A message for the chairman and the directors

[athenasbra]

Please can you sort out the redevelopment of the old Grandstand and away end. Its long overdue. Lets face it if Torquay can do it any club can.

 

[PeteUSA]

We dont have a multi million pound lottery winner to pump money into our club like Torquay did. Its looking increasingly like our bunch are just in it for what they can make.

 

[Red red]

The re development won't happen in my life time
As much as will always support City I believe the club is being
Run by a load of bloody amateurs

 

[Thames Valley Red]

We dont have a multi million pound lottery winner to pump money into our club like Torquay did. Its looking increasingly like our bunch are just in it for what they can make.

But with a forward thinking commercially minded Trust board we could start a community share programme, linked to a sustained campaign to bring the council on side, linked to working with businesses to make the change happen. At the moment the clear lack of ambition from the Trust is deafening and they are becoming a closed shop. They are not open to new people or people that want to help the club. A club where the website for the club shop is poor. If you cant get your e-trading platform right, then how do you expect to get a ground development plan of the ground. At the moment this club is divided, so much so that people are not bothering to go to games. People wondering why after a few home wins, we have not broken 4000 fans at home, perhaps become more inclusive and it will happen.

But they wont probably read this, as they cant stomach reading Exeweb these days.

UTC

TVR

 

[Dobley]

Perhaps this is an idea bordering on pie-in-the-sky absurd, but maybe it's time that "we own our club" again. Why don't we raise the cash ourselves?

Wait, wait, hear me out.

I am not for one second trying to absolve the board of the club from their responsibility to make this happen, in an ideal world those charged with guidance of the club would be proactive enough to secure the finance for the project and make it happen themselves.

However, as has been pointed out, guessed or hinted at time and again, for what ever reason at this present moment in time it doesn't appear to be happening, and in the opinion of many it unlikely to.

My simple suggestion is thus. A ring fenced account is set up, either under the stewardship of the Trust or as a dedicated separate and independent body, with the sole purpose of raising funds for the redevelopment of St James Park. That account is then topped up in whatever way possible, fundraising events, private contributions from interested parties, other ideas from people more imaginative than myself. The fund would be fully transparent, with quarterly and yearly updates about the state it was in, how much had been received etc.

Futile? Perhaps. The sums of money needed are vast. I can't remember the numbers around Red or Dead, and I know that failed in its primary mission, but there difference here is that time is a bit more on our side. This wouldn't be targeted at raising all of the money in one season. I haven't a clue how much could realistically be raised over what time scales. But they point is that it would be action. Maybe if it got fairly sizeable, it may spur certain other parties into a bit more proactivity and end up being a decent contribution to the project. Maybe it would take years, but end up paying for the damned thing all by itself. I don't know.

But its been how many years since Driver Jones? How many years since the public consultation? The vibe emanating from the club is one of poverty so unless they are working uber secretly on something, if we leave it up to "them", how many more years before something encouraging happens? If the fund had started at the time DJ was published, how big might it be now? Probably not big enough to write a cheque, but maybe it'd have been something.

Maybe thats just naive BS without a hope in hell of flying. Someone with more knowledge on the practicalities would have to look at it. I know there is a jadedness in the fanbase after years of cap-in-hand stuff already.

But at current, we have two choices. Sit back and wait, all the while moaning about the inactivity and inertia. Or we could do as a body of fans what we did before which was look to try and make a difference ourselves.

 

[Pete Martin (CTID)]

I think we need to find another Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

 

[richard_portland]

I think we need to find another Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

Does he have a brother?

 

[Pete Martin (CTID)]

Does he have a brother?

Possibly. According to Wikipedia, it seems that his father (who is 89 years old) had 13 wives (unlucky?) and has fathered at least 35 children.

 

[Boyo]

Perhaps this is an idea bordering on pie-in-the-sky absurd, but maybe it's time that "we own our club" again. Why don't we raise the cash ourselves?

In theory a lovely idea. However, some back of fag packet calculations suggest that unfortunately it really is pie in the sky. If the redevelopment costs £7m, and we have 1,000 fans (optimistic!) willing to contribute, then each fan will be required to pump in £7,000 over whatever time period. That's just not going to happen, particularly given 3,000 of us already buy into the Trust.

Personally, I'm always happy to throw coins in buckets, buy raffle tickets, attend events, buy (quality) merchandise etc etc, but it would take 50 years to raise the amount that way.

 

[Pete Martin (CTID)]

In theory a lovely idea. However, some back of fag packet calculations suggest that unfortunately it really is pie in the sky. If the redevelopment costs £7m, and we have 1,000 fans (optimistic!) willing to contribute, then each fan will be required to pump in £7,000 over whatever time period. That's just not going to happen, particularly given 3,000 of us already buy into the Trust.

Personally, I'm always happy to throw coins in buckets, buy raffle tickets, attend events, buy (quality) merchandise etc etc, but it would take 50 years to raise the amount that way.

That's it isn't it? You can't fault Dobley's love of the club and I'm sure we all support the tenets of his idea but, in reality, with the best will in the world it just ain't gonna happen.

A supporters' trust is a fine ethos but, at best, it can only ever keep the wolf from the door and keep the club bumping along. In that regard it has been shown over the past 10 years to certainly have done no worse than the preceding private ownership of the previous 100 or so years.

However, any significant progress in terms of the performance of the team or the development/redevelopment of our stadium can only ever happen with significant private investment. Sadly, I don't think the Trust or the club board have the ideas, skills, connections, knowledge, dynamism, wherewithal, or clout to attract the investment required.