FANS’ FORUM IN JUNE

[Gloomy Gull]

Maybe not ... but it does seem that all they have been doing is sitting on their ars*s !!

[DerbyshireGull]

Apparently a new sponsor has taken over the reigns from WTS but as yet nobody knows who. They must be still crossing the t's and dotting the i's then.

[Richinns]

Is anyone going to this? I think Matt usually goes?

If so I am sure they will ask:
About the sponsors situation
The financial state the club is currently in
About possible acquisitions and departures (especially of those listed)
State of play on those offered contracts
The horrible white shorts!

[ferrarilover]

Well it could be that hardly anybody turns up. Is it all ticket? It seems the club has lost interest in it's fans and vice versa.

Nearly a month and a half since we were relegated and nothing has happened, started to be addressed or even been talked about. If you think that this exercise will change any of that then good luck to you. Formulaic answers already prepared waiting to answer banal questions no doubt. Any of the more serious, passionate and determined questioners will be ejected under the assumption that they are aggressive troublemakers which makes it handy as they won't then have to answer the question asked of them. This also makes it easy for the media team as the planned 'edited highlights' to go up on the O/S will not have to be bothered with after all because there won't be any.

A Fan's Forum is a superb idea for the club to listen to the fans concerns and grievances. It only becomes productive if they act on these and make changes for the better so it's a white elephant in that respect. If they haven't already got a really good grasp of what the fans are concerned about considering all that these past 6 months have offered fans then telling them seems like we're taking the piss out of them to their faces. Bless 'em.

Too little too late I'm afraid. Those at the club have had plenty of time now to get things moving and get everyone together as a unit fighting for one cause so we can move forward. We are STILL all left in the dark though and as confused, annoyed and fragmented as ever. It's so unprofessional and unbusinesslike that TUFC could become the new Hereford. Having said that, I see that local businessmen can join the 'Breakfast Club' at Plainmoor to discuss business. Hopefully they will be discuss the importance of exemplary customer service, focus, communication and valuing and respecting their client base and someone from the TUFC boardroom will be earwigging to get some tips. Hey! Maybe they will be even serving the coffee and croissants?!!

I popped into Tesco on Saturday night and had a walk round the ProAct Stadium to get to Ladbrokes. Tom Jones was performing there that night and the place was heaving. Last year Elton John sang (badly I may add). The day after the wrinkled old welsh crooner had strutted his stuff, Tiny Tempah headlined another gig with loads of well know acts on the bill including Ms Dynamite. They have wrestling and allsorts and we get pig racing and tribute acts. We are the Phoenix Club. All we need now is Jerry the Berry to do a kids fun day and we've got the whole package. Sod all this 'little Torquay' stuff. That attitude will lead us down the same path that leads to Edgar Street. If you don't ask you don't get. We probably won't get but if we can't do better than an ELO tribute band then they perfectly reflect our predicament. Settle for what we can get.

Why settle for what we can get?!! Get out there and sell this club to people, change it's identity and focus, rebrand it, make it dynamic and exciting, make Torquay a destination for away fans, tap into the meathead away followings and offer them packages including tickets for the game and local offers in pubs clubs and shops, beer, programmes, entertainment, incentivise things for people, take advantage of the location, fans LOVE coming to Torquay for the weekend and so why aren't we bending over backwards to help take their money off their hands?

This club needs a drastic and radical shift in direction, leadership and dynamic or it will eventually fold. It is simply unsustainable now to have a business model which is effectively to keep fleecing the fans in the hope that things improve. Eventually the fans will run out of patience or cash (or both) and there is only so much The Strawbs and a few businessmen quaffing earl grey can do then.

Tell them tonight and they will say you are being ridiculously excessively negative and unreasonable. CH has no idea what he is letting himself in for next season. Next season is the most important in the club's history because if he gets it wrong then at least the positive is that you lot won't have to make any more trips to northern shitholes anymore.

Anyway,i've just seen the 'news' on the O/S saying if you renew or buy a season ticket in June then you get three free meals in the restaurant. Now we're being treated like schoolkids whose parents are on the dole!

WOW! I SIMPLY MUST HAVE THE SEASON TICKET NOW!!

See. Amateurism at it's finest. I am fully aware I have been crying out for little schemes and incentives for fans and as Matt rightly highlighted on another thread, the club do something positive and what I have been asking for but still get stick and to a certain extent I agree with him but if we take this offer in isolation.

This is supposed to be the USP for June in selling season tickets. Buy one and you get 3 free meals in the restaurant. What if you're a loner like myself and prefer some chips at half time amongst your own company. To be honest, going into the club restaurant on my own to sit down and take up my free meal doesn't sound like my idea of fun. So for me it's a not an incentive. For many people it won't be either.

Take a step back and read this: THE CLUB ARE OFFERING FANS 3 FREE MEALS IF THEY BUY A SEASON TICKET WHICH COULD BE AS MUCH AS £415 FOR CONFERENCE FOOTBALL.

It's insane. It is really, really embarrassing and presumably this is the most attractive offer that anybody behind the scenes could devise which is really, really scary too. Somebody actually thinks that this offer will help to improve season ticket sales. The offer is so tragically tin pot that it has actually helped me with my closure so thanks.

This is the point I've been making for ages - when we've needed a leader to come out and rally us all round in a time of great despondency we've had nobody but Thea doing her best but failing miserably (not her fault I may add). When we've had fans travelling the length and breadth of the country to watch circa £70k a year Dale Tonge defend like a dragonfly that's just had half of it's appendages cruelly ripped off it by a sicko 8 year old we get the offer of free pint. NOTHING ELSE. These fans went to York for a midweek game. They set off at about midday and didn't get home until probably 4 in the morning. These fans went to Hartlepool for an even longer journey, these fans went to Morecambe and Fleetwood. These fans went to Mansfield on the last day even though we were doomed already and all we get in return are the most expensive ticket prices in the conference, an arrogant director assuming we will all pug the deficit without telling us what the **** hell their role was in this bloody carnage, and I should continue but what's the point.

All we are is a fishing boat damaged at sea, drifting in the dark, just trying to keep afloat with fans as crew members frantically trying to scoop out the incoming water whilst the skippers sit there and decide the next move. Sadly it won't be to muck in, get the boat to shore and get it fixed ready to go again but to assume the crew members won't give up so that they then can sit back and have a backgammon night with guest music from Chaka Demus and Pliers. Errrr sorry, that should have been Chaka Demus and Pliers the tribute act.

Gordon bloody Bennett.

This from a bloke who, mere days ago, made an impassioned plea on this very forum, for the club to give away a free pie or a programme with a ST to make ST holders feel special. Now they give away three whole meals and you say it's amateur hour.

Top drawer hypocrisy, absolutely magnificent.

As for sitting on their hands, since the season finished, TUFC has:

Negotiated contracts with a dozen players
Secured Cat 3 status (which some L1 clubs don't have)
Advertised and interviewed nationally for a coach
Organised 6 PSFS
Organised a fans forum
Organised a family fun day
Renegotiated the sponsorship deals
Arranged and competed large scale changes to the training ground
Brought an element of the training of the women's team in house
Negotiated the release of one player and the potential transfer out of 6 others
Taken 5 players on trial
Dealt in the transfer market
Had their summer holidays
And that's just the things they've made public. By my reckoning, they only make public about 10% of what goes on.

Tell us all again about how they've spent the last month doing nothing...

Matt.

[ferrarilover]

Is anyone going to this? I think Matt usually goes?

If so I am sure they will ask:
About the sponsors situation
The financial state the club is currently in
About possible acquisitions and departures (especially of those listed)
State of play on those offered contracts
The horrible white shorts!

I'll be there. Now that Dear Old Dave is no longer with us, I shall be requesting the first question, which I shall use to give the Board an opportunity to address, in broad terms, the state of the finances at the club, with particular focus on the front of shirt sponsorship, the £100,000 devoted to the Cat 3 which some people are insistent should be spent on the first XI (despite my repeated insistences that the funds come from a different budget) and the money which Chris has to play with in what seems to me to be a much richer Conference then we came across last time.

It won't stop the moaners, of course, but it might be interesting to those who choose to think about life beyond the tip of their nose.

Matt.

[DevonYellow]

Yeah, but what have the Romans ever done for us?

[Richinns]

Matt - can you pass on congratulations to those who achieved cat 3. I think this is a massive achievement which has been received with a reluctantly underwhelmed response from a currently disillusioned fan base. In better days there would have been a far more deserved positivity coming from us who populate the terraces.

[DerbyshireGull]

Matt, if you read my post I do accept that I have been asking the club to do freebies and things and now they have done so it would appear I'm still not happy. I accept that and under normal circumstances I would give praise but it is just ridiculous to expect to sell season tickets based on the premise that you get 3 free dinners. It's inappropriate and truly bizarre tbh. Surely I'm not the only person who thinks this? Sure give away free dinners but do it in the correct context like a raffle prize or something. Giving away free meals as a USP for buying a season ticket is quite frankly weird.

If the season ticket enabled the holder a free pie and coffee at every home game OR a free programme then it's a good start but to just pluck out the 3 dinners idea seemingly at random from thin air is very very odd indeed.

If you think you have your finger on the pulse of the club and are happy that the future is bright then who am I to argue?

You see such a venture as the 3 dinners scenario as the club trying it's best to make progress, you see the positive in it somehow and that is fine. I simply see no point in it whatsoever I'm afraid so I'm entitled to my opinion.

Let's wait and see what the sponsor thing throws up shall we. Two weeks ago we were told we had a new sponsor lined up. Not that we were in negotiations with a new sponsor but that we had another one to come in. Where and who are they and why the delay? Either we have a new sponsor or we don't so why the secrecy? Oh I forgot, it's business.

I keep forgetting. It's not 'we' anymore.

[Richinns]

Matt, if you read my post I do accept that I have been asking the club to do freebies and things and now they have done so it would appear I'm still not happy. I accept that and under normal circumstances I would give praise but it is just ridiculous to expect to sell season tickets based on the premise that you get 3 free dinners. It's inappropriate and truly bizarre tbh. Surely I'm not the only person who thinks this? Sure give away free dinners but do it in the correct context like a raffle prize or something. Giving away free meals as a USP for buying a season ticket is quite frankly weird.

If the season ticket enabled the holder a free pie and coffee at every home game OR a free programme then it's a good start but to just pluck out the 3 dinners idea seemingly at random from thin air is very very odd indeed.

If you think you have your finger on the pulse of the club and are happy that the future is bright then who am I to argue?

You see such a venture as the 3 dinners scenario as the club trying it's best to make progress, you see the positive in it somehow and that is fine. I simply see no point in it whatsoever I'm afraid so I'm entitled to my opinion.

Let's wait and see what the sponsor thing throws up shall we. Two weeks ago we were told we had a new sponsor lined up. Not that we were in negotiations with a new sponsor but that we had another one to come in. Where and who are they and why the delay? Either we have a new sponsor or we don't so why the secrecy? Oh I forgot, it's business.

I keep forgetting. It's not 'we' anymore.

Doesn’t have to be this way Andy. I think you still want to be part of it. I hope this is the case because your support will be missed.

[DerbyshireGull]

Rich, that was unexpected and very much appreciated but yes it has to happen. I hope my vocal support and financial support in terms of buying merchandise and stuff has gone some way to helping the club out these past 6 or so years and that's all I can say really. It's partly because I feel alienated and disenfranchised by the club these past few years the way they have operated and treated you fans. Maybe I have been able to look at it from an outsiders perspective as well as a fan and what I've seen you lot go through and the hoops you jump through to support the club these past few years is phenomenal and most should be very very proud and I'm sure you are. I just don't see any real tangible positives offered from the club to you fans and I find it disgusting if I'm being honest.

It's also partly because I've come to realise that to accept what you are or were instead of always looking for that greener grass and striving to be something you are not. I had visions of moving to the South West, I even lived in Newquay for a while but ultimately you can't forget about what you are. That's why I find it hard now to understand the mentality of fans of the big Prem clubs who have no association with them whatsoever. What do they get out of it? They surely can't feel 100% a part of it because they aren't from there in the first place and never have been. It's a bit like that with Torquay and myself and it's taken me a turbulent few years to finally come to terms with the reality of it.

My partner lived in Exeter for years and when I met her she always used to urge me to holiday down in Devon and Cornwall and that is where my interest in the area came from. Yes it's true I stuck a pin in a map to choose Torquay but the map page was on Devon so it was one of the three. Torquay got the bum deal I'm afraid.

Before I swapped to Torquay I was a regular on the terraces at York for a number of years and I've grown up around there for the most part so if I decide to go back to one team and going to football again it will be York and that's me done and dusted. My little one will be able to come with me and I feel comfortable and content there. I've no need to pretend justify my support. I know where I'm going, how Bootham Crescent works and I have many many memories of the place. I am one of them and nobody can take that away. Being a fan of football should always be being a fan of your local / nearest club so that you have an identity and a passion for them. You are or were local and you feel part of the community, even when you live elsewhere.

[DerbyshireGull]

Plus none of the irritants that use this site can level anything against me now. I would be going back to supporting the club I used to support, I've lived there for many years spending much of my youth there too, I am a Yorkshireman and nobody can say I'm not a part of it. Nobody can say I'm a fraud. Like some have said, it's in the blood. I've just been on a bit of adventure that's all although it's lasted 6 or so years. I'm back in the room, in Gods own country and it's where I was born and was raised and I can now be proud of that.

Now I can start again, I still have all my happy memories of the last 6 years but I can start over and look forward now. Peace of mind is important and I'm on the right path.

[supergulls]

It's only my opinion but my view is you support one club and one club only. There can be no changing because your side isn't doing very well. Once you make that choice it's for life, for better or for worse. You can love the game and watch other matches but you only love one team.

[taxilady]

DerbyshireGull, you've changed your opinion about Torquay a few times in the close season. No need to reiterate that you'll be missed on here; you've certainly livened the forum up. But if you want to leave us, then so be it. Bet you'll miss us though ! You can always come & say hello at some far-flung Conference hell-hole !

[taxilady]

Meanwhile, back on topic......tonight's fans' forum. About a hundred or so turned up, & questions from the floor were answered by Chris Hargreaves, Lee Hodges, Thea Bristow, Alex Rowe, Andrew Candy & Dean Edwards. I'll try to do a quick summary:

Matt asked about finance. Thea said that the budget that Chris will have for 14/15 season is the same as the one that he would have had, had we stayed in the League. We'll set out to be the best that we can, & certainly not be a 'Hereford' With regard to the youth set-up..it's only been (re-)running for 3 years; lots of money has been invested; it hasn't really shown many fruits yet, but Chris has signed two up for the new season, & there are also a couple of hopes for the future further down the line. Our turnover is 2.5 to 3 million a year. Alex, when asked why we couldn't buy our way out of relegation, explained that we are salary-capped; but there is a scheme where directors can inject further amounts of money as pledges, signing away rights to any returns. This was done, nearly all the directors contributed, but it didn't work out.
When Thea was asked what a successful season would be in her opinion, she replied that it would be achieved if the fans could come to Plainmoor & enjoy their football again.Lee's idea of success would be to bring young players on, bring them into the first team if appropriate, & possibly to sell them on.The inference was that we would love to have a good go at getting out of the Conference, but nobody at this stage has a crystal ball.
Transfer-listed players: some are on the list because they are too expensive; some because they don't want to be here; some don't fit into Chris' schemes. There has been some interest shown by other clubs, but no definite offers. If they are all still here at the beginning of August, Chris expects 100 % effort; if they give that, & they 'fit in' they will be in the squad; if not, they'll go out on loan.
Chris has asked if Shak can come back; so far, they haven't said 'No' ! Bailey may return, it depends whether he is required by the first team squad along the coast.
Chris feels 'let-down big-time ' by Sean Cooper (who?); but he's had lots of injuries. Some players are 'like racehorses'. Chris was very disappointed both in Jaws Labadie & his agent; they cost the club 'a fortune'. 2 players offered new contracts are close to committing. Chris was interested in signing John Shaw, but the distances involved for himself & his family were too great. He's still talking to Jamie Cureton.
Courtney Cameron is very committed to our cause & wants to work at being 'the best player in the Conference' ; Krystian Pearce doesn't want to be in the Conference (best way out of that one is promotion!) but he won't be going anywhere else unless the 'money is right'. CH was very cagey about who the Captain would be next season; he may, or may not, already be at the club !!! CH is very excited about our new signing Louis briscoe; he scored 34 goals in 3 years & can play on the right wing or 'in the hole'.
TAKING A BREAK....

[Dave]

Thanks for reporting back Taxilady, a lot of typing you deserve a break. One point of order , I don't know who said the youth set up has been re-running for 3 years, it was actually re-started 2007 and has been running for 7 years.