Next season.......

[Jeff]

Thought it might be handy to have a thread to discuss other teams signings, activities etc

So the composition of next season's Conference is nearly complete - North Ferriby and Maidstone won their North/South playoffs against AFC Fylde and Ebbsfleet respectively. Gives us quite a few "smaller" teams for next season, which might be handy if our budget isn't much better than this seasons. Pleased to see Maidstone promoted however, as they've worked hard to get back to this level.

The remaining place - out of Grimsby and FGR - I'd prefer to be FGR. Grimsby have always been - and always will be - a big club for this level, and if they don't get promoted this time they will still be strong next season. FGR on the other hand is an unsustainable pipe-dream. I'd much rather them stay in the division next season as there is always a chance it will collapse.

Thoughts?

[Plainmoor78]

I am also p!eased for Maidstone because my mother was born there, and also ebbsfleet leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth since losing to them in FA trophy final.

[wivelgull]

North Ferriby is what it says on the tin : a village club. It pretends to be a suburb of Hull, but it's not. I don't think we will ever have played a game against such a 'small' club. But give them their due, 19 years ago they lost 3-0 in the F.A. Vase final to the great Whitby Town. Since then Ferriby have won 4 promotions AND won the F.A. Trophy. Whitby have won 2 promotions but stayed in the Northern Premier league for 18 seasons.
My point there is that if such a small club can achieve great things - well, so can United. There's no reason (well, there are a few but none connected with ambition) that TUFC can't aim for the Championship. Yes, you heard right! Lack of ambition has ALWAYS been the bane of United (read the histories) but with ambition there's nothing we can't achieve (see North Ferriby F. C.)

[Plainmoor78]

In the case of north ferriby it does help if you have members of the the Allam family (who also own hull city) pumping money into the club. The point is people on this site have often pointed out Torquay struggling against teams who attract very low crowds, and the population of north ferriby is actually 2000 less than the capacity of plainmoor. The sad fact is it comes down to outside investment from very wealthy individuals. Long gone are the days when a teams status was indicated by its attendance's. Lack of money has ALWAYS been the bane of Torquay united.

[Southampton Gull]

Whereas we now have people intending to run the club purely to make money out of it and sod the consequences to the football club....................

[monkeyboy]

......... and there are lots of fans who can't wait for GI's takeover, me being one of them. If they are not, we may have the same situation as the start of this season or worse.

[hector]

Why would anyone be looking forward to property developers taking over the club?

[Southampton Gull]

Plenty of sand around the bay for fans to stick their head in. On the other hand we could all open our eyes and start asking what the hell is going on.

[Kit_robin]

What's going on? Well, I presume GI are waiting to ensure they will get the land that will make them the money, and move the football club. This isn't exactly a new revelation, is it? I mean we already knew this was their intention from the beginning?

And as has been stated 100 times there is no reason the above can't be beneficial for the club too.

Of course, if you have new information that this isn't what's going on perhaps you would share it so we can get our heads out of the sand, as you put it?

[Dave]

The thing is here, when you here the name Stadia UK it was kind of obvious from the start, and to be fair from conversations I've had with TUFC fans I know when I've been out and about most did/do get it.

As far as Plainmoor goes, yes it's a tidy stadium, and it meets our needs capacity wise, but that's where it ends, and this is where we do need to wake up, if we ever want to see our club back in the football league, and sustainably in the football league, our club has little choice but to move from Plainmoor, as Plainmoor can not offer any increase in commercial revenue to the club, that it needs to move forward, as TUFC can NOT rely solely on gate money for income any more, this should be obvious to us all.

Dave Thomas reeled of a list of clubs at our level that have benefitted from a new stadium, but he actually the missed the biggest prime example of that list, Barnet FC who moved to The Hive, with community training pitch's hired out around the clock, believe they have restaurant open 7 days a week and other commercial revenue streams in place there, the only reason they are back in the position they are.

But a word of warning though, we all know don't we, that G.I have been involved in shutting down stadiums before with a promise of a new one to be built, that's never been delivered.

So I'd hope that something would be built in legally to prevent G.I from shutting down Plainmoor until a new stadium was built and ready for use, and also something built in to stop from simply throwing up a cheap little "kit" stadium with no real facilities, whilst I have no problem with a "kit" stadium, hey look at Burton Albion, as long as it does have the means to bring in the extra revenue I've talked about.

And suggestion I'd make is having an indoor futsal hall, futsal is massively growing game, my lad goes out to stay with Spanish friend every summer, they have a futsal arena right on the doorstep, where 5 man teams can enter daily tournaments at 1 euro per player, and it's full every day.

As well as a general shortage of 3/4G training venues, there's very little in the way of futsal areas around this way, get with it TUFC there's big money to made with futsal.

[monkeyboy]

GI aren't just property developers, they are operators of stadia and Clarke Osborne has in fingers in many more pies. Think every fan is in the dark to be honest, so it's not really a case of putting our heads in the sand. Some choose to be pessimistic and some choose to be optimistic.

[Plainmoor78]

Forever is spot on with his analysis. There appear to be two main ways to run a small full time club successfully these days. One is having a very wealthy individual in charge, but the problem with this is that individuals do not stick around forever as we know to our cost. The other is the multi revenue stream stadium and infrastructure where the football club is just one part of the business. It is not a case of people with their heads in the sand, it is the modern economic reality of running a football club. As for Southampton if you really know what is going on tell us, otherwise you are no better than Dave Philips or GI at keeping everyone in the dark.

[wivelgull]

What happens to Bristow's Bench (still young enough to be called 'new') if we leave Plainmoor?

[Bloggy]

It probably gets bulldozed and sold off (in lumps like the Berlin Wall)!

[lucy6lucy]

It probably gets bulldozed and sold off (in lumps like the Berlin Wall)!

I want my brick plaque back then.