Fan Owned Club

Quoted from pontoonlew

Tell you what, if I had the chance to do it I’d run it a damn sight better than these lot. A few months ago our social media guy went on holiday and the club went to flipping pot, Fenty and Day can’t even get the very basics right and fail to see the value in the small things that’d make a huge difference.

I did get an emailed response from Dave Roberts(who’s response was fantastic) today, the figures quoted are flipping eye watering and it’s absolutely no wonder nobody has taken us on, Fenty’s stranglehold is way worse than I thought.

As a fan base with good fund raising and innovation we could come up with it, that or raise enough attention for people that do have the money to do it. However this thread has demonstrated our fan base are just as willing to accept dross as our major shareholder is willing to deal it out in bucket loads.

It’s beginning to become obvious why our club and our town are in such a mess, it’s the inward looking people in it that are the issue.

Fantastic that you got a reply from Dave Roberts but I’m guessing that the price tag includes all the money spent on hiring and firing a multitude of poor players and inept managers.

Quoted from pontoonlew

Tell you what, if I had the chance to do it I’d run it a damn sight better than these lot. A few months ago our social media guy went on holiday and the club went to flipping pot, Fenty and Day can’t even get the very basics right and fail to see the value in the small things that’d make a huge difference.

I did get an emailed response from Dave Roberts(who’s response was fantastic) today, the figures quoted are flipping eye watering and it’s absolutely no wonder nobody has taken us on, Fenty’s stranglehold is way worse than I thought.

As a fan base with good fund raising and innovation we could come up with it, that or raise enough attention for people that do have the money to do it. However this thread has demonstrated our fan base are just as willing to accept dross as our major shareholder is willing to deal it out in bucket loads.

It’s beginning to become obvious why our club and our town are in such a mess, it’s the inward looking people in it that are the issue.

We live in a town that asks for nothing and gets nothing , we have been failed miserably by politicians of both persuasions for decades the sitting mps imo being particulary useless. Our club is dying in front of us and I applaud your ambition to do something positive to stop this however the vice hold the club is in means the position will not improve and I can only see olly departing ( hope I’m wrong ) rather than having the embarrassment of taking us to non league

Quoted from pontoonlew

Tell you what, if I had the chance to do it I’d run it a damn sight better than these lot. A few months ago our social media guy went on holiday and the club went to flipping pot, Fenty and Day can’t even get the very basics right and fail to see the value in the small things that’d make a huge difference.

I did get an emailed response from Dave Roberts(who’s response was fantastic) today, the figures quoted are flipping eye watering and it’s absolutely no wonder nobody has taken us on, Fenty’s stranglehold is way worse than I thought.

As a fan base with good fund raising and innovation we could come up with it, that or raise enough attention for people that do have the money to do it. However this thread has demonstrated our fan base are just as willing to accept dross as our major shareholder is willing to deal it out in bucket loads.

It’s beginning to become obvious why our club and our town are in such a mess, it’s the inward looking people in it that are the issue.

What are these "eye watering" figures?

Quoted from pen penfras

What are these "eye watering" figures?

For the loans and current shareholder buyout, it's a minimum of £3.5m. There's absolutely no wonder it's not an attractive acquisition for anybody.

Quoted from pontoonlew

For the loans and current shareholder buyout, it's a minimum of £3.5m. There's absolutely no wonder it's not an attractive acquisition for anybody.

This has always been the problem, hasn't it?

No astute business consortium is going to pay someone eyewatering amounts, which is basically paying him back for a litany of failings.

It is very unlikely anybody, fans groups, business partners or anybody else is going to stump up that sort of money, in addition to the sums needed to make a difference in the future. I actually don't think too much money would be needed once new owners were in place, just a new beginning and get us all pulling together would do wonders.

How DO we get new owners though is the dilemma?

I feel for Ollie, I really do, having to step into this twilight world of a poor owner, with no investment who takes his loans back, but with a fan base who still seems to think he is untouchable.

What was the discussion like over that fish and chip lunch?  Why would Ollie be so enthusiastic with talk of a new stadium (pipedream under this board) or where any new money was going to come from? Did Ollie say he would raise money through players sales to pay Fenty off?

Without covid I am sure we would have made a much better fist of it - the matchday income would have allowed better player recruitment and so forth, but let's be honest, until the curse of Fenty is lifted we will not move forward.

The only thing we can hope for is in January we pay decent salaries for experienced players, crowds return and things get back to normal and the team turns it around, and then Ollie starts from next season with a normal budget and contracts, sells one or two to pay Fenty off and then see who would invest in the club. I don't think there is a quicker way out of this than letting things naturally evolve, but we must keep away from the danger zone and Ollie must remain in charge to oversee an overhauling of the club once we get through this gruesome time.

Fan owned clubs can work. I suspect however, that Wimbledon had a large pool of local expertise being a London club. One issue with us is that we're so spread out.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

This has always been the problem, hasn't it?

No astute business consortium is going to pay someone eyewatering amounts, which is basically paying him back for a litany of failings.

It is very unlikely anybody, fans groups, business partners or anybody else is going to stump up that sort of money, in addition to the sums needed to make a difference in the future. I actually don't think too much money would be needed once new owners were in place, just a new beginning and get us all pulling together would do wonders.

How DO we get new owners though is the dilemma?

I feel for Ollie, I really do, having to step into this twilight world of a poor owner, with no investment who takes his loans back, but with a fan base who still seems to think he is untouchable.

What was the discussion like over that fish and chip lunch?  Why would Ollie be so enthusiastic with talk of a new stadium (pipedream under this board) or where any new money was going to come from? Did Ollie say he would raise money through players sales to pay Fenty off?

Without covid I am sure we would have made a much better fist of it - the matchday income would have allowed better player recruitment and so forth, but let's be honest, until the curse of Fenty is lifted we will not move forward.

The only thing we can hope for is in January we pay decent salaries for experienced players, crowds return and things get back to normal and the team turns it around, and then Ollie starts from next season with a normal budget and contracts, sells one or two to pay Fenty off and then see who would invest in the club. I don't think there is a quicker way out of this than letting things naturally evolve, but we must keep away from the danger zone and Ollie must remain in charge to oversee an overhauling of the club once we get through this gruesome time.

I think the general consensus has been that the figure would've been slightly lower than that (around £2m) so for it to be almost double that as a bare minimum is disappointing.

It seems to me that the decisions made around the pandemic were different to everybody elses and it's backfired massively. We accounted for the worst case scenario and nothing else, that to me is a mistake in itself because those errors will take another couple of seasons to undo and we'll need to rebuild over that time (again).

The best case scenario for me is a couple of investors coming in with backing from the trust.

The Euromillions is £120m tonight...  

As much as I'd like GTFC to be fan owned, I don't think it's needed.   I don't really care who the majority shareholder in the club is or who owns what proportion of shares. I just want us to be run better.

What's needed more than anything is for the club to invest in a very good CEO.  We're not run well and that much is clear to see.  We need root and branch change to how we're run and it needs to be someone completely external who can come in and turn us around.

Might seem like a large investment at the time but I'd be confident it would more than repay itself quite quickly.  

Quoted from diehardmariner

As much as I'd like GTFC to be fan owned, I don't think it's needed.   I don't really care who the majority shareholder in the club is or who owns what proportion of shares. I just want us to be run better.

What's needed more than anything is for the club to invest in a very good CEO.  We're not run well and that much is clear to see.  We need root and branch change to how we're run and it needs to be someone completely external who can come in and turn us around.

Might seem like a large investment at the time but I'd be confident it would more than repay itself quite quickly.  

A competent CEO would be a good start, but obviously, Fenty won't hear of it. In any case it would be a waste of money because the final say is always Fenty's  and unless the CEO agrees with him we are back to square one.

We won't go anywhere with Fenty, I think we can agree on that, but even with a normal budget in a normal season we would probably do much better on the field with the manager we have got, and I cannot see any other way round it other than success on the field leading to more money leading to Fenty being paid off.

If JF is asking for £3.5m, it shows how much of a crook and certainly proves not a real fan. Going off the accounts from last year as I don't have eyes on the latest results. JF has £975k (£400k (?) of which he stole/bullied/conned off of the Trust!). He also has loans of £1.55m assuming he hasn't taken anymore out of the club.  Therefore the max he should receive is £975k-(£400k)+1550k  = £2.125m.  The is zero goodwill in GTFC, so he can not demand extra.

If or when he eventually leaves I would be disgusted if he didn't give the shares back to the trust, there's no way he should profit from that episode.