Danny P
Member
Registered: 20th Nov 02
Location: Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire
User status: Offline
|
Huddersfield Town could soon be fucked
When we went into administration a few years ago, we were taken over by a man named Ken Davy. Davy was at the time the chairman of Huddersfield Giants, the rugby team that share our stadium. When he took over his vision was to make both us, and the Giants a dominant force in our respective sports, and out the town of Huddersfield back on the map. Everyone was happy at the time as he had taken the Giants from the bottom Northen Ford (Div 1) to being a top 6 team in the Super League. He promised investment into the Football team on a similar scale, and everyone was happy. Oh how wrong we were....
Here is a brief explanation of the situation surrounding Ken Davy and his actions while acting as chairman of Huddersfield Town:
Davy (with the backing of the council because unlike the existing bid, his bid had HTFC repaying debts to them that were to have been wiped off in admin) took over HTFC and with it the clubs 40% share of the stadium company, KSDL. At the time he publically stated the makeup of KSDL ( 40% Town, 40% KMC and 20% Giants) would not change.
Literally days later he transferred Town's 40% into his holding company Huddersfield Rugby League football Club Ltd. This was not publicised. He changed the name HRLFC Ltd to Huddersfield Sporting Pride Ltd, selling it as some kind of umbrella company for both Town and the Giants. Town weren't in fact any part of and had no assets in this company. The transfer wasn't discovered for 15 months.
When confronted with the transfer, he (rather begrudgingly) gave the reason that this was done to protect HTFC from KSDL's debt liabilities. Seemingly forgetting that KSDL is a rather healthy business that makes a very sizable profit every year AND that around the time of the transfer he had also publicly said that 'all the doubts hanging over KSDL had been removed', when KMC (Kirlkless Council) took almost half the then £7m debt liabilities away from the company.
When asked when, and under what circumstances the shares would be returned ,he chose to describe those asking as myopic, bigotted troublemakers of the worst kind and tried to get the police to stop them informing the wider fanbase of the fact Town had had their assets stripped from them. After being repeatedly asked and asked again, he finally said there were NO circumstances where the shares would be returned to HTFC.
When Davy said the above the said the plan was, that when KSDLs debts are repaid, the ongoing profits that KSDL make (from the sporting clubs, sponsorships, rent from the cinema, bars, golf range, catering contracts, corporate days, other events etc) would be paid out in dividends to its shareholders, of which HTFC would receive 40%. Where we are now is that HTFC's 40% dividends will go to Ken Davy, and after his death, to his family ad infinitum.
The club will continue to finance KSDL to the tune of roughly £1.4m a year through rent and loss of catering income etc, and will never receive a penny from the stadium, despite mainly financing it from day one. Even though we are now classed as tennents, we are still lumbered with repaying a large share of the separate debt on top of the rent taken for the FM stand (a stand we now dont own anything off)
If Huddersfield Town and Chairman elect Dean Hoyle cannot recover the shares, then Huddersfield Town could be in severve financial trouble, and it could eventually lead to administration, and possible liquidation
Bollocks 
|
Danny P
Member
Registered: 20th Nov 02
Location: Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire
User status: Offline
|
Sorry for the massive essay
Here's a brief summary if you cant be arsed to read all that:
Ken Davy bought Town when we were in administration. Paid fuck all for us as it was done at the last moment. He took on our share of the stadium (40%) and then without telling anyone, moved the 40% share to his other company.
That company now charges HTFC rent, and takes all monies made on match day sponsorship/catering etc & it is costing the club approx £1.4 million a year at present. He also charges the club for any events they hold at the stadium on a non matchday.
At present HTFC dont make enough money to pay out £900k a year rent or can afford to lose out on the 500K it would make in advertising & catering revenue.
If the new chairman cant find anything illegal in what Ken Davy did with regards to moving the shares, or get him to give them back us or reduce the rent. Within a few years we would be opperating in a massive amount of debt which would be getting worse and worse each year, and would inevibility end up in administration, and no doubt end up being liquidated as nobody in thier right might would invest in something so costly to keep running from year to year.
|
Cosmo
Member
Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: Im the real one!
User status: Offline
|
Firstly - he cant just transfer assets. Its basically a sale of assets from one company to another. If thats the case, the whole board (majority anyway) would have to agree to it.
I can see why he did it to some extent, i.e. he keeps the two clubs (football and rugby) seperate to the stadium. Then if one or the other gets into trouble the others are safe. To me that makes perfect sense.
What doesnt make sense to me is that for the stadium to be profitable for him, he needs two clubs playing there on a regular basis and filling the ground out each week. So its in his best interests to both a. make sure both clubs stay in business, and b. both clubs continue to progress and attract the fans to the ground.
|
AlexSXI
Member
Registered: 10th Jan 08
Location: Colchester, Essex
User status: Offline
|
you'll be fucked alot sooner than you think, in 24hrs when the U's are in town to stuff ya 
nah, in seriousness hope HTFC can get through it, would be good if you could get up to the championship this season to ease the worries 
|
Marc
Member
Registered: 11th Aug 02
Location: York
User status: Offline
|
Sounds to me like hes bleeding Huddersfield dry.
|
Danny P
Member
Registered: 20th Nov 02
Location: Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire
User status: Offline
|
That first point you make Cosmo made is being looked into at the moment by a group of fans that was set up some time ago to get to the bottom of what was happened. They've been looking into it for a year or so & this is a major stumbling block as nobody will release any information as yet.
Why he did it makes sense for HIM to make sure he makes money. The way things are going at the moment HTFC are making no money at all, and are at the very least losing £900k per year before a ball is even kicked.
From what I can work out, he only needed HTFC to play there long enough to recover the money that he laid out when we went into administration. Which he's close to recovering. He doesn't just own the Stadium itself, he owns all the land around it which is quite a lot. This land is soon to be turned into this project http://www.thehdone.co.uk/?hd=main. The land is worth £££ to the investors who plan to build all this stuff, and Davy can now sell this under the company KDSL & keep all the profit for himself whereas if things were kept as they should have been, HTFC would have received 40% of all monies earnt by selling/renting the land. That is worth much more to him that us playing at the Stadium.
[Edited on 02-03-2009 by Danny P]
|
Cosmo
Member
Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: Im the real one!
User status: Offline
|
quote:
Originally posted by Danny P
That first point you make Cosmo made is being looked into at the moment by a group of fans that was set up some time ago to get to the bottom of what was happened. They've been looking into it for a year or so & this is a major stumbling block as nobody will release any information as yet.
Robbo may correct me if I am wrong, but I am certain you cant just transfer assets between companies. You also cant sell them for a nominal fee, so would have to be a fair price in the current climate - although obviously ways to pay a lower price but not something stupid like £1.
quote:
Why he did it makes sense for HIM to make sure he makes money. The way things are going at the moment HTFC are making no money at all, and are at the very least losing £900k per year before a ball is even kicked.
I didnt say it makes sense for him to make sure he makes money. I said it makes sense that he provides as much protection for each company from the other. Its a very sensible thing to do in this current climate. So in this case, if the stadium went tits up, the clubs would be fine. If either of the clubs went tits up, then their share of the stadium wouldnt fall into the administrators hands and effect the other club.
quote:
From what I can work out, he only needed HTFC to play there long enough to recover the money that he laid out when we went into administration. Which he's close to recovering. He doesn't just own the Stadium itself, he owns all the land around it which is quite a lot. This land is soon to be turned into this project http://www.thehdone.co.uk/?hd=main. The land is worth £££ to the investors who plan to build all this stuff, and Davy can now sell this under the company KDSL & keep all the profit for himself whereas if things were kept as they should have been, HTFC would have received 40% of all monies earnt by selling/renting the land. That is worth much more to him that us playing at the Stadium.
The land makes it a different matter - but at the end of the day if he wanted to milk the club once the development was complete then he could of done. Just because he has done this now doesnt mean he wont invest that money into the club - he may not, but he may.
I still think it made perfect sense to spread the risk. If he pumps the money back into the club (Im not sure if he has, or has said he wont?) then whats the problem?
|
Danny P
Member
Registered: 20th Nov 02
Location: Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire
User status: Offline
|
I've asked a guy who's in the know about the transfer of the shares so i'll get back to you about that. I've only just got wind of the severity of what has been going on so i'm not fully up to speed at the moment.
I see your point with regards to keeping the assests seperate, but while the 40% was with HTFC, we made money on every game. Way it stands at the moment we lose money. So it's not benefited us at all. We're also still paying for one of the stands HTFC paid for, but no longer own. Stadium is now never really in danger of going tits up unless we move out. That way the mortgage would be payable by KDSL & Huddersfield Giants. If the Giants went bust it wouldn't really effect us as they only contribute a small amount in terms of rent at the moment compared to us.
Also consider any other event held at the stadium we make no money from. Example being the Challenge Cup Semi Final. The Stadium Company get money for renting it out, yet HTFC see nothing of this despite paying the most of money to build it in the first place!
He's stepping down as chairman at the end of the season, so any money made from selling the land off will never find its way back into the Football Club
|
Aaron
Member
Registered: 9th Aug 04
Location: Cottingham, East Riding
User status: Offline
|
Too many essay's in this thread 
*leaves*
|
Cosmo
Member
Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: Im the real one!
User status: Offline
|
He'll still be the clubs owner though, even if stepping down, so could well see him investing in his investment.
I can see how it looks, your income being cut through no revenues from 3rd party events at the stadium, plus an increase in costs with the rent. If he is purely taking the money from the club and not investing it back then its bad. If he is pumping money back in then I dont see the problem really.
And do you know what he has paid for the stadium from you - has he taken on the debts you had built up during construction?
|
Danny P
Member
Registered: 20th Nov 02
Location: Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire
User status: Offline
|
Sorry should have said the club will be joint owned as the new chairman takes control with a majority share. I can pretty much bet my life Ken Davy wont be investing anything in HTFC. He has no reason to as he isn't interested in what league we will be playing in, as long as we can afford to pay the rent thats all he cares about. In fact in all his time at the club I can only remember us actually paying money for 2/3 payers. Everyone else came in on free transfers only after players have been sold.
I'm not 100% sure on how much he paid with regards to what we paid out, although i'm guessing that he took on the debt at a reduced rate to please the creditors because if he hadn't have come in they would have got nothing. I'm presuming that he's made enough money back from us paying the rent to cover this initial outlay & thats why he's waited till now to step down/agree to a joint ownership.
Also, i'm only going on what i've been told ATM. Hopefully have a better idea after tomorrow when i've been to our game & spoken to a few people & looked over some stuff.
[Edited on 02-03-2009 by Danny P]
|
Cosmo
Member
Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: Im the real one!
User status: Offline
|
The more you say the more dodgey it sounds.
Still strange how he has got away with moving the stadium away from the club and into another company, but guess all will come out in the end!
|
Danny P
Member
Registered: 20th Nov 02
Location: Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire
User status: Offline
|
Aye, apoligies for not getting everything in the first posts, just copied what was posted on our forum. Looking from the outside it probably doesn't look as it bad as what it does from the inside. A lot of our fans are blind to it as well (I was until recently) becuase he saved the club in the first instance some refuse to belive anything that is said against him. I was glad when he saved the club, everyone was, but it seems he only did it for the short term gains he could make for himself.
Apparently something is to be printed very soon in a national broadsheet newspaper written by a very well respected financial writter, so i'm guessing a lot of information may be being held back until then so the report doesn't get pulled or anything lik that.
|
JonnyJ
Member
Registered: 23rd Sep 05
Location: Scotchland
User status: Offline
|
Ah yes, dodgy transfer over ownership of a ground into another company, now where have i heard that one before??? 
Danny, hope you pull through mate, it sounds proper fucked up
|
Danny P
Member
Registered: 20th Nov 02
Location: Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire
User status: Offline
|
Cheer mate.
See you in't Conference North
|
JonnyJ
Member
Registered: 23rd Sep 05
Location: Scotchland
User status: Offline
|
Haha, we will never be in the conf north, at least not as YCFC. We would go bust and be in the Northern Counties East Div 1 as AFC York 
|
Danny P
Member
Registered: 20th Nov 02
Location: Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire
User status: Offline
|
We might see you in there then  Wonder if everyone in the video you sent me would turn up for that one 
Had a mini protest against all this last night, had a banner in the crowd but was made to take it down after about a minute by Stewards & Police
|
mikenoncorsa
Member
Registered: 27th Sep 06
Location: Worcester
User status: Offline
|
Random and off topic but Danny P, have you ever heard of Darren Bullock?
|
Danny P
Member
Registered: 20th Nov 02
Location: Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire
User status: Offline
|
quote:
Originally posted by mikenoncorsa
Random and off topic but Danny P, have you ever heard of Darren Bullock?
Heard of him? He's a legend at Huddersfield  One of my favourite players of all time. Fantastic player.
Why you ask mate?
|
mikenoncorsa
Member
Registered: 27th Sep 06
Location: Worcester
User status: Offline
|
Honestly? Did he score a winning penalty at Wembley? I know him, played sunday league footy with him last year
|
Danny P
Member
Registered: 20th Nov 02
Location: Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire
User status: Offline
|
He never scored the winner for us at Wembley. He scored the winner in the Play Off Semi-Final to get us to Wembley though....
Yeah the guy is a hero. I remember he moved from us to Swindon. When we played Swidon after the game all the Town fan were singing his name, as he stood in the centre circle he took his Swindon shirt off and stamped on it
Was a right hard tackler type player when he was with us, guess he's no different in Sunday League?
|
mikenoncorsa
Member
Registered: 27th Sep 06
Location: Worcester
User status: Offline
|
He stuck a penalty in the top corner last season, turned round and said 'I did that once in the play offs!!'. Top bloke if you know him, comes across as a bit of a badger if you don't. And yes, still likes his tackles
|
Danny P
Member
Registered: 20th Nov 02
Location: Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire
User status: Offline
|
Good stuff. Glad to hear is still well, and playing.
This is the Penalty here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5mZ8PhuL74 3mins 25secs if you cant be arsed watching it all.
Give him my best 
[Edited on 04-03-2009 by Danny P]
|
