Fonda wrote: 20 Apr 2017, 06:08I think it's probably naïve of all of us to think those in the national media don't know what's going on at our club. I'm sure they keep their ears to the ground of any such 'scandal' - but only report what they think their readership will be interested in. Fear we might have reached the level that national readership simply wouldn't care enough about a provincial club - because that is what we've almost become now. Hope I'm wrong on that - and if the national press really don't know what's happening (perhaps Merse has a view on that?) maybe we've not done our job as supporters well enough? Leyton Orient and Coventry fans have made a lot of noise about their problems (and rightly so) - as a support base do we need to get louder/more organised?
First of all we need to recognise reality and facts when making our case.......Torquay United are a small provincial non league club. Leyton Orient are a London English Football League club and somewhat of a cause celebre after being owned by Barry Hearn; Coventry City a former Premier League and FA Cup winning club ~ they will always be more newsworthy.
A story carried n the National Press needs to have national interest and so any journalist deciding to report it needs to know that he won't be wasting his time and that his editor will intend to publish it; then (even at the last minute) events of the time need to be favourable to the story getting including and not ending up on the cutting room floor.
When talking to Barry Glendenning one of the phrases he used to me was
"let's keep our fingers crossed then" and so fingers were crossed and when I first clicked on the Guardian Football site very early on the Sunday morning it wasn't there. Then I got an excited call from someone quite significant in the Torquay United story that indeed it was now up and I later satisfied myself that the hard copy Observer had it included too. Sometimes inclusion can be that marginal.
A few months ago I did alert a few contacts in the media world (including one or two who do read and occasionally contribute to
BTPIR that this story was building and all it needed was a 'trigger' event and that happened to come in the Guardian's case by the club showing such disinterest in getting the tickets out to the travelling fans for the Lincoln match when they were showing such loyalty and support for a club owner who doesn't appear to be reciprocating those qualities in return.....silly old club putting themselves in the frame there then and lucky old us; I wonder who told the media world about that?
Since then (and this is proof that both
BTPIR &
torquayfans.com are scrutinised by the media world (and lately on a global basis) I have received two significant communications from overseas TV stations covering the whole of the English (and other) speaking world interested in doing features on our story. Once again it could maybe the case that another 'trigger' is needed to get the club in the frame again and let's hope that is not the actual relegation of the club.
The players are doing their limited best to win that fight and the manager certainly is. They know to a man they are dead men walking as far as their employment ending the minute the final whistle sounds next Saturday, and I know the really hard part of the battle to keep this club in the picture will then kick-in ~ especially if relegation is avoided; but then was it ever any different trying to keep a sleepy backwater little club in the public eye and that's why people like Osborne probably get involved with the Herefords and Torquays of this world because they know they have a good chance of slipping in under the radar.
In my considered opinion; winning the fight against relegation is one very important thing, but winning the fight against the freehold of Plainmoor being put up for grabs is another thing entirely; much bigger and far tougher![quote=Fonda post_id=204185 time=1492668523 user_id=128][i][b]I think it's probably naïve of all of us to think those in the national media don't know what's going on at our club. I'm sure they keep their ears to the ground of any such 'scandal' - but only report what they think their readership will be interested in. Fear we might have reached the level that national readership simply wouldn't care enough about a provincial club - because that is what we've almost become now. Hope I'm wrong on that - and if the national press really don't know what's happening (perhaps Merse has a view on that?) maybe we've not done our job as supporters well enough? Leyton Orient and Coventry fans have made a lot of noise about their problems (and rightly so) - as a support base do we need to get louder/more organised?[/b][/i][/quote]
[b]First of all we need to recognise reality and facts when making our case.......Torquay United are a small provincial non league club. Leyton Orient are a London English Football League club and somewhat of a cause celebre after being owned by Barry Hearn; Coventry City a former Premier League and FA Cup winning club ~ they will always be more newsworthy. [/b]
A story carried n the National Press needs to have national interest and so any journalist deciding to report it needs to know that he won't be wasting his time and that his editor will intend to publish it; then (even at the last minute) events of the time need to be favourable to the story getting including and not ending up on the cutting room floor.
When talking to Barry Glendenning one of the phrases he used to me was [i]"let's keep our fingers crossed then"[/i] and so fingers were crossed and when I first clicked on the Guardian Football site very early on the Sunday morning it wasn't there. Then I got an excited call from someone quite significant in the Torquay United story that indeed it was now up and I later satisfied myself that the hard copy Observer had it included too. Sometimes inclusion can be that marginal.
A few months ago I did alert a few contacts in the media world (including one or two who do read and occasionally contribute to [b]BTPIR[/b] that this story was building and all it needed was a 'trigger' event and that happened to come in the Guardian's case by the club showing such disinterest in getting the tickets out to the travelling fans for the Lincoln match when they were showing such loyalty and support for a club owner who doesn't appear to be reciprocating those qualities in return.....silly old club putting themselves in the frame there then and lucky old us; I wonder who told the media world about that?
Since then (and this is proof that both [b]BTPIR[/b] & [b]torquayfans.com[/b] are scrutinised by the media world (and lately on a global basis) I have received two significant communications from overseas TV stations covering the whole of the English (and other) speaking world interested in doing features on our story. Once again it could maybe the case that another 'trigger' is needed to get the club in the frame again and let's hope that is not the actual relegation of the club.
The players are doing their limited best to win that fight and the manager certainly is. They know to a man they are dead men walking as far as their employment ending the minute the final whistle sounds next Saturday, and I know the really hard part of the battle to keep this club in the picture will then kick-in ~ especially if relegation is avoided; but then was it ever any different trying to keep a sleepy backwater little club in the public eye and that's why people like Osborne probably get involved with the Herefords and Torquays of this world because they know they have a good chance of slipping in under the radar.
[b]In my considered opinion; winning the fight against relegation is one very important thing, but winning the fight against the freehold of Plainmoor being put up for grabs is another thing entirely; much bigger and far tougher![/b]
