MelloYelow wrote:
It is the norm for Director's to be paid (if not salary) interest and proportional pay back of any personal loans (Thea being the exception writing off loans of £3 million and then gifted a 200k, open ended, interest free loan.) Admittedly I was not very succinct about the Directors payments but that's personal frustration for you!
As Southampton Gull says there is always interest from other parties e.g. Masters was one and the Authers group and no doubt others and who's detail like GI will be keep confidential.
Although not a supporter of a fan-owned football club, as some tout on here, there is merit in some of their arguments. Take Portsmouth Community Football Club (sorry Southampton Gull) who announced an operating profit of £118,000 in its first full year of trading, set against the backdrop of the club emerging from administration with no training ground, kit deal or commercial agreements, with the task of rebuilding trust and confidence from suppliers and stakeholders. the £14m legacy debt, which was reduced to £5m at the year-end and then fully repaid in September 2014 – two years ahead of schedule – negotiated with significant discounts
The Directors are business people and should be in a position to tackle a debt far removed from Pomey's £14m legacy debt without having to sell the family silver to GI to achieve it. I bet the Board wish they had look more closely at other options rather than jumping from the frying pan into the fire. I just hope they have not burned their bridges all at once and find ourselves handing over the keys to GI for loan default. Trust me GI will not be as compassionate as Thea.
Thank you for your very informative reply, I have no personal frustrations, just happen to think the reason for our clubs current state runs much further back than this current board, and all the finger pointing, and crying over split milk isn't going find a way forward, not aiming that at you, meant in general.
I'm 50/50 on community ownership myself, bumped into a few well known TUFC fans over the summer who've made some good points on this issue, but comparing us to Portsmouth, not sure it's a good comparison, Portsmouth are still pulling average gates of nearly 17,000, just 2,000 down on their premier league averages, which shows the depth of feeling, whether you love them or hate them, Portsmouth supporters have for their club, Portsmouth as a club have it within themselves to recover from the position they find themselves, they will find a lot easier than us to attract investment, and with the backing of 17,000 fans will be able to raise money.
What did we see last week at Torquay, the team lost 2 games on the spin away from home, and seven days later 400 went missing of our home gate, shows the pathetic nature of some, of our clubs fan base, now that's a frustration I do have.
Community ownership has worked at other clubs at our, or similar level, but, if it came down to community ownership at Torquay, would our fans rally, support, dig deep, turn up to the games in temperatures of less than +7 degrees, and support the club unconditionally as I've asked for as a fan of the club, and that's what's going to be needed for a few season, while the club rebuilds itself, like to think so, but not sure.