isn't sensible irrespective of the size of your pockets.
- look at the possibility of bringing Peter Varney back as Chief Executive before he gets snaffled by Arsenal or another top-flight club (assuming he's ready for a return to the fray).
- commit to a five-year season ticket pricing policy. It would be low risk in the current economic climate and would immediately disarm all the nay-sayers.
3) Honour our traditions
- in confirming the intention to develop the South Stand, acknowledge it's continued naming as the Jimmy Seed Stand.
- reinforce our community work; launching something in the United Arab Emirates should be a quick-win here and would help raise the profile in Dubai.
- a larger financial commitment to the Women's side would go a long way to healing a self-inflicted wound and would cost little (it would also disarm some of the critics about Arabic cultural treatment of women).
- look at building an appropriate Dubai sponsored Charlton Museum within the Valley confines.
All of this could be done quickly and would take us through the initial 24 months under new ownership. It should avoid too much negativity and fear about the perils of getting-rich-quickly and should set firm expectations for the way forward, both for our supporters and other football clubs. Season tickets sales should soar and the value of sponsorships and commercial activities would be given a massive boost, which would off-set some of the immediate costs of developing the ground.
Charlton fans the world over would be smiling again and looking forward eagerly to what promises to be a second golden era in our lifetimes and one that might finally enable us to move to the next stage that we came so close to under Alan Curbishley.
Great post and it echoes my sentiments exactly and I love the bit about Curbishley -to me he is a hero, legend and our greatest ever manager.
ReplyDeleteStop thinking about what? ;-)
ReplyDeleteGreat post Dave.
Dave,
ReplyDeleteAs much as I like the sound of all that, it does sound like what a fan would want. I do still wonder exactly what they expect to get out of the ownership and if, as I believe, it is merely a presence in London they may well choose to ignore the woman’s team and keep the stadium as it is to keep the costs down.
I do hope that they want to make us a super club, but very long term, and expensive, expansion may not be necessary for them to achieve their aims if they can instead subsidise the running costs in the short to medium term.
Either way I think the next ten years are going to be better than they would have been.
By the way I owe you £10 sponsorship for your run, email me an address to mail@kingshilladdick.co.uk and I'll forward the money.
KHA
KHA - I don't think anyone seriously buys a football club today with the intention of making money do they? I know some characters have made money but it's been opportunism or short-term investments. To date there simply isn't enough money to pay dividends and any "profits" are reinvested. Zabeel don't look like short-term investors to me. They will be after the global prestige and publicity that comes with a Premier League club. That's why this looks so good for us because they will need to get us back in the top-flight before this pays for them. If they wanted short-term they could have gone for an existing Premier League club. Assuming they want a Capital city club, Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs are too expensive; Fulham are debt-ridden and limited in potential; West Ham are in a mess and will have the Sheffield United issue hanging over them for a year or two yet. Charlton are currently cheap, probably desperate, largely solvent and have pedigree. There, I am convincing myself. [Thanks for the sponsorship - will email you now].
ReplyDeleteI think that promotion and (relative) Premier League success can be achieved without expanding the stadium. They could just invest money each season to add the revenues that a greated stadium would provide.
ReplyDeleteI think this (assuming the takeover happens) will provide a good idea as to their long term plans. Valley development is probably the one thing we all crave for the most. Winning trophies is great, but I suspect that we all dream about 40,000 at The Valley.
Zabeel may believe that they can provide the 'advert' for Dubai with a successful club with a 27,000 capacity,
Fair point but they are natural property developers and an enhanced Valley Stadium would reflect well on their club.
ReplyDelete