[Chipperfan]

Can't say the prospect of JP selling makes me happy. Unless he retains some sort of input/control, running the club day to day, the thought of new owners really bothers me. There are just too many examples of clubs going belly up under foreign ownership.

It was always inevitable he would look to sell,  but it's an unwelcome development in my view.

Having said that though, it could work out for us, and let's hope it does.

[Adder]

The club is possibly subject to three sets of "FFP" regulations and one way or another they absolutely kill the sugar daddy model.

Premier League regulations permit up to £30m  loss if covered by equity investment or £15m if funded by debt. and wage growth funded by TV revenues capped at £4m

UEFA Losses capped at 15m euro's with equity investment or just 5m euros  if covered by debt there are some exceptions such as money spent on Youth development and stadium improvements  but generally they are tougher than the Premier League ones.

Championship £8m loss with equity investment £3m without.

Firstly £30m lavished on any mid table team would hardly take them to the brink of the  Champions League  particularly if it was not backed up by wages. Even if it did the club could find it's path to European competition barred by UEFA ffp.

Secondly if relegated the club would be hamstrung by the Championship regulations which is a fate that awaits QPR.

Whoever is the Albion's new owner is I would not expect them to throw millions at the club in a vainglorious attempt to propel the club towards the upper echelons of the European game, that moment has passed. Man City and PSG were the last of the sugar daddy projects. From now on in it is serious investors with an eye on the bottom line who will be the typical Premier League Club owners.

Thanks for summing it up. I'm not sure how Cardiff City have managed it but their total debt is now meant to be around £170m ....£130m owed to Vincent Tan who I know has paid off debt owed to previous owners (Sam Hamman).  I guess a fair proportion of that debt would have been from pre FFP.

[Standaman]

Cardiff City since 2000 have been owned by Sam Hamman Peter Risdale and Vincent Tann. Between rebrands (Hamman floated the first one) near bankruptcy, the golden ticket fiasco and the farce of their first season in the Premier League the club has now got a debt mountain of £175m which is about £80m more than it's asset value. Given that £129m of the debt falls due within the next 12 months they are technically insolvent although because the debt is owed in large part to the owner I am sure it will be rolled over. Tan has on numerous occasions promised to convert the debt into equity but thus far no cash has been forthcoming.

If an owner turns up with big plans and grandiose visions I will be very concerned and I hope Peace is true to his word and passes the club over to a safe pair of hands.

[royhan]

The People is reporting interest is being shown from US and Far East investors in purchasing West Brom with a £150m asking price quoted.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/west-brom-owner-jeremy-peace-5460946

West Brom owner Jeremy Peace is selling the Black Country club, reports Neil Moxley in the Sunday People.
People Sport understands the Baggies chairman and majority shareholder is well underway with his plans to offload the Premier League outfit.
A few months ago Peace gave authorisation to a firm in the city to find him a buyer – and several interested parties have been shown around the club’s facilities in the past few weeks.
Two groups in particular, one from America, the other from the Far East, have so far shown an interest.
The asking price is in the region of £150million, giving Peace a huge profit on the club he bought for a few million pounds at the turn of the Millennium.
If he can get the price he wants – and Peace is acknowledged within the game as driving a hard bargain – he will have reaped a personal gain in excess of £100million for the 15 years he has been in charge at the Hawthorns.
Peace turned the Baggies from being a near-laughing stock to one of the most professional clubs in the country. They recorded a profit of £10million last season.
The news means that three West Midlands clubs are now on the market: West Brom and Aston Villa in the Premier League and Birmingham in the Championship.

[ComebackStrodds]

Cardiff City since 2000 have been owned by Sam Hamman Peter Risdale and Vincent Tann. Between rebrands (Hamman floated the first one) near bankruptcy, the golden ticket fiasco and the farce of their first season in the Premier League the club has now got a debt mountain of £175m which is about £80m more than it's asset value. Given that £129m of the debt falls due within the next 12 months they are technically insolvent although because the debt is owed in large part to the owner I am sure it will be rolled over. Tan has on numerous occasions promised to convert the debt into equity but thus far no cash has been forthcoming.

If an owner turns up with big plans and grandiose visions I will be very concerned and I hope Peace is true to his word and passes the club over to a safe pair of hands.

Yes but all he'll have to go on is a gut feeling, and research. Anyone potential buyer can make the right noises. If it goes belly up in a few years time no one can blame Peace.

[costa blanca baggie]

It's the greed league. Who amongst us would turn down that sort of money and not give a damn about the consequences.

[Standaman]

It's the greed league. Who amongst us would turn down that sort of money and not give a damn about the consequences.

To be fair to Peace he has always said he would only sell the club to the right owners. While plainly an astute businessman and motivated by personal gain I do think he cares about his legacy and after 15 years it is very much his life's work and I while he will drive a hard bargain he is not exactly on his uppers so price will not be the sole consideration.

Obviously anyone with deep enough pockets can talk the talk and the clowns that took Pompey to their second administration made all the right noises but ultimately were a bunch of fraudsters. However there is plenty of due diligence that can be done and I would  hope that would weed out the wholly unsuitable.

[weareblueweare white]

Can't say the prospect of JP selling makes me happy. Unless he retains some sort of input/control, running the club day to day, the thought of new owners really bothers me. There are just too many examples of clubs going belly up under foreign ownership.

It was always inevitable he would look to sell,  but it's an unwelcome development in my view.

Having said that though, it could work out for us, and let's hope it does.

I honestly cannot see a new owner who will be be spending a reputed 150M £'s letting JP have any control. They might have him in an advisory role while taking over, but that's as far as I think any involvement JP will have in the running of the club.
I agree it was always inevitable JP would sell, and with the new TV deal in place the value of the club will be at its peak.
What JP will have a say in is who we sell to, so fingers crossed he gets this right and we don't end up in the hands of a far Eastern hairdresser

[frazzle]

Peace has done a brilliant job and I hope the last couple of years hasn't taken the shine off it. We now have an infrastructure and approach that will see us well set up into the future.

The thought of a new owner is a mixture of panic and excitement. We could end up with a bit more cash to invest and explore with a bit more ambition, build on the Halfords and attract some better players, or we could end up in a Leeds fiasco.

[VVVAlbion]

The mirror group of papers do like to print inflammatory and usually inaccurate stories about us.

I am not sure when we were a near laughing stock of a club and if we were it would be interesting what their views are on many of the other clubs in the football league were doing at the time. (Although it is nice that they recognise that we are now one of the most professional clubs in the country.)

[koren]

http://www.expressandstar.com/sport/2015/04/05/jeremy-peace-in-200m-takeover-talks-for-west-bromwich-albion/

At least one potential group of buyers has been shown around The Hawthorns and the Albion training ground near Walsall with Peace keen to resolve the club’s ownership early this summer.

But no firm offers have yet been made to end his decade-long tenure as majority shareholder.

Businessmen from the Far East and America are among those to have shown an interest with Peace now waiting to discover whether any of them will return with a concrete offer.

[tuamigos]

That statement puts a 3 month deadline on any potential offers st that it does not infringe on the Summer transfer market.

[bangkokbaggie]

If there is any truth of investor interest and the enticement is the new premiership TV deal from 2016, I would imagine that no decision will be made until it is clear that our Premiership status is guaranteed which after yesterday and the final run-in has put a question mark over that.

[overseas baggie]

If there is any truth of investor interest and the enticement is the new premiership TV deal from 2016, I would imagine that no decision will be made until it is clear that our Premiership status is guaranteed which after yesterday and the final run-in has put a question mark over that.

I agree.  3 points yesterday and the negotiations could already be a lot further advanced!

[BB74]

I must admit I am very worried at this weekends revelations.

Better the devil you know IMO.

[Standaman]

I this time unlike the earlier attempt to look for buyers I think there is genuine interest from overseas bidders. I think there are a number of reasons

1. The new TV deal makes the top line of the business look very attractive.

 2. We are more established in the Premier League (investors make the same mistake as fans and assume longevity is the same as security)

3. The club could be run at a profit without doing anything to it other than maintaining it's Premier League status.

Ideally we do not want a long drawn out bidding process and if as suggested a deadline of early summer has been set for completion of any deal that would be beneficial

[alex1]

I think this is bad news. New owners from America or the Far East will almost certainly be people with zero understanding of our football culture, national, never mind Black Country culture.  Such situations as wanting to re-name the club, changing the club colours are far more likely.

Unfortunately, WBA will probably just be a line on a balance sheet, nothing more, nothing less. Of course a profitable club is more likely to be successful on the playing field, but being a supporter means being able to identify with the club through thick and thin. That means understanding the club culture. As a supporter I want success on the playing field, but I want our teams to play attacking entertaining football.

In practice, it would depend on who new owners would appoint as technical director, who in turn would be able to advise on the footballing side. However, the people at the top carry the can, and if they have nowt understanding of the game, can they be relied upon to appoint knowledgeable people around them??

Give me Jeremy Peace any time.   

[kris_boing]

The thing is though how has Jeremy Peace kept with the traditions is the club? He has created a new badge, neutralized the stadium by creating the west stand and east stand, removed the seat designs and not replacing them. Apart from re-naming the stadium which I'm sure he would have done given half the chance, he's pretty much re-branded the club anyway.

[Hunnington Baggie]

The thing is though how has Jeremy Peace kept with the traditions is the club? He has created a new badge, neutralized the stadium by creating the west stand and east stand, removed the seat designs and not replacing them. Apart from re-naming the stadium which I'm sure he would have done given half the chance, he's pretty much re-branded the club anyway.

This is the only one I could comment on but wasn't it changes in order to be covered by copyright? It's hardly a massive change from the previous incarnation, unlike the WBA letters or the original crest.

[Ska-dForLife-WBA]

The thing is though how has Jeremy Peace kept with the traditions is the club? He has created a new badge, neutralized the stadium by creating the west stand and east stand, removed the seat designs and not replacing them. Apart from re-naming the stadium which I'm sure he would have done given half the chance, he's pretty much re-branded the club anyway.

Um...what?  The East Stand was "created" while Thompson was in charge, and the West has been there since the early Eighties.  I suppose the seat designs are a matter of taste - personally I'd prefer no seats at all, but sadly that's not possible - but the designs were hardly some time-honoured tradition handed down from generation to generation.

And as for renaming the stadium... well, Peace has only had thirteen years in charge and a world full of potential sponsors to choose from, so obviously there's been no chance for him to do it, has there? 

[frazzle]

The thing is though how has Jeremy Peace kept with the traditions is the club? He has created a new badge, neutralized the stadium by creating the west stand and east stand, removed the seat designs and not replacing them. Apart from re-naming the stadium which I'm sure he would have done given half the chance, he's pretty much re-branded the club anyway.

Getting rid of that awful scalf in the Brummie was a good thing imo.

[PepeMel]

It's time to gamble it's time for a change

[kris_boing]

Um...what?  The East Stand was "created" while Thompson was in charge, and the West has been there since the early Eighties.

I meant re-branded.  Rainbow Stand is now East Stand (although I'll conceded that it was done under Thompson) and Halfords Lane Stand is now West Stand.  Surprised he didnt go the whole way and rename the Brummie as the North Stand and the Smethwick as the South Stand.  No doubt he would have done if they had been redeveloped.

[LiamTheBaggie]

We all appreciate that Jeremy Peace has taken us as far as he can but there seems great fear about us moving on from him.

There is going to come a point where Jeremy Peace is going to leave - he is actively looking to sell so I say we just crack on and see what the future holds. Personally, I'm looking forward to potential new investment and the excitement that will bring.

[kris_boing]

We all appreciate that Jeremy Peace has taken us as far as he can but there seems great fear about us moving on from him.

There is going to come a point where Jeremy Peace is going to leave - he is actively looking to sell so I say we just crack on and see what the future holds. Personally, I'm looking forward to potential new investment and the excitement that will bring.

And me.  Well said.  I think its exciting.  It could go pear shaped but it could move us onto the next level and that's the way I prefer to think.  Really looking forward to this summer providing we stay up.