Doncaster and money

“The Club's £15m securitisation loan is an albatross around the Club's neck”

Doncaster writes as if the securitisation loan was spent only on the South Stand. Not so. According to, er, Neil Doncaster, the securitisation ..."paid for the Jarrold Stand, as well as paying off short-term debt and covering our losses for the year)". Is it really a good idea to pay off one year's trading losses over 15 years?

Doncaster says "There is no doubt that the securitisation loan was the only way to pay for the Jarrold Stand." Maybe that's true. But at the time a senior executive at the club thought we were paying for it entirely differently:

"The cost of building The Jarrold Stand and infill will be met through revenues generated by development of other land we own in and around Carrow Road, including residential development on land behind the Norwich and Peterborough Stand and the building of a new four-star hotel in the corner between the Barclay Stand and The Jarrold Stand."

Sounds like a better plan to me. And the name of that Senior Executive who didn't know how we were to pay for the new stand? Neil Doncaster.

So is the debt an albatross round our necks. Well, £1 million capital repaid, another £1.6 million on interest - if not an albatross certainly a millstone.

Posted By: The King of Prussia, Oct 4, 14:21:53