First off, congratulations to Derby for beating Leeds, against the odds, to get into the play-off final.
I have to say I’m glad they won, as I was seriously worried about facing Leeds and saw them as our biggest stumbling block.
That’s not to say that I think playing Derby will be easy, but hey, give me a team we’ve beaten twice and put seven past without conceding this season, any time.
Whatever, it was a really good performance by the Rams and in the second half, they just didn’t give Leeds chance to breathe, let alone play.
It would seem that’s what we’ll have to try and do to them.
And then, there was an article in the Birmingham Mail which was followed up by 7500 to Holte (so a hat tip to them) where they noticed that a Twitter user had seen that the club’s owners have formed a shell company called NSWE Stadium Ltd.
Noone has mentioned it on here, but I find it interesting.
We’ve consistently been told by Christian Purslow, the CEO, that we don’t have a problem with FFP, yet many have failed to see why, as we’re surely way over the limits?
Could the reason be that the club is going to sell the stadium to our owners and then lease it back?
If so, to my mind, this is as legally bent as it gets.
You’re effectively selling the stadium to yourself.
Yet this sort of thing happens all the time in the financial world, as companies are seen as seperate entities from those who own them.
Indeed, it’s already happened in the English game.
It seems the powers-that-be are going to clamp down on this sort of thing, but we all know how slow they move and in my opinion it would be a restiction of trade anyway, so you would assume it’s still an option for us, should we fail to get promoted.
The big question for me, is what is Villa Park worth?
The club is valued at £75-125 million, take your pick, it’s all about how much someone wants it.
But given that Villa Park is renowned as one of the finest traditional stadiums in the world, let alone England, you have to wonder what it might be valued at.
You might laugh, but I’d suggest £200 million on paper isn’t out of the question, given some of the figures I’ve seen in the financial world.
Classic stadiums aren’t ten a penny, after all.
Of course, all this assumes we don’t get promoted.
If we do, it won’t matter, at least in the short term anyway.
