Skip to main content

Plans A, B and C at Bury

Shakers fans have three plans on the table as they seek to revive their club:

  • Plan A: a consortium interested in buying the club in its present form.
  • Plan B: the purchase of Gigg Lane, valued at £3.8m, by entrepreneur Robert Benwell, either out of liquidation or by way of repossession. Talks are continuing with mortgage holder Capital Bridge Financing.
  • Plan C: A supporter-led phoenix club named Bury AFC to apply to join the North West Counties League from next season. They would seek a ground share, possibly with Radcliffe.

As far as Plan B is concerned, Benwell has said that he would invest £800k of his own money to pay off a percentage of the ground's mortgage. He claims to have an agreement in principle with Capital Bridge Financing for £4 of every ticket, potentially priced at £15, to pay the interest on the rest of the mortgage.

Chair of the Bury Phoenix Group Chris Murray told The Football League Paper, 'I wasn't totally on board with the Benwell idea when you do the maths on it because it doesn't sound like it would pay the mortgage off completely'. A possible Plan D would be for Benwell and the phoenix club to merge to play at Gigg Lane, but supporters understandably have reservations given their past experiences.

Owner Steven Dale settled a debt with HM Revenue and Customs out of court, but Bury will back in court on 16th January having entered into a Company Voluntary Arrangement believed to be worth £1m.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

It's no deal say Spurs insiders over Taiwanese takeover

Senior figures at Tottenham Hotspur insisted on Friday that they had not been informed of any deal to sell Daniel Levy’s stake in the club. A business group, Eight Sports Capital — which is said to include a billionaire Taiwanese financier — claimed that it had an agreement in place to buy a 24.99 per cent stake in ENIC, the club’s majority owners, from Levy, who owns 29.88 per cent. The Times has been told Ng Wing Fai and Brooklyn Earick form part of the group, having both been linked previously to potential takeovers of the Premier League club. The Taiwanese businessman, Richard Tsai, is also said to be part of the consortium. He is reportedly worth £7 billion.  Last year Earick, the former DJ and tech entrepreneur, was part of an attempted £4.5 billion takeover, which was “unequivocally rejected” by Spurs.  An ENIC spokesperson said: “We can confirm that neither ENIC nor THFC are aware of any sale by Daniel Levy’s Family Trust of its minority stake in ENIC, THFC’...

Reports about Charlton sale exaggerated

Reports have appeared in The Guardian and elsewhere that Charlton has been put up for sale. Richard Cawley is an authoritative local journalist who runs a South London Sport substack site.  He reached out to the club yesterday evening to ask for comment on The Guardian’s article. Early indications from the club have been that nothing has changed since the story about them seeking investment, except that it is now a different company doing it. Charlton have since managed to consolidate their place in the Championship, avoiding an instant return to League One, with their women’s side promoted to the WSL, returning to the top flight for the first time since 2007, although staying there is likely to be costly. It would be counter-intuitive for owners Global Football Partners not to progress the club when looking for investment, that the focus remains on driving it forward, that their spend this summer is in line with long-term planning and will see an increase in wages spent on players...

Hull City's 'strange' loan

When football finance guru Kieran Maguire seems flashing lights in a club's loan deal, I become concerned.  He is the leading football finance expert in the UK. Hull City have borrowed £55m against their stadium and training ground yet they should get £30m from the Premier League before long.  What is going on? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cpwel48y51do