Planet Swans ArchivesMel Griffin is 45-years old and a small time property man. He lives in London, on a houseboat would you believe?!?! He did acquire Boothferry Park from David Lloyd at Hull City for £750,000 but he took an age to raise the funds.
He draws down £150,000 per annum as ground rent from Hill City and there are two years left before they move to a new ground so there is £300,000 left in there for him. For some reason he always rings them for the rent in advance which would suggest that he either needs the cash or maybe he isn’t a great truster of football clubs.
He has done a deal with Barratts, having received planning consent from the local authority to build modest type housing. Estimated modest profit from his venture will be around £250,000.
Mike Lewis did speak to Griffin back in the summer when the club was advertised for sale in the Financial Times (remember that?) but it was Griffin who contacted Petty just prior to Christmas. Guess what attracted him this time? Yep, you guessed it the unexpired lease on the Vetch Field.
On this front, we believe that a statement from Swansea City council is imminent and that they will be publicly stating that there is no money in the unexpired lease on the Vetch Field for anyone – something of course most of us have known for a long long time.
Anyway, back to Griffin, Petty told him that he could have the club providing he (Griffin) met the wage bill for December. Griffin went running back to Hull City and said that he could have Swansea for this minimal (as far as he was concerned) outlay and would Hull like any of our players. The answer from Hull was a simple “Yes, Sidibe, £50,000” Griffin left it at that and went away promising to get back to them – as yet he hasn’t we are told.
Is this really a man we want in charge of Swansea City? Doesn’t sound that way to me. This club is in desperate need of Swansea fans owning it and that, as far as we are concerned, is still the only way forward.
