Torquay United Fans Forum

yellowblackwhite wrote:This is all very well but once again the focus is on community ownership? Whilst there are several clubs that fall within the community ownership bracket, nearly all had a far greater community backing behind them and lets not forget about finance. It saddens me that the focus of TUST has moved away from being a generic thriving supporters trust, into one that is hell-bent on TUFC becoming a community owned club.

chunkygull wrote:Whatever happens in these next few weeks we are going to have to be prepared to raise some sort of funds just in case as after the events of the last few years I cant see anything running smoothly or going right for Torquay United, I cant see anybody coming in to bail us out so to speak.

I dont trust this board as their total lack of any communication and contempt and disdain for fellow supporters has made me sceptical. However, when it comes to it the continued existence of our beloved football club we may have to put our mistrust and misgivings aside. The directors clearly dont want to work with the TUST, but surely if we are on our knees financially when it comes to it they wouldnt be that foolish and full of stubborn pride as not to accept funding from supporters in exchange for shares for having a small part in the club. The directors could continue if that is their egotitical desire and eventually if other individual supporters running total of shares hit the magic number they could elavate to a position on the board, or something like that.

I dl like the crowd funding idea, it could work, every idea depends on getting the word out there, I still dont think enough people have any idea or knowledge about or of the TUST. If TUST just said come on lets get enough money together and offer to buy the club I would be more inclined to support it but many dont know what they really want or what they are trying to do. They more or less asked the club for permission to make a bid, well maybe they should just go for it with the fund raising, look at a figure like the one on this thread which is about right to start with and say we are going to make the bid, lets go for it Gulls fans.

If nothing continues to happen then we arent going to have anythingto debate about before too long anyway. Nobody has had a bad idea or opinion yet, at least they are trying to come up with a solution, shame those running the club dont seem to have been doing that in the right way for far too long.

ferrarilover wrote: Like much (all) of the TUST proposal, this is beautiful on paper but unworkable in reality. You'd be lucky to run a Toolstation league side on the money we generate presently. Thing is, Toolstation league sides don't generate the money that we do, so we'd have only enough to run a Sunday league side. Thing is, Sunday league sides don't generate the money that Toolstation sides do. And so it goes on forever.
Self-sustainability could only ever be achieved for us if we moved to a new ground which we owned and which had bundled with it many and various alternative income streams. The 1500 or so Torquay supporters cannot fund the business. What we need is to get a hotel, a gym, some restaurants, a dozen 4G pitches hired out, conference facilities etc. What's that, ten million pounds? TUST going to fund that, are they?

A bunch of well intentioned but poorly financed and talent limited fans owning the club under the TUST banner sounds frighteningly like the present setup of well intentioned but poorly financed and talent limited fans owning the club.

If TUST want to help (I'm sure they do), they need to act as a sounding board. They need to give up this preposterous notion of owning the club and dedicate their efforts to representing the fans' concerns and interests throughout the process of the impending sale.
If they were to approach the Board on this basis and offer themselves up on this basis, they'd certainly encounter less resistance than presently they are experiencing.

Matt.

ferrarilover wrote: The problem is, Dutch, that under the TUST, we wouldn't survive and we certainly wouldn't compete. The TUST simply isn't, can't and would probably never be able to finance a proper club. A pub team, Willand Rangers or Newton Abbot Spurs perhaps, but beyond this they'd have absolutely no chance.

The 'anti-TUST' feeling from the Board is probably simply frustration that they demand so much attention and want to make so much fuss when they have absolutely no practical way of buying and running the club for more than about a week. At a time when there are proper buyers looking to engage the club and those with more than £4.50 in their account looking to make offers, having some bloke from the TUST endlessly interrupting the Chairman's day with pie-in-the-sky notions is understandably irritating.

Matt.