Peterborough United by Ensuring All Fans Have a Voice
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Newsletter Issue 49 March 2019 Connecting Club and Community Safeguarding the future of Peterborough United by ensuring all fans have a voice Chair's Notes It’s been a very active time at Posh during the 6 months since our last newsletter publication. In October the Supporters Trust was proud to assist Peter Lane with the official launch of the “Posh Hall of Fame” at the ABAX Stadium. Many of the inductees, or family representatives were in attendance, for an evening of nostalgic memories and stories to honour the 32 members. In excess of £1,200 was raised on the night and donated to Jada-Lea Quow, the daughter of one of the legends we honoured, Trevor Quow. The Trust also held our 16th Annual General Meeting on 22nd November. Ray Cole, John Lawrence and Frank Harburn stepped down from the board at the AGM and we thank them for their excellent contribution to the Trust in recent years. On the pitch with no less than 18 new enthusiastic players seeking to impress and make the first team, Posh were off to a flying start to the season. By the end of September, Posh played 10 league games scoring 26 goals, with 7 wins and 2 draws. Since then, whilst Posh have maintained a play-off position, too many draws, conceding goals and inconsistent performances led to a change of management at the end of January. The Trust welcome Darren Ferguson and Gavin Strachan back to the club and wish Steve Evans and Paul Raynor all the best for the future. At the “Posh Hall of Fame” launch, it was announced that the football club and the City Council had signed a memorandum of understanding for the club to buy back the ABAX stadium. This news was eagerly received by everyone as we all want to see the club reunited with its ground. The Trust was keen to find out more about the sale, as our mission is to be alert to anything that could affect the future of our football club and its existence in the community, to that end you will find details of our findings inside this newsletter. In February we were pleased to read the statement from Jason Neale, of the 10- year plan for the football club. It is a very good vision for the future. The Trust is equally excited to see the club`s plans come to fruition, and as you would expect, we will of course continue to be alert to the risks of any club plans, to safeguard the interest of future generation Posh fans. Keep it Posh! Fingers Crossed for the Championship! Barry 2 The 16th Posh Supporters Trust AGM The 16th Posh Supporters Trust AGM was held at the Yard of Ale public house on Thursday, 22nd November 2018. The full minutes from the AGM, can be found on our website at www.theposhtrust.co.uk Otherwise, here is a brief summary of the AGM. Outgoing Chairman, Ray Cole read out his annual report. The points covered included: • We have attended and promoted the PST at Posh's kit launch and open training day events. • We have sponsored Posh Ladies by providing the 1st team with training tops, as well as sponsoring a player, Keir Perkins. • Helped in the organisation of the club's Hall of Fame event. • Promoted the trusts' achievement via Supporters Direct as a celebration of our 15-year anniversary. • Continued to add to and update our Posh on-line museum. • Signed a partnership agreement with the online betting company Fansbet who give back 50% of their net profit to supporter`s groups. • This season, we have provided 15 people with SMILE treats. • Supported petitions asking for Premier League and Championship clubs to be allowed to have safe-standing at their stadiums. • Sadly we had to give up our stall in the Family Stand at the ABAX as the club wanted the space back to alleviate queues for drinks at half time in the South Stand. The Treasurer`s report for the year to 30th June 2018, which were examined by an independent financial assessor, showed: • Income of £8,347 for the financial year • Expenditure of £3,842 for the financial year • Yearly excess of £4,505 for the financial year • Current Assets of £149,864 The Secretary`s report included: • The Trust shareholding in PUFC remained the same as last year, 1410 shares. • A Trust representative attended each of the club’s monthly meetings with Bob Symns, PISA and Forever Posh. • Two newsletters were sent out to members. Local councillors and MPs were also sent copies of each newsletter. Board members Ray Cole, John Lawrence and Franks Harburn have stepped down from their roles, while Dene Butler, Sue Butler and Marco Graziano were elected as co-opted members of the board and Barry Bennett was appointed acting Chairman for the next 12 months. There are several vacant positions on the Board and new members are urgently needed to bring fresh ideas and skills to the board. To obtain a nomination form, 0r if you would like to know out more about being a board member of the Trust, email us [email protected] 3 The View of the Posh Supporters Trust’s Board, re: The Future of the ABAX Stadium. First of all, we would like to clarify that the Trust will not be making a bid to buy the stadium. Whilst we had a right to bid with the Asset of Community Value (ACV), it was never our intention to exercise that option. The ACV itself has provided us with more time to further understand details of proposed sale of the stadium. When the Leader of Peterborough City Council (PCC), PUFC directors and owners announced on 18th October that there was a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) issued by the Council for the sale of the football ground to the club, the Trust was very keen to know more details. Why? Because the Trust board had consistently said that it supported the club and ground being re-united, as it was the separation of the ground from the club in 2003 that caused so many problems down the line for the football club, Darragh MacAnthony and for PCC. That ultimately lead to the Council being put in a position that it felt it had to buy the ground back from Peterborough United Holdings Limited (PUHL) who then owned it. Following meetings with both the club and PCC, and at a recent public meeting, it has emerged that the preferred option is not that the football club buys the stadium, but that an investment group, comprising the three main PUFC owners and possibly other investors does so. This may seem to amount to the same thing. It doesn’t. Why does the Trust say this? If the ground was being bought by PUFC Ltd. which is the legal entity that owns the club then it is more certain that the club and its ground will stay together in the longer term, and that the club itself would be the main beneficiary of any development of the stadium. If the club is bought by the separate company owned by the three club directors themselves then there is more chance, not necessarily now but in the longer term, that any stadium development benefits could slip away from the club and a forced move away from London Road could happen in the future possibly when the club has changed hands. There could also be significant rent to pay as there is now to the current owner, PCC. So, the best protection in our opinion is that the club has the stadium in its ownership and that development takes place once that has happened. With the club’s three owners being in control through the club, the development can hopefully restart, including the commercial element that will bring revenue to the club and to its owners. Everyone can see that the ground development has been very slow to take place under different club and stadium owners. Is there any reason that the deal can’t be structured that way? There may be some, but they are not obvious. The current club owners who are intending to put up the money to buy the stadium, could buy it through the club’s company PUFC Ltd. as they already control it, owning more than 99% of the shares between them. Why are these things so important? Because, as we saw with the PUHL’s planning application to build flats at Moys End in 2006, the site is a very valuable one for property development. PCC planning department rejected the PUHL plans, PUHL took it to the national authority and the tribunal that resulted overturned the PCC decision. Although the flats were never built, the land now had planning permission with valuable residential development potential. The Asset of Community Value (ACV) status that the Trust applied for in 2014 was put in place on the stadium by PCC has proved very good for helping Posh fans to know what is going on as regards the sale, and preventing the sort of secret and complicated deal that caused so much damage in 2003. The PST has had a meeting with PCC, and it is planned to have a further meeting in the New Year. Having asked questions of PCC and had some answers, the Trust is encouraging PCC to 4 retain a strong covenant over the playing surface at London Rd., to retain a right to buy back the stadium under certain circumstances, and to seek assurances from any new owners of the stadium that the football club will be the main beneficiary of the stadium developments.