West Ham takeover complete

[sendô]

Good news for us, a bit of a cash injection and the club taken off of the hands of the banks. Just the mammoth debt which, to be honest, is fucking shocking. Makes you wonder, if West Ham can rock up that amount of debt that quickly, how many other clubs are deep in the red?

 

[yanno]

these blokes arent stupid however and brady is a decent ceo

West Ham's debt is ridiculous. By taking 50% of it on at this moment in time, Gold and Sullivan have proved they are either complete idiots, or have, ahem, a cunning plan to get West Ham back in the red.

Trouble is that football has never been more scutinized by the Inland Revenue and the rozzers....

West Ham.
Porn barons.
Going down.

It has a nice ring to it.

 

[Rocksuperstar]

Oh, that's interesting - from the local Waltham Forest Guardian

THE NEW owners of West Ham Utd arrive with bold plans to move the club out of Upton Park and to slash ticket prices for fans.
David Gold and David Sullivan have revealed their long term vision as they become joint chairmen of the troubled east London institution.
The pair also pledged to fans that West Ham is not about to sell off its best players in a fire-sale to battle mammoth debts of £110m.
They also backed boss, Gianfranco Zola, ending rumours the Italian would be sacked for Mark Hughes to come in.
“We have every confidence in the manager and in the squad” said Sullivan. “Zola deserves our support and he will get our support. We will sit down and talk with him and tlak about which players to buy.”
Gold added: “Fans who were terrified they would lose some of the best players, that will not now happen. We would look to bring in some players to strengthen the club.
“The first thing we had to do when we took club over was to make sure no players left the club.
“I will have to check my bank balance! We will do everything we can we want to be sure West Ham stays in the Premier league.”
The two David’s have invested capital into the club to secure it’s short term future.
But they admitted they do not have the cash to write off the total liabilities.
Sullivan admitted their purchase “makes no commercial sense.”
He said: “we have bought it as fans and not not from a business point of view.”
Now they own 50 per cent of the club between them. The other half is still in the hands of bankrupt Icelandic bank, Straumer.
The pair cannot cannot realise their dream to move the club to the Olympic Stadium in Stratford until 2012, after the London Games.
“It’s a big part of our strategy” said Sullivan. “Then we could reduce ticket prices and have the cheapest tickets in the Premier League.”
He ranked the scheme’s chance of success as “not less than 50-50.”
“How can the government spend a huge amount of money to build a stadium and then crash it down?
“Manchester City got the Commonwealth stadium (Eastlands today), so there is a precedent there.”
Right now, there is a stack of issues to sort out.
West Ham Utd has a long queue of creditors to pay off, and not one single debtor.
He and Gold have already injected £8m into the club to ward off collapse, and another £12m will follow this summer.
The club owes £40m to other football clubs, including Sheffield Utd, and also £50m to banks.
Sullivan pulled no punches as he revealed the extent of the financial woes which grip the club.
The club had already secured loans against season ticket sales for the next two seasons.
Sullivan has compared his partnership with Gold to a national unity government which steers a country through a major crisis.
“We are good at wheeling and dealing” he said. “The club has walked a very, very tough line. Every strand you turn to here, there is a negative for this club.
“They (Straumer bank) have kept the club alive, and now we will sort it out.”
Gold and Sullivan said they relish the challenge. “There’s no other club in the county we would prefer to be at” insisted Sullivan.