Yes, I really do. When the Thunder were moved to Hull by the Wicked Witch of West Hull, Falcons gates went up by a considerable amount. There was a market for RL, despite the stadium, and there still is, if someone with just a bit of cash were to come in.

I went to a couple of 'What are we going to do now?' meetings after it was all announced at the end of the 1999 season. Two men stepped forward who said they were prepared to start the club up again, so we had a meeting and I had raised money previously for Stockton RFC, so they made me the lottery organiser. because of my employment status at the time I agreed to do it so long as I wasn't directly involved with cash. After a few months I managed to get the lottery incorporated into the Wire lottery and we made a fair bit in the first year. I also sold blind cards on coaches to away games, but the problem was that they were underfunded and should have spent a full year raising money, instead of joining the Championship in Jan 2000, and getting the absolute dregs of a team as all the reasonable players had been signed up for other clubs by the time Thunder were accepted back in.
After just under 2 seasons the club ran out of money, a guy took over who owned several Newcastle gyms, who was just a liar (in the end he tyold too many lies and is now in prison), and that was the point when I walked away. There have been several owners since. It would appear that now sponsors are finally starting to come back, having been badly let down by Hetherington and friends. I'd love to see them come good.

You are right, my point was more that if one buys a failing company you don't come in and declare business as usual whilst we slowly turn things round without upsetting anyone, you make radical changes and fast.

If I fancy a bit of a thrill I put £2 on Joel Monaghan to score the first try, the likes of Koukash buy horses or sports clubs. They get a kick out of it and we also benefit most of the time, so good on em.

I think you're right TFB, but, I would speculate that apart from trying to coerse the council who may be perceived as a 'softer' target as budgets generally fall there may be an opportunity to cut their loses publicly, Peel Holding's might also be persuaded to sell some land.

In the case of Peel, you were correct in using the term "going rate". It is about timing and to answer Sally's post the reason it hasn't happened before is simple economics, no demand for property development or funds available from banks. Koukash would presumably look to buy at the bottom of the market where we are now, get a favourable planning permission as part of the investment strategy (deal) with the Council and it's onwards and upwards on a rising market. Like buying a house but on a bigger scale.

Peel will take the cash quite readily for the right money as they diversify and buy assetts rather than carrying out developments themselves for little reward when viewed against risk at this time.

BTW this thread contains the only sensible post I've ever seen from Stanley as he and the I presume the Salford speccies acknowledge that Moran and Koukash are inherrently different investors in 'their' teams.

A funny phenomenon with sports teams is that whilst we hear often that teams are struggling, its pretty rare that a sports team goes out of business, what usually happens when a sports team gets too overloaded with its debts is it ends up in administration, perhaps drops down a division and competes at a lower level, but still survives as it has a core fan base that won't switch to another 'brand' like would happen in other industries. The people that have put money in to the club (ie owners, shareholders, investors, the local council etc) end up losing out because they never get repaid when the club gets reformed under a new company as often seems to happen.

So I think the general rule of thumb is if you invest in a sports club do it for love of sport and don't expect to get a big return on it as you could end up being burned, the usual rules of business don't seem to apply to sport.