Originally Posted by
Red Zone
First thing's first, I doubt very much it will be built for £40M (a 2017 estimate for a project that will be built in 2020 or 2021) so factor in construction cost inflation. Plus for those of us involved in the oil industry - how many projects are completed on budget? alternatively look at all major projects in Aberdeen recently - how many are built on time and on budget?
Anyway I will park my significant doubts and play along with the club's £40M estimate.
Player sales - we will sell McKenna (I would guess £6M-£7M perhaps in Jan, certainly by next Summer) but the majority of that will be used to plug the gap to complete the training facilities (according to the club statement yesterday we have raised just over half of the £10M needed). I can't think of any other players we will sell in the next two to three years that would raise significant sums of money. Shinnie will go for next to nothing or nothing at all. Doubt we will sell Anderson/Campbell/Ferguson in next two years. Lewis - if someone was going to buy him for series money would have happened by now I think
Sponsorships/Naming rights - I have said before and will repeat, that will be paid over a number of years to maximise revenue
Debentures - for what exactly? - Murrayfield debentures guarantees a ticket in a sold out stadium - likewise Hampden for cup finals, internationals etc. What does a debenture buy you that a season ticket doesn't at Kingsford? so who will buy?
That then brings us back to the £20M gap (more if I am right on cost of stadium). Who is buying these shares? Certainly not any financial institutions as no money to be made in Scottish football. The ordinary fans? - doubt anyone will buy shares to any great extent as many already own shares and many others don't want to move anyway. Richer fans excluding Milne/Cormack e.g. Mike Loggie? Probably but would imagine it will be small millions as what do they get by being minority shareholders (and many already are).
Let me be generous and say we raise £5M from various sources, that in my mind brings us back to Milne/Cormack as having to fund circa £15M plus any construction overspend and I just don't see that happening given that Milne (a man worth more than £200Million) has unbelievably not put a single penny into the training facilities he says that he has been desperate to build for 20+ years