Bid meeting - Monday 7th Sept

Very surprised to be the first person to comment on this!

Thanks to the Bid team for putting on such an informative and open talk last night. I took notes on the night and have pieced together a small article looking at 'What happens next':

http://www.mtannersports.com/big-bath-city-bid-whats-next-sept-2015/

It is just the bare facts, when I get time I will post up some Q&A from the floor along with details of what could happen if option 4 is taken. Please do look out for the official press release though, it'll be a lot better than this!

Thanks for this Mark.

I couldn't make last night's meeting.

Thanks Mark.
As far as I can see option 4 looks the only viable solution.
From a personal viewpoint I would be willing to buy more shares, assuming they were made available, but the purchase would have to be in my name.
On this basis I assume this would mean requesting the return of my payment so not sure this would be of any benefit to the process.
Unless a major shareholder was prepared to sell his or her shares to the society not sure how the 51% level could be achieved.

I've now a little look into Option 4 using the slides shown on the night. Hopefully it's useful for those who couldn't make Monday!

http://www.mtannersports.com/big-bath-city-bid-option-4-sept-2015/

Re Option 4. Having lived most of my life in Bath, I know the short timescale to raise the money was in fact next to impossible. It always takes an age for things to catch on here. Dunno whether it's the comfortable place it is leads to complacency, something in the water - whatever. Spoken to two people this week who talked about buying shares but quite unaware the deadline has come and gone.
Realistically it needs until Christmas to stand a fighting chance.
I would add that the sheer number of small investors who have backed the bid is a real positive. It looks like the community have backed it which may be a marketing tool to help the 'business community' respond in kind.

Quite agree 2weirdown, I feel we must have pretty much maxed out on ordinary indivduals, fans, the community, but have not got the business buy in anticipated / needed. I think it would only need a few to get the momentum going on that side.

Luton Roman wrote:Quite agree 2weirdown, I feel we must have pretty much maxed out on ordinary indivduals, fans, the community, but have not got the business buy in anticipated / needed.  I think it would only need a few to get the momentum going on that side.

Having gone to the meeting on Monday, I would agree with it having maxed out the community (including the existing fanbase) as loathed as I am to admit this, I feel the only way of getting to the target would be to hire a professional fundraiser (as mentioned in the meeting), the bid team has money that would otherwise go to waste, so I guess they may as well try.

Just to say, Mark, that Martin and Ken's remarks reflected their opinions and not that of the whole Bid Committee. We wanted their comments as individuals as they are well respected supporters and members of the Bid team and the Supporters' Society.

The Bid committee have no universal choice for how to proceed and are very much open to what is said in the questionnaire and will respond to that as well as talks with the board.

No shame in hiring a professional fundraiser to approach businesses, any more than you'd hire a professional lawyer etc. Less keen on Big Bath City Bid chuggers targeting individuals in the street, but corporate giving is a completely different ball game.

Business take-up has been virtually non-existent - I think Rotork is the only firm to invest that didn't have some kind of existing connection to the club. We've held our hands up and admitted that we didn't get the business offer or outreach right.

But if you're a glass half-full type person, you would say that a big opportunity is still there, as we've barely scratched the surface with local businesses.

I was not at the meeting so apologies if this has been suggested but would it not make sense to consider merging number 2 and 4 together, increase the shareholding with money already raised and continue fundraising in the hope that enough may be raised to end up with a community funded society owning the club.

I'm not convinced by this argument - yes it would be great to offer 7-8% interest but we are not a wind farm or solar farm selling something that people really need - we're confident that community ownership could see the club move into profitability but not that level of return (see the business plan on the bid website). Savvy investors wouldn't find it credible, it would look pie-in-the-sky.

More importantly, I don't see businesses investing in the Bid because they think that they will directly profit from a share in increased club revenues. Business will invest for two reasons:

- As a corporate social responsibility / giving something back gesture - hence the need for a more defined social impact plan

- because they think they will profit indirectly as their involvement in the Bid increases their profile and drives new customers to them now - hence the potential value of getting a city-wide discount scheme up and running for bid investors, or otherwise framing the benefits of investing in terms of delivering £250 worth of publicity and exposure to new customers, rather than offering free tickets etc etc.

Oliver has crystallised it perfectly. Businesses buy in because you will invest in the community and feel better for it. But do they get that? Will they do it?

What reason did your billionaire friends give for not backing the Bid, Mr Nash?

comrade powell wrote:What reason did your billionaire friends give for not backing the Bid, Mr Nash?

Just a quickie to say that the tone of the way you wrote that question sounds a bit personal. Maybe you should re-write it if it isn't...

As an example of how sarcastic people could get you could ask why multi-millionaire people such as Eric Cantona who have "backed the bid" haven't backed it with a sizeable sum. Just newspaper reports maybe among many others you could search for, but take a look at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2923849/How-Manchester-United-legend-Eric-Cantona-turned-football-preach-Islamophobia-star-soft-porn-films.html. How about Ricky Tomlinson http://richestcelebrities.org/richest-actors/ricky-tomlinson-net-worth/? You could even add the name Ken Loach, maybe not as wealthy as Cantona or Tomlinson but worth looking at just the same http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/directors/ken-loach-net-worth/ to the list...

Each of those could afford £100,000 or more. A figure that not one individual has got anywhere near during this appeal (the best daily input at any point during the appeal was only @£30,000 and that was by several investors!). So why would anyone expect people from outside of the club with no previous association to put in big money?

The answer to the general question "Why don't outsiders/business's want to invest?" that is constantly asked is simply that the whole rhetoric of the club since the Foster buy-out has been "We don't want anything but a supporters owned club!" and "No sugar daddies are welcome here!". That attitude will have caused long term doubts amongst the ouside investors that have been craved and will continue to do so. You can't have it BOTH ways...

Don't know where the personal attack is, or indeed any offensive tone.
However Mr Powell, consider yourself told.

Beau's last paragraph is reasonable enough but inaccurate. While there may have been an emphasis on a supporters' buy out in the past, it would be impossible to miss that the Bid is explicitly a community buy out. While we may not have got across to businesses the worth of buying into the Bid, the amazing amount of publicity over the summer has made this clear.

Secondly, I am someone who - speaking as an individual, not a Bid member - is firmly in the "no sugar daddies" camp, having experienced the likes of Sam Hammam, Peter Ridsdale and Vincent Tan and seen the damage they can bring. However, not wanting a sugar daddy and inviting businesses to invest £1000+ in a corporate social responsibility model, as Oliver has pointed out, is very different. Again, we haven't engaged businesses enough but, if a business has paid enough attention to pick up on any 'no sugar daddy' message then they will have seen what we are actually asking for from businesses

SASCHA wrote:Don't know where the personal attack is, or indeed any offensive tone.

Nor do I, Sascha, but if Too Late is who I strongly suspect him to be, I'm not going to waste time responding to his remarks except to say that forum members, and Beau Nash himself, will know where my question was coming from. Must say though, he did use some pretty classy sources to back up his views against those three Bid supporters!

Let's stay focused on the big picture please....

It's probably been said somewhere before that the hard core fans have most likely already pledged their money to the bid along with some relatively small businesses and that has achieved a very commendable 40% ish of the required money. So, it would seem that some "big hitters" are required to obtain the £750k originally targeted.
So I would make the suggestion that perhaps an approach could be made to the local Universities and College, ( schools even ) particularly the main Bath Uni, with whom we have been in bed with before ( maybe with a reduced or even free admission price for students promise) and also the big supermarkets and pubs that have not already subscribed to put in some serious money. Also, how about Bath rugby club ? ( I know I'll get hammered for that, sorry ). In my defence I'm half way through a bottle of strong red wine and am just thinking of ways to help the bid succeed whilst gently slipping into a different reality. Apologies if this is all gibberish.

Schools cannot spend public money on investments in private businesses. Any contingency in our budgets is likely to be pretty small anyway.

I think that not approaching the rugby club or trying to attract its supporters and sponsors due to petty sporting parochialism would be a massive indictment of the seriousness and professionalism of the Bid. Luckily, there has never been any mention of this and there has always been talk of how to attract a large sport loving community to both the bid and matches.

Similar with colleges and Unis and hopefully with any possible time, expertise and experience, we will be attracting these quarters. Keep the suggestions coming though and, crucially, include them in the box provided at the end of the Bid questionnaire

Too Late - If someone has £25m property portfolio it doesn't mean they have £25m. They might have nothing at all and the whole lot belongs to the bank. And even if they own it outright it doesn't mean they can get their hands on any of it.

(I couldn't be bothered to read the whole article so if there was something else proving he's got several mill in the bank then I apologise).

It's OK anyway, from the sticky thread posted today, the club think that there are some other investors to speak to.

I'm glad that negotiations are continuing.