Is Project 6000 and sustainability in L1 compatible with selling our "Gems"?

[i8cornwall]

Fair play to the club for the 6k fans idea and even more for actually working towards it, a little frustrated it's taken this long for the club/trust to get this get up and go attitude when it comes to actually going for promotion but you can't change the past.

Going forward I think we probably need to be less reliant on the academy for being our only stream of income and by the looks of it with the big screen, the new hub in the city centre and the 6k fans idea all probably supporting this idea, granted they won't bring in as much money as a Watkins does but every little helps, Not saying the academy isn't important but if we keep selling at the first given chance then we will never get anywhere on the pitch.

This season probably isn't as big as people are making out because lets be honest every man, women and child is going to want to be at SJP this season with us all being locked out for the past 12 months, it's next season that will be big, if we have a poor season on the pitch then even getting 4.5k fans in will be a big ask.

Till Matt, the players, club and trust have got us promoted (as clearly these components cant worth without the other) then let's be honest it's all just talk and a pipe dream, I'm still not convinced what we are doing currently is enough but again Rome wasnt built in a day and the wheels will ever so slowly turn till we are doing enough....hopefully and as frustrating as that is.

 

[stoneroses_1989]

The idea is great…but then again I’m still waiting on the deliverance of the 5 year plan…that was put out about 8 years ago. I really hope in 5 years time we are not just same old…hope Matt can get us up this season! Having sold another bunch of talented kids for millions…with a new Big bank toilet and kiosk to show and improvements at the training ground. Getting told we are moving in the right direction

 

[ExmouthMart]

Yeah mate cause Wimbledon haven’t sustained League 1 status? fan owned club. No academy like ours…

…… and they have a minority shareholder who has backed their new stadium, brought into the supporter trust ownership model and paid his ex wife £70 million in a divorce settlement. We go through endless initiatives and plans and the result is the same, going nowhere fast. We need to find a partnership to take us to the next level.

 

[stoneroses_1989]

…… and they have a minority shareholder who has backed their new stadium, brought into the supporter trust ownership model and paid his ex wife £70 million in a divorce settlement. We go through endless initiatives and plans and the result is the same, going nowhere fast. We need to find a partnership to take us to the next level.

Ahhh right. Yeah perhaps a 51% stake…? That would sort us out!

 

[SaintJames]

I think you take it as a given that everyone associated directly with the running of Exeter City FC is ambitious and that goes for all the players, especially the young ones. Everyone if they are honest knows that playing for Exeter gives you an opportunity to move on to better things. Selling the young players gives them an opportunity to play in better teams at a better level and reap the rewards that comes with that. From the Clubs perspective it gives us money to survive and continue.
Without massive investment we are never going to sustain football at a higher level. So you need to cut your cloth accordingly and accept that we are a decent League Two/ National League Club with our set up. No amount of initiatives are going to generate the income to sustain a year on year improvement of promotion etc. Finding, developing and selling on young players is and will continue to be our main source of income unless one of us wins the Euro millions or a billionaire suddenly takes a fancy to us and wants to chuck money at us.

You make some good points especially with regard to the ethos that ECFC is an opportunity to showcase your talent and both the club and the player benefit. Where I believe we differ is I dont agree that the only way forward is through someone pumping debt into the club. I dont think we should underestimate the mountain relatively speaking we have climbed moving from a bottom 10 financially bereft league two club for 80 years to become a sustainable top 7 League Two Club within ten years or so. We are much closer I believe to the very real possibility of sustaining football at League One level something we have NEVER achieved in over 100 years! The biggest challenge is something most other clubs of our level dont have to concern themselves with - being in a rugby heartland.

 

[DB9]

You make some good points especially with regard to the ethos that ECFC is an opportunity to showcase your talent and both the club and the player benefit. Where I believe we differ is I dont agree that the only way forward is through someone pumping debt into the club. I dont think we should underestimate the mountain relatively speaking we have climbed moving from a bottom 10 financially bereft league two club for 80 years to become a sustainable top 7 League Two Club within ten years or so. We are much closer I believe to the very real possibility of sustaining football at League One level something we have NEVER achieved in over 100 years! The biggest challenge is something most other clubs of our level dont have to concern themselves with - being in a rugby heartland.

I haven't seen anyone advocating pumping debt into the club, That will never happen as the club's ownership stands. There are plenty NW clubs who are in Rugby heartlands, Rugby League is huge up there and the L1 & L2 clubs have to "fight" with them for fans. I don't want to get into the Rugby v Football thing again but The Chiefs are hugly successful and manage to attract players down to Exeter, Why can Rugby do that but not Football? Please don't say just money because we compete with clubs in the same league as ours but the "Out on a limb" does come up a lot on here.

 

[Pobbop]

Yeah mate cause Wimbledon haven’t sustained League 1 status? fan owned club. No academy like ours…

Meh struggling at the bottom of League one, or being at the top of League two were you win most of your matches, think I'd prefer to be where we are, certainly don't look enviously at them, particularly as they're reliant totally on one guy.

We've done the struggling in division 3 thing, it's not much fun if I remember rightly.

 

[Pobbop]

I haven't seen anyone advocating pumping debt into the club, That will never happen as the club's ownership stands. There are plenty NW clubs who are in Rugby heartlands, Rugby League is huge up there and the L1 & L2 clubs have to "fight" with them for fans. I don't want to get into the Rugby v Football thing again but The Chiefs are hugly successful and manage to attract players down to Exeter, Why can Rugby do that but not Football? Please don't say just money because we compete with clubs in the same league as ours but the "Out on a limb" does come up a lot on here.

It's just money, clearly, so that's it. Chiefs spend more than any other Rugby team in the country, we can't spend more than Wrexham or Mansfield.

We are now a rugby town, because of this I don't believe the 6000 is doable myself.

 

[dontpassback]

I would like to think that ambition runs from the very top of our club to the very bottom,we have a very good academy producing exciting young players so we should be pushing onwards and upward,however that is very simple for someone to say typing on a keyboard !

 

[SaintJames]

I haven't seen anyone advocating pumping debt into the club, That will never happen as the club's ownership stands. There are plenty NW clubs who are in Rugby heartlands, Rugby League is huge up there and the L1 & L2 clubs have to "fight" with them for fans. I don't want to get into the Rugby v Football thing again but The Chiefs are hugly successful and manage to attract players down to Exeter, Why can Rugby do that but not Football? Please don't say just money because we compete with clubs in the same league as ours but the "Out on a limb" does come up a lot on here.

I was responding to Mart's point that the only way forward is to hand over to a private investor. Almost all private investment in football especially in the lower leagues is via loans which on the balance sheet is a debt. Regards Rugby League I have just looked at the Superleague teams and with the exception of Salford none of the other teams are sharing fans with lower league football teams