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 Barrattstander |
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How about instead of 4000 of us descending on Sincil Bank on March 17th and swelling Lincoln City’s coffers we each donate the £25 we would spend to a ‘Trust’ fund to begin the process, there’s £100,000 to start with.
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| 62 Seasons following the Mariners from the Barrett Stand side.(apart from 2020-21)
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| 1mickylyons |
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At the end of the day, it all boils down to success on the pitch. If we were 10 points better off and in a play off position, we wouldn't be having this debate. So you have to ask if a fan run board is any more likely to pick the right manager than the current board, because that's the crux of it. JF is right in saying to an extent that PR is done on the pitch because if we are winning games, the focus is where it should be, on the team.
I think the board know business and seem to me to be doing a decent job in that regard, although i'm sure some will disagree. The stumbling block is the playing side of the equation. Is there any more knowledge in that area among fans than there is currently in the board room? Then there are the other gripes about communication and PR. Fair enough, there are possibly people out there who could address these issues but that won't put the ball into the back of the net.
In all the years i've supported Town, i have never really given much thought to what happens behind the scenes, but nowadays it's all anyone seems to talk about. From the outside looking in, the board looks a bit same-y and one dimensional to me. This is not a criticism as such, merely an observation and i also think that all the flak thrown their way has made them entrenched and an 'us and them' situation has arisen. The fans forum was a disaster because both sides went into it with a pugilistic attitude and both sides are now drawing a line in the sand it appears.
So even if all the financial and operational hurdles could be overcome and the fans could take over the running of the club, are they any more likely to know what to do to bring success than the current set up? It would be a massively expensive and time consuming exercise to find out wouldn't it? I'm certain that if we somehow came up with a way of doing it and giving JF what he wants, he'd be off into the sunset in a flash. I don't think it is just about money either, because i don't think the board will relinquish power to just anybody who comes up with the necessary dosh. They would have to feel that the club was in safe hands also. I think only then would people get a grasp of how difficult it must be to run a loss making lower league football team.
The only way i can see fans changing things for the better is to grow the Trust somehow and get a bit more diversity into the club decision making process. Can the fans bring their wide ranging skills to the table and work alongside the current regime? Would the current regime be open to that? I'd be prepared to put some money into a pot as mentioned in the original post if it could help in some way.
Sadly for whatever reason the Trust at present don`t seem to be getting back to people who offer to help? I take this that they are currently weighing up which direction they want to go and perhaps are looking to this survey for a way forward so to speak? |
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 ginnywings |
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Sadly for whatever reason the Trust at present don`t seem to be getting back to people who offer to help? I take this that they are currently weighing up which direction they want to go and perhaps are looking to this survey for a way forward so to speak?
Yeah, there does seem to be a few people that make the point that the Trust don't get back to them, but they are all volunteers with jobs and lives other than GTFC, so maybe that is understandable. |
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| Marinerz93 |
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I'd take that claim with a huge pinch of salt. Why would anybody in the US with no links to the area want to buy a small football club on the East Coast of England? No money to be made, little chance of great success. Seems a bit too bizarre to be true.
What ties to Scunthorpe does their multi millionaire Chairman have, who pumps in over £250K a season with no return. |
| Supporting the Mighty Mariners for over 30 years, home town club is were the heart and soul is and it's great to be a part of it.
Jesus’ disciple Peter, picked up a fish to get the tribute money from it, Jesus left his thumb print on the fish, bless'ed is the Haddock. |
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| Marinerz93 |
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I like the idea of the trust having a paying in account to either buy more shares or use the money to invest in something that will benefit the fans.
The problem is if the trust were to be in a position of power to challenge Fenty we saw what happened last time, £200k worth of donated shares gobbled up by a man who if he equalled MP shares as agreed wouldn't have put the trust in that position.
Why would anyone work with someone like that. Fenty needs to be surgically removed like a deep rooted benign verruca.
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| Supporting the Mighty Mariners for over 30 years, home town club is were the heart and soul is and it's great to be a part of it.
Jesus’ disciple Peter, picked up a fish to get the tribute money from it, Jesus left his thumb print on the fish, bless'ed is the Haddock. |
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| TheRonRaffertyFanClub |
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There is no perfect model for fan ownership. Newport sort of manage it through fundraising and subs but, as I understand it, basically it is underpinned by the former owner keeping his money in the club while handing over all decision making to the Community Trust. Even so they still have to raise at the very least the equivalent of our OP every single year just to cover expenses.
Swansea did it when they were desperate but theirs was backed by the local council and eventually the fans element sold out to private ownership because they simply could not sustain the income needed even in an area of high population. Other clubs have done it for other reasons, like Chester re-starting the club. The point is that there is no single blueprint for running and financing a club. Looking at other clubs is no real help, GTFC fans would have to find their own unique solution.
I wouldn’t say fan ownership is impossible but I just cannot see how it is financially viable, given the current state of the club and support.
Some of it must come down to what happens to the money already loaned and invested in the club. If there are repayments to be managed then the drain on income may be unsustainable. A new ground might help if only by taking ground management decisions out of the equation to be replaced with a predictable annual rental bill. Even without that, the costs of running a club may well be beyond the capability of a community effort and leave very little left over for transfers and wages. Judging by the split response to the PPW site for a new ground community support does not look promising and it is a sad fact of life that, while many people like us love the club, many in the local community would be apathetic to its demise.
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| “If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”
― John Stuart Mill, On Liberty." |
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| ginnywings |
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Newport have just beaten Leeds in front of the TV cameras, so that's their finances sorted for a year or two. This time last season, they were in a relegation battle.
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| 1mickylyons |
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If Marley is to be believed (which I find difficult and don't generally advise) there was, from the USA but Fenty didn't bite their hand off.
Yes I mean on that note do we really believe an offer was there and these lot never grabbed it based on the levels of abuse they get which keep all and sundry from joining the board? |
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| TheRonRaffertyFanClub |
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Newport have just beaten Leeds in front of the TV cameras, so that's their finances sorted for a year or two. This time last season, they were in a relegation battle.
Good for them but Newport is not Grimsby. Last January we sold Bogle for a small fortune and now where are we? Football doesn’t work like that. If Newport get a decent draw in the next round tonight, that might give them a financial boost but so far they won’t have made a lot of cup cash. The problems for fan ownership don’t happen when things are going well but when they are struggling on the field and it becomes very hard to enthuse the not so faithful to put their hands in their pockets. That’s the same position we are in. |
| “If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”
― John Stuart Mill, On Liberty." |
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| ginnywings |
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Good for them but Newport is not Grimsby. Last January we sold Bogle for a small fortune and now where are we?
Football doesn’t work like that. If Newport get a decent draw in the next round tonight, that might give them a financial boost but so far they won’t have made a lot of cup cash. The problems for fan ownership don’t happen when things are going well but when they are struggling on the field and it becomes very hard to enthuse the not so faithful to put their hands in their pockets. That’s the same position we are in.
Well yeah, i know all that. I'm not advocating fan ownership. In fact I've already said in other posts that i don't think it's feasible. I'm just pointing out that they have progressed far more in a season than we have. They may not have made much money yet, but they have made a good deal more than we have from a cup run and upped their exposure and confidence levels. They are on the up and will probably beat us on Saturday i fear. |
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