Plymouth Argyle Takeover Attempt Ignored!
Added: (Fri Oct 07 2005)
Pressbox (Press Release) -
Devon - 7th October 2005
In a statement released today, a consortium of local businessman admitted they had offered to takeover Plymouth Argyle Football Club and inject considerable finance into the club with an aim to get Argyle into the Premiereship within three seasons.
Despite four approaches to the board, each communication was ignored by the current Chairman and his board of Directors, and the consortium have now taken the decision not to proceed further.
The feeling of the consortium, is that the current board do NOT have sufficient finance available to them to match their ambitions, whereas the consortium had opened initial discussions with Plymouth City Council about acquiring the freehold to Home Park and investing heavily in facilities as well as letting the new manager have a significant transfer budget.
Tony Pulis is a manager who has done very well on "no budget" at clubs in the past and the consortium feel he could achieve significant success if backed with a suitable transfer fund.
A major hotel group were also in discussions with the consortium to develop a hotel and lesiure centre on the new stand development, something that has already been done successfully at other football clubs such as West Ham, Bolton and Reading. This would also have been good for local business in Plymouth.
Plymouth is a growing city and the club has premiership potential, it has a massive fllowing from all across the UK, and is certainly the largest sports club and entertainment complex in SW England, but so much more is possible.
The consortium were also looking to bring major pop concerts to the stadium, an exhibition centre, conference facilities and a major name "Director of Football" (Both Terry Venables and Bobby Robson were amongst the names approached)
Although I admit that I am not financially in a position to invest cash myself, I do have significant business and sports contacts and had asked the investors to appolint me as Chief Executive of the club should the takeover go-ahead!
Ross Hemsworth
On behalf of the Argyle Consortium.