Kingdom Of Rust - Jack Piece | Vital Football

Kingdom Of Rust - Jack Piece

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In the Mail

They're the Blackpool SHOWER: From the owner who sunbathes on the stadium roof to the gravedigger who quit because club is so miserable to the players staying in dodgy hotels
  • Blackpool host Arsenal in the FA Cup third round on Saturday afternoon
  • Tangerines owner Owen Oyston sunbathed on the stadium roof last year
  • A gravedigger was hired to work on the club's training pitch in the summer
  • Players stayed at a hotel described as 'the pits' before a game at Wimbledon
By JACK GAUGHAN FOR THE DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHED: 22:31, 4 January 2019 | UPDATED: 22:35, 4 January 2019
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...gravedigger-quit-club-miserable.html#comments
Blackpool was unusually hot last summer and one day the club's owner, Owen Oyston, sought some sun.
Cooped up inside his penthouse suite in the hotel at Bloomfield Road, Oyston — who was 85 on Thursday — decided to head further up in his pursuit.
Sunbathing gear on, he scaled the Jimmy Armfield Stand.
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Owen Oyston is an English businessman who is the majority owner of Blackpool Football Club
He reached the top, thought the rusting structure might be a smart place to brighten his tan and lay on the roof for the afternoon. Not a care in the world, clearly.
Club staff roll their eyes and laugh when the incident is retold, the sheer absurdity of an owner catching rays on top of a football stadium not lost on them, but this is no joke.
Fedora enthusiast Oyston owed former director Valeri Belokon around £25million — and still does — after an acrimonious High Court battle for 'unfair prejudice'.
A judge ruled in November 2017 that Oyston had 'illegitimately stripped' the Seasiders, something the pensioner vehemently denies despite all logic and proof.
Oyston has passed up two opportunities of loans to repay his debt, of which, up to now, he has paid £10m of the £34m owed according to the final judgment. And so Blackpool is a club in limbo, desperate for change.
He has moved the asking price while in discussions with parties interested in buying the club and clearly does not wish to relinquish control despite public utterings to the contrary.

Others have blagged free three-week stays in the club hotel while fooling Oyston into believing they have money to help. The place is in utter chaos.
His sunbathing might seem trivial, even amusing, but that Oyston cancelled all meetings that day, not wanting to be disturbed, paints a blasé picture, possibly even delusional.
Oyston, clinging on to power for all he is worth, has no definitive plan of how to end this mess. As always, supporters are left in the middle. Friendships have eroded, families split, as thousands have stood firm in refusing to watch their team play.
The ground is nine-tenths empty most weeks, only swollen by away support.
A small portion attend but the majority do not and a four-year-long 'Not A Penny More' campaign has been successful in financially squeezing an owner they have despised for nearly three decades.
This evening serves as the biggest test yet when Arsenal arrive for an FA Cup third-round tie. It is Blackpool's most glamorous game since they beat Cardiff City at Wembley nine years ago to reach the Premier League. 'There is real anger from some towards those who still attend who, in their opinion, have divided the fan base and abandoned the team,' said Blackpool Supporters' Trust chair, Christine Seddon.
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Oyston, pictured arriving at court in 2017, will watch his club host Arsenal on Saturday
'Thankfully, most fans manage to focus on where the real problem lies — Owen Oyston — but there is no doubt that when this is all over and we have our club back, there will be a fair few wounds which need to heal.'
Expect demonstrations. 'We are calling on all fans to make their feelings known towards the owners of our club in a non-violent but direct way,' the Muckers Supporters Group said, also highlighting the barbaric scenes which saw hundreds of Sunderland fans allowed into Bloomfield Road through an exit gate before Blackpool's home defeat on New Year's Day.
'Sunderland proved that the current ownership doesn't care about fans — even down to not having the correct procedures in place for stewarding a big crowd. The EFL need to investigate.'
Oyston is a condemned man on the Fylde Coast and goes into this tie with a threat of bailiffs seizing assets at the club next week to raise cash for Belokon.
The last major raid saw Oyston disconnect the lift to his penthouse and escape.
Money is running out and one source admitted they cannot see how long he can reasonably keep the club going, despite two cup runs generating in the region of £700,000.
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Blackpool, pictured in action against Sunderland this week, are 10th in the League One table
That cash is not injected into the team, of course, and the outlook is bleak despite a decent season in League One. Players talk openly of blocking out the animosity and concentrate on their jobs. That manager Terry McPhillips has them 10th is a product of fighting against the odds. Unfortunately, the odds stacked against them are all internal.
The preparation for matches is at an all-time low, Oyston's sanctioning of two hotels last month both perfect examples. Before a defeat at Oxford United, the squad were supposed to stay 47 miles away in Warwick.
Staff fought back and only late intervention saw them find suitable accommodation.
The idea was to save every penny, as was the case in London last week. There were 12 miles between their base — described as 'the pits' by one player — and AFC Wimbledon's Kingsmeadow ground. There were fears they would fail to submit the teamsheet in time thanks to London traffic. Blackpool somehow left with a goalless draw.
That they didn't possess enough frost sheets to cover the pitch before tonight's game, leaving a big stretch open to the coastal elements, comes as absolutely no surprise.
Oyston has been served with at least two writs from player agencies for unpaid fees. There is the prospect of key men being sold this month.
None of this is helping the team Oyston claims to love so dearly. They have trained at three different locations already this season and have now returned to the decrepit Squires Gate, which has barely changed since the era of Sir Stanley Matthews.
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They have endured a difficult existence since their 2011 relegation from the Premier League
Four players twisted their ankles during the first week back at Squires Gate. The sand filling deep holes in the ground was not robust enough.
A local gravedigger, roped in on the cheap, helped fill them in but quit after a few days because the job was miserable. Legal wrangles are never-ending. There is one ongoing with the club restaurant, Rowley's, after they moved out. Oyston has a civil case against his own grandson, Sam, for alleged missing money.
The owner's non-existent relationship with son and ex-chairman Karl after sacking him last year is well documented. Divorce proceedings with his wife, Vicki, got under way last year.
All the while, Oyston — who badgered poor staff with 'bizarre requests' on Christmas Day — privately keeps talking about the prospect of one day reaching the Premier League again. Pantomime season clearly lasts all year round.
Fans are holding on to the faint promise of something, anything, from Belokon.
'Our hope for the new year is that Mr Belokon pulls the financial trigger which will finally see Owen Oyston leave the club for ever,' Seddon added. 'The legal system moves incredibly slowly but thoroughly and this stalemate cannot continue.'
All these supporters want is to see some sunlight in this kingdom of rust.
 
Piece in the Sun, due to length over 2 posts:

OYSTON OUT Where are all the fans? Blackpool supporters continue boycott against Oyston family
The Seasiders take on Premier League side Arsenal in the FA Cup third round clash at Bloomfield Road which sees less than 3000 home tickets sold - but why are there so few Blackpool fans?
By Helen Rowe-Willcocks
4th January 2019, 9:34 pm
Updated: 4th January 2019, 9:35 pm
BLACKPOOL fans should be gearing up for a massive FA Cup showdown with Arsenal but instead many fans are choosing to stay at home or protest outside the ground.
It is hard to write down everything which has unfolded at Bloomfield Road - as recent as New Year's Day, Sunderland fans were sharing pictures of the seats they had bought which were in need of repair and covered in bird mess.
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Owen Oyston (left) and Valeri Belokon (right) have been battling it out in court for over a year
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Here is the SunSport's round-up of the events of the last 20 years.
Who are the Oyston family?
Owen Oyston
Oyston is the owner of Blackpool FC and has grown his wealth through Oyston estate agents.
In 1996, Oyston was convicted of the rape and indecent assault of a 16-year-old girl.
He served three years and six months of a six-year sentence in prison and was released after a judicial review of the of the Parole Board's refusal to grant parole.
Oyston is married to Vicki, who took over the club as chairwoman whilst her husband was in prison.
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Owen Oyston took over Blackpool FC in 1986Karl Oyston
Karl Oyston is the former chairman of Blackpool FC.
He took over as chairman in 1999 from his mother.
Initially he took on the role of managing director, following the resignation of both the previous managing director Gill Bridge and Vicki as chairwoman.
Both stepped down from their roles following anti-Oyston protests by fans at the stadium.
Vicki believed that Karl needed to be given full control over the club to continue.
In July 2005, Karl was elected onto the Football League board of directors as a representative for League One.
Since then he has been re-elected for the position in League One in 2006 and for the Championship in 2010.
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Sam Oyston, Natalie Christopher and Karl Oyston pictured) were frequently seen at Blackpool games
Oyston offered to step down as chairman in August 2010, stating that he struggled to communicate with other top flight owners and agents. He stood down as both chairman and director of the club with immediate effect but remained as Acting Chief Executive.
It was later reported that Karl had become bankrupt on the same date which meant he would have been unable to remain chairman as part of the Premier League rules.
He returned to the role in 2011 after his bankruptcy order was annulled.
On February 2, 2018, Karl resigned from his role as chairman after a rift formed with his father.
Natalie Christopher
Natalie Christopher is the daughter of Owen Oyston.
She was made chairwoman in February 2018, following Karl's decision to leave the club.
Sam Oyston and George Oyston
Karl Oyston's sons Sam and George became well known amongst fans for enjoying winding up fans with pictures on social media and acting out at matches.
From turning up with tennis rackets to counter-act a protest involving tennis balls to taking pictures on a bed covered in money, both sons have previously got into spats with fans at the club and on social media.
In April 2014, Sam tweeted a picture of Karl next to a billboard which had been created by Blackpool fans to protest against the club's way of spending money.
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Sam, was briefly made CEO after the removal of Alex Cowdy in February 2018 but lasted just 28 days in the role before being removed.
The news came as a shock to fans after Valeri Belokon released a statement late in 2017, wishing Sam well after he had been diagnosed with a long-term illness.

How long have the Oyston's been in charge at Blackpool?
Blackpool Football club was sold to Owen Oyston in April 1986 after the board of directors put the club on the market after councillors rejected plans to sell Bloomfield Road for a supermarket site.
Oyston bought the club for just £1.
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Blackpool were promoted to the Premier League on May 22, 2010 following a 3-2 win over Cardiff
Whilst he has over seen the club, Oyston has seen five play-off final wins including the famous Championship play-off final in 2010 which saw the Seasiders promoted to the Premier League for the first time in the club's history.
Blackpool also lifted the LDV in 2002 and 2004.
The Seasiders are currently in the Sky Bet League One and are tenth in the league table following four defeats in five.
 
What are the problems at Blackpool FC?
Over the years, there have been many problems at Blackpool from the training ground facilities which have not been updated, to players not turning up or having to take the Oyston's to court.
Whilst we cannot write down all the problems both on and off the pitch, here are five we have picked out.
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Blackpool legend Charlie Adam was forced to take the club to court over bonus disputesCharlie Adam fights for bonus
Following Blackpool's promotion to the Premier League at the end of the 2009-10 season, captain Charlie Adam was forced to take the club to court.
The dispute between Adam and the club was about unpaid bonuses which saw Adam owed £20,000 as part of his contract.
The contract stated that Adam would be paid a "survival bonus" for every season the Seasiders stayed up - which not only had they done, but they had also been promoted.
Adam and three other Blackpool players were forced to go to court to receive their bonuses.
Suing fans
As protests began to build at Blackpool, the Oystons began to take legal action over a number of fans.
These included 32-year-old David Ragozzino who made comments against them on an internet forum and Frank Knight was was forced to pay £20,000 in damages to the family.
Crowdfunding pages were set up by supporters groups to help those affected pay the money and in total 16 fans ended up being sued by the Oyston family.
One of those sued by the Oyston family Jeremy Smith, managed to win his case against the club and the claims were dropped.
He was being sued for holding up a doctored Blackpool Gazette front cover which read "We are thieves".
In May 2015, Sam Oyston was also forced to pay £20,000 in damages to fan Andy Grice following a tweet which was said: "How come you left the casino? Or is this s touchy subject? #stickyfingers".
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Gary Bowyer stepped down just two days after the first game of this season
Gary Bowyer pays for training
Former manager Gary Bowyer, who quit after just one game this season, chose to pay for his own training facilities in Fulwood, Preston after the ones - which Oyston had been "promising" to upgrade for over 10 years - became unusable.
Karl Oyston charged for abusive messages to fan
In March 2015, the FA charged Oyston following a string of messages he sent to a fan.
The exchange saw Oyston say to Blackpool fan, Stephen Smith: "Are you sure we've met? I would have remembered such a massive retard."
He then followed up with another saying "Enjoy your special needs day out."
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Karl Oyston left his position as chairman of Blackpool FC in 2018Blackpool start the season with just nine players
With less than two weeks to go to the start of the 2-14-15 Championship season, manager Jose Riga had just eight players on the books.
On the morning of the opening game of the season at the City Ground against Nottingham Forest, they had only nine.
Riga lost 27 players ion the summer and after a quick fight and using two 17-year-old youth players they managed to get a squad together but still named only four players on the bench.
The Seasiders lost the game 2-0 and went on finish bottom of the Championship table come May.
When did Blackpool fans start boycotting?
Fans were protesting the Oyston family in the mid 90s - which saw Vicki Oyston step down from her position as chairwoman.
Protests and boycotting began to pick up the anti again during the 2014-15 season. On the pitch, Blackpool were relegated from the Championship and then the season after from League One to League Two.
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Fans are planning to protest outside the stadium for the game against Arsenal this weekend
But off the pitch, fans were fighting back against how the club was being run.
Seasiders Independent Supporters Association was set up in 2013 in the wake of Michael Appleton's resignation.
Blackpool had had three managers in five months and fans were becoming unsettled.
SISA evolved into the Blackpool Supporters Trust and alongside other fan "anti-Oyston" groups such as the Tangerine Knights have coordinated protests alongside other clubs across the country and seen many fans take on a "Not a Penny More" stance - which sees fans not go to games unless they can pay on the gate at away games so Blackpool does not get any of the ticket gate.
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Fans have been protesting against the Oyston family since the 1990s
Protests have included tennis balls and tangerines being thrown onto the pitch during a home game against Burnley in 2014 and their game against Huddersfield on the final day of the season in May 2015 was forced to be abandoned following a pitch invasion which saw fans - including a man in a mobility scooter - invade the centre circle for more than an hour-and-a-half.


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Blackpool fans lob eggs and smoke bombs in protest at club's owners
Other actions of protest have included a ramble to the Oyston family property in Waddington, Lancashire and a coordinated protest outside the EFL headquarters in London and Preston which included a billboard which read: "English Fans Let Down".
Protests and the boycott have continued ever since with less and less fans going to home games and Blackpool fans missing important games such as their recent trip to Wembley in 2017 which saw them promoted from League Two and their two cup matches against Arsenal this season.
What has been happening in the court case between Valeri Belekon and Owen Oyston?
November 2017 saw a glimmer of hope for Blackpool fans when the Oyston family lost a High Court battle with business man Valeri Belokon.
The Oystons were ordered to buy Belokon out of Blackpool FC for £31million after his company, VB Football Assets - a minor shareholder in Blackpool - brought action against them for showing unfair prejudice against shareholders.
The court summarised that the Oyston family had "illegitimately stripped" the club of millions of pounds.
Since then there have been a number of other court dates which has seen Oyston and Belokon continue to battle it out and in November 2018, Oyston was ordered to pay what he owes or face the possibility of jail.
 
There is plenty of negative O coverage in other media sources today. The only thing that really matters though is VB pulling the trigger. I just wish he would get on with it
 
All this superb coverage in the media exposing the disgusting Oyston and his appalling treatment of fans, his greed, his decimating of the club and the negative results on the town and still the EFL do nothing...and still the mushrooms continue to buy tickets rather than grow a pair and make a stance against tyranny.
 
Very good piece on Sky Sports News about the Chiznells (Father and Son) and the problems at BR
 
Times write up:

A return visit for Gregor Robertson. He previously told the story of the former Blackpool player who recounted, with some incredulity, a chance meeting with Karl Oyston in Lytham St Annes one afternoon, during the club’s sojourn in the Premier League in 2010-11. The player, much to his frustration, had barely featured for the first team during his time at the club. And with that in mind, Oyston, the Blackpool chairman, crudely inquired: “Don’t you feel guilty taking my money?” No FA Cup fever at Blackpool, only bitterness at owners who ‘decimated’ club Gregor Robertson (The Journeyman) visits Blackpool It was 4pm outside the west stand of Bloomfield Road, an hour and a half before Blackpool’s FA Cup third-round tie against arsenal kicked off. Blackpool Supporters’ Trust (BST) members had set up the portable table they gather round during the “Not a penny more”, boycott before every home game. They had laid their BST flag on the cold, damp floor. They hawked scarves that read “Oyston Out”, in reference to their much-maligned, contemptuous owner. They handed leaflets to visiting arsenal fans, some of whom had come to lend their support, but many of whom were oblivious to all but the vaguest details of what has befallen this proud club. The few hundred or so who gathered chorused acerbic songs. They chuckled when the news that a protester had sat atop the arsenal team coach outside their Preston hotel filtered through. The light was falling. There was a bitter chill in the air. And every now and then, a splat landed on the pavement courtesy of a seagull overhead. There can be fleeting moments during these all too frequent protests that invigorate, heighten the senses: a rousing chorus; the billowing tangerine smoke and the smell of cordite released from a flare; a bright orange Ford Cortina roaring its engine, flags fluttering from its windows, sounding a supportive horn. Yet when the noise stills as kick-off approaches and the hubbub subsides, it is melancholy, overwhelmingly, that hangs in the air. And a question: how has it come to this? “It’s a real conflict for all of us,” Steve Rowland, the BST secretary, says. “We’d all love to be in there; this is the biggest game we’ve had for years, and we’re all outside. It’s very hard to have that taken away from you. It’s a real rift in a lot of people’s lives.” The refusal of thousands of supporters to contribute another penny to the club until Owen Oyston has gone means that, most weeks, when kick-off arrives, the BST pack up their table, fold up their flag, and head home, or to the shops, or to do whatever any non-football supporter would do with their Saturday afternoon. It is the saddest moment of their week. “It hurts,” Christine Seddon, the Trust’s chairwoman, says. “Usually there isn’t this much attention. Normally there are just a few of us leafleting. But the BST have had a presence outside this ground for every home game, in all competitions, since August 2015. It’s symbolic. This is our club, and we love it, and this is the only thing we can do to save it.” When the High Court’s judgment found, in November 2017, that the Oystons — Owen and his son Karl — had “illegitimately stripped” Blackpool of almost £27 million and used the club as their “personal cash machine” after the £100 million Premier League windfall that came as a result of promotion to the top flight in 2010, an end to the most vindictive ownership in English Football appeared nigh. The Oystons were ordered to repay Valeri Belokon, a Latvian banker who invested £4.5 million in exchange for 20 per cent of the club’s shares but was found to have been “unfairly prejudiced”, more than £31 million. Yet since the first instalment of £10 million was paid, Oyston, 85, has defaulted on every payment, been served with a penal notice that has expired leaving him in contempt of court, and has effectively battened down the hatches in his penthouse suite above the west stand. “He’s living out his days in his broken empire,” Jeremy Smith, a long-term supporter of the boycott, says. “Like Nero, fiddling, while Rome burns.” When Oyston’s conviction in 1996 for the rape of a 16-year-old girl is taken into consideration, the lack of action by the football authorities — whose passing of the buck or interpretation of their own rules has allowed this to continue for so long — appears all the more damning. Last week the BST had contacted pubs from Fleetwood to Lytham, encouraging them to screen the game and facilitate fan-zones for disaffected supporters. However, for some, the urge to support their team remains too strong. Given that the Blackpool Gazette has stopped publishing match action photographs in which supporters are identifiable, for fear of reprisals, few of those who entered Bloomfield Road on Saturday were enamoured by the prospect of speaking to The Times. Queueing at the turnstiles, however, were Nick Cuncliffe and his friend John Watson, who was born in the town, but now lives in China. “I used to have three season tickets,” Cuncliffe says, “me, my missus and daughter. Sometimes my mum would come along and it was a really nice family activity. Now we stay away. Oyston has decimated a generation of supporters. The only reason I’m here tonight is because my pal is here and it’s arsenal.” By the time we reached the Bloomfield Brewhouse, on Bloomfield Road, whatever big-game excitement there may have been had all but evaporated. Joe Willock, the teenage arsenal striker, had just plundered the first of his two first-half goals. Alex Iwobi would add a third with four minutes of the 90 remaining. Children of an age never to have set foot in Bloomfield Road sat in their tangerine strips, eyes glued to the screens. There were grumblings about the neglectful state of the pitch. Rowland pointed to a swathe of empty seats, where he once sat every other week. Only 3,737 fans filled the home end, a resounding success for boycotting supporters. Everyone has a tale of how their connection to the club has been eroded. For Seddon, it was her mother being unable to watch the team she supported since the age of seven during the final years of her life. She passed away recently, aged 91. “If we’re talking about the FA Cup,” she says, “she went to Wembley on the back of her brother’s motorbike in 1953. We’ve got Tangerine blood in our veins.” For two 15-year-olds, Ryan and Niall, it means a group of school friends gathering outside the ground rather than watching the mighty arsenal in the flesh. “No one at school goes,” Ryan says. “It’s tempting to go in, but it’s not worth it for one game. It’ll just keep Oyston here for longer.” “This just shouldn’t be happening, should it?” says Smith, 49, one of scores of supporters sued for defamation by the Oystons after he held up a doctored newspaper front page which read, “We are not thieves” at a televised match in 2014. Smith fought the case, though, and in 2016 won. “The town, now, should be in the stadium, for one of the biggest games in years,” he says. “It saddens me. I’ve got a 14-year-old lad at home who should be in there. I brought him up as a Blackpool fan. He doesn’t want to go anywhere else.” Rowland, 65, pens a regular BST column in the Blackpool Gazette and on Friday wrote a “New Year fantasy” reimagined history of Blackpool. And indeed, it is chastening to consider what might have been under different owners during the past three decades — on the pitch, yes, but also as a positive force in a town with some of the highest levels of deprivation in the country. Rowland, who for decades made the 450-mile round trip from his home in Hertfordshire to games, returned to the town in retirement in 2013. “I had planned to write a novel too, but I never got around to it,” he says. “Perhaps I could write about the fall of the House of Oyston? “It’ll happen one day.” EDIT - There's also a damning snippet in Tony Cascarino's column Blackpool pitch a sign of their chaos While I enjoyed most of the third round, it was painful to see what the Oystons have done to Blackpool. It was a televised game against arsenal on Saturday evening but there were so many empty seats in protest at the running of the club. Contrast that to Tranmere Rovers on Friday evening against Tottenham Hotspur, who lost 7-0 but had a crowd of 12,553. All the Blackpool fans want Oyston out, and rightly so. The family have been negligent in their ownership, and a prime example of that is the fact the club only have one groundsman. That’s why the pitch was in such a state for the 3-0 defeat against arsenal. They are one of the only clubs in the country, that I know of, who only employ one groundsman. In the modern game, that is laughable.
 
Interesting point that BST haven't raised on here, the Accy away game if you buy your tickets directly from them the O's don't get a penny of the £. Been around for a couple of days this info.
No excuses not to go, of course if we believe the hype there are thousands, nay tens of thousands of Pool fans waiting to come back, reality is when asked how many had been sold to Pool fans when I bought mine from them today- just over 100.