Torquay United Fans Forum

portugull wrote:As the originator of this post last November I have been reading with interest the recent posts started by chunkygull a week ago.
Now that GIL are hopefully history the future of our Club is reaching a really crucial stage given that cash is very tight and TUST do not have, as of today, the financial muscle to make a bid for the Club.
I am currently making a detailed study of all the Clubs owned by their fans in both the Football League and the National League.
The more I think about it the more I am convinced that the only way forward is for the fans to buy the Club but as ever the difficult part is how we go about a deal and how we finance the buy out.

fred disley wrote:I stand corrected by Gullpower,he is right in seeing the bigger picture and stating the only objective is the long term survival of Torquay United. Perhaps in my rose tinted glasses mode I was hoping for something more, at least back in the league before I get too old to trudge up the steps of the family stand. I suppose the way we have lurched from disaster to disaster over the last few seasons I just wish for a close season when we start the new season with the same board that finished the last,the same manager,and I am sure that Nicholson with another season under his belt will be a wanted commodity. More than three players under contract for the following season and no asset stripping companies having our board over for the majority of the break, I think these things equate to stability, A very unusual concept for our club.

Plainmoor78 wrote:Both of the last two posts make very valid points. Fred is correct in saying that community owned clubs cannot compete at the top levels of the game due to finance and are no guarantee of success. There have also been some spectacular failures such as Stockport county. But gullpower is equally correct in saying that the teams mentioned would not exist today without community ownership. It seems though that community ownership only exists when other private interests decide there is no money to made from the existing club, so the trusts that take over these clubs are already on a hiding to nothing. What I find extremely concerning is the fact we seem to be paying out a lot of money just to survive. We took a loan from GI it seems just to get to the end of last season, and I believe the reason we pay Thea Bristow 50% of all transfer income is due to a loan of £200,000 she made to the club just to keep it going last year. Where on earth are we going to get the money survive this season?

fred disley wrote:I am a TUST member, I support their long term aims, but could they walk in and run the club ,The gulf between a group of enthusiastic and committed individuals that are the TUST and successfully running a multi million pound enterprise is massive and not to be underestimated.
My biggest reservation to community ownership is the success factor, or lack of it, in terms of on the field activity. I have spent far too much time recently researching the community ownership principle, there are no stand out success stories , Darlington, Chester, Exeter, Wimbledon and Portsmouth,all are finding life very difficult, I know Wimbledon got promoted last year but by their own fans comments they cannot compete in division one because they do not have the revenue to attract division one players.
If any of you can bear to type the words Exeter fans forum, then be brave and have a look, those that post on this site and I am not saying they are a majority, hate being community owned and one thread that gets more than its fair share of coverage is the lack of information supplied by the trust on the running of the club, an instance being the three million they got for Ashley Grimes, none of which has gone back to the playing budget, this theme seems to ring a bell with our club.
In the short term, a seat on the board would be a very productive start for TUST, whether they go further and make a play for the ownership of the club is open for discussion.

Plainmoor78 wrote:I think I remember reading somewhere that football trust membership take up is around 15% to 20% of a clubs average crowd, so TUST are doing as well as can be expected in that matter. That said I think the membership fee of £2 a month is too low. The TUST will never be able to build up an adequate fighting fund in a reasonable space of time and this may be why some fans do not take it seriously.

chunkygull wrote: I am not knocking TUST but at the rate it has been going it would take a lot longer to buy the club or take over the running of it than the time your opening line suggests would take a share scheme to get off the ground.