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   Scarlets on the verge of bankrupcy

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbscrumv/F2172319?thread=3456118
by StradeyFan (anyone know if ray can use a computer, or is it their community webmaster. this could be ianto by another name)
When Scarlets’ chairman and benefactor, Huw Evans, threatened to withdraw his support for the rugby club, Welsh Rugby was again thrown into its customary turmoil as the Scarlets’ very existence was claimed to be threatened unless the sale of land at the old Stradey Park was cleared to fund the building of a new stadium,
The redevelopment plans had been called in for review by the Welsh Assembly over concerns that the land was on a flood plain; it looked as if politicians were meddling in the affairs of rugby at the request of NIMBY’s opposed to the re-development of Stradey Park. The locals had also objected on the grounds that the traffic in the region was already the highest in Carmarthenshire and the addition of 600 cars from 450 new homes would exacerbate the situation. 
An emotive campaign was orchestrated by Scarlets’ Chief Executive, Stewart Gallacher, which included media appearances forecasting the demise of the region, with its knock-on effect on the Welsh team, as well as handing out leaflets to the 6000 spectators attending the game against Glasgow on Friday night. Posters have been placed on the club’s billboards at all entries to the town ‘SOS - Save Our Scarlets’. The Scarlets were £9M in the red and could be in the hands of the administrator before Christmas.
However, a closer look at the reasons for the club’s poor financial health reveals that a string of poor business decisions and profligacy by Gallacher and the board of directors contributed largely to the club’s predicament. Gallacher was appointed as Chief Executive of Llanelli RFC when the game went professional in 1996, presumably on the basis of being a former player at the club, from where he gained international honours, rather than on his business record, which comprised two bankruptcies. 
In 1996, the club signed Frano Botica, an ex-All Black and New Zealand Rugby League international for a fee of around £550k. Fortunately for Llanelli RFC, when the club was struggling to pay his salary, Botica suffered from a back injury preventing him from playing in the second half of his second season and his wages were paid for by insurance. Remarkably, Botica’s injuries had cleared up by the beginning of the following season so that he could continue his career with Biarritz. However, there was one final sting in the tail; Botica’s contract permitted a further one-off payment of £150k which ‘nobody knew about’ including Gallacher.
The club continued to hover close to being taken into receivership but following town meetings, the club was bailed out by contributions by Llanelli’s residents. In order to alleviate the financial crisis at the time, the Stradey ground was sold to the WRU and leased back by the club. 
Eventually a benefactor was found: Huw Evans, who had made his fortune from the floatation of Egg and from property deals. Evans bought 2.3 million shares in the club as well as two strips of property in and around the Stradey site. 
Despite that the club was haemorrhaging money in the 2003-04 season to the tune of £1.6 million, according to the club’s accounts, Gallacher purchased £17,600 worth of carpets from Gallacher Carpets, then owned by his wife. In 2005, he employed his daughter at the Scarlets in the Sales Department despite a conviction for stealing £62,000 from her previous employer which Gallacher himself repaid. The club also employs a considerable number of relatives of Gallacher and Gareth Jenkins, the previous coach now in charge of the Welsh team.
More recently, the club’s profligacy has been comical. After realising that it would be cheaper to build a gym on site than to continue to use the facilities at a gym owned by Peter Herbert, another past employee at Stradey, on completion of the building, the club was told to demolish it by the local council as the management had failed to obtain planning permission.
The bright spot on the horizon for the Scarlets was that the sale of the land at Stradey could net around £16 million from property developers. As most of the land is owned by the enigmatic Huw Evans, either through his company Stirling Property Management or as the predominant share hold in the Scarlets, he stands to gain somewhere in the region of £8 – 10 million from the sale of this land. Such deals are Evans’ forte. It is little wonder then that when the Welsh Office were called in to review the plans, Evans threw his toys out of the pram and threatened to withdraw his support for the club. As Evans is fabulously wealthy man, reputedly worth £60million, his deadline of Christmas for the sale of lands seems to be specious. Is he playing a dangerous end game with the Welsh Assembly, using the rugby region as a pawn and stoking public fear to generate support for his plans, to ensure that the sale goes ahead.
Despite that the plans for the new stadium will fit onto the Stradey land, Carmarthenshire County Council will only provide grants for the Pemberton site. Neither the Council nor Scarlets management have devised a Plan B. As Carmarthenshire County Council, which bullied local councillors who sided with local residents to stay out of the debate, will contribute a large portion of the funding of the new stadium, it remains to be seen if it would be wise to trust millions of tax payers’ money in the hands of Gallacher and Evans, who have already lost £9 million for the Scarlets. If the development does go ahead, will Evans take his £8 million profit elsewhere and leave the Scarlets in the same turmoil in a few years’ time?