Torquay United Fans Forum

merse btpir wrote: 08 Oct 2017, 14:22 What appalling knowledg of geography you have!

Boreham Wood FC a South London club? They come from the town of Borehamwood in Hertfordshire and their nearest significant rivals for crowds are Watford, Arsenal and Barnet with Spurs not so far away; St Albans City and Stevenage as local rivals.

I think you're getting them confused with Bromley!

LOL, Whoops! You'll have to chalk that one down as an age thing, for I'm not sure how I inexplicably drifted from Boreham Wood across the river to Bromley. I'm having a wry smile because I kepted asking myself - when doing the club crowd comparison, - why the population was so small for a London Borough, when the answer was already in my post - Hertsmere! D'OH! 'More haste, less speed, me thinks.

Arsenal may well have made a £15k contribution to the stand, but they also contribute significantly to everyday costs through the deals under which their women's and youth teams play there.

MellowYellow wrote: 08 Oct 2017, 13:12So no real difference other than Boreham Wood being closer to London, which is not necessarily an advantage given there are 28 other non-league teams currently playing in South London borough between the 6th and 10th tiers of the English football league system. Plus they have close by Crystal Palace to compete with for supporters as well as other London Premier league sides a short train journey away.

What appalling knowledg of geography you have!

Boreham Wood FC a South London club? They come from the town of Borehamwood in Hertfordshire and their nearest significant rivals for crowds are Watford, Arsenal and Barnet with Spurs not so far away; St Albans City and Stevenage as local rivals.

I think you're getting them confused with Bromley!

Borehamwood sits within the 15 wards in Hertsmere which has a population of 104 517.

Torquay sit within the 15 wards of Torbay which has a population of 130,959.

So no real difference other than Boreham Wood being closer to London, which is not necessarily an advantage given there are 28 other non-league teams currently playing in South London borough between the 6th and 10th tiers of the English football league system. Plus they have close by Crystal Palace to compete with for supporters as well as other London Premier league sides a short train journey away.

So in some respects we are at an advantage, which shows in our average attendances of 1,937 (bottom of the league) against Boreham Wood's 754 (two points off the play off places). The irony is they could be playing league football next season whilst we could be playing two tier's below in the National league South.

This is all very well, but clearly B.W. have the right people driving this forward - TUFC clearly haven't. The other thing I noticed was that Hertsmere Borough Council contributed £70,000 towards the project. We'd be lucky to get a contribution of 70p from Torbay Council for anything similar. Also, I'm sure being a London suburb gives them a big advantage over clubs outside large cities.

http://www.barnetsouthgate.ac.uk/boreha ... ll-academy

Was surprised to note this scheme started in 2002. Was only talking to an ex-Bideford player in the week, about how many talented local youngsters (19-21) there are plying their trade in the Peninsula/SDL premier leagues, that have been 'missed' and probably will never rise above that level because of a shocking lack of development opportunities, for late developers in this area at the time.

Things have improved around this way, but it's been largely down to; The Chelsea foundation and Arsenal soccer schools, who have educational courses for 16-18 year olds and teams playing in the U-19 JLP, as far as I know the only local club that did this are Exeter City, the former educational link course run by our club had a team playing at a standard of football that could be described as a joke.

Figures of over 600 PASE Academy students underline the revenue streams into the club through this project..........of course only a few of them are 'elite' footballers with the potential to be developed as either professionals for the club or for 'selling on'

My son was one of only two first years assimilated into that highly successful team of last season to play in the FA Youth Cup tie on Thursday night that is referred to. This is a business plan that can be achieved and replicated at Torquay United ~ you don't need a training facility next to the main pitch and that isn't enough for BWFC; they also utilise the ground of Old Elizabethans in Barnet for training and matches for the two levels below 'Elite'..........as the chairman says: they concentrate on what they have, not on what they have not!

Thanks for sharing, I watched the whole video and it is an interesting watch.

One thing that struck me, was when Danny Hunter said " No point taking about what you haven't got, talk about what have got " A lesson that should have been learned at TUFC, a lesson that never has been learned, and fear never will be.

This highlights again for me, the need to move away from Plainmoor, of course under the right circumstances however, there simply is not the room or the scope to use Plainmoor in any way to help rebuild our club from the bottom up, and best of luck getting the residents of Plainmoor on side, once again yesterday spotted Torquay was full of people moaning groaning about how their lives are blighted on match day.

You build from the bottom up, not the top down......
https://www.youtube.com/embed/yyzCODhJ2Xg

At the risk of boring tomogull, listen & learn how a club is building from the bottom up rather than simply relying on a first team and nothing else.



NB for what it's worth the 'Arsenal contribution' towards the current 'new' West Stand at Meadow Park was £15,000 and the bulk of the rest of the money coming from a Football Stadia Improvement Fund (FSIF) grant of £241,000. Additional project funding came from the club itself, £164,000, Hertsmere Borough Council, £70,000, a personal contribution from the club chairman, £60,000, and that Arsenal FC contribution of £15,000.