Good post.

Report on Look North coming up.....I am going to walk the dogs it is too depressing to watch, the man is mad

Think we have a case as had to sell council The Boulevard as part of getting in to KC .

Hull City never even owned there ground.

Then the Council made sure we had no where to go by pulling The Boulevard down as we showed interest back in it .

Conspiracy Theory

£0.5m is 1% of £50m, which I would expect is a fairly average turnover given they get about £30m a year from SKY. It's .17% of man utds turnover

I am very concerned by it all.

the KC has provided a very 'stable' home for the past 8 years, and is very much the driving force behind the club being profitable.

On non-HullFC level I have serious doubts about the transport infrastructure around the KC being able to cope with a 35K+ ground, concert/ice arena, swimming pool and whatever else they are planning...the roads are clogged with 11K at a rugby game! Its not as simple as just plonking these things on Walton Street, the whole road network IMO needs an upgrade.

I see the most likely scenarios here as either us staying at the newly developed KC and getting shafted for additional rent, thereby compromising our ability to make a profit, particularly with reducing crowds, or getting booted out with some crappy compensation. The questions in the latter case are how we'd raise finance to build a decent Keepmoat (at best) style stadium, and whether we could afford the repayments. Can't see this being good for FC at all.

I'm fearing the worst and wish this prat Allam would bugger off.

Excellent summary of how I feel. And not just for the sake of RL - City fans are fools if they cannot see the risks to their own long-term future.

Can we hope that this could happen?

.... in which case let him do what he likes.

I still hope the council will call his bluff and tell him to bog off to Melton. Despite being on the Rich List he needs our stadium for borrowing potential for his football club - he won't/can't pay for the Melton pie in the sky. Why are people so naive about his "philanthropy"? They're like a herd of clapping seals.

I also think it's very dangerous just how much the Mail are pushing for this. People who can't see further than their noses will believe the hype - already there is at least one letter in the Mail supporting the scheme daily - I've only seen one protesting letter. Humberside seem equally gullible with their short sighted squawks of encouragement.

I'm worried that we will be lone protesting voice. It is interesting that Hull FC seem conspicuous by their silence. We must hope that, as the other tenant to Allam, their voice is heard equally. Wonder if Hull will be invited to the Tuesday meeting?

Reading these posts I am, for the first time happy we play in a hovel nobody wants.

lol.

I think Allam's grand plan is to merge the sides. As I have said from a business perspective (and theoretically) one Superleage side in Hull would be an amazing side IMO. That said, he has to factor in the history and ill feeling, which I don't think he truly understands.

As a hypothetical question, would you come to the KC to watch Rovers if they sold up and re-located there and FC were still there also?

Maybe he was at Rovers yesterday to pump money in to fast track the east and north stands and also to build a south stand to bring the capacity to 20,000 and tell FC thats where your playing now!

On a side note I wouldnt have a problem sharing a ground like the milan teams do. When your at home you have the ticket sales and dressing room choice and vica versa.

I would not be surprised if that was his idea. Won't work though!

Absolutely. See my other answer ref the san siro. I live out of town and away from the pressure cooker of living either East or West.

Thought you were a bit too tame and reasonable.

Amazed that the Allams are being taken seriously enough for people even to consider allowing them to mess around with 150 years of history. As businessmen they should look at the brand they want to control. In the city of Hull, a lot of the rugby brand is the rivalry - unique in our sport and worth a lot of money. Only an idiot with limited commercial savvy would not work with it and instead destroy it.

FWIW I don't believe any of this will happen because a) no Council can afford to sell a high profile capital asset which is probably valued at £50 million+ in its books for anything less than 'book value' plus the value of the surrounding land and b) Alam can't afford to pay 'book value'.

But yes I am as concerned as all the other FC posters on here and we could do without the distraction.

I was OKish with the idea of a Hull/Rovers merger at the time. In fact my red and white in-laws and I were half planning the trip to Paris and getting quite giddy, based mainly on the fact that the realistic alternative looked like extinction. Things have moved on now. If we were to relocate to Craven Park, I think I'd have to abandon FC and start supporting my local team, Huddersfield. Love a bandwagon, me.

Yeah but imagine a stadiums back lighting that is black and white when your at home and red and white when we are.
Of course there may be confusion for a couple of seasons when season ticket holders go to their seats on derby day!

So.... what if he wants to invest in KR and take Hull City to play at Craven Park? Highly unlikely I know, but just what if....

Quality.... see what you did there.

I may well join you. Decent calendar they had last year, full of naughty Santas.

This is the bit which puzzles me.

I am assuming he will need to borrow to buy the KC in the first place, therefore landing a load of debt on Hull City's balance sheet ala The Glazers at Man Utd.

The Stadium is a fairly specific building (used for sporting / music events), therefore the market value for this type of asset is only going to be pushed up if there is an active market out there putting that asset under demand.

Any bank willing to lend on this would have to assess the recoverability of the loan they give. This cannot be based in the Stadium structure value as there is no active market for it, rather the income it could generate in the future (future ticket sales).

Therefore this would be one huge gamble to a lenders part and would also but a gamble on the borrowers part, as they would absolutely need the stadium to be full every week with a successful soccer team.

In the current economic client, would Mr Allam find a lender willing to be part of this?

On a slightly different note, this type of securitisation is very simiar to how Leeds United got themselves into the mire.

Think they're OK to initially buy the stadium, but will then use it as security to raise the funds they need to get City towards the Premiership again. Then watch them sell the lot.... As well as the Allam's - it's the unknown next owners that bother me.

But thats the whole point, what security does it actually provide?

With a mortgage on a house, anyone defaulting gets their house reposessed and the bank sell it on as there is an active market.

There is no active market for a sporting stadia.

Your scenario is exactly what got Leeds Utd into so much trouble. Borrow money on the basis of future income only to fritter it away on high wages for cack player.