And there was me thinking that they were saying that the directors had paid for the stadium rather than getting loans

.

Probably a nice little tax adjustment for somebody somewhere.

The more I think about it, the more I can see that rich Saints fans have paid for us to buy a brand new stadium, fit it out and wipe our Bank debts, whilst Wigan probably have bank debt and certainly rent a stadium from a football team after selling their famous old stadium to Tesco against their fans' will.

Rogues thats poor trolling even for you





now go and have another nice cup of tea , and relax , and let us watch our shiny new stadium in the evening sunshine.

Why do you care? How does it affect you? As far as I can see it doesn't and you're just very, very jealous. Mike Coleman is a Saints fan with very deep pockets and we are very lucky to have a fan like that. You're just jealous because it didn't turn out that way for the pies. You could always try being pleased that someone is prepared to put a large sum of money into your favourite sport...

Quite a few of the wigan fans have been honest enough to admit to being envious of a purpose built RL stadium, whilst the more bitter (i.e. Rogues) continue to try to pick holes in it and pretend that they love renting a soccer stadium.

It doesn't bother me at all. I was asking a sensible question and certainly one I would have asked at Wigan.



Do you believe that Coleman has given Saints that money? I don't know his personal finances but wouldn't imagine he got rich by giving his money away.

Do you think that investing in a RL stadium/ team is a good investment? If he is a billionaire then I suppose it's not a problem.



If I was investing that sort of money I would expect some return.

Every club would like to be in our position, but for now it's just us and wire. I'd love Wigan to have their own purpose built stadium, but for now that's a pipe dream.

Have I missed out any other clubs that wholly own their new stadia?

Clearly not, but he's a Saints supporter so probably views it more as charity than investment. Of course a RL club is not a good investment, that goes without saying, which is why it's great that we have fans funding the new stadium rather than a Bank.



You're not a Saints fan. Maybe the likes of McManus and Coleman measure their return not in terms of pounds and pence, but in terms of legacy and enjoyment?



Obviously they didn't get rich through giving money away, but nor did the "Secret Millionaires" get rich by giving away money to good causes. Not everything in life is a business decision.

Look at it from his point of view though. If you have £100 million would you not throw £6 mil at the club you've always supported?

£6 million to him is like £600 to most of us

Ok no finance expert but this is the way I see it.



The club took loans from shareholders to cover debt and stadium finance. These would be repayable at an agreed interest rate.



With the stadium realsied this debt is now being converted.



here is the key. Most of this debt was probably to a small group of shareholders with a large percentage of the shares.



So they have been able to pass probably with some board meeting the conversion of this debt or a portion of it into more shares.



As a club it means the finances of the club dont have to pay off the loans. The loans are now shares that are repayable only on sale of shares. For which the club has no responsibility to buy. Shares can go up or down in value so the shares may make a profit or a loss.



Shares also produce an income from profit. However Saints never turns a profit. But with the new stadium there is every possibility that for a change a profit maybe made and so shareholders get paid a dividend.



With loans being converted to shares this means that current shareholders now have a smaller percentage of the club. Most will not be concerned as they never had a dividend before and just bought shares to help the club.



ie 100 shareholders get more of the profit than 200 share holders. As the profit is split more ways.

So in answer to rouges the only impact will be felt by current shareholders as the profit will be split more ways. But they wont feel that effect with the club having not turned a profit for years.

That was the point I made, if he is that rich then it isn't a problem to him. The more people we can get to invest in the game the better, but the terms need to be right.



One of the problems that occurred at Wigan was that at least one of the directors decided to "call in" his loan.

Depends on the terms of the loan. I very much doubt that Mac, with his undoubted business acumen, would agree to a clause to allow the loans to be 'called in' to the financial detriment of the club.



It's certainly favourable to being indebted to a faceless plc.



It's wholly good news, we've a lot to be extremely happy with as Saints fans - how many other clubs could go through such a significant transition in terms of playing staff (losing iconic players like Long, Martyn, Scully, Joynt, Newlove, Cunningham et al), securing our very own state of the art stadium and remaining a top force throughout it all.



Sir Eammon McManus, we salute you.