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Should Exeter City remain a fan-owned club?

Matt Russell

Active member
Joined
Sep 3, 2017
Messages
1,153
Yes three very nice bottles from the Loire Valley (y)
Three whole bottles as a consumer must almost make you an owner............right?
 

ramone

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Nov 9, 2007
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7,262
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If i had to agree with you we would both be wrong
Ed I really do think you're pi$$ing against the wind and expecting not to get wet with this thread !

Apart from the normal chatter in the pubs before games about who is getting picked over someone else I cant honestly remember someone who purports to support City so dead against the very organisation that has a say in everything that effectively goes on behind the scenes with the club and has helped us keep the club alive when the $hit hit the fan all those years ago.
I don't pay into the Trust for my own reasons but I'm bloody glad they are there because I honestly believe that if some money had come in at that time and picked up our club when it was on its knees then SJP would be more flats and my beloved City wouldn't have to worry about furloughing players and staff because we would be a part time Southern League club with the facilities like Tivvy town.
 

Copernicus

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Dec 12, 2008
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852
Location
Bahrain
Yes we should stay fan owned,

Unless a "Berty Big Balls Billionaire" wants to buy the club and he was born in Exeter, watched City from the Big Bank/Cowshed in the 1980s, can show us the scarf he wore and is happy to put money in and get nothing back, then the Trust should consider the offer, with conditions.

Owners want to make a profit, we can only make enough to exist.

Understand this..... we have a club today because a few dedicated people worked very hard and saved it for us all, if we go down the "owner" route again, it may work for a few seasons but we will end up not having a club.
 
Last edited:

ryancooper327

Active member
Joined
Aug 1, 2018
Messages
2,848
I love this type of question.

a. Stay the same
b. Change, but I won’t say how.+






+ Choosing b could result in your death, it also might not. Who knows. Vote anyway.
 

dontpassback

Active member
Joined
Dec 30, 2015
Messages
4,400
Answer is quite simple,yes,while the trust isn’t perfect(what is )it’s a damned sight better than being owned or run by chancers R us etc,we have Been there and done that,and we all know what happened !
 

i8cornwall

Active member
Joined
Jul 2, 2006
Messages
2,745
Yes we should stay fan owned and I do honestly believe in fan ownership at all clubs not just city.

What we have isn’t perfect but it’s 100% worth calling for change/campaigning and constantly working on for the benefit of everyone connected to the club.
 

Dannyred

Active member
Joined
Mar 10, 2019
Messages
1,313
Yes we should stay fan owned,

Unless a "Berty Big Balls Billionaire" wants to buy the club and he was born in Exeter, watched City from the Big Bank/Cowshed in the 1980s, can show us the scarf he wore and is happy to put money in and get nothing back, then the Trust should consider the offer, with conditions.

Owners want to make a profit, we can only make enough to exist.

Understand this..... we have a club today because a few dedicated people worked very hard and saved it for us all, if we go down the "owner" route again, it may work for a few seasons but we will end up not having a club.
Lucky that Leicester fans didn’t think the same as you.
 

Colesman Ballz

Very well known Exeweb poster
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Dec 28, 2014
Messages
14,845
Yes three very nice bottles from the Loire Valley (y)
Makes note for future reference for future Exeweb quiz questions !
 

Edward

Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2010
Messages
756
Run well by professionals in a sustainable, ethical and entrepreneurial way, Exeter City can be a Championship side within 10 years for the first time in its history.
There is a real opportunity to see how far a well-managed club can progress under Trust ownership and it would be a cracking shame if prospects were blunted by anything at all, including your belief that poor management is the issue. Mind you, I still don’t really know if you feel that bad management persists at the club or at the Trust or at any and every organisation that doesn’t listen to you. Even so, you must know that new ownership does not guarantee better management.

The ‘we plan to be in the Championship line’ was trotted out by the hapless fantasists sitting inside the boardroom around 10 years ago when they thought they were clever. A few years later, the club was virtually insolvent when it became clear they were not. Some changes were made and I am sure that more are necessary but altering the ownership model, even presuming you could find somebody dim enough to buy an entity with minimal underlying value, is not likely to yield more success once you consider outcomes elsewhere. Respected and successful owners are rare.

The very best management talent won’t spend its time on a business turning over £4m especially when they can have no equity interest. The management merely needs to be good enough. If that isn’t the case, something should be done but you have an odd desire to alter the ownership model with scant regard for all the associated uncertainty. That doesn’t seem right.

The club won’t ever be perfect. That should be understood. That said, it should survive. It might even occasionally prosper on the field and enjoy some seasons in League One. It should find it easier to be a good citizen, a community asset and a facility that is appreciated by the city. That is all. It is ECFC, after all. More than that will require enormous luck and can be enjoyed as a treat: it should not be regarded as a target. Pragmatism is an undervalued skill in business.
 

Copernicus

Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2008
Messages
852
Location
Bahrain
Lucky that Leicester fans didn’t think the same as you.
Good point, but they have a bigger catchment area than us, therefore a better business case.

That is the root of the issue, the population in our region is too small (thankfully)

I hope some foreign billionaire (in my job actually I meet and talk to some of them) would like to buy ECFC.

If we are going to move up the divisions then I think we should look at how Bournemouth and Swansea have achieved it but stay fan owned.
 
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