If you won the Euromillions, who would you buy?

[The Great Mass Debater 1,078]

If you won a stupendous amount of money on the Euromillions and for sake of argument won £150m. Which club would you buy?

I was looking at Football Club values and seeing what would be feasible. Remember you would have to make the owner an offer they couldnt refuse.

I think I'd buy Gillingham (my Grandad's team for all his life - he died 15 years ago).

Website reckons they're valued at £4m

Failing that I might look at Burton Albion (my hometown club) - though they may not be affordable.

 

Failing that Id swallow up some lower pyramid Yorkshire team (where I live) and try to build them into something. I've always fantasised about replicating Bilbao's cantera policy - Yorkshire seems a good place to do that.

[Nexus_Canary 1,016]

I'd buy Ipswich and tank them 🤣🤣

 

 

[Nuff Said 5,091]

Probably quicker just to withdraw all the money in cash and set light to it.

Edited November 2, 2022 by Nuff Said

[Dr Greenthumb 746]

47 minutes ago, The Great Mass Debater said:

If you won a stupendous amount of money on the Euromillions and for sake of argument won £150m. Which club would you buy?

I was looking at Football Club values and seeing what would be feasible. Remember you would have to make the owner an offer they couldnt refuse.

I think I'd buy Gillingham (my Grandad's team for all his life - he died 15 years ago).

Website reckons they're valued at £4m

Failing that I might look at Burton Albion (my hometown club) - though they may not be affordable.

 

Failing that Id swallow up some lower pyramid Yorkshire team (where I live) and try to build them into something. I've always fantasised about replicating Bilbao's cantera policy - Yorkshire seems a good place to do that.

I was going to say Burton too, only live 10 miles from there and I’d imagine they would be affordable 

[Norfolk Dan 308]

Strategically Charlton would be a good buy, but some Scandinavian already has that locked up. 

A team with 98%+ home attendance for over 5 years, would be a good measure... Would the Euro Millions win be enough to tempt Delia? 

[TeemuVanBasten 3,327]

1 hour ago, The Great Mass Debater said:

Which club would you buy?

A very small one, e.g. King's Lynn size, but one closer to my home.

So I could make a considerable difference with a relatively small slice of that, a few million over a long period of time.

Or a club in top tier in a tiny country, like Iceland or something. Wouldn't be a fan of blowing through all my money in high level football.

I'd be more interested in real philanthropy, perhaps if football related something similar to what Craig Bellamy has done in Sierre Leone, but in a different impoverished country. Then link that up with the non-league side.

Or a charity for charities. Charities with severe cash flow problems can apply to my 'trust' for a grant to get them out of a pickle. There are so many people doing great things for f*ck all that could make my money go further than I'd ever know how to do, little charities like those on Secret Millionaire.

I don't think that helping to pay the wages of millionaires and their grubby agents would be the best use of that money, to be frank.

There is money to be made in football if you do it right, but not if you're just some bloke who has never run a large business that fluked £150m and fancies going on a spending spree, you have to know what you are doing and I wouldn't, I'd end up blowing a fortune like Tony Fernandes.

Edited November 2, 2022 by TeemuVanBasten

[DraytonBoy 142]

As an experiment I'd buy someone like Kings Lynn to see how quickly you could rise up the leagues and at what cost.

[nutty nigel 7,509]

2 minutes ago, TeemuVanBasten said:

 

I don't think that helping to pay the wages of millionaires and their grubby agents would be the best use of that money, to be frank.

Spot on Teemu.

All this seemed to become the majority view on here during the early days of the pandemic. And then just as quickly was forgotten.

 

[TeemuVanBasten 3,327]

1 minute ago, nutty nigel said:

Spot on Teemu.

All this seemed to become the majority view on here during the early days of the pandemic. And then just as quickly was forgotten.

I'd get immeasurably more pleasure out of turning a semi-pro conference North team like King's Lynn into a lean professional set up with players on £25k a year for full time hours, keeping those discarded by big clubs at 19/20/21 in full time football and perhaps seeing a few of them work hard and get back into the football league. 

Than I would blowing £10m on a winger only to see that they can't really be f*cked and just signed the contract because it was £5k more a week than anything else on the table.

[The Great Mass Debater 1,078]

59 minutes ago, Dr Greenthumb said:

I was going to say Burton too, only live 10 miles from there and I’d imagine they would be affordable 

I think they use the training facilities at St George's Park (or at least they do on Football Manager). I worked in a garden centre aged 16 literally a stones throw from the site they built it at.

Whereabouts in the Burton area do you live?

Edited November 2, 2022 by The Great Mass Debater

[cambridgeshire canary 6,680]

Hmm.. Well, Bristol have a population that will probably end up at 500,000 some time in the future so the fact they don't have a top flight team is rather sad given the huge population and potential for fans

[Barham Blitz 652]

37 minutes ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

Hmm.. Well, Bristol have a population that will probably end up at 500,000 some time in the future so the fact they don't have a top flight team is rather sad given the huge population and potential for fans

Bristol always seemed to be the one to go for if you were applying Champ Manager style logic to it.  Also a big enough city and a decent enough quality of life not too far from London to not put off prospective players.

Plymouth maybe for the similar catchment area reasons, albeit without the population.

I'd be tempted to look at Coventry these days - any reasonable ownership would result in Messiah status for at least a few weeks until the standard football fans vs board relationship kicked in ... 

[TheBaldOne66 681]

We could always hope Attanasio wins the current American lottery, it’s not been won for weeks and the current prize is over a BILLION dollars! I kid you not. Wtf does anybody need that sort of money for?

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

I would buy Norwich and ban all you lot.

[Dr Greenthumb 746]

2 hours ago, The Great Mass Debater said:

I think they use the training facilities at St George's Park (or at least they do on Football Manager). I worked in a garden centre aged 16 literally a stones throw from the site they built it at.

Whereabouts in the Burton area do you live?

I’m born and bred in Lichfield. I was actually at a house on the street next to the ground last week. Looked as though there was some training facilities there. But you could be right, I never thought about them training there. Would make sense

[cornish sam 945]

Carlisle United for me, for a long time they were the only league club in the county and have lots of potential, but they are in the **** end of nowhere, even more so than us. If you could get them up to the Prem as well you may be able to attract a load of Jocks down as well...

 

Oh and they'd cost the lower end of bu99er all

Edited November 2, 2022 by cornish sam

[Ken Hairy 3,760]

2 hours ago, TeemuVanBasten said:

I'd get immeasurably more pleasure out of turning a semi-pro conference North team like King's Lynn into a lean professional set up with players on £25k a year for full time hours, keeping those discarded by big clubs at 19/20/21 in full time football and perhaps seeing a few of them work hard and get back into the football league. 

Than I would blowing £10m on a winger only to see that they can't really be f*cked and just signed the contract because it was £5k more a week than anything else on the table.

Totally agree with this, I'd do similar 👍

[Branston Pickle 3,638]

I’d sort my local ‘borough’ side, Kingstonian, out with a home ground - they’ve been sharing for a number of years firstly at Leatherhead, then Corinthian Casuals and now Mitcham, and need a home. (Chelsea Ladies play at their old ground).

Daft thing there is that I’d almost certainly move back to Norfolk, so probably never watch them again!

[shefcanary 2,389]

Sheffield FC are the oldest FIFA recognised football club in the world, but currently based at a ground in Dronfield. I'd buy them and get them relocated back to the heart of the city.  Plans are well advanced to sort of do this, but it's on Council land on the very outskirts so won't change things much. There's plenty of brownfield sites inside the inner ring road that just need the owners to be persuaded to stop land banking them for a future that will never happen. There's plenty of scope to use a new stadium as some sort of shrine to the beautiful game with lots of potential income streams. All it would take would be investment in the initial land purchase and stadium plus visitor centre & hospitality facilities development, the club would be self-sustaining after that and probably produce enough for a return, even if they continued to live outside the football league, for me to recoup that iniital investment. 

Well, you can live and dream! 

[OTBC06 39]

I didn't win the bl00dy euromillions!!!!!!!!!! 🤬🤬😭

Edited November 2, 2022 by OTBC06

[Branston Pickle 3,638]

Would be good to get Sheffield back on their own patch.  I used to go and watch Wednesday a wee bit and always parked at Owlerton - I think that was one of their old grounds? 

[shefcanary 2,389]

6 minutes ago, Branston Pickle said:

Would be good to get Sheffield back on their own patch.  I used to go and watch Wednesday a wee bit and always parked at Owlerton - I think that was one of their old grounds? 

That's right. Awful place to watch non-league football, like watching Queen's Park in Hampden I guess. They also played at the now demolished Don Valley Stadium until the rent got too much, and have been "roving" outside the city since.

The current club owner talks a good game, but I've heard looks after himself first before the club.

[Branston Pickle 3,638]

14 minutes ago, shefcanary said:

The current club owner talks a good game, but I've heard looks after himself first before the club.

Kingstonian had a guy a bit like that - not totally sure what went on but it ended with them being Wimbledon’s tenants in what had been their own ground, and then from there onto their current nomadic existence.

[Crafty Canary 495]

You’d be crazy to waste money on buying a football club.

[The Raptor 1,199]

Football would be way down the list of things deserving of my money! 

Plus I don't want the hassle of it. However much you put in it would never be enough in most fans eyes. I wouldn't want to own a club, instead maybe give Norwich the cash for infrastructure not players  I reckon the rebuilding of the City Stand. As long as they give me a bunch of season tickets forever I'd be cool. 

I'd also build a medium sized arena somewhere centralish. Perhaps on the old Colman's site. Link it to the city with a couple of footbridges over the river.  Norwich is crying out for a bigger venue for gigs. The Uea sells out so quickly these days. And so many bands seem to choose Ipswich or Cambridge Instead.

Hoghly impractical I know but then so is me having £150m to spend!

That should cost about £100m which means I'll have 50 left for my family, Lego and beer!

Speaking of beer. I'd start my own brewery and have a decent tap pub in the city somewhere. Even Diss has a better option than Norwich in this regard. 

Brewery tap you say? Wrong side of the city for me plus the layout is weird.

Redwell? Great in the summer not so much wintertime plus the beers inconsistent. 

Thanks for allowing me to ramble. It's be a great distraction from this exercise bike. I've been on here ages already 😁

 

[TheGunnShow 5,933]

Sod that, it's going in a bank and I'm living off the interest.

[TeemuVanBasten 3,327]

3 hours ago, shefcanary said:

Sheffield FC are the oldest FIFA recognised football club in the world, but currently based at a ground in Dronfield. I'd buy them and get them relocated back to the heart of the city.  Plans are well advanced to sort of do this, but it's on Council land on the very outskirts so won't change things much. There's plenty of brownfield sites inside the inner ring road that just need the owners to be persuaded to stop land banking them for a future that will never happen. There's plenty of scope to use a new stadium as some sort of shrine to the beautiful game with lots of potential income streams. All it would take would be investment in the initial land purchase and stadium plus visitor centre & hospitality facilities development, the club would be self-sustaining after that and probably produce enough for a return, even if they continued to live outside the football league, for me to recoup that iniital investment. 

Well, you can live and dream! 

I'd buy Dronfield Town FC so I can buy Sheffield FCs ground when you move them out.

I'd quadruple my ground capacity in the process from 500 to 2000 and wouldn't even need to change any colour schemes as they are both are red, white and and black.

[TeemuVanBasten 3,327]

53 minutes ago, TheGunnShow said:

Sod that, it's going in a bank and I'm living off the interest.

With inflation about 4 times higher than interest rates, that's almost as much of a waste of money as buying a football club.

Better to buy up a small town and live off the rent.

[TheGunnShow 5,933]

Just now, TeemuVanBasten said:

With inflation about 4 times higher than interest rates, that's almost as much of a waste of money as buying a football club.

Better to buy up a small town and live off the rent.

Sod that, I don't care for property management as it's far too much BS for my liking. Got a running friend who is a landlord and there's no way I'm interested in putting up with what he has to do. If we took £150m as a guide, even 1% of that is £1.5 million = £125K per month. 

I wouldn't be able to spend all that. I'd end up saving more and more of it.

[canarydan23 4,060]

1 hour ago, The Raptor said:

I'd also build a medium sized arena somewhere centralish. Perhaps on the old Colman's site. Link it to the city with a couple of footbridges over the river.  Norwich is crying out for a bigger venue for gigs.

Yeah, this is what I'd do. As well as gigs I'd want to make it a proper decent sports venue, host some indoor international sports in Norwich like Netball, Basketball etc. Maybe try and get a Norwich BBL team based there.