The Friedkin Group reaches agreement to buy Everton

[maccavennie]

I've posted an approximate timeline of statements and stadium cost values, mate.

That confirms those that deny it's costed ">£800 million" aren't looking at official documents like the Premier League Appeal Board decision that confirms it.

When confronted with the inconvenient facts, people like yourself are responding "stop saying this" without anything to back up a counter argument. Because you don't want to acknowledge the reality.

It's relevant to Friedkin as they've had to pay out themselves about £260 million to get this stadium finished.



When people have challenged the costs, the club has come out and actively denied and obfuscated

Whilst to the Premier League Appeal Board they admitted it!

Everton respond to '50 per cent' claim over new stadium costs

Everton board members and senior officials have been responding to questions from the club's Fan Advisory Board

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk

https://resources.premierleague.com/premierleague/document/2024/02/26/b1c920ab-c053-4414-913a-c529efd27d18/Everton-FC-and-Premier-League-appeal-decision-260224.pdf

View attachment 276724

You do repeat it a lot mate, though I'm 100% backing you (not the amount of posts, but what your saying). Me and @Neiler have brought this up many times, several occasions when Chong was saying all payments are sorted, only for more money needed from 777 and then the Friedkin group.

Now, these payments we've needed might actually be what Chong was accounting for (from 777) and now the Friedkin group have had to take over.

I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he's been misinterpreted, but I very much doubt it.

To be clear, I agree with you and I believe he's misled the fanbase on at least 3 occasions saying funding was sorted, only for us to require more borrowing because it wasn't in place at all.

 

[pfim]

I've posted an approximate timeline of statements and stadium cost values, mate.

That confirms those that deny it's costed ">£800 million" aren't looking at official documents like the Premier League Appeal Board decision that confirms it.

When confronted with the inconvenient facts, people like yourself are responding "stop saying this" without anything to back up a counter argument. Because you don't want to acknowledge the reality.

It's relevant to Friedkin as they've had to pay out themselves about £260 million to get this stadium finished.



When people have challenged the costs, the club has come out and actively denied and obfuscated

Whilst to the Premier League Appeal Board they admitted it!

Everton respond to '50 per cent' claim over new stadium costs

Everton board members and senior officials have been responding to questions from the club's Fan Advisory Board

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk

https://resources.premierleague.com/premierleague/document/2024/02/26/b1c920ab-c053-4414-913a-c529efd27d18/Everton-FC-and-Premier-League-appeal-decision-260224.pdf

View attachment 276724

As little as I want to get involved in this, they did admit that at one point Moshiri was right that the entire project was north of 760 million, but the actual cost of construction did not change (money to Laing O'Rourke)

Farhad Moshiri makes new £760m claim about Everton Stadium build

Everton owner Farhad Moshiri appeared on Jim White's talkSPORT show on Thursday morning

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk

Club sources claim that the figure Moshiri quoted is inclusive of every facet of the stadium, from design and planning to construction and even including the potential for further ancillary developments related to the stadium, which began its process after Moshiri took over in 2016, it being seen as vital in order for Everton to compete in the future and not get left behind commercially.

 

[Damo_1878]

You do repeat it a lot mate, though I'm 100% backing you (not the amount of posts, but what your saying). Me and @Neiler have brought this up many times, sewerage occasions when Chong was saying all payments are sound, only for more money needed from 777 and then the Friedkin group.

Now, these payments we've needed might actually be what Chong was accounting for (from 777) and now the Friedkin group have had to take over.

I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he's been misinterpreted, but I very much doubt it.

To be clear, I agree with you and I believe he's misled the fanbase on at least 3 occasions saying funding was sorted, only for us to require more borrowing because it wasn't in place at all.

Exactly mate. I'm merely raising awareness . There are still people trying to shout it down, but I've given the evidence of the club's claims that changed depending who they were talking to the FAB/media or the Premier League. The evidence is there if people look. This stadium has cost a fortune to build and we very almost saw the breakup of the club over it. But for Friedkin Group stepping up.

As little as I want to get involved in this, they did admit that at one point Moshiri was right that the entire project was north of 760 million, but the actual cost of construction did not change (money to Laing O'Rourke)

Farhad Moshiri makes new £760m claim about Everton Stadium build

Everton owner Farhad Moshiri appeared on Jim White's talkSPORT show on Thursday morning

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk

I think I covered it in the last post. My entire point is that it is Friedkin Group arrival and stepping up that has ensured the stadium gets finished (I estimate it's going to have cost £960 million or thereabouts at the end) with Friedkin Group having paid 33% of costs thereof.

I still dispute claims of the club. They claimed "costs of construction" did not change but the completion cost clearly did.

My entire point is, I dread to think where we would be in January 2025 but for Friedkin Group standing up and putting their money in.

At the very least @pfim you can accuse the club of "obfuscation" (in an effort to mislead)...

 

[Lee Smith]

Sure he's on the windup at this point

Search results for query: colin chong

www.grandoldteam.com

19 times

It's actually 24 if you just search "Chong". Damo still at the crease and churning out the posts as he closes in on the half century.

 

[Ruairi77]

Only because Moshiri is being forced to give the club away (at a loss as a "distressed seller") and/or because Friedkin Group are bringing their substantial capital and influence to get it finished.

It's not Moshiri or Chong that "pulled this off". It's Friedkin Group. They're the ones that have stepped up to get it done.

Moshiri has been pulling this off since Usmanov had his assets frozen and his UK business's licenses revoked.

 

[Melchizedek]

TFG are professionals, they'll be using LinkedIn.

Peak Everton to find our next CEO on indeed.com

 

[Ruairi77]

You do repeat it a lot mate, though I'm 100% backing you (not the amount of posts, but what your saying). Me and @Neiler have brought this up many times, several occasions when Chong was saying all payments are sorted, only for more money needed from 777 and then the Friedkin group.

Now, these payments we've needed might actually be what Chong was accounting for (from 777) and now the Friedkin group have had to take over.

I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he's been misinterpreted, but I very much doubt it.

To be clear, I agree with you and I believe he's misled the fanbase on at least 3 occasions saying funding was sorted, only for us to require more borrowing because it wasn't in place at all.

Chongs primary job is/was to give an air of calm and keep everything on track.
It's naive to expect him to come out and tell the public that deals have collapsed or how much money is owing.
What's happened at Everton over the last three years has been unprecedented.
In his public statements, he hasn't been talking to you, he's been talking to the premier league, the government, the banks, creditors, potential investors, LOR etc.
I couldn't give a ratsarse if he miss led the public for the greater good.
He deserves our gratitude and a well earned holiday!

 

[brieverton]

I'm not sure the average joe on the street needs to know all the minutia of how the stadium was financed.
Wealthy owner with extremely wealthy backer starts project.
extremely wealthy backer has assets frozen because of war.
Wealthy owner can no longer finance the project so uses the sale of the club as a vehicle to keep stadium funding going.
Meanwhile there is chaos at board level with the board and CEO resigning and the chairman passing away.
The person managing the stadium build steps in to be temporary CEO.
The stadium seems to be fully financed and on time.
Quite how Moshiri and Chong pulled this off is beyond me. By rights it should have been dead the minute russian tanks tried to roll into Kiev.

Moshiri is probably the worst owner in terms of what happened on the pitch but did incredible work keeping the stadium on track.

I would agree with this. Under exceptional circumstances it is quite amazing the stadium has been finished.
He did commit to that and delivered it.

The telling thing was that commercial funding should have been readily available, albeit in an inflationary environment with high interest rates.

The fact that it was not, despite Moshiri engaging both JP Morgan and MUFG to source a lender, is one of the most damning verdicts of him and what the markets thought of the executive management of the club. It was an outright and appropriate vote of no confidence.

 

[pfim]

Exactly mate. I'm merely raising awareness . There are still people trying to shout it down, but I've given the evidence of the club's claims that changed depending who they were talking to the FAB/media or the Premier League. The evidence is there if people look. This stadium has cost a fortune to build and we very almost saw the breakup of the club over it. But for Friedkin Group stepping up.



I think I covered it in the last post. My entire point is that it is Friedkin Group arrival and stepping up that has ensured the stadium gets finished (I estimate it's going to have cost £960 million or thereabouts at the end) with Friedkin Group having paid 33% of costs thereof.

I still dispute claims of the club. They claimed "costs of construction" did not change but the completion cost clearly did.

My entire point is, I dread to think where we would be in January 2025 but for Friedkin Group standing up and putting their money in.

At the very least @pfim you can accuse the club of "obfuscation" (in an effort to mislead)...

I have been involved in the construction of an industrial building. Only for the purposes of this discussion, there are three stages:

Land acquisition and zoning
Construction (including site work etc)
Fitting

In addition, there are financing costs along the way, there are operational expenses (Chong wasn't working for free etc) and those are all part of the overall cost.

The only part that Laing O'Rourke was involved with, obviously, was the construction phase. A fixed price contract was in place, meaning materials were either bought at a fixed price or futures contracts were in place to guarantee cost. Even in a fixed price contract, change orders can alter that, but if the scope of the work does not change then the price does not change. I think the club has been very specific in that this cost did not change, meaning LOR did its job and the club did not ask for anything outside the scope from them. That's a much bigger deal than I think most realize, it means that the contract was detailed and inclusive, and there were no cost overruns in construction.

The fitting part seems to be where the confusion lies. It's not as if LOR is handing them a finished stadium as we would know it.

On our project the land acquisition and zoning was about 20% of the cost of the construction contract. The fittings were about 50%...Obviously this isn't analogous to a stadium, but land acquisition given it's location and the zoning was obviously a very large expense for the club and the costs on the other side to make it usable are very high.

In terms of comments on financing and such, it's obvious to me that Chong has very control over that. Frankly, since he has arrived, I think there has been a level of competence and organization that we did not have before, and in very challenging circumstances. Your comments about him, to me, are misdirected.

 

[Damo_1878]

I have been involved in the construction of an industrial building. Only for the purposes of this discussion, there are three stages:

Land acquisition and zoning
Construction (including site work etc)
Fitting

In addition, there are financing costs along the way, there are operational expenses (Chong wasn't working for free etc) and those are all part of the overall cost.

The only part that Laing O'Rourke was involved with, obviously, was the construction phase. A fixed price contract was in place, meaning materials were either bought at a fixed price or futures contracts were in place to guarantee cost. Even in a fixed price contract, change orders can alter that, but if the scope of the work does not change then the price does not change. I think the club has been very specific in that this cost did not change, meaning LOR did its job and the club did not ask for anything outside the scope from them. That's a much bigger deal than I think most realize, it means that the contract was detailed and inclusive, and there were no cost overruns in construction.

The fitting part seems to be where the confusion lies. It's not as if LOR is handing them a finished stadium as we would know it.

On our project the land acquisition and zoning was about 20% of the cost of the construction contract. The fittings were about 50%...Obviously this isn't analogous to a stadium, but land acquisition given it's location and the zoning was obviously a very large expense for the club and the costs on the other side to make it usable are very high.

In terms of comments on financing and such, it's obvious to me that Chong has very control over that. Frankly, since he has arrived, I think there has been a level of competence and organization that we did not have before, and in very challenging circumstances. Your comments about him, to me, are misdirected.

I don't agree in the presentation that was made of the financing or costs.

The club were earlier criticised in their unorthodox approach to financing, by starting build and arranging finance later rather than arranging finance and then building. Therefore pre-exposing themselves to risk (that actually came about following the Ukraine invasion)

I think this led to some of the mis-presentation. Also because the club hates any form of criticism

Friedkin Group have had to enable the finalisation of the stadium, at cost.

It's presented that Moshiri and Chong have done a wonderful job (like Barrett-Baxendale before). I don't agree.

I would agree with this. Under exceptional circumstances it is quite amazing the stadium has been finished.
He did commit to that and delivered it.

The telling thing was that commercial funding should have been readily available, albeit in an inflationary environment with high interest rates.

The fact that it was not, despite Moshiri engaging both JP Morgan and MUFG to source a lender, is one of the most damning verdicts of him and what the markets thought of the executive management of the club. It was an outright and appropriate vote of no confidence.

I agree with this post paragraphs 2 and 3. Not 1, in totality.

 

[Ruairi77]

It's presented that Moshiri and Chong have done a wonderful job (like Barrett-Baxendale before). I don't agree.

Who said all three had done a good job?
go ahead with a cool multi quote...

I think Chong has done a great job.
I think Moshiri has done a good job considering circumstances off the pitch but a terrible job on it.
I thought Baxondale was out of her depth.

 

[Buckers]

It's actually 24 if you just search "Chong". Damo still at the crease and churning out the posts as he closes in on the half century.

Love a cricket metaphor.

 

[mccole]

TFG are professionals, they'll be using LinkedIn.

Beats Kenwright using the Loot and hooking up with some bedsit investor

 

[blue61]

Love a cricket metaphor.

How's that?

 

[Tipp blue]

I’m his biggest critic on here, but Moshiri has played a blinder here if true, that’s a stunning deal.

I always said he was a cracking accountant.