It may seem a daft point, but hear me out!
Just watching the TUST video last night (I couldn't attend) and remembering this comment on this forum from Neal ....
... really got me thinking. It really is quite an important question I think as I guess what Neal is hinting at is that quite possibly the vast majority of active members on this site don't live in Torquay or the Torbay area - they are quite literally flung far and wide.Neal wrote:Does anyone on this forum actually live in Torbay?
Speaking personally, I haven't actually lived in Torquay for the last 20 odd years - Teignbridge these days - but having done some research on the family tree a while back I can trace my ancestors back to living in the South Devon area for nigh on the last 200 years - before that they came from foreign lands .... well Cornwall, to be precise!
Anyway, my point is, that whilst I am by no means unique, I would imagine that the number of people currently living in the Torquay area with "roots" in the area stretching back hundreds of years is not that commonplace.
I am no demographics expert and I have done no research at all on the subject but my instincts tell me that the "make up" of the Torbay "community" these days is very diverse. A lot of families living in the area may not have been born here, or if they were their parents or grand parents may not have been. They chose, at some point in their lives to move here - stereotypically from the vast conurbations in the Midlands, the North West etc - there was also, and I presume still is - quite a large Glaswegian "community" living in the Bay as well.
The point is that because these people at some time in their lives chose to live "in a nice place by the sea" whilst they now live in the community - how much of a part of it do they really feel?
I ask the question, because I was chatting with my brother (another avid TUFC fan) the other day and he happened to mention that a good mate of his, who he doesn't see quite so often these days, who I recall was a regular visitor to Plainmoor throughout his 20s (1980s) had paid a surprise visit to TUFC to attend a game recently, unbeknown to my brother. The last time I can recall this friend visiting Plainmoor was sadly when he was "locked out" of the Crawley FA Cup game - how damaging that was to his affection towards TUFC I don't really know but the point is this. This guy has lived in Torquay since he was a young kid, his family moved down here from Manchester when he was 10 or 11 I think - and despite the fact that he has visited Plainmoor quite literally hundreds of times more over the years than he has ever visited Old Trafford and the Theatre of Dreams he is, was and always will be a Man United fan in his heart. So it didn't really come as any great surprise to me that his recent "visit" (and quite possibly his last) to Plainmoor was, of course, stood in the FCUM end!
So, part of the problem as it strikes me is that for a lot of people living in this area they may love living here but how much do they really feel part of the "local" community particularly when it comes to providing support to it's local football team - perhaps if we had of enjoyed more success over the years it would have been easier to convert some of these "in comers" ... maybe, maybe not, who knows? But you only have to look around the local schools and clubs and on the streets of Torbay - trying to spot a kid in a TUFC replica shirt is difficult. These days it's not even just the Man Us, Liverpools, Chelsea's, Spurs' and Arsenals either - there are plenty more Barcelonas and Real Madrids too!
Of course, another consequence of being born in Torbay and the surrounding area is that when the time comes to leave secondary school the realisation hits home that if you want to pursue further education or a career in your chosen field, for the vast majority of young adults, not all of course, but a large percentage I would guess - have no option but to move away from the area, very often never to return.
Any travelling fan of TUFC will be all too aware of the fact that our away following - which for many years now has been disproportionately high in numbers in relation to our home support - is regularly boosted (very often more than half the crowd) by "exiles" living in London and the South/South East or the North and North West - in fact pretty much all over the UK it seems, depending on what part of the country we are playing in at the time.
Anyway, I am rambling a bit here but what I am trying to convey is that actually if TUST is serious in trying to reach out to the Torquay " community" I am not convinced that they will really find the level of support they might expect - simply because, and I have absolutely no problem with it at all by the way, that many who live here don't necessarily feel as much attachment to the area as they do to the areas they were born in, or their parents or even grandparents hail from. I should add that this is most certainly not the case of all of those that come to live and settle here - Michael Goulbourne, the driving force behind TUST is himself from the Birmingham(?) area I believe.
So, if TUST are planning their next move to get the "community" behind them I just hope they target the right places. By that,without meaning to be disrespectful, but by say for example mass leafleting/canvassing the TQ1 area for wider support for membership and/or support of their proposals they may ( they may not, of course) be disappointed with the response. Personally, I would think their efforts may be better spent really working closely with all THREE of the fans forums (to be fair the communication has been excellent thus far) and the wider social media: Facebook, Twitter etc to really get their message across to the TUFC community, rather than the Torquay community.
The TUST also need to get the local media on board as well. Listening to the Herald a Express podcast last night I was rather surprised, given his prominent position, that Dave Thomas seemed rather taken aback when the TUST representative spoke of their plans. It appears Dave still looks upon the TUST as nothing more than a glorified Supprters Club who might be able to "chip in" with help when it comes to buying a player, a piece of equipment or whatever, now and then. Dave seemed to accept the idea of them having a voice on the Board - but he seemed struggle with the idea that the TUST don"t just want a place on the Board, they want to be THE Board! It seemed to come as a bit of a shock to Dave that that is indeed their intention and has been for several weeks now since Thea made her announcement - it just seems to have bypassed the TUFC reporter at the Herald Express! I do agree with him though, when he was clearly trying to get his head around the idea of TUST taking over the running of the football club within such a tight timeframe, as we know Thea wants out by the end of June and so time is very much against them.
Of course, like most of us on here, my hope is that there is still some rich benefactor out there, with the club at heart, who is going to come in and really take the club forward. In fact, provided it was beneficial to the club, I wouldn't even have a problem with the club selling off Plainmoor and moving elsewhere (the Willows?) if it meant that we ended up with a more sustainable, self sufficient club which didn't have to rely quite so much on outside investment just to survive.
But, as each day passes, it seems increasingly unlikely that there is anyone out there, biting Thea's hand off to take over. It seems, most likely then that we are left with just two options as things stand. Either we get fully behind the TUST, who have certainly got off to a good start judging by the energy and enthusiasm they have shown for the project so far and by the quality of people they have already brought on board OR ... we are left with what remains of the existing Board, or at least those that still want to be involved in the post Bristow era.
There has been some talk of the existing Board seeking out and finding some additional outside investment. What is not clear, is whether or not there is ANY appetite from the existing Directors ( or more accurately those that remain) to plough any more of their own money into the club - my instinct tells me that they might be reluctant to do this, I hope I am wrong! Of course any "outside" investment they can attract might help in the short term, but in reality unless it is really substantial ( unlikely) it is only likely to be a short term fix and is unlikely to make much, if any, real impact on the medium to long term future of the club.
So TUST or Existing Board (+ maybe a few extra £££) seem to be the only options on the table at the moment. Given the decline of the football club over the past few seasons under the current leadership, I am not confident of an uplift in our fortunes if we effectively maintain the status quo! So, whilst I am not a huge fan of trust based ownership - the TUST and Supporters Direct would tell you that it doesn't work for every football club and certainly not the higher up the Leagues you go, least ways not in this country it seems - personally I am leaning towards them as our best, if not only, option.
Anyway, back to the TUST meeting on Wednesday night and my earlier point, the Supporters Direct representative who spoke at the meeting last night made mention of how not just the supporters of the likes of Exeter City and Wrexham really got behind their supporters trust but that they actually found great support for the club in the wider community. I would love to find that is the case with TUFC, really love to find that is the case, but I suspect rather cynically I suppose, that that won't be the case.
With not only the football club in Torquay at it's lowest ebb in it's history, same with the rugby club and I guess pretty much the same with the cricket club too - it really would be a tragedy if we lost all of these clubs for future generations of kids growing up in this area. The lack of support, for all three clubs in the area is often put down to the "apathy"of the local community and perhaps that is true in part - after all for most people who choose to live in this beautiful area it is often a "lifestyle" choice - but I think that there is more to it than that, for some of the reasons outlined above and of course, being "a nice place to live by the sea" it is inevitably a magnet for those people whose working lives have ended and who just want to "put their feet up"... and you can't really blame them either!
It really is a desperate time for local sport in the area and with the local council seemingly unwilling and/or unable to offer any sort of tangible support - the sort of support which is far more forthcoming in other areas - you only have to look 30 odd miles down the A38 to see how some support their local football teams - it really is time for the community to stand up and have their voices heard not only, I might add, about the state of our local sports clubs but also the (still after all these years!!!) appalling sports facilities (with just a few notable exceptions) in the area!
Desperate times ....
One final point (promise!) I do think that anyone who feels any affection towards TUFC should seriously consider joint TUST as unless something happens very soon I get the feeling as though the club is lurching towards a real crisis point. At what just £24 a year (more if you want!) it represents little more than the cost of a home game entrance admission, particularly if you throw in a pie, a pint, a programme and petrol. In fact if money is an issue and you were thinking of going to one of the last three home games ... why not even give one a miss and instead pay your subs direct to the TUST instead. I have a feeling that any money directed towards them now is going to be much more important than turning up and supporting our team in a meaningless end of season kick about!
