Buying back Dens----an option

[shaded]

Was involved in a few meeting's a good few years ago about that,for obvious reasons that never materialised.
Since admin the fans have dug deep for basically every tentacle of the DFC cash octopus.Yet Dens continues to crumble whilst plans for a new stadium are still up there on cloud 9.

Mybe it's time to do what was suggested in the nelms/mcpake thread and get the idea off the ground,the money iv saved since leaving dee promotions would go into the fund along with extra cash monthly if the aim was to get the ground back.

Yes other fundraising tentacles would be hit short term for a few years or so but at the end Dens would be the fans.

Legal agreements would obviously need drawn up and dialogue with John Bennett opened.

No one should fear anything about the fans embarking on this idea and im sure the idea would be supported on all 3 fronts by fans and local business,the three fronts being

Raising the cash/ground maintenance and rates etc,these could be injected by cash received from the club via rent (which would be very favourable to our club).

Most fans have dug deep unquestioned since they saved the club,mybe it's time we directed some of our cash directly to a stadium purchase.

Lets face it if it all went wrong with the yanks how much easier would it be to get new owners in knowing the fans have saved the club twice and own the ground.

Yes the old lady isn't getting any younger but we shouldn't just sit back and allow her to crumble.

My yearly cash injection is at the lowest it has ever been even including the school years,id change that in a heartbeat if Dens was the prize

DDYB

[Returnofrros]

Was involved in a few meeting's a good few years ago about that,for obvious reasons that never materialised.
Since admin the fans have dug deep for basically every tentacle of the DFC cash octopus.Yet Dens continues to crumble whilst plans for a new stadium are still up there on cloud 9.

Mybe it's time to do what was suggested in the nelms/mcpake thread and get the idea off the ground,the money iv saved since leaving dee promotions would go into the fund along with extra cash monthly if the aim was to get the ground back.

Yes other fundraising tentacles would be hit short term for a few years or so but at the end Dens would be the fans.

Legal agreements would obviously need drawn up and dialogue with John Bennett opened.

No one should fear anything about the fans embarking on this idea and im sure the idea would be supported on all 3 fronts by fans and local business,the three fronts being

Raising the cash/ground maintenance and rates etc,these could be injected by cash received from the club via rent (which would be very favourable to our club).

Most fans have dug deep unquestioned since they saved the club,mybe it's time we directed some of our cash directly to a stadium purchase.

Lets face it if it all went wrong with the yanks how much easier would it be to get new owners in knowing the fans have saved the club twice and own the ground.

Yes the old lady isn't getting any younger but we shouldn't just sit back and allow her to crumble.

My yearly cash injection is at the lowest it has ever been even including the school years,id change that in a heartbeat if Dens was the prize

DDYB

It's the limbo land I can't stand, not a spade in the ground at campy, no improvements at Dens......were we not supposed to be in in the Spring?

The owners imho have to be more upfront.....if they ain't expecting the ground to go ahead and they want nothing to do with buying Dens......they should say so to give the supporters a chance at what would be a monumental fund raising campaign.

[shaded]

It's the limbo land I can't stand, not a spade in the ground at campy, no improvements at Dens......were we not supposed to be in in the Spring?

The owners imho have to be more upfront.....if they ain't expecting the ground to go ahead and they want nothing to do with buying Dens......they should say so to give the supporters a chance at what would be a monumental fund raising campaign.

agreed mate

[deecom]

It's the limbo land I can't stand, not a spade in the ground at campy, no improvements at Dens......were we not supposed to be in in the Spring?

The owners imho have to be more upfront.....if they ain't expecting the ground to go ahead and they want nothing to do with buying Dens......they should say so to give the supporters a chance at what would be a monumental fund raising campaign.

Agree with you and shaded, but how do we start a fund raising campaign ?
Through supporters clubs, or wait until Tim Keyes makes an appearance ?
It's difficult as it is to get any dialogue with John Nelms.

[parcbara]

Any idea what the cost would be, and if the owner (presumably John Bennet) would facilitate such a purchase?

[shaded]

Any idea what the cost would be, and if the owner (presumably John Bennet) would facilitate such a purchase?

heard a few different costs mate,i think JB would be more than happy to get whatever his price would be and even happier if it was a fans effort

[BCram]

Agree with you and shaded, but how do we start a fund raising campaign ?
Through supporters clubs, or wait until Tim Keyes makes an appearance ?
It's difficult as it is to get any dialogue with John Nelms.

We have discussed this in the past. My view, now, is that the current owners will not have anything to do with buying Dens until the Campy is decided. If Campy goes ahead as currently planned then, then fine, we have a new ground and hopefully better finances to fund a better team. If Campy is turned into some profitable development without a stadium it might be that the profit will be rolled over into an investment in Dens. If the current owners do buy I am not sure that this is all good news. How do they generate additional revenue, that's been the saviour for other teams be it funeral teams, artificial pitches with community support etc. The other option is reducing costs by ground sharing. Don't want to bother talking about this option because I don't think it is worth considering. Seems to me, our fans would rather drop down a league than ground share.
I can't see a scenario where we own the ground without owning our club. If the current owners make money from Campy without the stadium element then they may be happy to move their ownership to someone else. No big deal for us since we have been this way before. Think some kind of saving for a rainy day might be an interesting option. The guys who bought us out of Administration might be willing to have another go but I am not sure that ownership and executive power worked for us. Maybe there's a different model that could be followed?

[Returnofrros]

We have discussed this in the past. My view, now, is that the current owners will not have anything to do with buying Dens until the Campy is decided. If Campy goes ahead as currently planned then, then fine, we have a new ground and hopefully better finances to fund a better team. If Campy is turned into some profitable development without a stadium it might be that the profit will be rolled over into an investment in Dens. If the current owners do buy I am not sure that this is all good news. How do they generate additional revenue, that's been the saviour for other teams be it funeral teams, artificial pitches with community support etc. The other option is reducing costs by ground sharing. Don't want to bother talking about this option because I don't think it is worth considering. Seems to me, our fans would rather drop down a league than ground share.
I can't see a scenario where we own the ground without owning our club. If the current owners make money from Campy without the stadium element then they may be happy to move their ownership to someone else. No big deal for us since we have been this way before. Think some kind of saving for a rainy day might be an interesting option. The guys who bought us out of Administration might be willing to have another go but I am not sure that ownership and executive power worked for us. Maybe there's a different model that could be followed?

They won t have anything to with buying it back.

But the neglect of Dens is shameful whilst we await them telling us new development is not going ahead.

Don't think many fans have a problem sharing.....just not where I suspect we will end up.

[Deeranged]

Club won't even entertain the idea of the fans buying Dens back, they don't want it and the current owners never will whether the pipe dream of Campy ever materialises or not. If you don't get the club onside from day one they will vehemently oppose anything you propose.

You'd have to sit down with the club first and get their agreement in principle to the buy back.

Next you'd have to do the same meeting with Mr. Bennett, possibly need to involve the club in that one too. No good planning a buy out if you don't know for certain the place will be available and that the owner would be happy to sell to you.

I actually think that even if you could strike a deal with Mr. Bennett the club would move from Dens rather than rent from the fans. This would ultimately mean either forcing their hand on Campy or them asking to share Tannadice. Or of course they might insist on rent free occupation because the cash raised would, in their minds, have otherwise gone direct to them for day to day running of the club. Absolutely guarantee they'd want a deal on maintenance costs too.

If the fans owned Dens a group would need to be formed to manage the place, that group would probably want to install a Stadium Manager (I certainly would) and the club may not like that, they would want someone they could control.

In short - forget it, it's been tried and the barriers will go up from the very first mention of it..

[BCram]

Club won't even entertain the idea of the fans buying Dens back, they don't want it and the current owners never will whether the pipe dream of Campy ever materialises or not. If you don't get the club onside from day one they will vehemently oppose anything you propose.

You'd have to sit down with the club first and get their agreement in principle to the buy back.

Next you'd have to do the same meeting with Mr. Bennett, possibly need to involve the club in that one too. No good planning a buy out if you don't know for certain the place will be available and that the owner would be happy to sell to you.

I actually think that even if you could strike a deal with Mr. Bennett the club would move from Dens rather than rent from the fans. This would ultimately mean either forcing their hand on Campy or them asking to share Tannadice. Or of course they might insist on rent free occupation because the cash raised would, in their minds, have otherwise gone direct to them for day to day running of the club. Absolutely guarantee they'd want a deal on maintenance costs too.

If the fans owned Dens a group would need to be formed to manage the place, that group would probably want to install a Stadium Manager (I certainly would) and the club may not like that, they would want someone they could control.

In short - forget it, it's been tried and the barriers will go up from the very first mention of it..

Agree with all of this. That's why I would like to know how we managed to buy the club out of Administration. Think there might be an exit strategy for our current owners and it seemed to me that Shaded was just being helpful when he suggested that the fans might be prudent to start thinking about possible scenarios. I'd like to see our owners enjoying success at our club.