Thea Bristow to resign

Fonda · Post by **Fonda** » 11 Mar 2015, 08:53

Good luck to her. Why should she continue to waste her time and money, surrounded by buffoons.

gullintwoplaces · Post by **gullintwoplaces** » 11 Mar 2015, 08:54

brucie wrote:We are fecked. Time to close the doors. Better that than the continually downward spiral which is heartbreaking. Time the club was put out of its misery.
Personally I will probably start supporting Exeter Ciity. only an hour from me, and a great manager.

Off you go.

RussianGull · Post by **RussianGull** » 11 Mar 2015, 08:56

Ah, sorry totally misread that! Sad that both the Bristows will be leaving us having forked out so much.

KingsteigntonYellow · Post by **KingsteigntonYellow** » 11 Mar 2015, 09:23

Fair enough, she has done more than enough. Her and Paul are Torquay legends.

CP Gull · Post by **CP Gull** » 11 Mar 2015, 09:52

Full of admiration for all that Thea and her late husband Paul have done for our club over the past eight years. Her legacy will be the massive improvements seen at the stadium during her time at the club and hopefully eventually we will also have a fit for purpose training ground.

Of course, she will be leaving at a time when the playing side is at an all time low, which is very sad, but we should not forget all the highs that she played the major part in achieving for the club (through her funding) in those early years.

Whilst her time in "the chair" can only be seen (sadly) as disastrous for the club on the playing side, you have to at least admire her for taking the role on in the first place with no experience in such matters and with, it seems, little in the way of support from the other Directors when the going got tough.

Good to hear that she will continue to watch and support the club and I am sure she will, unlike her predecessor Mike Bateson who, to the best of my knowledge, has never passed through the doors at Plainmoor since the day he left! I am sure it will be different with Thea and Alan, well I hope so at least.

Time for her to enjoy her good fortune and put her feet up without having to worry about propping up our ailing club!

wivelgull · Post by **wivelgull** » 11 Mar 2015, 09:53

Very, very wise. I agree with brucie in that TUFC is a sinking ship, although I would never go so far as to support Exeter City. Do you think TUFC would support Thea Bristow if she was broke?
Thinking about origins: although Leroy's tenure was a success, I put the breakdown (and soon-t-be-extinction) of TUFC at the door of Bateson's refusal to finance a No. 2 for McFarlane. The excellent players that McFarlane brought in did the job for Leroy but since then (apart from Olejnik and O'Kane) nothing.

royalgull · Post by **royalgull** » 11 Mar 2015, 09:55

Not much else to add really other than my own personal thank you. To a businessman/woman who decides to put their own personal made fortune in is one thing but for someone given a lucky break in life to put over £3million of it towards a struggling football club can only be seriously appreciated and thanked properly especially after Paul's passing to continue to do it is unbelievable. She and her family have made an enormous difference to this club but because of her nature, Paul's sad passing her lack of business acumen and knowledge of football she has been absolutely taken for a ride and taken advantage of by the leaches that are sat on our board.

even in that statement my heart aches for her having to saddle the financial burden and write off money she should be entitled for just for the benefit of the absolute w@nkers who are doing sod all to help this club. When we have to pay off people like Colin Lee and Alan Knill who basically failed and then Thea doesn't get anything back from literally continuing to save the club something isn't right.

I wish her all the best of health and I hope her families love for the club stays and she continues to come to the ground, if I had the money Thea I'd pay you back every penny and sack these clowns for you. She needs to out them as the frauds and sponges they all are.

wivelgull · Post by **wivelgull** » 11 Mar 2015, 10:03

Royalgull is right.

tommyg · Post by **tommyg** » 11 Mar 2015, 10:05

The crucial thing is that the club will be debt-free which is a very kind gesture by Thea. She's basically poured a few million into the club just to keep it afloat and I will be externally grateful for her support. However, she's out of her depth as chairman and this news has been expected from the day Kelvin Thomas rode in on his horse.

With our big-earners out of contract this summer, it will be a clean slate for the new owners. I just hope it's not MK2 - we need a clear-out on and off the pitch and that includes the current directors. Unfortunately, with Thea mentioning the TUST already, it doesn't fill me with confidence that there is anything in the pipeline. The TUST is a good few years away from being in a position to even consider owning the club.

wodger of awabia · Post by **wodger of awabia** » 11 Mar 2015, 10:05

Part time football next season?

CP Gull · Post by **CP Gull** » 11 Mar 2015, 10:30

tommyg wrote: I just hope it's not MK2 - we need a clear-out on and off the pitch and that includes the current directors. Unfortunately, with Thea mentioning the TUST already, it doesn't fill me with confidence that there is anything in the pipeline. The TUST is a good few years away from being in a position to even consider owning the club.

My thoughts too. There are pros and cons to all the scenarios that might play out here. We might get new owners with no past connections to the club, who may or may not see a development opportunity with the acquisition of the freehold of the ground as an objective, or who might quite simply be interested in owning a football club.

The idea of a consortium mk2 might appeal to some given that without question they are all fans and have all at some time or another put money into the club. Like you say though, it would sit a little uncomfortably with me if those same Directors that seem to have done little to support Thea over the last few years, might pick the club up on the cheap now, while Thea writes off millions! The very idea (see above) that those same Directors could then (potentially) profit by the eventual purchase/sale of Plainmoor and move to the Willows (all of which has been mooted in the recent months) would leave a bit of a sour taste in the mouth to me, given what has happened with the Bristows and their money.

As for the TUST, with little more than a hundred or so members paying a couple of quid a month and the lottery only just launched ... it just feels like it has come at the wrong time for them (us!) .. and you would seriously worry how the club could be funded going forward on such an unsound financial footing. Although, it would be fantastic if any sale of the club by Thea could at least see some representation of TUST on the new Board with perhaps a minority shareholding in the new ownership ? Whether they are a realistic option or not, nothing should detract from the excellent work undertaken by the "new" TUST so far, it just feels like the wrong time for a realistic chance of owning the club with a majority shareholding - that is unless Thea's generosity really does know no bounds and she ends up giving it away!

As for completely new owners, as mentioned elsewhere, there were definitely a few "unknown" faces in the Directors box last night who didn't look like the type of people who would actually want to watch TUFC v Chester in the Conference Premier on a cold Tuesday night in March for the sheer fun of it! Far more likely to be potential investors - although whether they still are after last night must be open to conjecture as they surely witnessed the club at just about it's lowest ebb in it's long and proud history. A poor side, a poor crowd, a poor atmosphere .... if they still want to buy the club after that, then good luck to them!

Another factor to consider of course, is that whether or not a Consortium Mk2 or the TUST as potential new owners are realistic or even viable remains to be seen but either way there is no harm done as far as the owners (Thea and the rest of the Board of Plainmoor Ltd) are concerned in "bigging up" the level of interest in buying the club, in order to get the best price from any "outsiders" .... in much the same way as Mike Bateson did to them all those years back!!! =D

tomogull · Post by **tomogull** » 11 Mar 2015, 12:18

brucie wrote:We are fecked. Time to close the doors. Better that than the continually downward spiral which is heartbreaking. Time the club was put out of its misery.
Personally I will probably start supporting Exeter Ciity. only an hour from me, and a great manager.

No, Brucie - the good ship Torquay United will carry on. We've been through very rough times before, notably Dave Webb bringing the club to its knees and Chris Roberts almost bankrupting the club, and come through. Sure, the club is in a very low ebb at present but the good times will return. I feel we're likely to be in the Conference for some time but we will be back in the league. I just hope that I'm still around when it happens !!

Post by **Scott Brehaut** » 11 Mar 2015, 13:04

royalgull wrote:Not much else to add really other than my own personal thank you. To a businessman/woman who decides to put their own personal made fortune in is one thing but for someone given a lucky break in life to put over £3million of it towards a struggling football club can only be seriously appreciated and thanked properly especially after Paul's passing to continue to do it is unbelievable. She and her family have made an enormous difference to this club but because of her nature, Paul's sad passing her lack of business acumen and knowledge of football she has been absolutely taken for a ride and taken advantage of by the leaches that are sat on our board.

even in that statement my heart aches for her having to saddle the financial burden and write off money she should be entitled for just for the benefit of the absolute w@nkers who are doing sod all to help this club. When we have to pay off people like Colin Lee and Alan Knill who basically failed and then Thea doesn't get anything back from literally continuing to save the club something isn't right.

I wish her all the best of health and I hope her families love for the club stays and she continues to come to the ground, if I had the money Thea I'd pay you back every penny and sack these clowns for you. She needs to out them as the frauds and sponges they all are.

brucie · Post by **brucie** » 11 Mar 2015, 13:06

Hope your right but lets face it our decline looks terminal. Even dear old Thea Bristow has taken us to our lowest point ever with the money she has put in. The support is there but we will be existing on crowds way shy of 2000 for the rest of the season.
This will drop even further next season unless we find new owner(s) unless some momentum (and a winning team) is found from somewhere.
With new owners it appears inconcievable that Hargreaves will be in charge next season.

Neal · Post by **Neal** » 11 Mar 2015, 13:35

Torquay Utd can easily exist. Basingstoke Town do. And have done on crowds of 200 to 400. Ok it might be terminally in this league or even the South, but you know what!!!! I support Torquay utd not f8cking Exeter City so I will still go. Its more to me than just success, if id wanted that I wouldn't have started supporting them in the first place. Its about history, plainmoor, the popside, ex players and the fact Im supporting my local football team, although I live in Basingstoke now lol!!

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