I don't disagree with that, but the person tying the sale of SUFC to his son's property deal is Ron. The Council's condition is that SUFC is sold to COSU
before or at the same time as they sign the deal for Fossetts Farm.
Ron is the one choosing to wait to the last minute, he could sell the club now and trust the process and the Council's need for housing is enough reassurance that everything else will progress.
He's the one that is using the club as a bargaining chip and if, as he says, he "F%@king loves the club" he has a funny way of showing it.
The one thing that is still perplexing me about this is something the very well informed
@Medway Blue said in post #400 (on page 20 if you want to find it!), where he said that the approval of CBRE is needed for the sale of the club to go ahead.
I can see that they will be very involved in the transfer of the £45m charge from Roots Hall to Fossetts Farm and the structuring of the overall property deal (including the timing and phasing of the £20m payment to club for refurbishing Roots Hall). They will, I assume, also have to agree the terms of the 25-year lease for Roots Hall to COSU, however I can't see why they would have any say over the transfer of South East Leisure UK Ltd's shares in Southend United Football Club Ltd to COSU.
Presumably Ron could, if he chooses, do the following immediately:
- Transfer all shares in SUFC from SEL to COSU
- Transfer the freehold of the new training ground to POSU
- Agree a 25-year lease on Roots Hall to POSU
- Agree the terms of the transfer of the freehold of Roots Hall to POSU
That's all we want - detach us from the deal with the Council and let the consortium get on with making preparations for the new season.
He can do this now, but is choosing not to. For that reason it's protests resume in Benfleet for now!
Am I missing something obvious?