We need to know how much the stadium is going to cost, who is going to front the cash, and how much the football club will have to pay for it. They know - the idea that they haven’t got a proper financing plan is ludicrous, yet that’s exactly what I’m convinced Williams will say if questioned. “We’re still figuring that out.” No, you’re not. You know exactly how you believe this will work.
If the owners stump up £100m of their own cash (bet you they don’t) and ‘the markets’ provide an additional £60m for arguments sake, the market funded equity share would demand an industry standard yield of 3-5% per annum. That could mean anywhere from £2-3million per year solely on the minority share - the owners would still be yet to recoup on the majority outlay. How do we pay for this? Any increased revenues from stadium operations would simply go to paying shareholders, not to the football club.
What are the sums? How much are they making Oxford United Football Club liable for, and how sustainable are those figures? What if we remain a middling League One club? What if we aren’t in the Championship? What if, heaven forbid, we ended up back in League Two, which really should’ve happened last season under their watch given our points total? Can the club maintain its ability to pay for its own existence in those scenarios?
It’s all good and well people banging on about how there’s no future without this stadium, but until the details are known nobody has any idea what the future looks like with this stadium either.