09-03-2021, 05:46 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-03-2021, 06:02 PM by exterminator.)
One of the posters on TPF "Clanfield Blue" had a 45 minute Zoom meeting with Mark Catlin this morning after e-mailing him over the weekend :-
You need a login to TPF to see it but here is a Copy & Paste there are 3 pages of it :-
Right here it goes, I will try and make this sound somewhat cohesive and have a flow to it. First thing I wanted to say is enough respect to Mark for coming on and spending 45 minutes with me in the end and for answering my questions even at times when I poked the hornets nest somewhat and JM who listened in and gave some input.
As mentioned above Mark shared some stuff that was commercially sensitive and asked to keep it confidential so I won't these details (I have forgotten them already [img]data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7[/img] ) but will share my thoughts on what he said.
I started out by letting Mark know who I was, I wanted him to know I wasn't against Tornante or him from the outset and actually as a PST member voted yes and was excited about the future and want (and still do) Tornante to prove me right.
I explained why I have now turned to believing that he and Tornante are not fulfilling on promises and I shared what my source told me about lack of investment and the club being a plaything for Eric and it will never get the levels of investment promised.
He categorically denied this and said that he deals more with Redman then anyone else, he proceeded to share numbers about the stadium investment in the last 4 years and what has been spent in the last year and what will need to come. It sounded to me as if Fratton Park is literally swallowing money at a rate of knots and very little is left out of the 10M equity and Eisners soon to pump in more.
I asked about the Milton End and said is this all we get after 4 years? Mark said he understands that it may appear only a paint job, but its still a 4-5M piece of work and that he is frustrated that people compare it to the trust drawings as they never did a proper survey of the land underneath, its contaminated and they cannot touch it. The best architects in the world also have said you cannot get more than 3200 in that end, due to right of light, where is the point in spending big money on it to not increase capacity.
I asked him what is going on with the bigger masterplan and why all we hear is that NR or PCC need to come onboard. I pointed out the Strategic Rail Review released last autumn by NR and PCC has got no works planned for Fratton Station, how can this be considering the conversations. The answer to this was very interesting and does in the one hand make me believe Tornante have been serious about doing something, but on the other have spent 4 years flogging a dead horse and did not do their due diligence.
In a nutshell, Mark said PCC and NR are not helping them at all, the attitude appears to be you're a billionaire, pay for it. Michael has had his Disney head on, US Sports head on (as I predicted) and believes that as he will build the stadium, hotel, conference facilities and bring the jobs then the other parties should sort the land and the infrastructure.
Meanwhile (Mark asked me to keep this confidential) however its widely known and I told him this, so no need to be secret squirrel the club have been buying up property in and around the stadium, but cannot get all the ones they need to progress anything. I asked what was plan B as we could be here in 50 years trying to buy the property we need, when are we going to put a fork in Fratton Park and move on? Marks response was "now"
So it appears Mark will be informing MPs and everyone else the time is to move focus elsewhere.
Mark said he has wanted a move from FP from day one of Tornante ownership as its falling to pieces and the infrastructure surrounding it is "shit"
Michael wants to believe something is possible, but its been 4 years of failure. On this I took away from Mark body language and the way he spoke, he has been advising correctly but Michael has pushed for the Fratton Park redevelopment.
It appeared although he couldn't share with me some "exciting" news is imminent. I have no idea what about.
The academy was the same lines given in the Monthly Q&A and I asked him why did the Academy Manager leave for Brighton, was he made false promises. Mark said no, he trebled his money. Fair enough.
I asked about profits, he said that the last accounts that showed a 3M profit was due to the timing of the Lowe deal, we then reinvested that 3M into Harness, Marquis and Harrison 2.5M, I asked what about the Clarke Money, Mark went off on some EBITDA discussion, but proof what ive said all along about Jackett only getting 40% of the Clarke and Lowe Money, where the rest has gone? I didn't have time to push as time was running out and I wanted to get onto Tornante and Jackett
You need a login to TPF to see it but here is a Copy & Paste there are 3 pages of it :-
Right here it goes, I will try and make this sound somewhat cohesive and have a flow to it. First thing I wanted to say is enough respect to Mark for coming on and spending 45 minutes with me in the end and for answering my questions even at times when I poked the hornets nest somewhat and JM who listened in and gave some input.
As mentioned above Mark shared some stuff that was commercially sensitive and asked to keep it confidential so I won't these details (I have forgotten them already [img]data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7[/img] ) but will share my thoughts on what he said.
I started out by letting Mark know who I was, I wanted him to know I wasn't against Tornante or him from the outset and actually as a PST member voted yes and was excited about the future and want (and still do) Tornante to prove me right.
I explained why I have now turned to believing that he and Tornante are not fulfilling on promises and I shared what my source told me about lack of investment and the club being a plaything for Eric and it will never get the levels of investment promised.
He categorically denied this and said that he deals more with Redman then anyone else, he proceeded to share numbers about the stadium investment in the last 4 years and what has been spent in the last year and what will need to come. It sounded to me as if Fratton Park is literally swallowing money at a rate of knots and very little is left out of the 10M equity and Eisners soon to pump in more.
I asked about the Milton End and said is this all we get after 4 years? Mark said he understands that it may appear only a paint job, but its still a 4-5M piece of work and that he is frustrated that people compare it to the trust drawings as they never did a proper survey of the land underneath, its contaminated and they cannot touch it. The best architects in the world also have said you cannot get more than 3200 in that end, due to right of light, where is the point in spending big money on it to not increase capacity.
I asked him what is going on with the bigger masterplan and why all we hear is that NR or PCC need to come onboard. I pointed out the Strategic Rail Review released last autumn by NR and PCC has got no works planned for Fratton Station, how can this be considering the conversations. The answer to this was very interesting and does in the one hand make me believe Tornante have been serious about doing something, but on the other have spent 4 years flogging a dead horse and did not do their due diligence.
In a nutshell, Mark said PCC and NR are not helping them at all, the attitude appears to be you're a billionaire, pay for it. Michael has had his Disney head on, US Sports head on (as I predicted) and believes that as he will build the stadium, hotel, conference facilities and bring the jobs then the other parties should sort the land and the infrastructure.
Meanwhile (Mark asked me to keep this confidential) however its widely known and I told him this, so no need to be secret squirrel the club have been buying up property in and around the stadium, but cannot get all the ones they need to progress anything. I asked what was plan B as we could be here in 50 years trying to buy the property we need, when are we going to put a fork in Fratton Park and move on? Marks response was "now"
So it appears Mark will be informing MPs and everyone else the time is to move focus elsewhere.
Mark said he has wanted a move from FP from day one of Tornante ownership as its falling to pieces and the infrastructure surrounding it is "shit"
Michael wants to believe something is possible, but its been 4 years of failure. On this I took away from Mark body language and the way he spoke, he has been advising correctly but Michael has pushed for the Fratton Park redevelopment.
It appeared although he couldn't share with me some "exciting" news is imminent. I have no idea what about.
The academy was the same lines given in the Monthly Q&A and I asked him why did the Academy Manager leave for Brighton, was he made false promises. Mark said no, he trebled his money. Fair enough.
I asked about profits, he said that the last accounts that showed a 3M profit was due to the timing of the Lowe deal, we then reinvested that 3M into Harness, Marquis and Harrison 2.5M, I asked what about the Clarke Money, Mark went off on some EBITDA discussion, but proof what ive said all along about Jackett only getting 40% of the Clarke and Lowe Money, where the rest has gone? I didn't have time to push as time was running out and I wanted to get onto Tornante and Jackett