Had a good read on GOT and there's lots of confusion and mis-interpretation of the deal , one guy thinks its been done to save them TENS and TENS of millions of pounds each year to spend on players . When its been all leveraged by an accountant who possibly wont have to put a penny into a 300 million pound asset that the company he 49.9 % owns . Its an unusual deal which might look good on paper and may deliver a shiny new stadium but I wouldnt be surprised in the least if it ends up becoming abandoned or even downscaled .
Not one person on GOT has queried the effect this is going to have on ticket prices and the affect this may actually have on attendances , a few are querying the dangers of non payment or the way they control of sponsorship , ticket money even player sales may one day be in the hands of LCC .
As for the £300 million quotation this is surely pie in the sky , whole docks have to be filled in even before construction can begin ( unless peel do this ? As part of the sale ) can actually see this being scaled back to
45000 with a take it or leave it vote amongst supporters . A long term naming rights deal may be the thing that saves this though is there a demand for stadium naming of mid range clubs .
If it comes off irresspective of size then its a great deal for peel and LCC ( as long as they pay there rent ) ,
Peel get a substantial development at the bottom end of the Liverpool waters site which should enhance building that end years ahead of schedule .LCC get a nice little earner every year and possibly a ready made stadium for the commonwealth games with a price to pay for the use of the new John smiths stadium for a summer games in 2026
I find the whole "Council is a guarantor for cheap credit" argument a bit odd. I mean, by paying £4-5m a year that is already 2.4 to 2.8 % interest on £300m. Even if they managed to borrow for as little as 1.25 % (what LFC were charged for the new stand) that would add anothe £80m. The total cost then would increase to around £540-580m, or £13.5m-14.5 per year, for 40 years. And at the end of that they will have to pay off the lease (which every one is presuming will be nominal, but I don't see that guaranteed anywhere). Everton's accounts, at the end of 2016, had turnover at £120m approx. That will go up next year to about £170-180m. So, even in the cheapass scenario mentioned above that will take out 7.5% to 8.5% of their revenue every year.
Now, admittedly that is rough estimates and money will lose value over time, but it does mean they will be incurring a serious loss over the next few forseeable years, for no visible return. The new stadium is probably at least five years away. Even if they get it up and running that quickly it will still be in an area that is due massive regeneration which might take a decade or more to complete. At that stage they will be housed in a 50,000 seater stadium which is still a smaller capacity than their city rivals.
Lets say then they manage to double gate receipts with the new capacity and corporate sponsorship. Gate receipts for Everton last year were £17.5m. that would mean, when the extra money is taken out for repayments, the new stadium would give them extra spending power of £3.5-4.5m per annum. And that is if they double their receipts. Liverpool are managing to do that with their expansion, but have already had a fan walkout over ticket prices. And Liverpool have a massive corporate sponsorship gig going on. Everton recieved £9.3m in corporate sponsorship last year.
to be honest the council are getting a pretty sweet deal here. For effectively becoming a middleman for Everton and a landlord they are geting £4-5m for 40 years and an area of the city that is due for regeneration at some future date will start paying a return immediately. If Everton fail to make payments they get to take their revenue off them to cover it. Of course, it could go horribly wrong for everybody after Brexit...
