The reason we are back in this chaotic situation is because Roland has deliberately separated the physical assets from the football club. His ridiculous valuation of The Valley and training ground of £40-50m means that the only potential buyers are chancers who are buying the football club as a punt for £1 but don’t have to provide any serious commitment by buying The Valley.
Whilst The Valley remains ridiculously overvalued we are stuck in this Catch 22 situation. We need to take the fight back to Roland. He remains our biggest problem. Southall and Nimer are purely a pointless sideshow
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I don't care what anyone else thinks, Roland is a lot less of a twat than those two.
To be clear, I want him out of our club, but I'd rather him than a pair of clowns who conduct business on Instagram and Twitter. Absolutely embarrassing and cringey.
I'm a Charlton fan, and I enjoy the fact that when I say that, old people go "Cheltenham?!?!" At me. I don't want my club to be an episode of Middle EastEnders.
World's gone to shit since he disappeared.
I could go out more than once a day when he was in charge. And didn't have to wipe my arse with old envelopes.
Theres a lockdown
I see him as currently the lesser of two evils, maybe the devil we know is better than the devil we don't know.
That said we have no future under Roland but under his ownership again we wouldn't go under.
Hopefully there's enough time for Roland to find a new owner before football kicks off again whenever that may be.
I'm not sure I understand why he is likely to ride to the rescue even though this mess is completely of his making.
How do you think we can secure the long term future without a new owner also owning The Valley and as I keep saying why would anyone pay the inflated price which is why he hasn't been able to sell it to anyone even though he's been trying for a couple of years.
We are stuck in an interminable loop unless he drops his price for the properties.
Our case is a tad more complicated, particularly as the status of guarantees, charges and the overall market is altogether unclear. And we simply cannot second guess what position Staprix (RD) might take.
Understably many wanted RD gone, even after winning at Wembley... but we appear to have sailed into a perfect storm!
Wimbledon fans just raised 5mil in a short space of time to get their new ground built (see link below). It seems like Roland has/ was consistently after 10mil over and above what the club (stadium etc) were actually worth which was the barrier for sensible / robust buyers.
With our significantly greater supporter base etc, is there some sort of angle for a new Valley Investment Plan to try and raise the 10mil difference, which we could then stick on the table to entice a new competent owner (there have been various interested parties by all accounts and presumably would’ve been more if the price was reasonable) to buy us (obviously working on the basis that the ESI shambles is going to drown in the toilet water).
Could try and do some sort of bond arrangement (possibly season tickets involved as well). Varying terms for varying levels of investment etc. For arguments sake, if we could get 5,000 fans sticking in an average of £2k, that’s your £10m. A lot of cash up front for anyone, but essentially the cost of a 5 year season ticket.
A big ask, but we could be in a very desperate situation very soon the way it’s going at the minute and then it might be down to us to try and come up with some way to keep us alive at all.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/feb/13/afc-wimbledon-fans-raise-over-4m-plough-lane-stadium-
Maybe he just wants to sit on his assets and let the club burn but he has been conned too and has no short or medium term prospect of getting his money back.
I fear our only hope in this mess is that he steps back in to take control while he looks for a more credible owner.
The alternative I guess, is Administration but for a business with no assets and little or no cash this might be practically impossible because there is currently no option to continue trading with no fixtures and no club shop etc. I guess someone else could buy it for 50p from the Administrator and do a lease deal with Roland but that leaves the assets and club split.
I am no expert and defer to @Grapevine49 and @Scratchingvalleycat but I fear the options are:
1. Roland
2. Administration and/or liquidation of the club and then Roland as the landlord.
3. No Roland and no club.
Maybe time to be nice to Roland, tough though that might be.
As others have said, Administration may not be what he would want because he has had offers that add up to more than he'd get if just hung on to the land.
If he's half the businessman he thinks he is, he needs to get involved. Since he has the promise of £50M being paid at some point I'd have thought he can instruct a (proper) lawyer to ask ESI what the prospects are for him receiving it. If the answer, as we now suspect, is no prospect whatsoever, he can start thinking about the best way to protect the club, and therefore his remaining investment in it.
One bit of advice though, the club is seriously damaged and this is down to you, Roland. You need to take it on the chin and accept that you are not going to get that much money from anyone legitimate. Maybe start the bidding at £25M and take it from there?