THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

If you think that then you dont understand the nature of corporate portfolio. Lets use Man Utd as a point. Its likely that in this case Redbull wouldnt seek to rename the club for the reasons stated. Thats fine. However, leverage, branding, promotion, market exposure, emerging markets and commercial sponsorships would all be 100% exploited. You woulnt be able to move without the brand being exposed at any given point, whether it be on football operations, corporate operations or financial operations.

Or you could replace Redbull with Ineos and the same would occur. These acquisitions arent undertaken for the good of the entity, the good of the sport or the good of the fans, who would largely be considered a captive audience anyway. Taking the fans into account, those that attend the actual matches are more or less an irrelevance its the extended reach in overseas less exploited markets that matters. I think during the Pandemic, it was only Old trafford and the emirates where have non attending fans made a material difference to a clubs revenue.

For fans its emotional, for business its profit.

This is all getting a bit deeper than the original question of how come other corporates can own multiple clubs but Redbull werent able to buy is.

It remains my belief that the interest was nowhere near the level Pete suggested and thats all he did really, suggest.

I'm talking about fan feelings of Red Bull taking over a club though not the business side of it and jumped only on the point about Ashley as I was in the middle of it all with a flatmate that was an avid Newcastle fan in the middle of the second relegation era.

Mike Ashley was well liked at the start. He was in away ends instead of corporate boxes etc. But the investment dried up and he began using it as his own personal window to plug Sports Direct and after years of it and relegations the fans turned and drove him out. In the case of a Red Bull takeover knowing what we know about what they entail (total club rebrand and their logo and name plastered everywhere from the off) there's a very small number of clubs in the football league that wouldn't protest the fuck out of it to extents that we have barely seen, and we would inevitably be one of them. You take Man United as an example, they managed to get a televised game called off with one protest against their current owners. Imagine that on a larger scale consistently because the owners want to rebrand them to Red Bull United or some shite.

_________________
Cuboid of bum fluff

Or do you think Pete actually rejected the approach of Red Bull, and he came up with the UEFA reason as he knew fans probably wouldn’t be happy.

_________________
Read the MELTDOWN after every game, no bullshit, just giving it straight

Thats very hard to gauge. Pete has said more than once that the club is perpetually up for sale. Noting the usual platitudes about making sure it goes into the right hands which is I suspect is code for making sure its the buyer with the right depth of pocket, at least initially.

I just cant get past the notion that if Redbull had wanted to buy the club, it would have happened. So either it was not what Pete described it as, never got past due diligence or was only really exploratory at most.

Ive asked several times for those that seem more convinced than me about it all happening but if they were really that interested, why are they not even a minor sponsor? as things stand, unless there is undisclosed investment, the sum investment made by Redbull into MK Dons is precisely £0.00.

Are they a minor sponsor in any club that they don't own?

_________________
Cuboid of bum fluff

i dont know. are they not a sponsor of any club they purportedly offered to buy?

They might well sponsor the giants because they know they can't take any over, but their strategy for the smaller clubs like us is a full takeover and rebrand. I can't imagine they'd get much out of being our shirt sponsor, stadium sponsor or even as lowly drinks sponsor if they can't take the club over. With them it seems like an all or nothing deal.

_________________
Cuboid of bum fluff

I agree its seems all or nothing to some degree, certainly with their football club ownership but seeing as they dont appear to have even dropped £11K on a box it seems unlikely they would be willing to drop several million to own it all.

On that basis, what on earth would be a price for a club like ours. Im sure the stadium alone has got to be worth in the 10s of millions without the retail sites?

Does anyone know if its even sellable? Im not convinced MKBC would be all that delighted after having more or less gifted the land to Pete for him to then flog it for multi millions? but maybe they are?