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Post by gasattack on Aug 27, 2014 17:56:11 GMT
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the future of the club is on a knife edge. Completing the sale of the Mem to Sainsbury’s is crucial to us having a club to support in the years to come. But we can do something positive to help – so please I urge you to read on. I read the paper yesterday with dismay like everyone else. But I then went further and read the writ – and a few things became more clear (have a read of it – it’s written in plain English and is very easy to follow and tells quite a story). The first is that by no means is everything lost. We have a binding contract being held up by one planning condition, which has a decent chance of being overturned. If this happens then it is hard to see how anyone – even one of the biggest corporates in the land – wouldn’t be forced to pay up at the pre-agreed price. The second thing is that the club have done everything they can and seem to have done things pretty well confronted with a very difficult situation. They have even got Sainsbury’s to blink first, forcing them to submit an appeal on the planning condition that they didn’t want to. I will leave aside what Higgs has said publicly – and I know many feel “betrayed” that he has not been open about the behind the scenes battles. But just maybe he has had advice that any public comment can only harm our cause. But most of all, and what I really want to say is, the bad guys in this are Sainsbury’s. Their tactics appear to have been to delay, muddy the waters, attempt to breach contractual obligations and so on – all presumably on the basis that they have way more muscle than a small cash strapped community business (which is what Rovers is). They made a commitment a few years ago, and on the basis of that commitment a huge amount of time, effort and expense has been put in to the UWE project by the football club and – think about this – many readers of this forum like you and me and hundreds, even thousands of people. Now they want to renege on that commitment on the basis of technicalities. And they are happy to force the small community business to run up yet more massive costs. This should make you very angry. It makes me very angry. So, what can we do? Well, there are a lot of us. Tens of thousands of people have Rovers close to their hearts. We can make a lot of noise about it. Big corporations don’t like reputational damage. They don’t like lost revenue. Imagine for a moment what a coordinated, sustained protest from every Rovers fan could look like? Boycott their stores, mount a very loud social media campaign, picket their stores, get our MPs to speak out again, and so on. You think it would make no difference? I don’t know…. I think just maybe it might. Sainsbury’s have to constantly weigh up whether to continue this battle too, as they incur their own costs, the risk of having to meet our costs too (as per the writ) and a storm of bad publicity is one more thing that could help tip the balance. So now is the time to unite like never before. BRISA is an ideal vehicle to mobilise us, as is the supporters club. We can all do our bit. This is so important. Don’t let angst at our board distract us from who we should really be angry with and don’t let it divide us to the point where we stand by and do nothing to help at the most critical time in our history. Up the Gas. Absolutely spot on. Best post I've read in ages!
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LPGas
Stuart Taylor
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 1,240
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Post by LPGas on Aug 27, 2014 18:13:24 GMT
Well if you block their distribution centres they will call the police. These are better ideas. (1). Lets get a huge queue in their garages. Each time we go round we buy £1 of petrol. (2). Fill their car parks. Go in fill up a basket, wait until it has gone through, then say that you have forgotten your wallet. If we had just one person on every till it would cripple them for an hour. You also need a queue of people at the customer service desk asking inane questions. (I am Very good at that).
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Peter Parker
Global Moderator
Richard Walker
You have been sentenced to DELETION!
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 4,920
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Post by Peter Parker on Aug 27, 2014 18:21:29 GMT
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the future of the club is on a knife edge. Completing the sale of the Mem to Sainsbury’s is crucial to us having a club to support in the years to come. But we can do something positive to help – so please I urge you to read on. I read the paper yesterday with dismay like everyone else. But I then went further and read the writ – and a few things became more clear (have a read of it – it’s written in plain English and is very easy to follow and tells quite a story). The first is that by no means is everything lost. We have a binding contract being held up by one planning condition, which has a decent chance of being overturned. If this happens then it is hard to see how anyone – even one of the biggest corporates in the land – wouldn’t be forced to pay up at the pre-agreed price. The second thing is that the club have done everything they can and seem to have done things pretty well confronted with a very difficult situation. They have even got Sainsbury’s to blink first, forcing them to submit an appeal on the planning condition that they didn’t want to. I will leave aside what Higgs has said publicly – and I know many feel “betrayed” that he has not been open about the behind the scenes battles. But just maybe he has had advice that any public comment can only harm our cause. But most of all, and what I really want to say is, the bad guys in this are Sainsbury’s. Their tactics appear to have been to delay, muddy the waters, attempt to breach contractual obligations and so on – all presumably on the basis that they have way more muscle than a small cash strapped community business (which is what Rovers is). They made a commitment a few years ago, and on the basis of that commitment a huge amount of time, effort and expense has been put in to the UWE project by the football club and – think about this – many readers of this forum like you and me and hundreds, even thousands of people. Now they want to renege on that commitment on the basis of technicalities. And they are happy to force the small community business to run up yet more massive costs. This should make you very angry. It makes me very angry. So, what can we do? Well, there are a lot of us. Tens of thousands of people have Rovers close to their hearts. We can make a lot of noise about it. Big corporations don’t like reputational damage. They don’t like lost revenue. Imagine for a moment what a coordinated, sustained protest from every Rovers fan could look like? Boycott their stores, mount a very loud social media campaign, picket their stores, get our MPs to speak out again, and so on. You think it would make no difference? I don’t know…. I think just maybe it might. Sainsbury’s have to constantly weigh up whether to continue this battle too, as they incur their own costs, the risk of having to meet our costs too (as per the writ) and a storm of bad publicity is one more thing that could help tip the balance. So now is the time to unite like never before. BRISA is an ideal vehicle to mobilise us, as is the supporters club. We can all do our bit. This is so important. Don’t let angst at our board distract us from who we should really be angry with and don’t let it divide us to the point where we stand by and do nothing to help at the most critical time in our history.Up the Gas. Brilliant post. Great idea. Can we have the approval of the Fat Controller for this to progress? This is a far more worthy idea for this moment in time than a President Dunford. Come on Kev, what do you say? Depending on what the contract says, it might well be we should be angry with the board and its legal belp for putting in a silly condition. Not sure petitions or anything will make much difference on this PP has been granted with the current spec and delivery times. any extension is surely going to be judged on its merits and i cant see how it would be acceptable to anyone ignoring the obvious reasons we do
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Post by Nurse Ratched on Aug 27, 2014 18:26:39 GMT
Well if you block their distribution centres they will call the police. These are better ideas. (1). Lets get a huge queue in their garages. Each time we go round we buy £1 of petrol. (2). Fill their car parks. Go in fill up a basket, wait until it has gone through, then say that you have forgotten your wallet. If we had just one person on every till it would cripple them for an hour. You also need a queue of people at the customer service desk asking inane questions. (I am Very good at that). Could co-ordinate this on away days as well by finding the local Sainsbury's and get the message across nationwide.
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Post by Topper Gas on Aug 27, 2014 18:28:47 GMT
Not sure a petition etc will force a company like Sainsbury's to just cave in and hand over a cheque for £30m? Haven't they already caused bad feeling in Wadebridge(?) by stopping work on a store in their town. As PP says above Rovers have b@lls up by allowing the delivey clause to be included in the first place, Sainsbury's will now just claim the store is not viable with the restricted delivery times.
It seems Charlotte Leslie has gone awfully quite recently, has she already conceded defeat?
Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
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Post by Nurse Ratched on Aug 27, 2014 18:31:24 GMT
Brilliant post. Great idea. Can we have the approval of the Fat Controller for this to progress? This is a far more worthy idea for this moment in time than a President Dunford. Come on Kev, what do you say? Depending on what the contract says, it might well be we should be angry with the board and its legal belp for putting in a silly condition. Not sure petitions or anything will make much difference on this PP has been granted with the current spec and delivery times. any extension is surely going to be judged on its merits and i cant see how it would be acceptable to anyone ignoring the obvious reasons we do I do wonder why some people on here appear almost desperate for the Stadium redevelopment to fail. Having a gripe against the Chairman over the playing side is one thing, but to argue for the negative to the detriment to the survival of Bristol Rovers is another. It seems to me that Nick Higgs is genuinely fighting our corner hard and in this instance surely some of you should recognise he deserves all the support he can muster.
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Peter Parker
Global Moderator
Richard Walker
You have been sentenced to DELETION!
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 4,920
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Post by Peter Parker on Aug 27, 2014 18:38:45 GMT
Depending on what the contract says, it might well be we should be angry with the board and its legal belp for putting in a silly condition. Not sure petitions or anything will make much difference on this PP has been granted with the current spec and delivery times. any extension is surely going to be judged on its merits and i cant see how it would be acceptable to anyone ignoring the obvious reasons we do I do wonder why some people on here appear almost desperate for the Stadium redevelopment to fail. Having a gripe against the Chairman over the playing side is one thing, but to argue for the negative to the detriment to the survival of Bristol Rovers is another. It seems to me that Nick Higgs is genuinely fighting our corner hard and in this instance surely some of you should recognise he deserves all the support he can muster. Where do i want it to fail? It is just my opinion that the extension to deliver hours seems unreasonable and i dont see how objectively anyone could say otherwise. If the current hours arent good enough for the contract we have agreed i dont see there is much that can be done
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dagnogo
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 872
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Post by dagnogo on Aug 27, 2014 19:34:44 GMT
I do wonder why some see any hint of disagreement with their views as"wanting the stadium to fail".
It's downright insulting to suggest that supporters want to see the club die. Like it or not, the project is in jeopardy and at the very least supporters have been misled as to its' progress.
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Rex
Predictions League
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 3,287
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Post by Rex on Aug 27, 2014 20:19:53 GMT
I think it would also be an excellent idea to enlist the assistance (again) of the local MP, Charlotte Leslie. She has provided sterling support to the club over the past few months, even raising the matter in the House of Commons. I'm quite certain that she would be more than interested in becoming involved again. She did indeed help before, my question at the time (which nobody liked) was - is she doing it for Bristol and Bristol Rovers or for Sainsburys? At the time, she could take the side of both gaining publicity for herself and knocking her political opponents (the Green Party) at the same time. Her next move will be interesting. She will (in my opinion) do what her political career needs, she's on the way up the Political ladder and with a demand for female ministers in the current climate she's getting herself in pole position - she'll do as Cameron says! This is politics my friend and even worse an Election is round the corner. (Cough, cough, Lord Sainsbury Conservative Party Peer Cough cough) The Sainsbury's make large donations to both the Conservatives and Labour Party when neccessary, they don't do it out of generosity, it buys them favour. All my opinions of course. I think Lord Sainsbury is actually a Labour peer. Not that it makes much difference, different sides of the same coin.
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Post by Eclectic Blue on Aug 27, 2014 20:42:29 GMT
One thing is for sure at Bristol Rovers: if you want something done, then do it yourself!
If SW18 Gas can get in touch with all those who support his (her?) proposal, then something may come of all this.
Obviously, BRISA is in a very embryonic state (and I'm personally not convinced this particular cause is why it was set up anyway, but that's another story) and wouldn't have the infrastructures in place, but perhaps you could contact Jim Chappell at BRSC, who certainly have. And of course through BRSC you have access to the top of the shop via Messrs Masters and Seymour Smith who may be able to offer you guidance and practical support.
PS If you do arrange what is effectively picketing and minor public disorder, it may well be worth getting a friendly solicitor on board, just in case.
Good luck guys.
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2014 20:45:50 GMT
With traditional NuLabour credentials: Eton, £1.5 billion personal fortune, lives in a Manor, funnily ... In 2011, Lord Sainsbury was formally proposed by Cambridge University to succeed the Duke of Edinburgh as Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. However, his nomination became the first in 163 years to be contested by another candidate when, on 29 May, local shopkeeper Abdul Arain, standing against Sainsbury in protest at a planning application for a Sainsbury's Local branch in Cambridge's Mill Road district
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Post by fanatical on Aug 27, 2014 21:10:19 GMT
I REPEAT I am sure that you all have the interests of the club at heart - but before wading in with any public demonstrations of any sort against Sainsburys - please run anything you plan to do by the Board of Directors - you may feel they have been less than open about the situation but please bear in mind their actions and statements will have been on the best available legal advice and it may well be that what you have in mind, although with the best of motives, could be more damaging than helpful Read more: gasheads.org/thread/1143/football-club#ixzz3Bd3tMfK5
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2014 22:47:32 GMT
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the future of the club is on a knife edge. Completing the sale of the Mem to Sainsbury’s is crucial to us having a club to support in the years to come. But we can do something positive to help – so please I urge you to read on. I read the paper yesterday with dismay like everyone else. But I then went further and read the writ – and a few things became more clear (have a read of it – it’s written in plain English and is very easy to follow and tells quite a story). The first is that by no means is everything lost. We have a binding contract being held up by one planning condition, which has a decent chance of being overturned. If this happens then it is hard to see how anyone – even one of the biggest corporates in the land – wouldn’t be forced to pay up at the pre-agreed price. The second thing is that the club have done everything they can and seem to have done things pretty well confronted with a very difficult situation. They have even got Sainsbury’s to blink first, forcing them to submit an appeal on the planning condition that they didn’t want to. I will leave aside what Higgs has said publicly – and I know many feel “betrayed” that he has not been open about the behind the scenes battles. But just maybe he has had advice that any public comment can only harm our cause. But most of all, and what I really want to say is, the bad guys in this are Sainsbury’s. Their tactics appear to have been to delay, muddy the waters, attempt to breach contractual obligations and so on – all presumably on the basis that they have way more muscle than a small cash strapped community business (which is what Rovers is). They made a commitment a few years ago, and on the basis of that commitment a huge amount of time, effort and expense has been put in to the UWE project by the football club and – think about this – many readers of this forum like you and me and hundreds, even thousands of people. Now they want to renege on that commitment on the basis of technicalities. And they are happy to force the small community business to run up yet more massive costs. This should make you very angry. It makes me very angry. So, what can we do? Well, there are a lot of us. Tens of thousands of people have Rovers close to their hearts. We can make a lot of noise about it. Big corporations don’t like reputational damage. They don’t like lost revenue. Imagine for a moment what a coordinated, sustained protest from every Rovers fan could look like? Boycott their stores, mount a very loud social media campaign, picket their stores, get our MPs to speak out again, and so on. You think it would make no difference? I don’t know…. I think just maybe it might. Sainsbury’s have to constantly weigh up whether to continue this battle too, as they incur their own costs, the risk of having to meet our costs too (as per the writ) and a storm of bad publicity is one more thing that could help tip the balance. So now is the time to unite like never before. BRISA is an ideal vehicle to mobilise us, as is the supporters club. We can all do our bit. This is so important. Don’t let angst at our board distract us from who we should really be angry with and don’t let it divide us to the point where we stand by and do nothing to help at the most critical time in our history. Up the Gas. big supermarkets get away with near murder in this country with goverments always scared to act against them,,they buy land just to stop rivals getting it and then sit on it for years,they treat there workers with contempt and even totally got away with the horsemeat scandal because the news dropped the story asap,,,they hate bad publicity and you can bet they have discussed the possibility of this at a high level so this is a very realistic thread
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nit3owl64
Respect The Beard!!!
Joined: July 2014
Posts: 382
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Post by nit3owl64 on Aug 27, 2014 22:49:14 GMT
lets use this hastag #sainsburysyousignedthecontracthonourit and see how it goes #UTG
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gassedup
Frankie Prince
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 210
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Post by gassedup on Aug 28, 2014 9:50:58 GMT
BRISA was not set up to deal with campaigns of this nature and in any event I doubt it is one which the Club would be happy about being pursued on their behalf or somewhat in their name.
On a personal note I'm not sure how many have read through the writ completely, fully understood the situation and the clauses within the contract as described? Before pointing fingers I would suggest that people do a little homework to see what was signed in the first place.
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Post by Eclectic Blue on Aug 28, 2014 9:58:13 GMT
One of the problems with forums is that we don't really know who is who but 'fanatical' sounds like s/he may be something to do with BRFC.
The advice sounds good and I'd recommend SW18 Gas contacts Mr Masters or Mr Seymour Smith before arranging protests/picket lines etc.
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Bridgeman
Alfie Biggs
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 3,549
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Post by Bridgeman on Aug 28, 2014 10:22:44 GMT
As a starting point, a banner going the full length of the Blackthorn End on Saturday with “SAINSBURYS, YOU SIGNED THE CONTRACT, HONOUR IT” I like this idea a lot! Especially with the extra BT Sport coverage we are getting this season, this banner should be produced and displayed home and away. Pity we didn't have it for the Forest Green Rovers game, just imagine the impact that could have had running the length of the pitch with BT Sports coverage, when is our next televised game anyone know because that would be the time to display it during the game to make the most impact.
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