What happens next?

[Gullscorer]

You have completely ignored TUST and the Community Shares Pre-Issue. How about...the fans get behind the club, put £100 into the fund, a community share issue is launched and the supporters buy, own and run the club?
And before all the anti-TUST brigade start screaming "Burn the TUST militant at the stake", it has been done and works at other clubs of our size in the lower divisions.
Well done for breaking the silence though.
Join TUST. Dream in yellow.

That's all very well, and it may have worked at some other clubs, but have any of them achieved that much as a result? And why do I not trust the TUST any more than I trust any other owner or potential owner of the club? Nothing I can put my finger on, but somehow the TUST is failing to win people over..

[PhilGull]

That's all very well, and it may have worked at some other clubs, but have any of them achieved that much as a result? And why do I not trust the TUST any more than I trust any other owner or potential owner of the club? Nothing I can put my finger on, but somehow the TUST is failing to win people over..

This is a problem. I think the way the club (boards past and present) have acted towards the TUST, the way the Herald Express have ignored the TUST, the way a disproportionately large number of the loudest shouters are hideously ill-informed when it comes to TUST - all work towards people not understanding (not sure every case goes as far as trust) the TUST and what they are about. Hopefully with Andy Candy on board we will start to see an improvement in the public image.

[Gullscorer]

[happytorq]

That's all very well, and it may have worked at some other clubs, but have any of them achieved that much as a result? And why do I not trust the TUST any more than I trust any other owner or potential owner of the club? Nothing I can put my finger on, but somehow the TUST is failing to win people over..

For me it's typical of the attitude of the football fans in South Devon. We'll bitch and whinge while things aren't going well, but ask us to contribute anything and suddenly we go quiet. I mean, we've had really good sides at Plainmoor on occasion and still struggled to sell out.

For as long as I've been a fan (call it 20 years), Torquay United has never really grabbed the imagination of the people who live in the area. Maybe that's because of the apparent apathy towards the end of the Bateson era, or maybe it's changing demographics and football on television, but even when I was a kid it was hard to justify being a Torquay supporter to people. That sort of thing has only worsened over the years. You can talk about salaries, disposable incomes etc in the Bay but at it's heart I think the biggest problem is that South Devon just...doesn't care.

[Dazza]

I will agree South Devon is probably not the easiest.

However n-to claim that a different form of the species lives there with deep pockets and a shaking heads staring inanely at Sky Sports goes way too far . I have never had any problem saying I was a Torquay fan- people actually admire you for it IMO. Only twenty years happytorq ? It takes a lot longer than that!

[Burnhamgull]

For me it's typical of the attitude of the football fans in South Devon. We'll bitch and whinge while things aren't going well, but ask us to contribute anything and suddenly we go quiet. I mean, we've had really good sides at Plainmoor on occasion and still struggled to sell out.

For as long as I've been a fan (call it 20 years), Torquay United has never really grabbed the imagination of the people who live in the area. Maybe that's because of the apparent apathy towards the end of the Bateson era, or maybe it's changing demographics and football on television, but even when I was a kid it was hard to justify being a Torquay supporter to people. That sort of thing has only worsened over the years. You can talk about salaries, disposable incomes etc in the Bay but at it's heart I think the biggest problem is that South Devon just...doesn't care.

[lucy6lucy]

Well we may as well give up now according to you too, so happytorq, you mention money/donations lacking what have you given monetary wise. Probably nought, maybe a fiver into the players fund. All this negativity is a joke.

[gullpower]

That's all very well, and it may have worked at some other clubs, but have any of them achieved that much as a result? And why do I not trust the TUST any more than I trust any other owner or potential owner of the club? Nothing I can put my finger on, but somehow the TUST is failing to win people over..

I suppose their biggest achievement is that these clubs are still in existence. Unfortunately supporter’s trusts, more often than not, end up being the buyer of last resort when a club fails and therefore it’s not surprising that they struggle.

You probably do not trust TUST because of the misconceptions that supporters have of them.

TUST does not want to run the club. TUST wants supporters to run the club. The TUST board are not people with egos that want to use it as a vehicle to put themselves in positions of power. TUST’s aim is to facilitate the running of the club by the supporters who would then vote for the people who would run it.

There’s plenty of information to back this up. Check out the TUST website. The Supporters Direct site is a mine of information. Dare I say it again – read Punk Football. It only costs 2 quid a month to be a member of TUST – so why not get involved and find out what it is you can’t put your finger on. You can always leave if you don't like what you see.

It's a shame that while TUST is a supporter’s organisation that aims to represent all supporters, the supporters themselves seem to divide themselves into two camps, those for or against community ownership. Hopefully Andy Candy’s thread on this and other forums will enable those that are sceptical of TUST to become more informed and supportive of their aims.

And hopefully on Friday it will be announced that the new owners will be investing heavily in the club and problems such as GI/Masters and whether TUST could or could not save the club if it goes into administration will have gone away. But with the Boards current record I am not holding my breath.

[Gullscorer]

[happytorq]

Well we may as well give up now according to you too, so happytorq, you mention money/donations lacking what have you given monetary wise. Probably nought, maybe a fiver into the players fund. All this negativity is a joke.

Crikey, those russian hackers really are everywhere if you have insight into my finances.