GET Gary Owers, Martin Khul & Geoff Harrop OUT NOW

[merse btpir]

I'm doing my part by having a 4 year boycott

Get real you live in Chesterfield don't you?

Oh; OK then I'll 'boycott' from London then

[Yorkieandy]

Boycott means stop going to games because you don't agree with how the club is run. I used to get to 3 / 4 home games a season but now i won't go. I used to buy shirts and allsorts from the club shop whereas now i don't and basically i don't give the club any money whilst it's run by someone who won't use it for the benefit of TUFC. Doesn't matter where you live. You can boycott.

Why would i make it easier for CO by handing him money? Oh because i'm a fan doh and therefore i have to hand over money without question otherwise i'm not loyal blah blah. :no: Ridiculous.

[Southampton Gull]

Boycott means stop going to games because you don't agree with how the club is run. I used to get to 3 / 4 home games a season but now i won't go. I used to buy shirts and allsorts from the club shop whereas now i don't and basically i don't give the club any money whilst it's run by someone who won't use it for the benefit of TUFC. Doesn't matter where you live. You can boycott.

Why would i make it easier for CO by handing him money? Oh because i'm a fan doh and therefore i have to hand over money without question otherwise i'm not loyal blah blah. :no: Ridiculous.

Good point well made.

[Dave]

I've always held the opinion, a boycott in this instance would be counter-productive, I firmly believe it's what CO wants us to do, and gets him to his end goal a lot quicker, what would a protest do, they've reaffirmed their long term intentions for the club to prosper in that club statement, we, with good reason don't believe them, the more we protest the more their just going keep telling us their in for the long haul, mind you a protest outside Harrop house would be amusing, to see the large one get all sweaty.

A phoenix club running along side the current club is out of the question, it simply wouldn't work, we're better of right now putting all our efforts into insuring CO does not get the ground freehold, no 1 priority now, and then getting ourselves into a position for fan ownership, but then, it must be realised the club would have to start again from the bottom, as it's unlikely the trust could fund the club at it's current level, that would need to time build finances, but at least we'd have a clean fan owned club, and I believe fans would come back and support it, especially if we owned it.

[Southampton Gull]

I've always held the opinion, a boycott in this instance would be counter-productive, I firmly believe it's what CO wants us to do, and gets him to his end goal a lot quicker, what would a protest do, they've reaffirmed their long term intentions for the club to prosper in that club statement, we, with good reason don't believe them, the more we protest the more their just going keep telling us their in for the long haul, mind you a protest outside Harrop house would be amusing, to see the large one get all sweaty.

A phoenix club running along side the current club is out of the question, it simply wouldn't work, we're better of right now putting all our efforts into insuring CO does not get the ground freehold, no 1 priority now, and then getting ourselves into a position for fan ownership, but then, it must be realised the club would have to start again from the bottom, as it's unlikely the trust could fund the club at it's current level, that would need to time build finances, but at least we'd have a clean fan owned club, and I believe fans would come back and support it, especially if we owned it.

100% agree with all of that.

[Yorkieandy]

Does anyone else not see the logic of stopping going to games then?

Obviously CO already has the season ticket money but if all pay on the day fans didn't go and instead paid the price of the ticket into the TUST then CO has to make up this money out of his own pocket. After a while he may have to think long and hard about what he does next as he will be losing a lot more money on a regular basis. The club is still going tits up so may as well watch it going tits up from afar and give your £15 quid ticket money to the TUST instead where it may be of more benefit.

Stop buying merchandise and food and basically cut off all monetary supply lines.

This actually could be a viable strategy to force CO into making a decision about the club. The only strategy in fact.

By attending games you are making it easier for CO to pass the time. If he is still going to pass the time running the club under then at least make it cost a bit more FGS! Attending is doing absolutely nothing and has done absolutely nothing under CO's ownership other than help him pay the bills.

[Southampton Gull]

No, I think a boycott will just speed up the demise of the club. Osborne has to keep banging the drum about why we need a new stadium and that gives TUST the time to gain momentum and get the finances should the worst happen and he just winds the club up.

[Teigngull]

When my self imposed absence (boycott) ruffled a few feathers back in November I had the pleasure of this reply from our chum Merse ( well,we're on the same side I hope)

" I very much doubt that the meagre income from a sub-fifteen hundred gate is being 'syphoned off' to any degree at all ; more likely there is a subsidising of the continuance of professional football in the town beyond most reasonable people's expectations "

It took some time but I see Metres point & agree wholeheartedly with Southampton Dave , we need the club still running as a business.
A wound up club would be a disaster.

[Colorado Gull]

Boycott, perhaps not. Protest on the other hand is another matter. I agree with the comments that have already been posted, fan ownership is the only viable solution to seeing the Torquay United we all know and love survive. May just join the TUST anyway, despite not being in the country.

[MellowYellow]

then CO has to make up this money out of his own pocket.

I expect you'll find CO is utilising 'foward funding' structures to raise capital for the club in which our club pledge their future revenues or capital in return for cash upfront. In other words it's a business loan. CO has no intention of using his own personal money to fund the club.

In fairness, this type of loan if used sensibly and paid off when due can provide exactly what the club needs - a tool for managing cashflows effectively over the course of the so called five year plan. The risk element is at the end of five years is CO will be desperate to pull back in that loan with interest by means of gaining a foothold on the freehold of Plainmoor. At that point, having made his return on his capital investment, he will happily hand over the club 'Torquay United' to the TUST minus a stadium (or the promise of one that will never materialize.)

So expect to see the club funded again next season in CO quest for gold, but whatever the outcome be assured that the monies CO is inputting into the club will have to be paid back.

[SteveDeckchair]

A boycott would undoubtedly mean the club going into administration, but if the club then folds and the council no longer have a tenancy for Plainmoor, wouldn't a phoenix club be able to just become the new tenants?

I'm fairly sure the mayor can't just sell a plot of land without some kind of oversight and we've already established the council are behind the club.

[westyorkshiregull]

Yes could do , however could end up with nothing. Prefer to keep to the club and plainmoor as it is .

Need a knight in shining armour

[merse btpir]

A boycott would undoubtedly mean the club going into administration, but if the club then folds and the council no longer have a tenancy for Plainmoor, wouldn't a phoenix club be able to just become the new tenants?
I'm fairly sure the mayor can't just sell a plot of land without some kind of oversight and we've already established the council are behind the club.

I wouldn't bet on it because the councillors will always vote wth self preservation in mind. i.e getting re-elected.

Andy loves to thrash about without thinking things through. His notional phoenix club would not get Plainmoor to play at because once it is relinquished by it's sitting tenant being wound up; the freehold WILL be sold to the highest bidder make no mistake about that and a fan owned football club (supported by how many people?) will be more of a minority enterprise in the borough now than the current professional football club. And there is nowhere else appropriate to launch even a half decent club; ask Steve Breed and learn all about Watcombe Wanderers and how they have had to decamp to Newton Abbot. He cites Scarborough who had to go to Bridlington to establish their phoenix club; which town will welcome AFC Torquay ~ Newton Abbot, Teignmouth? There's an old ground at Dawlish you know; do you see it playing here?

It is in the owner's interest that the average fan just concerns himself with how the team are doing and turns a deaf ear and a blind eye to the real concerns. This why Dave Thomas writing under another name in the Sunday Independent today, peddles the line that; "all they are worried about is staying in the National League" and does the same in the Herald Express much to the approval of Clarke Osborne and of course to the proprietor of the Indy; Pete Masters.

The Herald's football correspondent's soft soaping of the recent statement made by Clarke Osborne was so predictable from this predictable and ultra-forelock tugging doyen of the Plainmoor press box. Scribes like this; club proprietors like Osborne and Masters; only want supporters who aren't interested in stadiums, ownership or anything else that happens off the pitch. That's why they encourage and engineer formations of official supporters' clubs as opposed to enter constructive and open dialogue with their supporters' trusts. Have you ever heard a single utterance on the Plainmoor freehold from Bernard Noble, Nigel Tabb or Paul Bastard for instance? No they're far more interested in following round a bunch of losers who are now looking like deliberate losers at that; such are the suspicious actions of people like Alex Davey at Boreham Wood and the manner in which the team is now regualr parting in the middle giving the opposition a free run at goal.

That's why people like dazza inadvertently fall into their honey trap by calling for people like me to forget the past ~ a man who doesn't know his history can't shape his own destiny and we cannot have enough people knowing as much about everything as much as we can tell them about anyway.

It's the only way the club can survive!

[Jerry]

Have you ever heard a single utterance on the Plainmoor freehold from Bernard Noble, Nigel Tabb or Paul Bastard for instance?

I can't speak for the other two (although I suspect you are correct) but Paul Bastard was handing out TUST leaflets on Saturday.

[Yorkieandy]

I can't speak for the other two (although I suspect you are correct) but Paul Bastard was handing out TUST leaflets on Saturday.

Top bloke.