Mendosa
10-07-2000, 09:01 PM
Jim White interview with Simon Jordan,
Saturday 8th July, 2000.
BBC Radio 5 Live
JW: The long-suffering fans of Crystal Palace could afford a sigh of relief this week because the club came out of administration and emerged with a new owner and, therefore, a future. Simon Jordan, a former mobile phone entrepreneur was on schoolboy forms at the club which he now owns and has been welcomed by Eagles fans as a fellow supporter. Simon, it’s been a convoluted business this – the last I heard it was going to be bought by a Singapore entrepeneur…
SJ: erm, yeah, Malaysian, Jerry Lim. I had for some time been speaking to Jerry and was very confident that I was going to buy the club, but when you’ve got a number of parties in isolation like a freehold-owner, an administrator and other potential purchasers, sometimes it can become a very messy transaction to the outside world, but you do need to have potentially only one enquirer and having two at the time, where two people were bidding – myself and Jerry Lim – didn’t make sense in order to do a commercial deal with certain people like the freehold owner. So, whilst it may have seemed convoluted and complex outside, inside, where I was operating, it was very straightforward.
JW: The shadow of Mark Goldberg looms large over Crystal Palace, he was another person who was a die-hard fan, there’s no doubt about that (?!) who came in, claiming he was going to do great things for the club – what reassurances do you give to the fans that you’re not another Goldberg ?
SJ: I think ultimately actions speak louder than words and I … admired the courage of [Mark’s] convictions because he wanted something, he was resolute in his desire to have it and I think there were some significant benefits from Mark buying the club from Ron Noades, but I think at the end of the day I can’t be the buyer and seller, how people perceive me. My job is to build a stable football club, not to make rash promises and to give people false dawns. I’ve bought the club out of administration, it now has a tremendous opportunity to go forward and what I want to do is be sensible in what I’m doing. I want to add commercial viability to all the revenue streams the football club has, to give strong support to all the staff that have performed fantastically through what has been a very difficult period and to give Stevie Coppell all the support he needs both financially, logistically and verbally around the production of a successful football team.
JW: Simon, it’s all about money isn’t it ? Huge amounts are being spent on ordinary footballers these days. What the Palace fans want to know is, did you make enough out of mobile phones to be able to subsidise the club.
SJ: At the end of the day, the transaction I did selling my business has obviously given me a significant degree of money but the reality of it is I think one has to be sensible – you can pay ridiculous money for players, but as far as I’m concerned, we have a nucleus of players that first I want to secure. Of course I have to add to it, but talking to Steve and looking at what Steve requires will require some time from me to do - I’m not going to sit on my hands – but I’m also going to be sensible – there’s no point burning brightly and blazing out. I want to buy players that can develop the club, grow with the club, are sensible for the club to have at this stage in its development and to give us the right platform.
JW: One of the things that undermined Mark Goldberg was the fact that he bought, well in essence, nothing. I mean he didn’t buy the ground did he – what’s the situation with the ground and the freehold, as it’s owned by Ron Noades, and you ?
SJ: Well, It wasn’t just that Mark didn’t buy the grounds – there are other revenue streams in a football club that can be considerable if they’re managed properly - <such as> catering contracts - that are very important and Mark didn’t have the rights to those. Now, my core statement has been, and will always be, that every revenue stream that comes into the club will be re-directed back into the redevelopment of the football product, which is the core product and the reason why people will come into the ground. Now, of course, if you have a stradium you should make it work harder for you, but from the bottom-line perspective, I’ve bought a club, I’ve bought a brand name, in an area that has a 3 – 4 million catchment area with a strong demographic profile and a very strong concentration of wealth. Now, as far as the stadium’s concerned, I’ve taken a 10-year leasehold deal with Ron that makes commercial sense at this stage. Now, going forward, one will have a plan …… not that I’m reluctant to discuss it, but I’m more keen to formulate it in a more succinct fashion, but the club has a security of tenure, it has commercial viability around the leasehold that gives all the revenue streams that a football club needs to have, now in place.
JW: Simon, finally, Mark Steel, Kevin Day, Sean Hughes – you’ve got a lot of comedians amongst your supporters – are the jokes going to stop coming out of Crystal Palace now then ?
SJ: Yeah, very much so. This club has the ingredients to be a successful football club. It has a cracking bunch of staff, it has a cracking culture around it and a cracking heritage, it has a demographic profile and a population that’s fantastic – wait and see !
JW: Simon we look forward to that, thanks very much for joining us.
Saturday 8th July, 2000.
BBC Radio 5 Live
JW: The long-suffering fans of Crystal Palace could afford a sigh of relief this week because the club came out of administration and emerged with a new owner and, therefore, a future. Simon Jordan, a former mobile phone entrepreneur was on schoolboy forms at the club which he now owns and has been welcomed by Eagles fans as a fellow supporter. Simon, it’s been a convoluted business this – the last I heard it was going to be bought by a Singapore entrepeneur…
SJ: erm, yeah, Malaysian, Jerry Lim. I had for some time been speaking to Jerry and was very confident that I was going to buy the club, but when you’ve got a number of parties in isolation like a freehold-owner, an administrator and other potential purchasers, sometimes it can become a very messy transaction to the outside world, but you do need to have potentially only one enquirer and having two at the time, where two people were bidding – myself and Jerry Lim – didn’t make sense in order to do a commercial deal with certain people like the freehold owner. So, whilst it may have seemed convoluted and complex outside, inside, where I was operating, it was very straightforward.
JW: The shadow of Mark Goldberg looms large over Crystal Palace, he was another person who was a die-hard fan, there’s no doubt about that (?!) who came in, claiming he was going to do great things for the club – what reassurances do you give to the fans that you’re not another Goldberg ?
SJ: I think ultimately actions speak louder than words and I … admired the courage of [Mark’s] convictions because he wanted something, he was resolute in his desire to have it and I think there were some significant benefits from Mark buying the club from Ron Noades, but I think at the end of the day I can’t be the buyer and seller, how people perceive me. My job is to build a stable football club, not to make rash promises and to give people false dawns. I’ve bought the club out of administration, it now has a tremendous opportunity to go forward and what I want to do is be sensible in what I’m doing. I want to add commercial viability to all the revenue streams the football club has, to give strong support to all the staff that have performed fantastically through what has been a very difficult period and to give Stevie Coppell all the support he needs both financially, logistically and verbally around the production of a successful football team.
JW: Simon, it’s all about money isn’t it ? Huge amounts are being spent on ordinary footballers these days. What the Palace fans want to know is, did you make enough out of mobile phones to be able to subsidise the club.
SJ: At the end of the day, the transaction I did selling my business has obviously given me a significant degree of money but the reality of it is I think one has to be sensible – you can pay ridiculous money for players, but as far as I’m concerned, we have a nucleus of players that first I want to secure. Of course I have to add to it, but talking to Steve and looking at what Steve requires will require some time from me to do - I’m not going to sit on my hands – but I’m also going to be sensible – there’s no point burning brightly and blazing out. I want to buy players that can develop the club, grow with the club, are sensible for the club to have at this stage in its development and to give us the right platform.
JW: One of the things that undermined Mark Goldberg was the fact that he bought, well in essence, nothing. I mean he didn’t buy the ground did he – what’s the situation with the ground and the freehold, as it’s owned by Ron Noades, and you ?
SJ: Well, It wasn’t just that Mark didn’t buy the grounds – there are other revenue streams in a football club that can be considerable if they’re managed properly - <such as> catering contracts - that are very important and Mark didn’t have the rights to those. Now, my core statement has been, and will always be, that every revenue stream that comes into the club will be re-directed back into the redevelopment of the football product, which is the core product and the reason why people will come into the ground. Now, of course, if you have a stradium you should make it work harder for you, but from the bottom-line perspective, I’ve bought a club, I’ve bought a brand name, in an area that has a 3 – 4 million catchment area with a strong demographic profile and a very strong concentration of wealth. Now, as far as the stadium’s concerned, I’ve taken a 10-year leasehold deal with Ron that makes commercial sense at this stage. Now, going forward, one will have a plan …… not that I’m reluctant to discuss it, but I’m more keen to formulate it in a more succinct fashion, but the club has a security of tenure, it has commercial viability around the leasehold that gives all the revenue streams that a football club needs to have, now in place.
JW: Simon, finally, Mark Steel, Kevin Day, Sean Hughes – you’ve got a lot of comedians amongst your supporters – are the jokes going to stop coming out of Crystal Palace now then ?
SJ: Yeah, very much so. This club has the ingredients to be a successful football club. It has a cracking bunch of staff, it has a cracking culture around it and a cracking heritage, it has a demographic profile and a population that’s fantastic – wait and see !
JW: Simon we look forward to that, thanks very much for joining us.