AndyMac

I had a look into into it Jaf. Partick Thistle Football Club Trust Partick Thistle Football Club Trust has "deeds" somewhere. Perhaps that's the "constitution"? None of it seems very transparent. However, it does say that if you are over 18 and have held a season ticket for 3 years you're considered a shareholder and beneficiary of the trust. To find out the extent of the benefits and voting rights the deeds would have to be examined. How do you get to see the deeds?

Thanks for this information Jaf. This may be well off the mark. PARTICK THISTLE FOOTBALL CLUB TRUST shares were bought by the Weirs. Who actually controls these shares? If they're controlled by the Weirs and you add them to the shares in their own name, that gives you almost 30% of the club. Could it be that the Weir's are looking to bail out and someone in the club is acting on their behalf, trying to package together the remaining 21% needed for a sale? Who calls the shots with the PARTICK THISTLE FOOTBALL CLUB TRUST shares?

Very good

I think it will change fundamentally in that respect. The consortium are interested in making money, that's their primary aim. If they can increase the average spend of a fan they will; why shouldn't they? I agree with a lot you say JJ, regarding the present running of the club, your points (imo) are very valid, regarding the lack of personal investment, the training ground etc. Nevertheless, we don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water, do we? Maybe we just need to shuffle the decks a bit.

I agree with this. Thistle are a decent football club, things could be better, but things could be much much worse. I like the way they let kids in for free to the games, when you have a family it's a great help, also the children's Christmas party was laid on for nothing when my son was younger, you don't forget things like that, it was a very kind thing to do. More "professional" clubs would take their opportunity to bleed every fan dry at every turn. I don't don't think the current board are up to much. However, appointing a chief scout is a good move and if we became experts at buying and selling players, things would get an awful lot better.

Mo Johnston

I remember seeing Frank Worthington playing as a striker aged 40, he was still an excellent player and prolific goal scorer. Don't write someone off just because of their age. Kenny Miller is a quality player. Has he a bad attitude? I don't know, but I doubt it. He might get frustrated, not be prepared to suffer fools etc,. We shall just have to wait and see. He should be applauded for keeping himself fit enough to be playing into his 40's. I would be more concerned with signing a waster of a player aged 30 who was blowing out his arse and dragging the whole thing down. Miller, will not only be able to show the younger players a thing or two, he should also be able to inspire a few of the older players, who are starting to believe that they're automatically washed up as they hit 30. Nevertheless, if we end up with a Dad's Army squad, that's a different matter, but I don't see any problem with having a few well motivated, fit, quality older players thrown into the mix.

Excellent post.

If we leave the EU with no deal. Will British football revert to pre Bosman days? Will it be an end to free agents and will more transfer money return to the smaller clubs?

Fair comment JJ. You might be right. Barnsley don't own their ground. It belongs to the council.

I apologise to you Dl1971. It was uncalled for what I said and out of order. You are right though, I know nothing about land development. However, I do know there are a lot of sharks out there that try and do fool and cheat decent trusting people. All the best to you and no harm done If you'll excuse me I had better get back to talking rubbish..........

I may be wrong, I may be talking total nonsense. At the end of the day it's a fans forum, with people are just giving their opinions and speculating a bit. One thing I have noticed. You always try to make a mug of people that don't agree with you. Why is that?

Anything goes. They built a school on a landfill site in North Lanarkshire. Blue water runs out the taps. Land can be worth very little, get the right planning permission for it, then it's worth a lot.

This is no Santa Claus outfit, that's for sure. The consortium have saddled Nice with £20 Million of debt chargeable at 9% interest. If that's the type of investment on offer they can keep it. Barnsley? They would get jailed if they tried to sell that ground.

Let's hope so

The land will have value, how much is it worth now and how much they will pay to get it is anyone's guess. Nevertheless, I don't think they will overpay. I can't claim to be any kind of property/development expert, but it never cease to surprise me the state of some land that housing gets built on. Round our way, houses are routinely built upon old factories. The kind of old engineering works where millions of gallons of machine oils and metal coolants have leached through to the ground below, with asbestos, chromium, cyanide and other chemicals thrown in for good measure. There was no SEPA in those days! It's a joke, anything goes, they dig it up a bit, throw on some top soil and kid on that it's ok. If you have enough money and you know the right people you will get what you want. Firhill may not be Park Circus, but it does have value. With the right planning consent, that value will only increase.

Fair enough We shall just have to wait and see what happens.

Yes.

Spot on. They will pick up Firhill for a song. It will be like taking candy off a baby.

Many years ago, Ray Kroc, the owner of the McDonald's fast food chain was talking to some college business school students. Ray Kroc asked the students "what business do you think I am in?" The students somewhat surprised replied "you're in the hamburger business Ray". To this Ray replied "No, I am in the real estate business". Ray Kroc bought prime real estate in cities throughout the world. He then built a McDonald's restaurants on them and leased them out to franchisees. Ray Kroc always considered himself to be in the real estate business. The fast food business was just the icing on the cake. Now ask yourself in what business did Chien Lee earn his billions? Surprise surprise........... it's real estate.

You mean like a really bad version of The Secret Millionaire?

I may well be wrong about this and I hope my fears are unfounded. I know everyone on here wants the best for the club, some may not see eye to eye, some may not like one another, but nonetheless we all want the best for the Jags. I am speculating about the consortium, speculating about the speculators if you like. I don't know much about them , but I do know a bit about the leverage buyouts that have been all the rage in the corporate US over the past decade. It's vulture capitalism, no more no less. They go in for the kill and pick the bones until they're bare. Is this consortium guilty of vulture capitalism? I don't know. However there are some worrying signs. They put £20 Million into Nice and then put the club £20 Million in debt at 9% interest, in order to get their cash back. Are these the actions of people who run a tight ship for a trading profit? Why have your club borrowing at 9% commercial risk interest when you're Billionaires? Surely £20 Million would be small beer to these people? Why didn't they lend the money to the club at 2% bank rates?

They will buy the club for less than it's worth. They will then sell the ground to re coup the money they used to buy it in the first instance and also pocket a tidy profit. The club will be left with no ground and a large debt. Who will buy the club off them? No one, that's who. They don't care, it doesn't matter, they have their money. Game over.

No, that's not how it works, they sell the assets, keep the cash and saddle the debt with the club.

I don't claim to know all the facts or be an expert on company law etc. What I do know is that money talks and that the rich and powerful often do as they please, leaving a trail of debt misery and disaster in their wake. This consortium has put Nice £20 Million in debt at an interest rate of 9%. That's not "fantasy" Jaf , it's reality.