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Post by paulkee on Sept 13, 2017 9:01:44 GMT
With the departure of Mapp just two weeks before the season started many were writing this season off before it had started and some of the vitriol aimed at our Chairman was reprehensible. Eales deserves an awful lot of credit for appointing a manager at such short notice who seems to have put together a team that that is already stronger than last season's despite the loss of four very influential players in Macguire, McAleny, Lundstram and Johnson.
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Post by juanpabloraponi on Sept 13, 2017 9:04:40 GMT
You're a braver man than I to say such things. I dare you to say it on FB.
*whisper* I agree
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Post by essexyellows on Sept 13, 2017 9:35:50 GMT
You are right. He is also a perfectly approachable bloke who likes to talk about the highs & lows of owning a football club. He gets it right most of the time & its his money....can`t say fairer than that.
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Post by foley on Sept 13, 2017 10:42:15 GMT
With the departure of Mapp just two weeks before the season started many were writing this season off before it had started and some of the vitriol aimed at our Chairman was reprehensible. Eales deserves an awful lot of credit for appointing a manager at such short notice who seems to have put together a team that that is already stronger than last season's despite the loss of four very influential players in Macguire, McAleny, Lundstram and Johnson. I would say that it is very early yet but based on what I have seen this season it could turn out to be a very good appointment. If so then it will be a fantastic achievement to have chosen MAPP, stuck with him in those early dark times and then chosen Clotet who would have been the far from obvious choice. Certainly if anything we are playing even more football than last season and the development of Rothwell and Hall and the signings of Payne, Williamson, Ricardinho look to give us a really good chance this season. As a typical cautious football supporter though, it is so early that a couple of defeats will get some of the natives restless. Incidentally can't you say what you thin of Facebook and surely there are some on there that don't want to just slag off the Chairman??
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Post by oufcyellows on Sept 13, 2017 11:38:49 GMT
With the departure of Mapp just two weeks before the season started many were writing this season off before it had started and some of the vitriol aimed at our Chairman was reprehensible. Eales deserves an awful lot of credit for appointing a manager at such short notice who seems to have put together a team that that is already stronger than last season's despite the loss of four very influential players in Macguire, McAleny, Lundstram and Johnson. I would say that it is very early yet but based on what I have seen this season it could turn out to be a very good appointment. If so then it will be a fantastic achievement to have chosen MAPP, stuck with him in those early dark times and then chosen Clotet who would have been the far from obvious choice. Certainly if anything we are playing even more football than last season and the development of Rothwell and Hall and the signings of Payne, Williamson, Ricardinho look to give us a really good chance this season. As a typical cautious football supporter though, it is so early that a couple of defeats will get some of the natives restless. Incidentally can't you say what you thin of Facebook and surely there are some on there that don't want to just slag off the Chairman?? The ones that don't slag off the chairman just moan we have to many foreigners 😂
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Post by HeyMcAleny on Sept 13, 2017 15:47:22 GMT
Completely agree about Eales. He has taken a very difficult situation, handled it extremely well and delivered a very positive outcome. We look a better outfit overall than last season, and we are playing some very nice football, under a manager who seems to really know his stuff and has a great attitude. Great job DE.
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Post by hackneyjack on Sept 13, 2017 16:34:36 GMT
Yes, I think Eales has done, and is doing a tricky job overall, very well. Some great appointments, and we're seemingly doing well as a unit. Good times need to be enjoyed, otherwise some folk endlessly look for the negatives.
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Post by tonyw on Sept 13, 2017 16:50:43 GMT
On top of all that....with the Roofe, O'Dowda, Lundstram & Johnson sales, we're going to have a healthy P&L for at least the first 2-3 League One years.
To be competing at the highest level we have for a decade and a half, and be making money? That's top chairmanship right there.
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Post by bashamwonderland on Sept 13, 2017 17:35:21 GMT
He has overseen a meteoric rise in our fortunes and has made real attempts at stabilising our financial condition (which unfortunately at the Kassam will always be a losing battle).
Sometimes you forget that in this echo chamber. Wouldn't want him to sell the club to anyone for any money.
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Post by diagocostapacket on Sept 14, 2017 15:35:56 GMT
Eales is a businessman first and foremost, not a philanthropist, he has invested in Oxford United for one reason only...to make money.
That's not to say he cant have a bit of pleasure along the way and also stabilise and drive forward the club he loves.
However like all successful businessmen of his Ilk, I suspect that he has taken sound advice from those around him and some of that credit should go to them also.
If he could in the future however, get our 3/4 built stadium finished in time for our foray into the Championship that would be good..
I do like the fact however that he leaves the Management of the Club to the men he has appointed and in that respect he is a damn good Chairman.
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Post by gofish2 on Sept 14, 2017 16:19:16 GMT
I think it's very heartening to have an Eales appreciation thread. Walking away from the ground on Tuesday (I haven't been for a while) I felt really impressed at what seems like a massive shift in terms of the professionalism of the set up.The performance on the pitch reflected the fact the behind the scenes work is paying off. The appointments of Appleton, Clotet, selling and acquiring of players, and the view of others of the club, is probably as good as I've seen it in 20 years.
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Post by tonyw on Sept 14, 2017 16:49:18 GMT
Eales is a businessman first and foremost, not a philanthropist, he has invested in Oxford United for one reason only...to make money. And the good thing from the fans' perspective is that there's only one way Eales makes money out of OUFC - and that's by steering the club into the Championship (and selling at that point to someone with deeper pockets). Zero chance he ever gets his investment up to this point back, let alone makes money, whilst the club sits in the lower leagues and doesn't own its stadium.
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Post by ZeroTheHero on Sept 14, 2017 17:31:24 GMT
Eales is a businessman first and foremost, not a philanthropist, he has invested in Oxford United for one reason only...to make money. And the good thing from the fans' perspective is that there's only one way Eales makes money out of OUFC - and that's by steering the club into the Championship (and selling at that point to someone with deeper pockets). Zero chance he ever gets his investment up to this point back, let alone makes money, whilst the club sits in the lower leagues and doesn't own its stadium. That has to be correct. He would have had a chance to cut his losses with the Sartori deal and seemingly turned it down (rather than Sartori walking away), so the obvious conclusion is that he thinks he can get us up into the Championship - which will be both exciting and financially profitable for him.
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Post by diagocostapacket on Sept 14, 2017 21:58:20 GMT
Eales is a businessman first and foremost, not a philanthropist, he has invested in Oxford United for one reason only...to make money. And the good thing from the fans' perspective is that there's only one way Eales makes money out of OUFC - and that's by steering the club into the Championship (and selling at that point to someone with deeper pockets). Zero chance he ever gets his investment up to this point back, let alone makes money, whilst the club sits in the lower leagues and doesn't own its stadium. Quite right ...but its a long term investment and safer possibly than stocks or shares, particularly with the uncertainty of Brexit hanging over us like the Sword of Damocles.
The successful clubs are those that have the biggest available salary budget and who can attract the best to get us out of this league and into the Championship where the standard of football is that much better.
Then its all change in personnel as we only have a limited number of players who have played or can play at that higher level. Further investment will then be needed and that can only come from astute financial planning and sound commercial acumen and I think we have that in place.
Once in the Championship for a City club like Oxford with a potentially large catchment area the reality of Premiership football becomes a distinct possibility and not just a pipe dream.
Realistically though no club with a 12500 capacity stadium is going to survive for more than a couple of seasons in the Premiership so I suspect Championship football will be the cut off point for Eales and he will cash in. That wont necessarily be a bad thing for the club and I think OUFC could be quite an attractive investment opportunity if that ever became available.
You have to have ambition and think big and it seems to me that Eales is indeed looking at the bigger picture which can only be good.
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Post by rickyotto on Sept 16, 2017 12:17:07 GMT
I'd say stadium capacity is irrelevant at premier league level now that the tv money is so extraordinary. A great leveler
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Post by fistfullofdollars on Sept 16, 2017 18:39:09 GMT
I'd say stadium capacity is irrelevant at premier league level now that the tv money is so extraordinary. A great leveler Bit simplistic, it isn't as large a proportion of clubs income as it used to be, but it is still significant. Hence clubs spending huge money building larger stadia or increasing the capacity of their existing ground Arsenal make something along the lines of £100m in match day income, vs Spurs making around £41m (2015 figures) that shows the worth of a suitable stadium (capacity and corporate/hospitality) and why clubs still will build.
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Post by rickyotto on Sept 16, 2017 19:46:51 GMT
Sure but let's ignore the richest matchday revenue in the world.
Imagine that we could get 24000 versus 14000 home fans (let's assume a temporary fourth stand is easily achievable). Average ticket price at 35gbp.
We're probably talking about 8 million quid. Which a while back would have been a huge proportion of income.
But now look at the tv money.
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Post by eraser on Sept 16, 2017 22:04:01 GMT
Sure but let's ignore the richest matchday revenue in the world. Imagine that we could get 24000 versus 14000 home fans (let's assume a temporary fourth stand is easily achievable). Average ticket price at 35gbp. We're probably talking about 8 million quid. Which a while back would have been a huge proportion of income. But now look at the tv money. Agree re Arsenal - if you have a waiting list of 20,000 tutters and prawn sandwich eaters you can charge what you like. The morons will clamour to watch Wengers w***ers! However OUFC have a problem as they don't own the stadium so their revenue streams are limited. No point having 24,000 seats if you're only filling 6-7,000 per match. IMO the club have gone in the wrong direction with ticket pricing. They have put them up so much that people like me, who did have a season ticket until it became a premium seat, will be selective on matches. So attendances have dropped and any extra revenue they did generate - 50/50 , programmes, food and beverage etc have also dropped. OUFC should have left prices unchanged or even reduced them. 2 fans paying £18 quid is worth more than 1 paying £29. Add on programmes and other revenue and given we're nowhere near capacity seems a no brainer commercially! Not to mention the improved atmosphere, My mate still gets to renew his WBA season ticket for £100 as long as he wants to or until he dies! I'm sure lots of loyal fans like me have stood back at these prices for L1.
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Post by rickyotto on Sept 16, 2017 22:11:03 GMT
Sure but let's ignore the richest matchday revenue in the world. Imagine that we could get 24000 versus 14000 home fans (let's assume a temporary fourth stand is easily achievable). Average ticket price at 35gbp. We're probably talking about 8 million quid. Which a while back would have been a huge proportion of income. But now look at the tv money. Agree re Arsenal - if you have a waiting list of 20,000 tutters and prawn sandwich eaters you can charge what you like. The morons will clamour to watch Wengers w***ers! However OUFC have a problem as they don't own the stadium so their revenue streams are limited. No point having 24,000 seats if you're only filling 6-7,000 per match. IMO the club have gone in the wrong direction with ticket pricing. They have put them up so much that people like me, who did have a season ticket until it became a premium seat, will be selective on matches. So attendances have dropped and any extra revenue they did generate - 50/50 , programmes, food and beverage etc have also dropped. OUFC should have left prices unchanged or even reduced them. 2 fans paying £18 quid is worth more than 1 paying £29. Add on programmes and other revenue and given we're nowhere near capacity seems a no brainer commercially! Not to mention the improved atmosphere, My mate still gets to renew his WBA season ticket for £100 as long as he wants to or until he dies! I'm sure lots of loyal fans like me have stood back at these prices for L1. I imagine that we'll likely see a slight drop in attendances this season (assuming a like for like season finishing 8th) but would see an increase in attendance revenue. Which would short term make it a good commercial decision but mid to long term more questionable as to building the support base
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Post by plonker on Sept 16, 2017 23:55:46 GMT
Agree re Arsenal - if you have a waiting list of 20,000 tutters and prawn sandwich eaters you can charge what you like. The morons will clamour to watch Wengers w***ers! However OUFC have a problem as they don't own the stadium so their revenue streams are limited. No point having 24,000 seats if you're only filling 6-7,000 per match. IMO the club have gone in the wrong direction with ticket pricing. They have put them up so much that people like me, who did have a season ticket until it became a premium seat, will be selective on matches. So attendances have dropped and any extra revenue they did generate - 50/50 , programmes, food and beverage etc have also dropped. OUFC should have left prices unchanged or even reduced them. 2 fans paying £18 quid is worth more than 1 paying £29. Add on programmes and other revenue and given we're nowhere near capacity seems a no brainer commercially! Not to mention the improved atmosphere, My mate still gets to renew his WBA season ticket for £100 as long as he wants to or until he dies! I'm sure lots of loyal fans like me have stood back at these prices for L1. I imagine that we'll likely see a slight drop in attendances this season (assuming a like for like season finishing 8th) but would see an increase in attendance revenue. Which would short term make it a good commercial decision but mid to long term more questionable as to building the support base What do you consider slight? So far our 4 home attendances have been: 9,510 (1810 away), 7,120 (442 away), 6,730 (382 away) and 6,558 (403 away). Which averages to around 7,500. We've also been a little unlucky fixture wise - we play teams like Blackburn and Charlton on a Tuesday evening, as well as missing out on desirable (home) match days like Boxing Day, New Year's Eve and the last game of the season. All of which will no doubt impact our average home attendance over the course of the season. I think we'll be lucky to finish with an average of 7,500. That's 10% or 800 fans fewer than last season. So if that's somewhat accurate, is a 10-20% price increase enough to compensate for a 100% 'loss' from those 800 or so fans who didn't attend? I don't know and I'm not sure anyone else will either, but thought it was a valid question. Obviously lower attendances can't be attributed solely to the increase in prices, but it's definitely a factor. I hope it makes financial sense for the club because it would be doubly disappointing to have fewer faces in the stands and fewer pennies in the bank. I think the club should definitely run more promotions - kids for a quid, season ticket holders being able to purchase a 'guest' ticket for certain games at a reduced price. Heck, buy 2 get 1 free. Selling tickets via promotions of some kind is going to be more financially worthwhile than having thousands of empty seats, so why not experiment and find out what works for us?
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