Should Exeter City remain a fan-owned club?

[IBA]

No one club or fan should tell another how to run things, They do what's right for them, With our model it has it's limitations, Yep the Academy is brilliant and has brought in millions but that has not shown "success" on the pitch, By that I mean we have not gone as far as we'd like because for some reason we seem to always end up that little bit short.

It's not Exeter City it's the chair of the EFL, Rick Parry, "Why can we not have community owned, sustainable clubs? That goes for all the structural issues that I have been telling anybody who will listen, and most people who won't listen, for the past x number of months, from the select committee onwards."

 

[DB9]

It's not Exeter City it's the chair of the EFL, Rick Parry, "Why can we not have community owned, sustainable clubs? That goes for all the structural issues that I have been telling anybody who will listen, and most people who won't listen, for the past x number of months, from the select committee onwards."

This is the same Rick Parry when in charge of the PL wanted a PL2 with invitation only which would have meant clubs like ours would have no chance of going up the pyramid system also one of the people who wanted the PL in 92 and helped with the TV deal that has now made the gulf in the gap between the divisions a casum. Having him in charge coming over all sympathetic to the EFL and saying about unsustainability in clubs when he was one of the leading lights that caused all this in the first place sticks in the throat.

 

[IBA]

This is the same Rick Parry when in charge of the PL wanted a PL2 with invitation only which would have meant clubs like ours would have no chance of going up the pyramid system also one of the people who wanted the PL in 92 and helped with the TV deal that has now made the gulf in the gap between the divisions a casum. Having him in charge coming over all sympathetic to the EFL and saying about unsustainability in clubs when he was one of the leading lights that caused all this in the first place sticks in the throat.

That's a very interesting diversion, but my point that it is not Exeter City it is the Chair of the EFL has been calling for sustainable, community owned clubs is correct.

 

[DB9]

That's a very interesting diversion, but my point that it is not Exeter City it is the Chair of the EFL has been calling for sustainable, community owned clubs is correct.

It's not a diversion, As for wanting clubs to be like all sustainable community owned, One, sustainable will never happen while the riches of the PL are there and I guess he was talking about championship clubs as they seem to be the biggest culprits. Two, To be community owned means a whole change of ownership model, Even we're not community owned, We're trust owned with the emphasis on being part of the community. You're going to have to say to the owners that they're no longer in charge of their own clubs.

 

[sidney]

The imminent transfer of Ollie Watkins offers a great opportunity to further improve the long term stability and sustainability of the club. That means to make the offer to supporters as attractive as possible, and I see no reason to change the current fan-owned arrangements to achieve this. Generally, things are going well, and an improving financial position at a time when covid is impacting so negatively is very reassuring. I congratulate all those involved over recent years for bringing this club back from the brink and achieving considerable success. I believe that we will be playing League 1 football within three years at most.

 

[Dannyred]

We have the blueprint other lower league clubs should follow. Our academy is feeding our first team, and bringing in funds. We don’t need a single owner but do need to be realistic about our expectations. We are a top end of league 1 club at best, as our attendances would struggle to support anything more.

Why do we struggle with attendances Is partly down to a lack of success over decades and the small club attitude, Success grows attendances.

 

[Red Bill]

I struggle to see where the belief that our current ownership model is holding us back comes from. We have been a league club for 100 years, 83 of those years under private ownership, during which we have spent all but 13(?) years in the bottom tier and faced serious financial outcomes on several occasions, culminating in the last episode when our directors were arrested the club was relegated out of the league and the club faced extinction. In my lifetime and since i started supporting the club in the early 70s, the fanbase has stayed pretty constant at roughly between 3000-5000.
Since the trust took control 17 years ago, the club has seen a period of stability arguably greater than at any previous time in its history. There has been at least one blip that we are aware of but this is an entirely new set up mistakes are bound to be made due to inexperience.
However in these 17 years we have also spent three years in league 1, and since relegation have spent several seasons making a serious challenge for promotion including three times making the play off final. Our academy is now respected throughout football and has generated serious income for the club. The training facilities are as good as anywhere else in L1 or L2 and our ground has seen much needed redevelopment. Some would have liked to have seen better redevelopment, but given we are only tenants at SJP, perhaps the level of redevelopment undertaken is prudent under those circumstances. Lets also remember the reason we no longer own SJP is because we had to sell it to escape one of the financial messes created whilst under private ownership. Our ownership model has had its limitation financially, which have obvious implications for the playing budget, however we now have a salary cap in Leagues 1 and 2. As I understand it our baseline budget without any windfall income from transfer fees, TV, and completion success is around £1.1M. Thanks to player sales resulting from our excellent academy, in the last 2 or three seasons, I believe this has been increased to closer to £1.5M, which due to the salary cap will now be the maximum allowed in our league. Thanks to the immanent windfall from Ollie Watkins, its likely that that increased budget may be able to continue for another few seasons, meaning our playing budget should be able to compete with al teams in our league.
This is not an example of small club mentality or lack of ambition, even though we are undeniably a small club I believe we should always be ambitious. It does however show that there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever, to suggest that our ownership model has held us back or that private ownership would bring us the unprecedented success that some appear to believe it would.
Our Trust model hasn't been more successful on the pitch than had private ownership, but it certainly hasn't been less and there are plenty of arguments to show that off pitch the development of the club as a whole, the facilities, our academy and the self-imposed financial restrictions have seen us reach a position of stability the club never came close to achieving under private ownership. People will no doubt point to the Bounmouths, Swanseas and Hull Citys (all of which have now fallen from their peaks), but if you don't also look at the Burys and countless other clubs including ourselves who've come within a whisker of suffering the same fate, then in my opinion you run the risk of absorbing yourself in a fantasy of false expectation and put the whole future of football outside of the elite world of the Premier League at risk.

 

[IndoMike]

I struggle to see where the belief that our current ownership model is holding us back comes from. We have been a league club for 100 years, 83 of those years under private ownership, during which we have spent all but 13(?) years in the bottom tier and faced serious financial outcomes on several occasions, culminating in the last episode when our directors were arrested the club was relegated out of the league and the club faced extinction. In my lifetime and since i started supporting the club in the early 70s, the fanbase has stayed pretty constant at roughly between 3000-5000.
Since the trust took control 17 years ago, the club has seen a period of stability arguably greater than at any previous time in its history. There has been at least one blip that we are aware of but this is an entirely new set up mistakes are bound to be made due to inexperience.
However in these 17 years we have also spent three years in league 1, and since relegation have spent several seasons making a serious challenge for promotion including three times making the play off final. Our academy is now respected throughout football and has generated serious income for the club. The training facilities are as good as anywhere else in L1 or L2 and our ground has seen much needed redevelopment. Some would have liked to have seen better redevelopment, but given we are only tenants at SJP, perhaps the level of redevelopment undertaken is prudent under those circumstances. Lets also remember the reason we no longer own SJP is because we had to sell it to escape one of the financial messes created whilst under private ownership. Our ownership model has had its limitation financially, which have obvious implications for the playing budget, however we now have a salary cap in Leagues 1 and 2. As I understand it our baseline budget without any windfall income from transfer fees, TV, and completion success is around £1.1M. Thanks to player sales resulting from our excellent academy, in the last 2 or three seasons, I believe this has been increased to closer to £1.5M, which due to the salary cap will now be the maximum allowed in our league. Thanks to the immanent windfall from Ollie Watkins, its likely that that increased budget may be able to continue for another few seasons, meaning our playing budget should be able to compete with al teams in our league.
This is not an example of small club mentality or lack of ambition, even though we are undeniably a small club I believe we should always be ambitious. It does however show that there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever, to suggest that our ownership model has held us back or that private ownership would bring us the unprecedented success that some appear to believe it would.
Our Trust model hasn't been more successful on the pitch than had private ownership, but it certainly hasn't been less and there are plenty of arguments to show that off pitch the development of the club as a whole, the facilities, our academy and the self-imposed financial restrictions have seen us reach a position of stability the club never came close to achieving under private ownership. People will no doubt point to the Bounmouths, Swanseas and Hull Citys (all of which have now fallen from their peaks), but if you don't also look at the Burys and countless other clubs including ourselves who've come within a whisker of suffering the same fate, then in my opinion you run the risk of absorbing yourself in a fantasy of false expectation and put the whole future of football outside of the elite world of the Premier League at risk.

Can't argue with that.
I"d also like to add some praise for Julian Tagg. He has been the glue that has kept everything together. He has made mistakes I'm sure but overall his contribution has been vital. He gets some brickbats from some posters, but he actually quietly gets on with the job, not just watch from the sidelines.

 

[STURTZ]

With the money about to be sloshing about the club I'm sure the likes of Russell and Lewis would be more than happy to take the helm.

 

[Boyo]

I struggle to see where the belief that our current ownership model is holding us back comes from. We have been a league club for 100 years, 83 of those years under private ownership, during which we have spent all but 13(?) years in the bottom tier and faced serious financial outcomes on several occasions, culminating in the last episode when our directors were arrested the club was relegated out of the league and the club faced extinction. In my lifetime and since i started supporting the club in the early 70s, the fanbase has stayed pretty constant at roughly between 3000-5000.
Since the trust took control 17 years ago, the club has seen a period of stability arguably greater than at any previous time in its history. There has been at least one blip that we are aware of but this is an entirely new set up mistakes are bound to be made due to inexperience.
However in these 17 years we have also spent three years in league 1, and since relegation have spent several seasons making a serious challenge for promotion including three times making the play off final. Our academy is now respected throughout football and has generated serious income for the club. The training facilities are as good as anywhere else in L1 or L2 and our ground has seen much needed redevelopment. Some would have liked to have seen better redevelopment, but given we are only tenants at SJP, perhaps the level of redevelopment undertaken is prudent under those circumstances. Lets also remember the reason we no longer own SJP is because we had to sell it to escape one of the financial messes created whilst under private ownership. Our ownership model has had its limitation financially, which have obvious implications for the playing budget, however we now have a salary cap in Leagues 1 and 2. As I understand it our baseline budget without any windfall income from transfer fees, TV, and completion success is around £1.1M. Thanks to player sales resulting from our excellent academy, in the last 2 or three seasons, I believe this has been increased to closer to £1.5M, which due to the salary cap will now be the maximum allowed in our league. Thanks to the immanent windfall from Ollie Watkins, its likely that that increased budget may be able to continue for another few seasons, meaning our playing budget should be able to compete with al teams in our league.
This is not an example of small club mentality or lack of ambition, even though we are undeniably a small club I believe we should always be ambitious. It does however show that there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever, to suggest that our ownership model has held us back or that private ownership would bring us the unprecedented success that some appear to believe it would.
Our Trust model hasn't been more successful on the pitch than had private ownership, but it certainly hasn't been less and there are plenty of arguments to show that off pitch the development of the club as a whole, the facilities, our academy and the self-imposed financial restrictions have seen us reach a position of stability the club never came close to achieving under private ownership. People will no doubt point to the Bounmouths, Swanseas and Hull Citys (all of which have now fallen from their peaks), but if you don't also look at the Burys and countless other clubs including ourselves who've come within a whisker of suffering the same fate, then in my opinion you run the risk of absorbing yourself in a fantasy of false expectation and put the whole future of football outside of the elite world of the Premier League at risk.

Excellent post RB.

A couple of points, just to play devils advocate...

Our base budget is on the low side for L2. Now as you say that has been massively supplemented by windfall income mainly through academy player sales. Although we seem to be in a position where we are consistently churning out saleable assets, there is an over reliance there IMO.

It looks like we are about to hit the jackpot in terms of windfall income from the sale of Watkins to Villa. The sums are staggering and it's a once in a lifetime opportunity to set the Club up on a different level. However, the Club board and Trust following the difficulties a few years ago, are completely risk averse. During ground redevelopment and during a pandemic, that's absolutely the right approach. However, this income presents opportunities. To what extent does our model provide the scope to make the right calls about how that money is allocated?