Torquay United Fans Forum

The Great Muta! wrote: ↑06 Mar 2024, 20:09 I've got to agree with the past few fans who've posted on here, CO isn't a hero nor is he some sort of saviour, I won't believe it, I'm not in denial, he's probably done this gesture simply because he was never going to realistically see this money again, for tax reasons, or something else, it wouldn't be for his love for TUFC, no way, look at all the broken promises everywhere he's been in the past, don't be lulled into thinking any different.

He's written it off because insisting on his £4m (or whatever the figure is) would mean that nobody would be interested. Who would pay £4m+ for a club that apparently loses £800k a year? that's madness. Honestly, outside of football, who buys businesses with such a small likelihood of ever making you money, anyway. Much better to have somebody else take on those annual losses and limit future losses, while also taking the losses as a deduction against his more, er, successfull businesses. He won't get it all back but it'll help a bit. Suspect that the plan was always to write off those losses on the football side, but ideally (for CO) that was fine because he'd have made a fortune from his houses or whatever.

This move doesn't make Osborne a saviour,or anything remotely close. Even folding the club wouldn't get him that money back.

I'm not sure. I always felt they should use the number of people who actually go through the turnstiles - that being the *attendance* - but I know some teams/leagues like to count the number of tickets sold...presumably because it makes seem more impressive. Those numbers would then include ST holders even if they don't show up

Yellow6 wrote: ↑06 Mar 2024, 18:34 Anyone buying or know anyone else who is buying 'ghost' tickets for the Dartford and remaining home fixtures. Seemed to be quite a few for the last home game.

I'm part of one such group who bought tickets for the weymouth game and are doing so again for Dartford.

North Curry House wrote: ↑03 Mar 2024, 19:44 Best idea is to only give cash to Club, once new buyer is in place. I would not give it to TUFC now in case undesirables like Osborne or Edwards get their hands on it....and I would not give it to the.TUST as I believe they would keep cash to fight for control of the club. That is why Weymouth, as I understand it are thinking along my lines.

Rjc, let us hope new owner in place ASAP and we avoid going into administration and a ten point deduction.

COYY.

The club have said that any revenue coming in now is 'ringfenced' to keep the place running until an owner is found. Call me naive, but I don't think they would say that unless it is true. With Osborne having paid salaries at the end of February, that means that the end of March is when salaries should be getting paid again. If a new owner isn't in place by then (I imagine these things take time even if it's all agreed) we need to make sure we're paying our people.

I'm confused by the comment "I would not give to the TUST as I believe they would keep cash to fight for control of the club". They've consistently said they want to have enough money on hand to keep things ticking over in the even of the owner's withdrawal of support (as is the case now) so I would assume that if we're unable to pay our bills at the end of this month, that's when the war chest that TUST has accrued could come into play. They have always said they don't intend to buy the club with that money (it wouldn't get them very far).

Now, personally, I think the fans owning the club is a worthy long-term goal, but the trust isn't going to get anywhere near that when they have fewer than a thousand members and they each pay £2 a month. £24k a year barely pays the electricity bill, I suspect.

He might be a good lad (i've never met him) but I don't think he ever improved the side which, considering how bad we've been in the past 18 months, is quite something. He can run very fast, and he's a trier (both of which are valuable) but he consistently failed to have much in the way of an end product. Being able to beat a full back is almost meaningless if you don't put the cross near any of our players.

Still, I don't bear him any ill will - I hope it works out well for him at Wealdstone.

I should add, that I think in the long term, a fan-based model is probably the best way forward. But we're miles away from that right now, and so we'll need an owner who make an effort to move us towards some sort of sustainability in the meantime. If they could also get us into League 2 at the same time - great.

Taelee73 wrote: ↑29 Feb 2024, 08:20 Subscription service, the fans pay a set amount per month into the club. The number stands at around 5000, if they pay £10 a month that's £600,000 a year income, if it's £20 a month............ Not sure what number we could get to, but a 1000 paying £20 a month could give us a decent income.

Centre of Excellence. A must for us. Exeter and Plymouth will take their pick, but there will be still enough young players to pick from. Exeter base it on making more money overall from them than what they spend. Either through a player having extended time in the first team or selling them for the profit.

Have said this exact thing (same figures, even!) a few times in the past few months. All of this is done through the ECFC trust, of course, while currently TUST charges 2 quid a month. That's never going to be enough for them to even get close to a board seat, so I do think they need to look at that closely in the not-too-distant future. You could even have tiered memberships if you like, but the ability to reap all the rewards of being in the trust (a vote in leadership, or eligibility for the a discount at the club shop/bar etc) would come at a higher cost.

Centre of Excellence is something we'd like to do better, of course, but my understanding is that Legaue clubs get some sort of assistance or stipend that makes it a lot easier to finance. Falling out of the league meant we lost that, and I don't know of a way to make it anywhere near financially viable in non-league. Somebody can correct me if necessary, but I think bneing outside of the league academy system is why we didn't get any sort of compensation when that young highly-rated goalkeeper moved on (don't remember his name or where I went; althoguh 'wigan' is in my mind for some reason).

I've said before that getting back into the league would, oddly, make it easier for us to be sustainable. I don't think the wages will be hugely increased vs NL but you get a whole lot more revenue from the 'pyramid' (along with high gate receipts from the larger away followings)

4-1 Torquay

North Curry House wrote: ↑01 Mar 2024, 14:13 Gary finally took the hint, he was no longer welcome at TQ1 but brother Peter appears to be lingering like a bad smell. Time for him to leave as well......not wanted at Plainmoor, we need fresh air, I mean people.

I wonder if Gary left because one Osborne said he'd stop paying the bills, it was obvious that whatever payoff GJ had been holding out for was not going to materialise.

TommyGunn wrote: ↑28 Feb 2024, 11:44 Rochdale are an attractive investment for those with the funds; they own the ground and have very manageable levels of debt. The majority of interest is coming from America, partly thanks to the increased exposure in the English football pyramid provided by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s takeover at Wrexham.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... iquidation

Rochdale are nowhere near as attractive a proposition as Wrexham were. They've been a League 2 club for almost all of their existence and they're in an area with a lot of compeition from other clubs. Anybody expecting to buy them and 'do a Wrexham' is likely kidding themselves. A very large part of Wrexham's success is their association with Reynolds and McElhenney - and the tv show and increased exposure that brought them. It won't be easy for another club to replicate that, even if they end up owned by somebody with that same level of fame. Reynolds has proven himself a surprisingly shrewd businessman, using his own celebrity and 'brand' to elevate the businesses he's involved himself with.

Rochdale could be seen to be attractive for the reasons you stated; owning the ground and having fairly low debt - but I would be surprised any American investor would get anything approaching the same results as Wrexham have. That's all fine if the expectation is 'own a smallish football club' but most US involvement is english football is based in the expectation of a profit. I don't think that's realistic for Rochdale, certainly not on that scale

CornishGull wrote: ↑24 Feb 2024, 01:15 Come on off it. If someone was seriously contemplating investing in a football club they wouldn't make an approach through a fan's forum run by people that have no official connection to the club.

No, not when you can simply email "[email protected]", lol

Colorado wrote: ↑23 Feb 2024, 23:26 Likewise, I'd pay the full cost.

Sad to see not only one person from UAE and another from Chicago have responded. Sad.

I'm in the US.

North Curry House wrote: ↑23 Feb 2024, 17:01 Well said, Bateson certainly was not a fool and engaged with the fans. I recall his ventriloquist dummy, which he bought out in the boardroom after a few whiskies.

To be fair, I'm pretty sure that's what Edwards' job was.

Yellow6 wrote: ↑23 Feb 2024, 08:06 I had a message for Maidstone United fan saying that he had contributed to the GoFundMe page, but I don’t see a link for that anywhere in these posts. It is obviously out there if fans of other clubs are putting money in.

I know of at least one GoFundMe that was set up by a fan. No doubt it's well meant, but I'd suggest that if you do want to donate, wait until the Trust has set on up - that way you can be sure it'll be put to good use and you'll get a lot more info on what's being done with it.

haven't done this for a while becasue even my blind optimism started to reach its limits.

but choo-choo mothereffers!

Torquay 5-1 Aveley

Attendance...ooh, over 4,000? (just saw that the website has a queue for tickets, lol)