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yellow hammer

REVEALED - The true story of when a billionaire came calling

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The night''s too long and I''m way too depressed from the Coventry result, but it''s time to reveal the truth of what happened when a certain billionaire came calling. You''ll be surprised, maybe even outraged. Archant doesn''t have this scoop. So check out this thread sometime tomorrow and I''ll post some more.

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Yeah right. Theirs no apparent reason for ''leaving it until tommorow''. Apart from hoping people get excited because they really believe you know the story [:|]

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Ah the offer that wasn’t an offer but still prompted Doomcaster to drive down the A140 to tell them all about it, this should be interesting!

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[quote user="yellow hammer"]The night''s too long and I''m way too depressed from the Coventry result, but it''s time to reveal the truth of what happened when a certain billionaire came calling. You''ll be surprised, maybe even outraged. Archant doesn''t have this scoop. So check out this thread sometime tomorrow and I''ll post some more.[/quote]

So why wait?  On a wind-up eh? [;)]

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Thats because if Cullum came in and wanted to buy the club he can, but he cant have the restaurants, they are hers. That is the stumbling block for potential buyers. 100% FACT.

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[quote user="yellow hammer"]The night''s too long and I''m way too depressed from the Coventry result, but it''s time to reveal the truth of what happened when a certain billionaire came calling. You''ll be surprised, maybe even outraged. Archant doesn''t have this scoop. So check out this thread sometime tomorrow and I''ll post some more.[/quote]Ooh, let me guess. Did the billionaire offer Michael Wynn-Jones a million pounds to spend a single night with Delia and her dumplings?

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[quote user="Merry Mawkin"]Thats because if Cullum came in and wanted to buy the club he can, but he cant have the restaurants, they are hers. That is the stumbling block for potential buyers. 100% FACT.[/quote]

 if he buys the club he therefore owns the ground and all assets within it... she could lease the resturants from him but would have no ownership at all as the business is sold surely?

jas :)

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[quote user="Merry Mawkin"]Thats because if Cullum came in and wanted to buy the club he can, but he cant have the restaurants, they are hers. That is the stumbling block for potential buyers. 100% FACT.[/quote]

How do you know?

 

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[quote user="Pyro Pete"][quote user="yellow hammer"]The night''s too long and I''m way too depressed from the Coventry result, but it''s time to reveal the truth of what happened when a certain billionaire came calling. You''ll be surprised, maybe even outraged. Archant doesn''t have this scoop. So check out this thread sometime tomorrow and I''ll post some more.[/quote]

Ooh, let me guess. Did the billionaire offer Michael Wynn-Jones a million pounds to spend a single night with Delia and her dumplings?

[/quote]pmsl[Y]

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You can not run,

And you can not hide

Yeah you gotta face it baby

Things go bump in the nigh

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You can not run,

And you can not hide

Yeah you gotta face it baby

Things go bump in the night

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One of the long running threads spun to fans is that there are no investors out there willing to put money into Norwich City. Some claim that no sane person would invest in a Championship club. Well there must be a lot of crazy, rich people around if you look at the evidence.

If you’re looking for the inside track on the Cullum saga then I am going to disappoint you. This is not about Cullum. This is the true story of another billionaire. A guy far richer than the insurance man. Which if you think about it, is even more tragic than the Cullum story, because this is about a guy who put his money where his mouth is.

My little tale begins around the time when we slipped out of the Premiership after a season of mainly woeful performances from a team of journeymen and carpet baggers. My daughter’s godfather is a wealthy and very well-connected businessman. One of his business associates is a billionaire, owning an airline, mobile phone company, real estate and so on.

The  billionaire wanted to buy his boyhood football club – a well-established Premiership outfit. So he went and began talks with the board of directors. It was national news at the time and I followed the story with great interest because I knew something of the guy. The talks lasted for over six months – no formal offer was made. For those who take glee from the fact that Cullum never made a formal offer do not understand business. In an uncontested takeover, the formal offer arrives along with a glossy brochure and lots of printed forms after the deal has been thrashed out. The formal offer is a rubber stamp if you will, at the end of the negotiating process. It is only in the case of hostile takeovers that an offer will be made and then the fighting begins. Since Cullum did not make an offer then that is enough to tell you that the parties did not get beyond the negotiating stage and that Cullum was not prepared to enter a hostile takeover for the club. You may ask yourself, why did talks not get beyond the early stages.

Anyway, getting back to the main point. After months of talking, no deal could be reached with the Premier club and the billionaire withdrew his offer. End of story.

By now Norwich City were struggling  back in the Championship and the board were looking for new investors. The thought occurred to me that if the billionaire wanted to get into football, why not invest in Norwich City? What if I could make a case for NCFC? After all it would be a fraction  of the cost of investing in a leading Premiership club. So I went to see my kid’s godfather and asked if he could get me an appointment with the billionaire and I would pitch up for Norwich City.

Now, I’m just an ordinary fan and I have no inside knowledge of the affairs of our club but I considered nothing ventured, nothing gained. I had nothing to lose. Fair enough, the godfather delivered the goods and I got a ten minute slot to see the big man. The following week I turned up at the billionaires HQ armed with nothing but a little powerpoint presentation and a lot of chutzpah. After two-hour wait in line I get ushered into the main man’s presence. I told him that I was just an interested fan and in no way connected to club. So how do you go about and sell the idea that he should invest in NCFC?

Basically my point was that NCFC has a unique identity in football. While there are a few other clubs that play in yellow and green and a few even nicknamed the Canaries, we are the original. We own that unique identity and the little yellow bird on a football is a very strong brand. I also turned the ‘little old Norwich’ idea on its head and said that that one of our advantages is that we don’t come with any baggage. That is to say, if you own Man U, then you alienate more than half of the footballing world. Nobody hates City except for a few retards down the A140. If you know anything about business you will understand the power of a unique selling proposition and a strong, easily identifiable brand.  This is the untapped potential of Norwich City, an idea our current board has never grasped.

Anyway, that was the gist of my sales pitch, and at the end of it we exchanged pleasantries and I was ushered out and thanked for my time. That was that. It wasn’t much, but I at least I had a try and if nothing came of it, I could say I did my best.

A few weeks later I received a phone call. It was from one of the billionaires people. He said that they had enjoyed my presentation and asked me if I could prepare for them a few paragraphs as how they might want to make an approach to Norwich City.  Basically, what did I think would be of interest to NCFC about them. That was an easy one – money – but of course one can’t just say that, and I said I would prepare a paper for them with some ideas.

The next day, I received yet another call from the same guy. This time he asked me whether or not I had read the latest NCFC news, in particular a statement from the majority shareholder. I said I hadn’t but would do so. When I went online I found an interview between Ms. Smith and a journalist. In this interview she stated that City would never sell  out to a foreign investor, the intimation was only Norwich people would be considered as investors in her club.

And with that news the billionaire, who is a foreigner, lost interest. I tried phoning back a couple of times but my calls were never accepted. With one misplaced statement from the chief shareholder, a potential investor took off.

I have since wondered whether the board issued that no-foreigner statement directly as a result of enquiries made from my investor. Of course the timing could have been co-incidental. We shall never know. However what I do know is that the billionaire was interesting in investing into English football, because a few months later he made the national news when he bought into a middle-ranking Premiership club to the tune of over eighty-million pounds. In my mind that is eighty-million quid that could have gone to Norwich City. It could have bought out the existing shareholders, paid off the debt and still had plenty of money to invest in the playing squad.

Now you can argue that we don’t want foreign investment and if you’ve worked out who the billionaire is (there’s enough clues), that you wouldn’t want this particular investor. You may even argue that I had no business doing what I did. Fair dues to you but that is not my main point. My point is that there were investors if you looked hard enough, we could have found an investor if our terms weren’t so arrogant, and the board of directors are culpable for bringing out this state of affairs.

Still what’s done is done. The opportunities are gone and there’s no turning back the clock, hey?

Yellow Hammer

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fascinating stuff and thanks v much for posting it YH, it was well worth waiting for. I doubt if there are any other fans out there who have done as much to try and improve our fortunes, so thanks for the effort.

As you say, one ill thought out statement put off the investor you were trying to get interested, and who knows how many others? For me this well and truly nails the myth that the current owners were looking to sell. They may be now, but now is way too late, an the damage done could last for a decade or more.

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another (alleged) gaffe by deals then - just like the royal norfolk show - except 4 weeks later all the investors had gone and the maj shareholders were frantcially trying to fill doncaster''s backhole - ouch,,,make you wince about the ineptitude...[:''(]but hey - when we''re in league 2 - surely a local businessman come builder/hot dog seller made good - will of course be able to buy good ole NCFC lock stock and pork...onwards and....

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Non-British billionaire who owns an airline etc, so can anyone enlighten me, as that rules out ranson and Stelios is  British passport holder.....

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Fascinating YH, thanks for your efforts.  I`ve been trying to get across the point that a formal offer would be the FINAL part of negotiations rather than the opening gambit for months now.

Have you thought about going to the press with your story?  Upon relegation you`d have thought even Archant would have the balls to take on a story like that.

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