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A serious discussion: Where do we stand on the issue of Pools/IOR buying the freehold to the ground from the council?
For my part I don't old with the grassy knoll brigade for 2 reasons ; track record and pure mathematics. To me it just doesn't make sense. IOR have ploughed in the region of six million smackers into the club and ten years of work, they don't need the grief nor the bad PR. IOR are an oil company with interests far and wide. They have recently apparently won a contract in the middle east which is worth mega bucks. The value of that strip of land on Clarence Road is no more than petty cash to them.
Can anyone explain why an oil company would embark on a ten year plan to obtain a piece of land which is tied up in covenants and put around ten million into the existing infrastructure simply in order to sell it again for far less than their investment? This is not land in Kensington we are talking about, its worth a few hundred grand max as a development site also the likelihood is that any plans would be fiercely fought against. Never mind that any planning application would be turned down by the council and IOR would have to appeal to central government which as Brighton have found can take many years to finalise. IOR are not property developers they have a far more lucrative market in oil. These are facts that the conspiracy theorists ignore because by definition; dark and devious agendas are far more interesting.
Now onto track record: The last ten years have been the most successful in the history of the football club. We have finally lost the 'little artlepool' tag and have become a respected club. Admittedly the past year or so has been hugely frustrating and disappointing a fact acknowledged by and apologised for by Uncle Ken at the AGM. The FA Cup exit apart, we are starting to see the green shoots appearing once more and Danny Wilson has I believe broken the back of the losing mentality that pervaded the playing staff. We have won three games in a row now and sit within touching distance of the play offs and dare I say it, automatic promotion. This without Wilson having a real opportunity to make fundamental changes to the team. Come next month we will see a number of new additions and hopefully at least as many leavers.
We are in a decent position in this awful league and if we can end the first half of the season in the top ten then with some quality signings in January, there is no reason whatsoever that we cannot push on and get up there. Swindon in 3rd position are only 8 points ahead of us and Lincoln in 2nd are nine to the good. Both these teams will have a bad run at some stage.
IOR have given us the best days of any Poolie in history, trips to Cardiff used to be for others to make and the ground was a standing joke, remember the old wooden stand and supporters doing building work FOC just to keep the place patched up. Remember the toilets pre IOR ?
The question that keeps most grassy knollingtons busy is the big one - Why?
The answer is simple enough, IOR are Norwegian. Norway is not part of the EU and by owning a company in the UK, IOR have access to the EU free market. There are huge tax benefits too to owning a loss making company, IOR can write off chunks of tax because they pay their corporation tax as a group of companies. Finally the reason that tends to be forgotten is that Ken Hodcroft is a very tough businessman but he is also a bloke from the North East who is a football fan. Maybe just maybe the prime reason was that Uncle Ken wanted to do something for Hartlepool United and the rest is just wallpaper.
The council should sell.
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