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.