Slim

Football fans who follow social media accounts of players’ relatives are without exception absolute wrong ‘uns and belong on a register.

Given out to top Dons IIRC. Looks like the same one I have although I don’t have a certificate.

Corrected that for you.

Fucking Mitov

I think it’s PTSD from previous games against an on-the-ropes Old Firm team where we’ve gone in far too cautiously as if we’re playing the 1970 Brazil team and allowed them to give us a morale-boosting humping.

Are we sure we’re not taking Clarkson’s issue with sitting on the bench too literal? My interpretation was “I need to be playing not sitting on the bench” rather than “I refuse to sit on the bench”. Of course, it could just be complete bollocks to begin with.

The NYC mayor election gives a little optimism. If the Democrats could shake themselves free of Schumer & Co and de-age Bernie Sanders by about 20 years and really lean into the healthcare and affordability issues then the people would follow I think. But they won’t, and they won’t.

It’s moot anyway as "We have agreed to work towards a heads of terms that seeks to explore the delivery of a new stadium for Aberdeen." is the business speak equivalent of: ”Daddy can I have a pony for my birthday?” ”We’ll see…” Working towards seeking to explore something is definitely going into my next slide deck on whatever pointless process we’re going to automate/standardise/disrupt that quietly gets forgotten about after a few months. Cheers Dave.

There’s a bit of a difference between supporting a 122 year old business with 100,000+ potential customers (AFC) and chucking a million or so at a guy with a burger van (Resident X). Didn’t suggest the council will “make money”, but was saying that they shouldn’t be in a position to lose money should everything be set up properly and AFC don’t take the piss. To put it simply, as long as the council can mitigate their risk exposure and receive a lease payment that at least covers the loan repayment then there shouldn’t really be any downside for them or the taxpayer. Certainly seems more viable than begging for donations from rich people. And if Cormack is to be believed, there will be private sector contribution brought to the table from the AFC side which is most likely going to be from local businesspeople acting with their heart instead of their head.

If the club take ownership of the construction cost risk and the lease payments cover the borrowing costs, where’s the risk against the council that makes it unviable? The risk of the club being liquidated and defaulting on the lease agreement is probably the main one. Another could be it impacting the council’s ability to borrow funds for other things (e.g. council house construction). Both could be addressed/dealt with. Most private sector construction follows similar principles. Investor funds the construction cost against a firm long-term lease commitment. The council’s pension fund are likely to be investors in such developments. Only issue I really see is if Cormack is expecting the council to underwrite the over-run in build cost and fix the lease cost up front. Also worth asking if the club can afford £1.5m (guesstimate) a year rent payments. I assume we have zero rent at the moment.

We must be in double digits now for misplaced passes going out for a throw. We'll never get anywhere if we don’t do better at keeping the ball when we have possession.

Shell site now in hands of Scottish Enterprise, being marketed as part of the Energy Transition Zone.

Yeah, I was more interested in validating that low interest loans are actually available. Organisations like SNIB, National Wealth Fund, etc are apparently not allowed to offer lower borrowing rates than commercial banks, at least to similar private sector projects of national importance in terms of job protection, energy transition, re-skilling, etc.

He's a few whiskys away from a late night rant calling council members "dumb" and promising to make Aberdeen "great again". He goes on about that play park more often than his role model goes on about wind turbines. Hazlehead Park is always absolutely rammed after they did the big upgrade to the playpark and similar footfall for the beach playpark will be a massive increase in customers for the existing businesses in the area. Would be interesting to know a bit more about this "low interest for capital investments". I've been involved in something similar recently, talking to same institutions providing these funds and the messaging has been quite clear that they are not allowed to undercut banks on interest rates. Might be different for public sector. Still think the site in question has too many challenges anyway, I reckon you'll be looking at several million in additional groundworks over more in-land sites (disclaimer - not a geologist) and looks to be a bit of a squeeze without carving out part of the Broadhill. If you can squeeze in the stadium there, there's a similar footprint between George Street and Skene Square if you can incentivise the businesses in the old buildings on Ann Street to relocate. Train track runs under where the "plaza" would be, opportunity for a stadium station, road to the west is planned to be dualled up to St Machar. Can re-use the red bricks from the mill in the facade (sustainability and heritage boxes ticked). A proper city centre stadium would be fucking ace. 4 steep stands, none of this bowl bollocks.