Telegraph - Dave Walder Comments (I had forgotten he was still with us)

[Vespula Vulgaris]

The problem with uninformed twaddle like this is it becomes the accepted narrative. Everyone is an expert...

[WonkyWasp]

Thanks Inbetween  -  appreciated.   Still think it is very misleading.

[MarleyWasp]

The attendance according to the Premiership Rugby website of the Newcastle Prem Cup match was 758.

[The Falcon]

It's absolute bulls**t.

What killed the club was Covid. The plan was always high risk high reward, but Covid lockdowns destroyed every aspect of a multi-stream business.

Were we not losing in the region of £10 million a year some time before the pandemic?

[Vespula Vulgaris]

It's absolute bulls**t.

What killed the club was Covid. The plan was always high risk high reward, but Covid lockdowns destroyed every aspect of a multi-stream business.

Were we not losing in the region of £10 million a year some time before the pandemic?

Yes, but a business losing money doesn't mean it doesn't have a good plan for the future.  Amazon lost money for years, and I don't see anyone telling Jeff Bezos he's incompetent and didn't have a clue.

[Andywasp50]

It's absolute bulls**t.

What killed the club was Covid. The plan was always high risk high reward, but Covid lockdowns destroyed every aspect of a multi-stream business.

Were we not losing in the region of £10 million a year some time before the pandemic?

Yes, but a business losing money doesn't mean it doesn't have a good plan for the future.  Amazon lost money for years, and I don't see anyone telling Jeff Bezos he's incompetent and didn't have a clue.

Or HMRC issuing him an unpaid tax invoice...

[The Falcon]

Yes, but a business losing money doesn't mean it doesn't have a good plan for the future.  Amazon lost money for years, and I don't see anyone telling Jeff Bezos he's incompetent and didn't have a clue.

We had a known deadline for repaying the £35 million bond issue on top of significant annual losses. I'm sure the original plan was to get bumper crowds every week, bring in lots of events and so on. But once the crowds started to fall away and the events weren't as frequent or lucrative, did we have a plan B? Derek very generously underwrote the losses for years, but beyond relying on that generosity I don't see what plan we had for turning things around.

[InBetweenWasp]

Yes, but a business losing money doesn't mean it doesn't have a good plan for the future.  Amazon lost money for years, and I don't see anyone telling Jeff Bezos he's incompetent and didn't have a clue.

We had a known deadline for repaying the £35 million bond issue on top of significant annual losses. I'm sure the original plan was to get bumper crowds every week, bring in lots of events and so on. But once the crowds started to fall away and the events weren't as frequent or lucrative, did we have a plan B? Derek very generously underwrote the losses for years, but beyond relying on that generosity I don't see what plan we had for turning things around.

I don't know for sure, but I doubt the plan relied on bumper crowds - I suspect it was more around better utilisation of the Stadium and Conferencing facilities in terms of days used.    Bumper crowds would have been a bonus, rather than a need.

[The Falcon]

I don't know for sure, but I doubt the plan relied on bumper crowds - I suspect it was more around better utilisation of the Stadium and Conferencing facilities in terms of days used.    Bumper crowds would have been a bonus, rather than a need.

Supposing you're right, was there a plan B for when it became apparent plan A wasn't working? I'm unsure.

[Rifleman Harris]

Yes, but a business losing money doesn't mean it doesn't have a good plan for the future.  Amazon lost money for years, and I don't see anyone telling Jeff Bezos he's incompetent and didn't have a clue.

We had a known deadline for repaying the £35 million bond issue on top of significant annual losses. I'm sure the original plan was to get bumper crowds every week, bring in lots of events and so on. But once the crowds started to fall away and the events weren't as frequent or lucrative, did we have a plan B? Derek very generously underwrote the losses for years, but beyond relying on that generosity I don't see what plan we had for turning things around.

I would have said that the Plan A didn't account for the sudden and total cessation of all income streams due to a global pandemic.  I am not sure many businesses as complex could pivot quickly enough. That said, taking on such a huge debt was very high risk.

[The Falcon]

I would have said that the Plan A didn't account for the sudden and total cessation of all income streams due to a global pandemic.  I am not sure many businesses as complex could pivot quickly enough. That said, taking on such a huge debt was very high risk.

We had been losing huge sums each year (except for the one off CVC payment) up to the pandemic. Plan A was just not working. I may be in the minority here but I'm a lot more upset by the actions of those we put our trust in to manage the business. Where is Nick Eastwood now?

[Neils]

I would have said that the Plan A didn't account for the sudden and total cessation of all income streams due to a global pandemic.  I am not sure many businesses as complex could pivot quickly enough. That said, taking on such a huge debt was very high risk.

We had been losing huge sums each year (except for the one off CVC payment) up to the pandemic. Plan A was just not working. I may be in the minority here but I'm a lot more upset by the actions of those we put our trust in to manage the business. Where is Nick Eastwood now?

Sacked last Wednesday

[Vespula Vulgaris]

Yes, but a business losing money doesn't mean it doesn't have a good plan for the future.  Amazon lost money for years, and I don't see anyone telling Jeff Bezos he's incompetent and didn't have a clue.

We had a known deadline for repaying the £35 million bond issue on top of significant annual losses. I'm sure the original plan was to get bumper crowds every week, bring in lots of events and so on. But once the crowds started to fall away and the events weren't as frequent or lucrative, did we have a plan B? Derek very generously underwrote the losses for years, but beyond relying on that generosity I don't see what plan we had for turning things around.

When was the bond issued, and when was the original repayment date?

[Shugs]

When you say “we” Falcon, you clearly mean CCFC. Your owners have been quiet. Maybe working on their own plan B.

[The Falcon]

When was the bond issued, and when was the original repayment date?

The date for repayment was always in 2022 wasn't it? Happy to be corrected. The interest payments alone were also £2 million a year. We were borrowing from Peter to pay Paul and would have need to make profit of £4-5 million a year to have been able to pay it back on schedule. Instead we were substantially in the red for most of the time and whatever plan we had for the business to get stronger, it didn't work.