There's been no shortage of drama, but sympathy would have been more appropriate, if no more welcome

, 10 years or so ago.
Enigma suggests a mystery to me - and whatever your opinion of NH, it's generally been pretty clear what he is doing and why.
Pearson's plans are rather less obvious. From what we can see, I don't your negative view is justified. But there are some curiosities that have never been properly addressed, IMO. None of the realistic scenarios are necessarily bad for Hull FC - but that we don't know is... enigmatic.

I'm thinking about purchase price, dealing with the inherited debts, the SMC deal and the more meaningful measures of how profitable/loss-making Hull FC is and is likely to be in coming years. Tbf, I suspect those questions haven't been asked because this stuff is kind of dull. And if he AP wanted people to know, he'd have put it in the hdm already.

I've been told from people on both sides of the fence this is true and if it wasn't for the Tuimavave situation then Mika would of been a Hull player by now.

You think?
Prove it......

Young players in SL dream team
way better facilities than at any time in the last 20+ years

and that's without even thinking.....

Did my job for me

I reckon knockersbump has had more than a simple bump to the head, if he thinks Pearson will be taking his money back out in a couple of years. How will he manage that?

I can't imagine HMRC giving him a refund and I dread to think what value would be placed on 3+ years old gym equipment etc.

AP would be lucky to even start seeing a return on his investment in five years time

You are a strange person!

Its not a bloody charity. Clubs are not a thing of pity. They are business's which people will try an d maximise a rerturn from.

You appear to be stuck in the 1970's with your view of the club as a business's.

As for here today gone tomorrow?? Pearson has been involved for over 3 years now, hardly a short term fix.

You appear not to like Pearson through no more than envy.

Its all that southern air. Its having a bad effect on his brain.



Its amazing how successful business men manage to diversify (See Dragons Den as a classic example) yet if an owner decides to spread his wings into an entirely different sport its means the end of the road. I suspect some have hiden agendas just as much as some are totally blinded and buy into all the propaganda. Different ends of a spectrum but no less clouded in their judgement.

I'd rather sit back enjoy the ride, its bound to be bumpy, but lets face it if you sign up to Hull FC then you shouldn't expect anything other than a bumpy ride.
AP will make mistakes, its how he adapts to those mistakes that is the real issue. Its clear from his actions he was not happy with how things were going and has made changes. That does not mean we haven't made progress anymore than it means we are still a mess.
When you think of the really dark days over the past 20 years or so, you have to admit that under AP we are light years away from that, but equally can not rest as we still have work to do. I would suggest anyone who feels its being done wrong should call AP and make him an offer.

I suppose the worry would be that he’s not really diversifying into a different sport but more going back to his first love.

I can’t imaging Pearson went into RL with his eyes closed but I would assume that its been far more difficult then he first imagined. RL isn’t football and throwing money at it doesn’t guarantee success, unless its vast amounts and some underhand cap manipulation and even that will struggle.
The key to Pearson’s continued involvement, and level of future investment, will no doubt come down to where the club is in line with his’ business plan’ and whether he has decided he’s thrown enough money at it and its time to tighten the purse strings and re-evaluate the future plan.
Ultimately at this time RL club ownership can only really be a labour of love, he says he’s still in love with it so I’d assume he’ll carry on, but as with the rest of RL the future investment may be scrutinised more closely.

3 or 4 years ago Bradford fans were thinking things couldn't get any worse, so no the improvement is not a gimme.

And if AP is a total mercenary going to take all his money back then the only way he can do that is to find a buyer convinced that they are getting something of value, ie a strong, winning, sustainable club. Building up to that scenario would suit me and I suspect most fans.

I agree with Knockersbump. Bring back Kath...

His mistake was hiring McRae and Gentle, in Pearson's eyes he was hiring a vastly experienced head coach who had worked at HullFC for years as Director Of Rugby, and an Aussie National side Assistant Coach with a great reputation. Obviously that didn't work out.

he has spent big on players, but we simply got it wrong. We got Ellis who got injured in round 1 and looks knackered after his NRL stint, and we got Holdsworth who could play a good game every now and again, but nowhere near consistently enough. Throw in to the mix that we had to clear out players signed by the old regime who weren't good enough or had off-field issues such as Seymour, Jamie Ellis, O'Carroll etc and its been an expensive time on the playing front.

Unfortunately for Pearson his takeover at the club co-coincided with a reduction in overseas players coming to SL due to the higher salary cap in the NRL and weak exchange rate. There hasn't been as many players on the market as in the past.

For those reasons I can see why Pearson's decided that youth is the future, but this will take time and the big question is whether Pearson and the fans are willing to wait. Pass sales are down, and the challenge is to keep the fans interested and the money coming in while the young players get up to speed.

I may be misunderstanding you, so forgive me if I am, but...

His first love maybe football, but the returns are a lot less likely there. To get LUFC back to the promised land (if hes looking to go back) will cost hundreds of millions. Look at City's losses since the good Dr took over. Once there you have to spend more millions with absolutely no guarantee of any success. Look at QPR last year. Incredible outlay for failure. Ok there might have been big mistakes there, but I think the principles are the same. A 500K loss here and there in RL is small change compaired with the mega losses with no return in football. Once the structures are in place at HFC you will start to see a return as the outlay will be considerably less. Even if we go into a transfer market. As opposed to football were you billy basic Mr avaerage can cost £10m.

The rewards for success and price of failure are huge multiples of those in RL, but the underlying business problem is the same:
It's hard to run a successful business, based around sporting success, when a sizable proportion of your competitors are willing to run at a consistent deficit to fund their own teams. And others have in-built advantages.

That AP aims to do so isn't in much doubt (so there is little troll mileage in it). How he might be planning to do it isn't clear or much analysed though. Given the intensity (if not [ialways[/i the rigour

) of scrutiny Rovers' finances used to get that might be considered passing strange. Or maybe not, as there we had a firmer idea of what it meant, at least.
Statements of intent have been somewhat more striking than unequivocal evidence for it. Which might indicate a small (and not especially unusual in this day and age) gap between reality and rhetoric. But equally, why pay a big transfer fee [ijust[/i to prove you're for real? They're rare enough for that not to be strange yet. And there's an inevitable lag between investment and return with developing players.

The returns in football are I agree a lot less likely but on the other hand if he can be the man (and it would no doubt be as a figure head rather than major investor) who brought Leeds Utd back from the dead then the rewards could be huge. Leeds are what Allam wants City to be, a recognisable world brand with a potential widespread fanbase.

With Hull FC, and you could read into that any RL team barring maybe Wigan, then the best you’ll get is to be king of a small pool and only really recognised in the city of Hull. Even a successful RL team will have little to no saleable assets, the players are worthless as a balance sheet item as transfers are so unrealistic nowadays that it’s not worth inclusion, profits are also at best small and at worst unachievable and that situation just seems to be getting worse year on year for the sport as a whole.

I can see the value in trying to bring through youth, and it’s one that in the last year or so you have had success in but if this is a long term plan that sees a short term dip in performance or even a plateau then the urge for the real talent to leave for a Wigan / Wire or even the big money and fame of NRL / Union may be the undoing of the plan, something we have found with the little we have brought through.

all these KR trolls talking about "the value of success", come back when you've tasted some.

To be fair I don't think these two are trolls, especially Mild Rover, just come to debate a rugby related topic.

Very good and concise summary, exactly as I see it as well.

I'm pretty sure that pearson originally bought us as he thought he could get the club at a knock down price, come to some agreement with the mad Egyptian on a cheap rent deal and make a decent return. Obviously that fell through but he's now seemingly in for the long haul as it's the only chance he'll get his cash back. He seems pretty relaxed about the financial side and happy to pay off contracts so doesn't seem to be counting the pennies just yet.

I see his mate Wilkinson has just come into another £65m so I'm sure pearson can get his hands on more cash if he needs it

Nice input and you call me a troll.....

A pointless post in the middle of a decent debate for a change

That did seem to be part of it, but probably not the main plank IMO.

I'd guess that he bought the club for very little, but you're temporarily lumbered with an abnormally high tax bill from the deal he struck with HMRC. The extent to which the recent losses represent paying off that liability or investment or a structural deficit, is the 'interesting' thing from a longer-term business POV.

He could be offsetting losses and investment in Hull against other income he has

Spot on. Mild Rover and Barham Red are two of the most reasonable posters on this forum. Very rarely do you get any "us and them" from either of them.

Aye, possibly. It'd mitigate rather than eliminate the costs, but could still make a big difference. No doubt he'll have a good accountant.

Note to self - be more adversarial with these stinky FC ninnies.