My Take On Mr Brent & His Plans

Every single person I have spoken to, both Argyle supporting and non-Argyle supporting, is 100% against brent's HHP development proposals. All agree Central Park is completely the wrong place, especially for shops and cinemas. All Argyle fans I have spoken to, none of whom post on any website, are 100% against the alleged 'grand' stand in its current proposed form. Despite what the supreme superfan says I believe the silent majority are overwhelmingly against brent. I'm actually quietly confident none of brents shit will ever be built and the banker will be sent packing back up the A38 empty handed.

BRENT OUT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The farms "new" owner is going to be up against it to stop the sheep stampeding (do sheep stampede?)

James the builder will not be happy with the fat controller.

It'll just be him, PL2 and X-isle left on there in a few weeks time.

I would've replied to Sensible but Jabba's got there first.

It really is quite simple to me. The plans as they currently stand do not really benefit the club very much at all, unless the smell of fresh paint turns you on as it does X-Isle. You can build an asthetically pleasing clap clinic but inside it's still somewhere to treat herpes and syphillis.

How a supposedly intelligent man is prepared to accept something substandard on the basis that it is new really is beyond me

Then there's the issue of the retail units inside the below capacity stand. Nearly everyone was under the impression that these units would contain a means of income that would be going to the club, but they're not. They will contain a small club shop and that's the end of any financial gain to Argyle. In fact the units being fast food outlets will absolutely kill any profits the club might have been able to make from refreshments inside the ground.

I'm certain that a large number of fans thought that there was going to be some kind of supporters bar included which would've meant a large number of fans would have been able to get to the ground early and mingle whilst having a couple of beers instead of there being thousands of fans spread out over dozens of pubs around Plymouth pre-match, and I'm just as certain that there would've been a vast amount of fans assuming that the fanfests would be catered for and possibly in a much bigger setting that they currently are which often sells out.

The GT's, for all the suspicion they're sometimes treated with on here due to their affiliation with Newell, have earned fantastic amounts of money over the last year or so to help speed up the staff repayments for Brent, and how are they rewarded in the development plans? By being told there is no bar area for them but they could buy a building to hold the fanfests somewhere in the development?

What the feck! Now I think I'm on pretty safe ground here saying that if Newell hadn't got his snout stuck firmly in Brent's trough that he would be kicking off big-time over this. Urging peope to take action, giving out Brent's phone number and e-mail address to cause as much disruption as possible, calling out the dogs of war in other words, but he isn't because he's worked out which side his bread is buttered. That's disgusting from Brent and Newell, but typical of them really, along with their buddy the champagne socialist Webb.

Then there's the conferencing and banquetting aspect of the plans. That was the big stick Brent used to beat his drum last year, that the grandstand would include a conferencing and banquetting venue to rival the one up the road at the Chiefs. And what kind of conference venue do the plans include? A hospitality area which can be adapted for a small venue which isn't going to attract any business whatsoever, nevermind the venue that was going to make the club self-sufficient shortly.

It's like Kate Middleton expecting a wedding banquet at Buckingham Palace and finding out she's got Disco Derek's roadshow at the local working mens club which she will have to share with the ladies darts presentation evening.

Sold down the river springs to mind.

Then we have the capacity issue which for most people is the major factor here, and when this is all completed Home Park will have a capacity of probably under 17,000 when segregation is taken into account, and despite the half-assed suggestions of clipping on extra seats to the Lyndhurst End, which will have a road behind that will mean that the only way of achieving this will be to have a fleet of helicopters lowering the new seats! Or of course the Devonport End could be demolished and a new one built, just like that, again with an access road stopping this. And of course whilst this is being built the current Devonport End will be out of use.

Incredibly some so-called intelligent people actually believe Brent and his men that this is a feasible option despite being let down with all his other promises.

If somebody who is happy with the current plans could prove with costings and details how the capacity can be increased by 2-4,000 more seats I would be happy to hold up my hands and say fair enough, but I won't be holding my breath!

I'm really anti any building on green land so the Cottage Field option for the Ice-Rink is not what I would like to see but there would be a way of including something else that would benefit park users surely? If not then as many others have said, move the Ice-Rink to the city centre where it would generate business that is badly needed there.

All I can see happening if these plans go ahead is the club ambling along for a good few years accumulating more debt to Brent, and I wouldn't be surprised if he uses the fact that the development is costing so much to inform the fans and manager that there are no real funds to strengthen the squad for a promotion push etc wtc etc.

This is the one big chance to turn around the clubs fortunes and potential and at the moment all I see is a greedy man who has spun a yarn which a few people have fallen for, and they have ensured that this is the view reccommended on the biggest fans forum. Endorsed by the important fans!

That's how I see it anyway but am open to hear that I've got it all wrong as long as it is explained why I've got it all wrong, with facts and figures not vague phrases and bullshit like e-mail us your concerns because I have e-mailed Akkeron and not heard anything back on these important points, not sure if anyone else has but they don't seem keen to address these concerns of mine.

The club needs something that will ensure it's future is well looked after, not hamstrung by other commercial ventures that have no benefit to Argyle whatsoever, and any possible future expansion denied by boxing the ground in.

The other really disappointing thing about all of this is the way that a few high profile fans are spewing bile about the Trust's role in all of this. Painting them to be the bad men who are intent on de-railing a fabulous opportunity for the club. The club is totally anti-Trust now and has been all along, but even worse than this are the high profile fans who were so keen to build up the Trust not so long ago and are now working tirelessly to knock it down and make it ineffectual by portraying it as some kind of malevolent organisation.

The Trust share my views which doesn't add up to the shit Newell and Postey are peddling on Pasoti. Nobody is trying to make the existing stand listed, that is the knid of shit they get up to in order to get their own way. The Trust has also quite rightly set up a working group to raise concerns about the plans and is liaising with groups like the Friends of Central Park because they want to know how these people feel about the plans or any alternative plans. How that is trying to round up tree huggers to get the development stopped is a fact only in Ian Newell's head.

Newell and his band of merry men have been seduced by Brent's offer of a place at the top table and for that privelige they are expected to deflect any criticism of the plans even though they know full well that currently they are to the detriment to the club. The best shot they can muster up is that the changing rooms will be new and that will attract better players ffs!

I keep hearing how Newell's a bit naughty but has the clubs best interests at heart? feck off has he. That may have once been the case but it certainly isn't now, and the same can be said for Postey and in particular Chris Webb.

These people 18 months ago would have been chaining themselves to the Mayflower gates and stopping these plans but thanks to being treated by the rich ex-banker property developer, they have been turned 180 degrees in the blink of an eye. And what's been said so far is just the tip of the ice-berg. The locals love the plans and it's the exiles who are against it because they don't care about the club and the city? The comments and tricks will just keep getting more outrageous as time goes on. The free coaches to Burton etc will just keep happening to keep the fanbase compliant and possibly forget that they are being shafted.

Next will be the details of why Cottage Field can't be used, of that I'm sure, and it won't be anything else that benefits the club. If that's not correct then prove it is my counter argument.

James Brent is slowly been seen for what he is and it certainly isn't someone in love with Plymouth Argyle and a great custodian of this instituiton, but it may be too late to do anything about it. If past experience of councils is anything to go by, especially when it comes to PCC and James Brent, then the game is already up. I hope I'm wrong but if I'm not there will be a shit load of awkward questions to answer for the big players in all of this. James Brent isn't worried about the pressure, he's been a part of CitiGroup who don't do giving a shit about the ordinary man, it's profit profit profit all the way, and he's sure as shit going to achieve that here for his Akkeron group, not the club we all support.

At work there's about 15 of us, 1 is an total jester hat wearing aviva, 3 are keenish fans and about 3 others that are part timers like me. The rest are not at all interested in PAFC or football or they loosely support Man U or some other Premier club. (Jones would love those!)

Not a single one of us is in favor of Brent's plans. Those with an Argyle interest are dead against it and those with no interest are angered by the fact that Central Park is being built on.

I really do think that Brent has screwed up big time with this one and I think that Councillors are also waking up to the fact that there will be an almighty backlash if these plans are given just a hint of a wink. I had a brief chat with a Councillor a few days ago and the impression I had wasn't good from Brent's point of view but from experience Councillors tend to tell you what you want to hear so not much can be gained from that, but even so, it definitely wasn't a positive for Brent.

Can I suggest a chant of "Brent, Brent, you can shove your (joke) stand" for todays game.

Greenjock wrote:

I would've replied to Sensible but Jabba's got there first.

It really is quite simple to me. The plans as they currently stand do not really benefit the club very much at all, unless the smell of fresh paint turns you on as it does X-Isle. You can build an asthetically pleasing clap clinic but inside it's still somewhere to treat herpes and syphillis.

How a supposedly intelligent man is prepared to accept something substandard on the basis that it is new really is beyond me

Then there's the issue of the retail units inside the below capacity stand. Nearly everyone was under the impression that these units would contain a means of income that would be going to the club, but they're not. They will contain a small club shop and that's the end of any financial gain to Argyle. In fact the units being fast food outlets will absolutely kill any profits the club might have been able to make from refreshments inside the ground.

I'm certain that a large number of fans thought that there was going to be some kind of supporters bar included which would've meant a large number of fans would have been able to get to the ground early and mingle whilst having a couple of beers instead of there being thousands of fans spread out over dozens of pubs around Plymouth pre-match, and I'm just as certain that there would've been a vast amount of fans assuming that the fanfests would be catered for and possibly in a much bigger setting that they currently are which often sells out.

The GT's, for all the suspicion they're sometimes treated with on here due to their affiliation with Newell, have earned fantastic amounts of money over the last year or so to help speed up the staff repayments for Brent, and how are they rewarded in the development plans? By being told there is no bar area for them but they could buy a building to hold the fanfests somewhere in the development?

What the feck! Now I think I'm on pretty safe ground here saying that if Newell hadn't got his snout stuck firmly in Brent's trough that he would be kicking off big-time over this. Urging peope to take action, giving out Brent's phone number and e-mail address to cause as much disruption as possible, calling out the dogs of war in other words, but he isn't because he's worked out which side his bread is buttered. That's disgusting from Brent and Newell, but typical of them really, along with their buddy the champagne socialist Webb.

Then there's the conferencing and banquetting aspect of the plans. That was the big stick Brent used to beat his drum last year, that the grandstand would include a conferencing and banquetting venue to rival the one up the road at the Chiefs. And what kind of conference venue do the plans include? A hospitality area which can be adapted for a small venue which isn't going to attract any business whatsoever, nevermind the venue that was going to make the club self-sufficient shortly.

It's like Kate Middleton expecting a wedding banquet at Buckingham Palace and finding out she's got Disco Derek's roadshow at the local working mens club which she will have to share with the ladies darts presentation evening.

Sold down the river springs to mind.

Then we have the capacity issue which for most people is the major factor here, and when this is all completed Home Park will have a capacity of probably under 17,000 when segregation is taken into account, and despite the half-assed suggestions of clipping on extra seats to the Lyndhurst End, which will have a road behind that will mean that the only way of achieving this will be to have a fleet of helicopters lowering the new seats! Or of course the Devonport End could be demolished and a new one built, just like that, again with an access road stopping this. And of course whilst this is being built the current Devonport End will be out of use.

Incredibly some so-called intelligent people actually believe Brent and his men that this is a feasible option despite being let down with all his other promises.

If somebody who is happy with the current plans could prove with costings and details how the capacity can be increased by 2-4,000 more seats I would be happy to hold up my hands and say fair enough, but I won't be holding my breath!

I'm really anti any building on green land so the Cottage Field option for the Ice-Rink is not what I would like to see but there would be a way of including something else that would benefit park users surely? If not then as many others have said, move the Ice-Rink to the city centre where it would generate business that is badly needed there.

All I can see happening if these plans go ahead is the club ambling along for a good few years accumulating more debt to Brent, and I wouldn't be surprised if he uses the fact that the development is costing so much to inform the fans and manager that there are no real funds to strengthen the squad for a promotion push etc wtc etc.

This is the one big chance to turn around the clubs fortunes and potential and at the moment all I see is a greedy man who has spun a yarn which a few people have fallen for, and they have ensured that this is the view reccommended on the biggest fans forum. Endorsed by the important fans!

That's how I see it anyway but am open to hear that I've got it all wrong as long as it is explained why I've got it all wrong, with facts and figures not vague phrases and bullshit like e-mail us your concerns because I have e-mailed Akkeron and not heard anything back on these important points, not sure if anyone else has but they don't seem keen to address these concerns of mine.

The club needs something that will ensure it's future is well looked after, not hamstrung by other commercial ventures that have no benefit to Argyle whatsoever, and any possible future expansion denied by boxing the ground in.

The other really disappointing thing about all of this is the way that a few high profile fans are spewing bile about the Trust's role in all of this. Painting them to be the bad men who are intent on de-railing a fabulous opportunity for the club. The club is totally anti-Trust now and has been all along, but even worse than this are the high profile fans who were so keen to build up the Trust not so long ago and are now working tirelessly to knock it down and make it ineffectual by portraying it as some kind of malevolent organisation.

The Trust share my views which doesn't add up to the shit Newell and Postey are peddling on Pasoti. Nobody is trying to make the existing stand listed, that is the knid of shit they get up to in order to get their own way. The Trust has also quite rightly set up a working group to raise concerns about the plans and is liaising with groups like the Friends of Central Park because they want to know how these people feel about the plans or any alternative plans. How that is trying to round up tree huggers to get the development stopped is a fact only in Ian Newell's head.

Newell and his band of merry men have been seduced by Brent's offer of a place at the top table and for that privelige they are expected to deflect any criticism of the plans even though they know full well that currently they are to the detriment to the club. The best shot they can muster up is that the changing rooms will be new and that will attract better players ffs!

I keep hearing how Newell's a bit naughty but has the clubs best interests at heart? feck off has he. That may have once been the case but it certainly isn't now, and the same can be said for Postey and in particular Chris Webb.

These people 18 months ago would have been chaining themselves to the Mayflower gates and stopping these plans but thanks to being treated by the rich ex-banker property developer, they have been turned 180 degrees in the blink of an eye. And what's been said so far is just the tip of the ice-berg. The locals love the plans and it's the exiles who are against it because they don't care about the club and the city? The comments and tricks will just keep getting more outrageous as time goes on. The free coaches to Burton etc will just keep happening to keep the fanbase compliant and possibly forget that they are being shafted.

Next will be the details of why Cottage Field can't be used, of that I'm sure, and it won't be anything else that benefits the club. If that's not correct then prove it is my counter argument.

James Brent is slowly been seen for what he is and it certainly isn't someone in love with Plymouth Argyle and a great custodian of this instituiton, but it may be too late to do anything about it. If past experience of councils is anything to go by, especially when it comes to PCC and James Brent, then the game is already up. I hope I'm wrong but if I'm not there will be a shit load of awkward questions to answer for the big players in all of this. James Brent isn't worried about the pressure, he's been a part of CitiGroup who don't do giving a shit about the ordinary man, it's profit profit profit all the way, and he's sure as shit going to achieve that here for his Akkeron group, not the club we all support.

I just copied/pasted that into Akkeron's feedback form and also emailed it to the council.

Rawr.

akagreengull wrote:

Can I suggest a chant of "Brent, Brent, you can shove your (joke) stand" for todays game.

You'll have to ask PL4 faced if you need a fire certificate for that chant.

Peggy * wrote:

Greenskin wrote:

If you think that the input on PASOTI and ATD is an all encompassing way to measure discontent about the redevelopment proposals,then you are seriously deluded. In my travels i get to talk to many Argyle fans,not amounting to thousands admittedly,but certainly enough to provide a decent cross section of support.These supporters can in no way be said to have extreme views on all matters Argyle but to a man [and woman] they are alarmed at the long term implications for our club-the general feeling is that the developments represent Argyle minimum,profit maximum and they are far from "not giving a stuff".What action to take? Difficult one,it does appear that we've been presented with a fait accompli.The Argyle Trust have offered some positive opposition [oxymoron?] to this ill balanced hybrid and maybe they represent the best way forward,which represents quite a sea change in my own POV,having been indifferent and sceptical to the trust previously.

That's pretty much my experience, too, Greenskin. Not to mention the reactions of ordinary Plymothians to the concept of a cinema and shops in the park, which is mostly horror. And there, I reckon, lies the way forward - lose the cinema and shops (if they must be built, there's lots of other places, like the 'West End' of the city centre, which has been waiting for redevelopment ever since the last plans for Colin Campbell Court fell apart and which the demolition of part of the Pavilions will free up) and build a proper grandstand with facilities that provide an income for the club.

Pretty much what I've been thinking since Brent's debacle surfaced, Peggy. Why does Brent's development have to be in CP? Why not in the West End of the city as Peggy suggests. I'm sure Brent will still makes his millions. This would leave all the land behind the current Mayflower ripe for fantastic grandstand to be proud of.

You know what? I'm pretty p*ssed off with all of this grandstand crap already.

Mansfield Town of the Blue Square have a better and bigger main stand that provides decent all year round revenue then JB proposed mini-stand

I think the best bet we have for leverage against Brent is the Pengelly/Evans divide in the council, they are already popping at each other, commercial development in the park could well be too much for a lot of Plymouthians, it may well blow up in Brent's face, if it does and he decides to pull out, would it be the end for Argyles plans? Would that be a bad thing or not?

I feel another bat shit mental post referencing trembling lips and the price of concrete in Stoke on Trent is due.

El presidente is very quiet. Perhaps he can see how stupid the supreme superfan is making himself look defending the utterly indefensable.

Freathy wrote:

El presidente is very quiet. Perhaps he can see how stupid the supreme superfan is making himself look defending the utterly indefensable.

Or he's trying desperately to think of a way to put a positive spin on this without making himself look more of a cnut than he already has. Remember how he promised that if he didn't agree with James over something he would take him to task

Can you imagine the self promoting turncoat saying boo to a feckin goose, especially when it's the one who lays the golden egg?

brent is building a stand with forethought. that forethought is relegation to the bsp. have i said that before?

akagreengull wrote:

Can I suggest a chant of "Brent, Brent, you can shove your (joke) stand" for todays game.

Down with an Ice Rink, we're going .........

I've stood in home park with thirty eight thousand other fans, and there is no way a property developer and his yes men will ever get me to accept a poxy mini stand that gives us a capacityof seventeen thousand that may be good enough for x throbber and co but not for me and many others that hope one day (long after speccy) that plymouth argyle may make the top league.

Mapperley, darling wrote:

brent is building a stand with forethought. that forethought is relegation to the bsp. have i said that before?

I have been asked by so many people why I am so vocally anti the JB Board and the above is the very reason.

The 'bidder of last resort' has never been a football fan, let alone an Argyle fan. To him going down this season is just another relegation to the fifth division. Falling into non League football does not mean the same to him as it does to you or I.

JB has made it very clear that there will be no more 'loans' to the football club next season. Best estimates put the overspend this season at around £1.25million. Take that off this year's 'competitive budget' plus a bit less for the loss of another 500 - 1,000 season ticket holders and our budget next season will be mid BSP.

He has shown that the property deal is the be all and end all of his involvement. The football club is the 'afterbirth'. A ministand proves a lack of ambition. A reluctance to move the ice-rink to allow a larger grandstand 'for green lung reasons' - my arse! No additional revenue streams for the Club from retail and leisure 'on Argyle land'.

PAFC means nothing to JB. I would love him to prove me wrong. Like many others I have no problem with earning money. Come out and declare that 33% of all profits from the HHP development will go directly into the PAFC coffers - you would still have a pretty hefty payday from the remaining 67% and the football club will be able to breathe. A the moment we are being strangled -financially and geographically by the HHP development.

I have no hidden agenda. The football club for one reason or another has cost me everything - a bankruptcy, my business, my house and most importantly my marriage. I cannot be involved in the running of a football club and do not have anyone 'waiting in the wings' to take over. I just want the very best for the Club I have grown to love.

I believe, as Mapperley does, that BSP suits JB's plans and that is what any football fan would fight against. A total lack of ambition is the death of any football club. But what is the alternative?

IMHO the Trust must now be working behind the scenes to purchase the football club. Not the property, just the Club. Become the Community Club. We have no-one to help us financially from now on, if we are to stand on our own two feet, let them be OUR two feet. Let us involve all those who have given up on the Greens or been ostracised by it's officials. Ok we'll have no money but we aren't going to have any next season anyway. But what we will have is AMBITION - a will to be the very best we can possibly be. Stuff the £400,000 for 20% of a whole lot of debt. The Club is a millstone around the developers neck - the Trust can take it off his hands and do something positive with it.

It can be done.

Round of applause.

More or less how I see. Except I can see him trying to pull the plug. Investment bankers have been know to encourage the collapse of currencies if they happen to be getti g against it, a lower league football club will mean nothing to him.

Doffs cap to Mr. Lenszner.

i think what damon has said is part of the reason chris webb is keeping a low profile. The penny has dropped for him and he fought to stop another load of developers doing exactly the same as what brent is doing now. Only difference being Riddler was buying the footy side for a £1

You miss my point entirely. I'm not arguing that X-Isle is right in what he says. My point is that just because it doesn't conform to what the internet warriors believe then he is branded as stupid. He might be ill informed and his ideas ill judged but why is he stupid? Everyone is entitled to form a view of what is going on. It is their view presumably come to by them weighing up the situation as they think it is and coming to a conclusion. It is not invalid because it doesn't conform it is different. It's the put down as in Rickler's to me because he doesn't like me much. That is pure childishness.

Some who have posted since are also speaking for this "silent majority" as if they have taken a poll of them and know the outcome. The reason they are known as the silent majority is that they are silent and therefore nobody knows how they would vote if they had the chance. You have spoken to some people who you know is all you have done and your conclusion that the silent majority is not in favour or even cares is as invalid as Newell's when trying to pretend he is speaking for this majority as well. I'm not that enamoured with the proposals either and have said so previously. The difference is that I don't think anything better will be achieved and am not kidding myself that my voice against will make the slightest change to what appears. I was at the match today. I didn't hear one voice raised against the building programme either before, during or after the match. I may not have been in the right place at the right time of course but nevertheless I didn't hear it. Therein speaks the silent majority. They cared not enough about anything to make a protest. I might also add that the vocal minority were pretty non vocal as well. Where is the actual evidence, apart from hear say that so many are against what is happening? It's on a few posts on a couple of websites which only represents a fraction of those that go through the turnstyles. The only way the point would be made would be for a proper vote to be had and the majority of people express their view. That is unlikely to happen because most would probably not even bother to vote anyway and it would remain officially a minority.

Damon.Lenszner wrote:

I have no hidden agenda. The football club for one reason or another has cost me everything - a bankruptcy, my business, my house and most importantly my marriage. I cannot be involved in the running of a football club and do not have anyone 'waiting in the wings' to take over. I just want the very best for the Club I have grown to love.

Crikey, not sure I could stay in love with something that had caused me that much strife in life. Damon, I thought you made a few bob from selling your Argyle shares. You didn't stick the proceeds on red did you?

Happy Daze wrote:

The farms "new" owner is going to be up against it to stop the sheep stampeding (do sheep stampede?)

James the builder will not be happy with the fat controller.

If they do..... stand to one side very quickly.....it's no good trying to pull the wool over their eyes.

Newell gave the game away sometime ago when he said that the Blue Square wouldn't do the Club any harm.