I can't honestly see what the problems with the club owning the ground are.
We are currently paying 135k a year in rent all of which is money going straight down the drain from the club's point of view. Money that could be going towards the playing budget, money that could be spent on ground maintenance, money that could be spent on additional coaching staff...training equipment, better fan experience, a better media team the list of revenue outlays goes on and on. The point is there are many better uses of the club's resources, if you ask me paying rent is far from the top of that list especially when the repayments will only ever increase should we be promoted and yet further stifle our club's progress.
Say we don't purchase the ground then and continue to make these repayments, to what end? To prevent an imaginary evil businessman from buying the club from JB and splitting club from it's biggest asset. To what purpose would they do that? As far as I'm aware they cannot use the ground for any other purpose than football, they certainly wouldn't get planning permission to build on Central Park, certainly not without providing alternative accommodation for the 8,000 strong Green Army on a match-day. So what are they left with? Presumably charging us rent :doh:
Would mistakes of the past be repeated should we have the asset in the club's control? Possibly, JB won't be here forever and we never know who's hands we will end up in future. It's a worry of course it is, the problem with that approach however is we will never progress as a football club if we live in fear of the unknown, if we refuse to take risks because there are nasties living in the shadows. There will always be nasties living in the shadows unfortunately and if not nasties there will be plenty of other obstacles waiting for us. The thing is you are far better placed with capital to sell, borrow against or entice additional investors in with when these obstacles present themselves. Being a "steady Eddie" club who refuses absolute bare-minimal risks like this will inevitably stagnate leaving it at even bigger risk of financial turmoil by way of dwindling gates and down right disinterest, where do we go then? We would hold nothing of value, no potential.
It has been said on this thread that the AFT cannot debate against a strategy we know nothing of, I'll therefore raise you a "you cannot argue against a fantasy and the imaginary". You can imagine the worst case scenario possible and yes it sounds scary but it isn't real, it is of course possible as we know all too well but you cannot prevent it entirely and you certainly shouldn't try to prevent it by making this club completely uninvestable.
For me I would like to know the strategy behind this, the benefits the club stands to gain in the eyes of the board. If it is purely a cost-benefit of rent v interest repayment or whether this ties in with a wider plan, whether it makes the grandstand redevelopment more viable. That said however I do not feel we should hold the club to ransom for the sake of that. For me this purchase makes complete sense whatever the plan is (because I trust JB's plan and therefore the plan for the foreseeable is in the club's interest even if a future owner's may not be). I want us to progress as a football club and feel we are best placed to do so with out the shackles of rental expenditure and with a balance sheet worthy of decent investment. I cannot support this statement and cannot support a Trust wasting its time on an issue that in my view will ultimately hold back our club.