Dick Knight Share Dispute - Unnamed Director offer £0.01 per share

[Buzzer]

Wealthy people feeling cheated? You cannot take on the persona of being altruistic and be financially envious in the same breath.

No doubt when the club makes it to the Prem all the current shareholders will profit in some shape or form and that is the gamble the investors have taken. Or they can sell their shares to the fans?

So you don't begrudge DK getting his loans to the club back but want to apply different standards to other minority shareholders who pumped money into the club but unlike DK haven't seen a penny back - and you think they're the ones in the wrong when DK gets all of his loan back and they sit there with shares that are worth considerably less than £1 a share?

Complete and utter double standards.

 

[Buzzer]

Even me? DK said he always intended fans to have some shares before Tony Bloom was ever capable of becoming the chairman. Maybe you should read the book?

Very much written after the fact. As others have said, if DK was serious about the fans' ownership he could have implemented it at any time when he was in charge and it would have made excellent business sense too providing a much needed tax-free boost to the Albion coffers when we needed it most.

 

[Beach Hut]

He doesn't have to say anything of course. But as a supporter of the club I would be interested to know whether he still backs DK or has fallen out with him to the extent that he would back this petty attempt to block a share sale. It would be indicative of his character bearing in mind the debt the club owes to DK and the relatively trivial nature of the share sale. TB owns the club and presumably has a lot of money but often people who make a lot of money are no saints. I have no problem with that except that the club and its future now entirely in his hands.

I have no problem with TB owning the future of this club, he is a fan and clearly not in this to make money in my view.

You might well be interested in the reasons as our others however the club has the right not to tell anyone and seem to stick to that, so be it.

 

[scousefan]

Not sure I fully understand all the issues here.

However I find it unutterably sad to see a true proven fan like DK in this sort of dispute. I have wen a total supporter of TB. However I am beginning to wonder where we are headed.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

Not sure I fully understand all the issues here.

However I find it unutterably sad to see a true proven fan like DK in this sort of dispute. I have wen a total supporter of TB. However I am beginning to wonder where we are headed.

Sorry, Google can't translate that.

 

[Buzzer]

As usual, this seems to come down in the minds of many on here as DK versus the board or TB.

Because that's what it is, plain and simple.

but nobody seems to care about the wishes of those people who are interested in buying club shares.

Why should we? DK wrote the rules on how shares will be sold. He can't claim now that it's not what he intended. DK never once offered any equity shares to fans when he was in charge either by selling existing shares or from a share issue and DK was the one who wilfully raised fans' expectations with this scheme to sell his shares to fans and trying to railroad the board into ignoring the rules he put in place himself.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Very much written after the fact. As others have said, if DK was serious about the fans' ownership he could have implemented it at any time when he was in charge and it would have made excellent business sense too providing a much needed tax-free boost to the Albion coffers when we needed it most.

Until we had got planning permission for the stadium and go ahead financially for it, there was so much debt, it would have been a major risk for fans. That's why he had the Alive & Kicking fund for fans to contribute.

DK also wrote the articles saying that one man shouldn't have control over the club ever again but had no choice with the banking crisis but to hand over control to TB.

 

[Ernest]

Until we had got planning permission for the stadium and go ahead financially for it, there was so much debt, it would have been a major risk for fans. That's why he had the Alive & Kicking fund for fans to contribute.

Some might have wanted the risk ? Dick Tight certainly did ok in getting his money back so others may have done, whilst the Alive and Kicking donators got a BRICK, or didn't as was the case

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Some might have wanted the risk ? Dick Tight certainly did ok in getting his money back so others may have done, whilst the Alive and Kicking donators got a BRICK, or didn't as was the case

Paving slab which went badly wrong. At least it was replaced by a plaque on the wall.

 

[symyjym]

So you don't begrudge DK getting his loans to the club back but want to apply different standards to other minority shareholders who pumped money into the club but unlike DK haven't seen a penny back - and you think they're the ones in the wrong when DK gets all of his loan back and they sit there with shares that are worth considerably less than £1 a share?

Complete and utter double standards.

Did you read all my post

 

[Buzzer]

Did you read all my post

Yes thank you especially the snide comment about the other minority shareholders having the 'persona of being altruistic'.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

Until we had got planning permission for the stadium and go ahead financially for it, there was so much debt, it would have been a major risk for fans. That's why he had the Alive & Kicking fund for fans to contribute.

DK also wrote the articles saying that one man shouldn't have control over the club ever again but had no choice with the banking crisis but to hand over control to TB.

Sorry but where's the risk. You should always be prepared to lose what you invest. Same applies to DK.

The football club has little assets and is currently losing far more money year on year than DK ever invested.

What ever way you look at it he wanted to be chairman and spend TB's money and only hand over after the stadium was finished. No one in their right mind would've agreed to that. TB allowed him to become a figurehead as in president.

If it wasn't for TB DK wouldn't have a club left to be president of. Oh and wouldn't have got the money he did get for the shares TB did buy.

Bitter old ego I'm afraid.

 

[symyjym]

Yes thank you especially the snide comment about the other minority shareholders having the 'persona of being altruistic'.

Wasn't a snide comment, it was the easiest way to make a point on a forum rather than write an essay. If I was talking face to face with you, you would understand it as intended.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Sorry but where's the risk. You should always be prepared to lose what you invest. Same applies to DK.

The football club has little assets and is currently losing far more money year on year than DK ever invested.

What ever way you look at it he wanted to be chairman and spend TB's money and only hand over after the stadium was finished. No one in their right mind would've agreed to that. TB allowed him to become a figurehead as in president.

If it wasn't for TB DK wouldn't have a club left to be president of. Oh and wouldn't have got the money he did get for the shares TB did buy.

Bitter old ego I'm afraid.

He wanted to be vice chairman as he felt that TB was inexperienced and needed help and advice.

This is what I find so puzzling amongst some Albion fans who know what Dick did for this club, that he is written off as being a bitter old man. It's too simplistic.

 

[Buzzer]

Sorry but where's the risk. You should always be prepared to lose what you invest. Same applies to DK..

Absolutely spot on. The only risk to shareholders is to lose their shareholding. They're called limited liability companies for a reason - the liable risk to shareholders is restricted to their shareholding, nothing more.

Is DK now telling people that we didn't have a share issue during the Withdean Years because he was protecting us fans from financial ruin?

 

[Creaky]

Questions as to whether DK could, would or should have offered shares to fans when he was chairman is a complete smokescreen - the simple fact is that he now wants to do so and someone wants to block him from doing so.

Nobody has come up with one believable reason why ownership of a nominal number of shares by fans would be against the clubs best interest nor have I seen a viable explanation as to why anyone should try and block such an outcome except for the one put forward by EP which appears to be very petty.

 

[El Presidente]

Would be good if the club could swallow the costs internally and try and ascertain a fair price for the shares. Then offer that price to all minority shareholders. That would be fair and would draw a line under the matter.

Agree to a point, but that would mean TB (who IS the club these days) giving money to people who are already wealthy.

I wonder if DK pledged all the money from the share sale to a good cause (AITC or REMF spring to mind) then perhaps the objector would feel he has less to object about?

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

He wanted to be vice chairman as he felt that TB was inexperienced and needed help and advice.

This is what I find so puzzling amongst some Albion fans who know what Dick did for this club, that he is written off as being a bitter old man. It's too simplistic.

Afraid DK's way of running a business was most probably somewhat different to TB's. Not very compatible. I doubt TB wanted too much 'help' or indeed needed it. You don't become a self made billionaire by being sentimental.

I'm not writing him off as being a bitter old man he is doing that himself.

 

[Buzzer]

Questions as to whether DK could, would or should have offered shares to fans when he was chairman is a complete smokescreen - the simple fact is that he now wants to do so and someone wants to block him from doing so.

That's simply not true. As I've said previously, it would have made excellent business sense to do it when he was in charge but he didn't and he doesn't have a leg to stand on moaning about the very rules that he himself put in place.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

Questions as to whether DK could, would or should have offered shares to fans when he was chairman is a complete smokescreen - the simple fact is that he now wants to do so and someone wants to block him from doing so.

Nobody has come up with one believable reason why ownership of a nominal number of shares by fans would be against the clubs best interest nor have I seen a viable explanation as to why anyone should try and block such an outcome except for the one put forward by EP which appears to be very petty.

Whilst I find this whole episode very sad, I do think there is a lot of merit to the point of view that DK could have offered shares whilst chairman, and it is most certainly not a smokescreen - more a core concern.