rbr 1,266 Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Press Release From Brian Kennedy -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hello Firstly can I introduce myself as Dave Swanton the Head of Media,PR and Supporter Liaison at Sale Sharks. I have been in post under Brian Kennedy since July 2000. There have been one or two mischievous posts flying about labelling Brian Kennedy as an asset stripper, so I would like to discredit such with some clear documented facts That will clarify Brianâ??s history in his dealings with Stockport County. When I joined Brian from Warrington Rugby League Club, Sale Sharks were losing £4m a season and were effectively bust. They had a fan base of 1200 people and the club had never won a major honour in a history dating back to 1861. Within two years the club finished runners up in the Premiership and won the European Challenge Cup. To help achieve this Brian invested his own money into the club and signed Jason Robinson and former Scotland Captain Bryan Redpath. The tiny ground at Heywood Road only had a capacity of 5500 and soon the house full signs were being posted every game and Heywood Road was clearly not big enough as a venue for the Sharks to reach their goals and become a successful, standalone club that needed regular cash injections from Brian. In 2003 an opportunity arose where current Stockport County owner Brendan Ellwood wanted out after running County for 15 years. County had like many clubs been floored by the collapse of ITV Digital and had been relegated with players on Championship wages playing in front of crowds no more than 4500. Brian bought the stadium from Stockport County at fair value, and the proceeds were used by the club to repay the debt to the previous owner and finance running costs, leaving County debt free. Sale moved into Edgeley Park to ground share. Within three months of moving to Edgeley Park, Sale Sharks had their first full house of 10,500 with the visit of Cardiff in the Heineken Cup and Sammy McIlroy stabilised the football team and the club finished half way in league. During the close season Sale Sharks brought in a new Director of Rugby, Philippe Saint Andre, who is now the current French Coach and invested in the team signing amongst other Sebastien Chabal, Trevor Woodman and Scottish International Jason White. The football team was also boosted by the signings of several players and boasted the second biggest playing budget in the division behind Bristol City as Brian Kennedy wanted both clubs to succeed. The rugby team had a great success but sadly joint ownership of two clubs in the same stadium side by side was not working and Brian approached the Stockport County Supporters Trust to take over running the club. A Deal was struck and not only did Brian hand the club over debt free on July 8th 2005.The Trust also had an option to buy the Stadium back at the same cost Mr Kennedy had purchased it. http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereven..._beverley.html Mr Kennedy has had no ownership of Stockport County since this date. He did however remain as their biggest sponsors donating £750,000 from the Conference and Banqueting part of the operation in a six year deal. http://www.clubsincrisis.com/stockport_county.html Sale Sharks won the Championship in 2006 and in 2008 Stockport County under the Trust Ownership won promotion to League One in a Play Off Final at Wembley. Sadly the following year things went wrong at County and they were put into Administration by a creditor and were relegated. Brian Kennedy had invested almost £4million (in addition to the amount invested to buy the stadium)when the club went under but never pressed for payment and indeed it was Brianâ??s vote at the Creditorâ??s Meeting that allowed County to carry on trading. http://www.football.co.uk/stockport_...ss124796.shtml Also it must be noted that in the last game of the season against Crewe Alexandra Brian paid the police bill to allow the game to go ahead. A new group of investors took over the running of the football club but relegation occurred again, with County losing their league status. To assist with the transition Brian gave the football club a £75,000 gift to help them through the first few months of 2012 after the club had been beaten in the FA Cup and FA Trophy. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17098268 The future would appear that Sale Sharks will be moving to share with Salford City Reds Rugby League Club at a purpose built rugby stadium in Barton and Edgeley Park will revert back to being solely a football ground. Stockport County will pay below market rent but will have all the opportunities to raise money through sponsorship at the ground and retain all income from the Conference and Banqueting Facility seven days a week and Brianâ??s representatives are also scheduled to discuss sponsorship opportunities with the club. This will completely alleviate the Countyâ??s fans biggest gripe, that they cannot retain all income from Stadium revenue. They will now retain 100% of such for the benefit of Stockport County. In all Brian Kennedy bought Stockport County when they were bust and despite vicious criticism from a vocal minority, has been a constant benefactor to them for nine years.He is the biggest sole investor the football club has ever had. He has invested many millions in sport in the North West of England, which has been his home for over 20 years and with Newcastle Falcons looking like being relegated Sale Sharks will be the sole Premiership Rugby Union Club in the North of England and more importantly are fast approaching a break even position. I trust this brings clarity to some of the mischievous postings and rest assured Sale Sharks has one of the most transparent Media Operations in sport and where confidentiality allows, have absolute clarity with its fans. You may also be interested in Brianâ??s own website http://www.brian-kennedy.co.uk where you can read for yourself all about him, his businesses, his interests and his Charity Work. May I take this opportunity to wish the great club of Glasgow Rangers rapid exit from administration and another 140 years and more of outstanding class on and off the park. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankie 8,665 Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Very interesting that the guy now seems to be pro-active in terms of releasing info directly to the supporters . The information itself is also welcome but clearly without knowing what his plans are for Rangers, it's difficult to see how relevant the words are. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GovanAllan 0 Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 What's this a future owner giving us good info about his past sport dealings, this will never do. I'm really starting to like this guy I hope he manages to get the deal done. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
caseyjones 0 Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Not really anything to do with Rangers per se, however, it does show that the emphasis he places upon 'sport for the community', didn't get in the way of him first ditching the community in Sale in favour of a better stadium in Stockport, and now moving the team away again, this time to a new purpose-built stadium in Salford. Hollow words. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GovanAllan 0 Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Not really anything to do with Rangers per se, however, it does show that the emphasis he places upon 'sport for the community', didn't get in the way of him first ditching the community in Sale in favour of a better stadium in Stockport, and now moving the team away again, this time to a new purpose-built stadium in Salford. Hollow words. I let your there a better side go in the other thread, but this post is just crap. If he's moving away from the fan base why does the attendance go up everytime he does. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny 0 Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 I let your there a better side go in the other thread, but this post is just crap. If he's moving away from the fan base why does the attendance go up everytime he does. I am not overly agreeable with Mr Jones either, Allan. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
caseyjones 0 Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 I let your there a better side go in the other thread, but this post is just crap. If he's moving away from the fan base why does the attendance go up everytime he does. Wow, thanks for that. The attendance went up as Stockport has a far greater population to Sale, plus they were getting success too. You'll need to explain to me what attendance has to do with the local community. How many folk from Wimbledon travel to Milton Keynes to watch the Dons? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forlanssister 3,114 Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 A statement from his personal spin doctor that tells us absolutely nothing about his plans for RFC if he becomes new owner. I'd like to know if he intends to exit administration via liquidation or a CVA, and if he intends to run us in the same business model as he runs Sale Sharks i.e. the "Sugar Daddy" method. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GovanAllan 0 Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Wimbledon to MK Dons its not even in the same ball park as a comparison a different sport for one thing and football and rugby fans are a totally different breed. So what your saying is that everytime Sale have moved they have taken none of the original support with them, well that's some trick to pull off move ground leave all the old support behind and in 3 months sell out the new ground with a whole new support. If Kennedy can pull off those kinds of tricks not once but twice then I say he's just the man we need. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darthter 542 Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Reading between the lines slightly..... What I think this statement makes clear is that he is not afraid to use his own money for the benefit of the club. In the case of Stockport, he either gave them cash from his pocket, or donated a substantial amount earn from the ground. He also appears to have invested heavily in Sale Sharks. As for moving stadiums....I read that this is commonplace in the US, where clubs will move cities/state in order to increase their revenue. While this leaves a large support behind, it also brings in large number of extra fans from a fresh community. In the case of RFC, I don't think any move would be needed due to the MASSIVE fan base already. I still think it all sounds positive about Kennedy, even without knowing his exact plans. At least compared to the BK's, he has funding!!! 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.