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All members of the Board were present including Paul Gregg. Sir
Philip Carter conducted the meeting as professionally as usual.
Kenwright's & Carter's places on the Board were up for renewal;
apparently there were three people due to stand for a position on the
board, but all three retracted their applications when they found out who
they were opposing. Two of the three people who were going to oppose
the board were unable to attend, but the guy who did attend requested that
in future the board should try to appoint a member of the shareholders
association.
As usual Phillip Carter went through the financial side of thing quite
swiftly, the paper reports at the weekend, stating we were still £29M in
debt, were right, as at the end of May 2001, but the debt is now down to
under £20M. Annual salaries are an incredible £29M per year!
And, although our turnover went up, we still incurred a loss, albeit
reduced to about £4M.
The board underlined that current borrowings are now under £20 million
- and they will NOT gamble with the future of the club as perhaps Chelsea
and Leeds are doing. They will remain prudent and watchful until
Kings Dock. In doing so, they will be keeping ticket prices keen in
order to attract an increased fan base to fill a potential 55,000 stadium.
Kenwright only opened his mouth when someone mentioned the Kings Dock.
Kenwright was 'gushing' when going on about the new
stadium and all the brilliant, hard work involved - the implication being that maybe (probably?) on-field matters have been
neglected, as many think, even though this is denied at board level.
Listening to him and Carter, it would seem that the football side
has definitely been neglected.
Kenwright assured the meeting that Kings Dock would indeed be one of
the best – if not the best stadium in the world. The key success
in negotiation for the site is that we have cut a great deal in obtaining
49 % ownership for "only" £29M of a massive £350M
investment. How was this possible? Because the project needs
Everton's presence and involvement to be viable. Other than that, if a question was asked, the answer was either
"We are not in a position
to answer that," or "Trust us; we know what we are doing, we are very good at
what we do."
Carter stated that the plans for selling Goodison were well on the way,
but he couldn't say any more. However, he urged us to remember that
the sale of Goodison was to finance the new stadium, and so the highest
bidder would win; sentiment would not be a factor.
When asked about preserving the pitch at least, Carter's response was
not a positive one when you read between the lines. This 'highest
bidder' thing was also muted regarding the new stadium name, and it all
smells a bit like we are to prostitute ourselves here, but shareholders
who are not supporters only see the £ signs....
The question of whether Lord Grantchester or others were asked to give the
club money to fund transfers etc. was raised, and all Carter said was that
was an inappropriate question: ''All board members are aware of the club's
situation, and are doing all they can, including digging into their own
pockets if necessary.'' Surely the facts of
our finances simply do not bear this out?
The best point of the evening was when Ian MacDonald,
stood up and begged the press, both national and local, in particular the
local press (the Liverpool FC Echo) to get off Everton's back and stop
printing negatives all the time. This was applauded by everyone, except I
presume, the press who were in attendance.
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