Club Ownership

[RoadGull]

I think Mr Hayman left for personal health reasons.

[Dazza]

I have to say I find the whole thing amazing. The lack of information from anyone now, the apparent lack of real concern from most fans, the fact that this the main fans website is so quiet at the moment. The only 'news' seems to come from a whistle blower somewhere in the club who only speaks to a London based fans site who most fans seem discouraged from joining. The press as well seem days behind in their reporting and seem to have missed the main story. The commercial manager ( who heads the only bid in town) has apparently said that we might have a 25% chance of going under. ( and in saying that is seeking support). That is disaster. This is a desperate situation. It is a time for real and frank information reported properly from all involved. It is a time for people to wake up and show real support but people will and cannot do that unless their some real information. Please can the true supporters be told properly what the situation is.

[nickbrod]

Even today's HE podcast adds little new information other than what we've all put together from various sources. All rather depressing. We have to hope that the Conference AGM on Saturday will look favourably on TUFC.

[arcadia]

I just hope everything goes through ok but I don't like Edwards saying there is a 25% chance of failure. This makes me think that there are a lot of pitfalls and if this means losing the club it may be better to start part-time. When a new consortium goes into a club and they are chasing the outgoings they will have a very hard job to make ends meet. If we were part-time they could build slowly as it seems obvious that there is not enough money in the pot and perhaps the 25% risk of failure could be nill. that is not a pun.

[Neal]

Problem is Arcadia Edwards is being honest and open, which many on here want.

I don't think we would sink to 150 if we were in the Southern League. I believe that people would rally round actually, yes of course some would bugger off, we have already experienced those sorts on here already, but genuine supporters who are up for it would stand by the club they have supported for years.. Yes we would be part time, and if we could muster anything near 1000 we would rise quickly in my opinion.

Off course the council could take the ground back and develop it, not sure they would actually do that as Im sure many of us would try and campaign against that. It is a part of the town and a bloody good ground. But who knows with local budgets being under threat. It would make the task much much harder of course and we would really have to start from scratch then. But there we are.

Of course its the last resort going to Administration.

[eddyh]

This notion of part time football is just not workable in Torbay. The part time footballer thing is fine. It's the other job that's the problem as decent employment down here isn't exactly plentiful last time I looked. If we drop far enough then we can get part time players at that level but that is pretty depressing to consider. Torquay has successfully maintained a full time professional club for a century and with half decent management (something sadly lacking over the last 20 years in one guise or another) it can do so again.

[Dave]

I do not think the council would take back Plainmoor and develop it, after all they have listed the ground as an asset of community value, and that listing remains in place until 30/3/2020.

The football club in itself is not going to come out in public and air it's dirty laundry, and rightly so, no organisation is going to admit publicly it has financial problems, it's business suicide to do so, the football club were always going to say publicly everything is going to be alright, after all the club still has to acquire goods and services, it needs to sell season tickets, convince the national league board it's solvent, and so on, no matter how frustrating this process has been, and it has, I personally think the club has been right to keep it's cards close to it's chest.

As far as fan apathy goes, none of us know what's going on behind the scenes, and for me, one of the biggest problems has been the reporting in the local papers. I always thought the job of a journalist was to investigate, reveal, expose, get to the heart of the facts on things of public interest, all we've seen from the HE and WMN is one article towing the party line after another, as said, the club are going to tell people what the club wants people to hear.

Dean Edwards has the financial due diligence report and says there's a 25% chance the club could go under, that should tell us a story in itself, so I'm guessing greater problems have been unearthed than some ever envisaged, lets hope if that's the case it can be sorted and soon, other wise, obvious I know the clubs heading for disaster.

And should the absolute worst happen, have us fans got the will and passion to help a phoenix club get off the ground and support it ? I would support it with out shadow of doubt.

[arcadia]

This notion of part time football is just not workable in Torbay. The part time footballer thing is fine. It's the other job that's the problem as decent employment down here isn't exactly plentiful last time I looked. If we drop far enough then we can get part time players at that level but that is pretty depressing to consider. Torquay has successfully maintained a full time professional club for a century and with half decent management (something sadly lacking over the last 20 years in one guise or another) it can do so again.

I was just making a statement of how I see the best way back with no money and no choice. If the consortium have money then brilliant but I'm not a gambling person and when someone says there's a 25% chance of losing what can you say.
It's a waiting game again.

[Neal]

I would support the club whatever league they dropped to, I cant face changing allegiances at my time of life, no that's not for me. So that's 2 then

[Dazza]

Three.

[gullintwoplaces]

Four. Torquay till I die.

[SuperNickyWroe]

Four. Torquay till I die.

Don't talk wet.

Five.

[frenchgull]

Make that six

[AlexGulls]

Seven. I'd be there whatever level were playing at.

[tktufc91]

8. When I sing I'm Torquay til I die, I mean it. Can only hope for positive news over the next few days.