Real Oviedo

[La Furia]

For those of you who actually care about the proud history of La Liga and Spanish football...

Real Oviedo, the Asturias based rival of Sporting Gijon and one of the more storied clubs in Spanish history, can no longer afford operation costs because of the Spanish economic crisis. Oviedo was the youth club of Santi Cazorla, Juan Mata, and Michu, so even you Premheads have something to respect Oviedo for.

To survive, Oviedo is selling club shares to any interested party. One share is €10.75.

For more details see:
http://www.insidespanishfootball.com/sos-real-oviedo/
http://www.realoviedo.es/weboficial/index.asp?Pagina=vernoticia&IdNoticia=7946

or Sid Lowe's twitter account (@sidlowe)

 

[PearLBLacK]

This is sad, real sad. Oviedo have been in financial difficulties for a long time now, even before their 2003 crisis. Spain is in real deep shit.

 

[La Furia]

Yeah well pretty much every club in Spain except for two are in danger of extinction, but Oviedo has had issues for a while now plus Asturias is in crisis even by Spanish standards right now. I don't see an good ending anytime soon but it's nice to see such an immediate outpouring of support for Oviedo, with regular people doing what they can to keep the club alive.

 

[Ohio Catalan]

An easy decision, everyone with any spare income should see this as a must.

 

[Raed]

What is the total number of shares? What is this club worth?

 

[DennyCrane]

For those of you who actually care about the proud history of La Liga and Spanish football...

Real Oviedo, the Asturias based rival of Sporting Gijon and one of the more storied clubs in Spanish history, can no longer afford operation costs because of the Spanish economic crisis. Oviedo was the youth club of Santi Cazorla, Juan Mata, and Michu, so even you Premheads have something to respect Oviedo for.

To survive, Oviedo is selling club shares to any interested party. One share is €10.75.

For more details see:
http://www.insidespanishfootball.com/sos-real-oviedo/
http://www.realoviedo.es/weboficial/index.asp?Pagina=vernoticia&IdNoticia=7946

or Sid Lowe's twitter account (@sidlowe)

Does the club have any plans on what do to with that capital increase, because "meeting commitments" is too vague for my liking.

I mean, they are not going to simply shove the money in the throat of some banks without a sustainable plan for the future, are they ?

 

[Raed]

That is most likely what they are going to do. This is Spain and this is a crisis, each of them is a sketchy situation and the combination of them is ten times more sketchy. The owners are most probably looking to make that money, free themselves and bounce. Up to the stake holders to creat a comittee and run the club again. I have no idea why the shares are sitting at 10 Euros for a club that in segunda, what are the assests this club owns an what are those operational costs they can't afford?

They advertised this as a charitable move, sweetened it by 'shares'. Except this is an investment and the only reason they didn't emphasise on an investment is because there is no plan. Beyond sentiments there is little tangible benefit from this and those who invested in their money will most likely burden themselves with saving their investment whereas people
who 'donated' are giving money away to a small bunch who will sip pina colada on the beach.

This sucks and unfortunate and this it is disrespectful to the fans and history of this club. At least have some dignity before reducing the club to 'donations' and cashing in on sympathy.

The problem with the crisis is that everyone finds it so hard to let go, crises are meant to weed out the rotten and restore some order, to clean the slate but unless someone financially capable of restoring the club and intrisically satisfied and comitted, it is a waste of money.

I wish I lived in Spain and I had the money to buy this whole thing but I don't. And the worst thing about this crisis is that when families and ordinary people are supposed to be saving every penny for their children, this management group is asking for that same money by risking, perhaps, one of the few things remaining in Spain that is pleasent or a source of entertainment.

 

[La Furia]

The situation in Spain right now is very bad, this isn't a typical market slump "weeding out the rotten" but a market failure. Oviedo is simply fighting off extinction right now, not formal bankruptcy.

It's an investment technically yes but it's not an investment that will benefit you, they are playing the sympathy card because that's all they have right now, the priority is to get the 2.5M euros needed to avoid administration. There's plenty of reasons to be cynical about the management but until costs are covered it's simply a matter of survival. The club has been in financial difficulties for years and they don't own their stadium.

Of course as in any similar "investment" you are entitled to participate in shareholder meetings and vote on administrative issues, in reality owning one vote won't give you much real power but that's the same elsewhere.

As far as price goes, as far as I know this isn't a publicly traded company floating shares on the market, the shareholders voted to open up membership from Nov. 3 to 17th.

 

[AnfieldEd]

Thanks for calling me a premface.

My money is going to go to helping saving the lower league and non league teams in england. I hope Real Oviedo survive.

 

[Raed]

The situation in Spain right now is very bad, this isn't a typical market slump "weeding out the rotten" but a market failure. Oviedo is simply fighting off extinction right now, not formal bankruptcy.

It's an investment technically yes but it's not an investment that will benefit you, they are playing the sympathy card because that's all they have right now, the priority is to get the 2.5M euros needed to avoid administration. There's plenty of reasons to be cynical about the management but until costs are covered it's simply a matter of survival. The club has been in financial difficulties for years and they don't own their stadium.

Of course as in any similar "investment" you are entitled to participate in shareholder meetings and vote on administrative issues, in reality owning one vote won't give you much real power but that's the same elsewhere.

As far as price goes, as far as I know this isn't a publicly traded company floating shares on the market, the shareholders voted to open up membership from Nov. 3 to 17th.

What does 10 euros buy me? 1 share out of how many? How many are on sale and equal to what percentage of the club? This would be hilarious if they inflate the worth of the club.

 

[La Furia]

It was announced that all foreign shareholders will get free entry to games.

 

[Sergio]

You forgot to mention your own David Villa was actually a RO fan until he was accepted into the Sporting youth setup and changed allegences.

 

[Sergio]

I won't be helping them though. I'm probably the only person here who has been to games of theirs, and even support them over Sporting. But as much as I love Asturias and Oviedo, I have to say this club deserves to go to the wall now. They are an example of what I really hate in Spain, which is government backing for football clubs. This is a club which was given a brand new 35,000k stadium, a bundle of cash for their old one, and a massive sponsorship deal from the regional government - and still managed to run up debts in the Trecera.

 

[Xtroverto]

I find it a bit strange that no one is willing to buy the club? Oviedo is one of the few clubs in Spain with really passionate fans, they travel with the club all over the place, bringing thousands of fans to away games even in third an fourth division. I believe they had something like 7000 fans traveling to Pontevedra a few years ago when playing in fourth division, they also had the world record attendance for a fourth division game until Glasgow Rangers were relegated. Oviedo is a club that should be in Primera.

I much rather see a well supported club like Oviedo than teams that struggle to attract even 6-7 thousand spectators in Primera, like Getafe or before them Numancia. I hope they survive and return some day.

 

[Xtroverto]

edit - double post