Q&A with Carl Reader

[steham]

It's not really a 'strange way to conduct this sort of business' to go public with people who care after a more traditional private approach was completely ignored. But hey ho.

Really not strange to use a fans forum to discuss a potential multi million pound deal wow ?

 

[Carl]

Carl
It seems to me that by airing all of this on this forum (which is a strange way to conduct this sort of business if you ask me but hey ho) you are asking the fans to rise up and protest and effectively force Ron to accept your consortiums offer and its only fair that they know what they are really fighting for because lets be honest we all know what this is about and its not the football club known as SUFC is it?
So here are some questions for you
What guarantees and assurances can you give to the following.
1) all debts currently owed to all of RM's businesses will be written off as stated by RM and will not be pursued or called in by the new investors which would probably bankrupt the club?
2) The stadium will be built in accordance with the current planning application and will not be changed or scaled down to make way for more housing which is what this is all about isnt it?
3) The proposed rental agreement with RM will be honoured and effectively SUFC will not be charged physical rent on the new stadium
4) What investment will be made into the footballing side of all of this ie player recruitment, infrastructure, management etc
5) Is the agreement to give Southend council homes for them to claim the rent an integral non negotiable part of the scheme and planning

I appreciate that there is some detail that needs to be finalised but an honest answer in principle would be much appreciated

Just a few clarifying points before answering your questions:
1. I was asked to get involved in the Q+A, I didn’t post my intentions here nor start the threads here.
2. The reason for making the approach (not offer) public was that the private approaches were batted back, and then not replied to.
3. It has had the desired effect, see above for details of the response received once made public, and I’ve been in touch since with some important stakeholders to this whole process - whilst perhaps an unorthodox approach, it’s finally got things moving.
4. Protests are the polar opposite of what we want. If you want me to spell it out… “FANS, PLEASE DO NOT PROTEST”. It does no good for the team, who are ultimately who we are all behind. We’d have preferred to have an acceptance of our offer to meet for coffee and to explore the options on the table - and that is ultimately what we are still after. That’s all. This isn’t about forcing someone to accept an offer or anything like that - it’s about getting the meeting, and sometimes you need to show you’re serious about wanting the meeting.
5. I’m not a property developer personally, and am here with the interest of the club at heart.

Now the answers:

1. How would new investors be able to call in the debt owed to someone else? That’s not how it works unless these debts were assigned to us. Why would RM do that? This question doesn’t really make sense… but to be crystal clear in our answer, that wouldn’t be possible and we would be instead looking for the debts to RM and related cos to be written off / cleared / paid (whichever form it takes) as part of the transaction otherwise, we would owe him and he wouldn’t want that, and we wouldn’t want that.
2. The plans are probably 90% of where they’d end up, and the reason that I can’t say 100% is that we haven’t got to the stage of the deal to do DD, detailed planning etc. But broadly, we aren’t looking to build a 10,000 seater, or just a park, if that’s your concern (which I think it is).
3. We’re aiming for a structure that achieves that ideal, yes
4. Investment will be made in the club to shore it up, we are not disclosing figures publicly at this stage. Not least because we aren’t even at offer stage yet!
5. We’d need to know more details before commenting too much on this and then in turn our intentions.

These are the extent of the answers that I can give to these levels of questions - we simply aren’t at the stage to answer with any substance right now, hope it helps.

 

[Carl]

And guys, going to end this thread now - explanation in next post.

 

[Carl]

I hope that you’ve found this useful to understand a bit of where we are coming from, but I suspect the thread has run it’s course. More importantly, I hope you’ve seen the transparency that we’d be looking to have by replying honestly, even though some answers might not be exactly what you’d have wanted.

The reason for ending it is that we’ve had a cycle of the same questions, such as:

- why now, and not yesterday / tomorrow
- how do we know you won’t run away with the club
- have you really got the money, I’ve researched the investment vehicle set up for this and can’t see any history (thankfully this whole project for us has only been going on just over a year, hence no history…)
etc

Plus then some more very good, detailed questions which I’d love to answer more fully, but can’t either due to commercial sensitivity, it being a by product of any negotiations, or simply not knowing until we have more info.

The sale of a private company is exactly that, if things move forwards it will entail information being transferred to us under a non disclosure agreement, for the purposes of DD and preparing an offer; and I simply won‘t be able to share anywhere near the amount of info you would want.

So, hope this has helped put some of your minds at rest. I know that opinions range between “he’s worse than Hitler” to “he’s going to solve poverty, the war in Ukraine and take Southend to win the Champions League” - the reality is probably somewhere in the middle, but I’ll do my best, and the care you have for this club is exactly why I care for the club too, whether this all happens or not.

 

[kaymac]

Thanks for your comments, Carl, appreciate there's only so much that can be revealed at this moment in time.

 

[Holy Joe]

he’s going to solve poverty, the war in Ukraine and take Southend to win the Champions League”

I'd take just one of the three - any one!

Thanks for the answers - good luck with the journey you're on

 

[Mr Browns Ghost]

You’re a good guy Carl and the ‘famous mr cockles’ is with you buddy

Just like the good ole days

 

[leeblue]

Good luck

 

[RHB]

And with the latest statements from @Carl this thread has reached a natural conclusion, so for now it is closed. There is still the main thread for any further discussions. Thanks for the input everyone, never a dull day on ShrimperZone, is there?