Let's Save Our Club!

[kevgull]

If Steve Breed and other ex directors, with TUFC at heart, were to lead the TUST perhaps this would encourage others to join?

[SenorDingDong]

If the borecast trio at the Herald wont do anything anyone on twitter could try;

https://x.com/mrandyphillips - Weston Morning News sports editor

https://x.com/brentpilnick - Sports reporter for BBC in the South West

or ask Herald editor Jim Parker - https://x.com/HEJimParker

Done. Lets get things moving here guys. They can't continue to ignore it, if they get a flood of tweets. They havent been in post for so long that they've lost any ability to criticise the club like DT.

[Burnhamgull]

I don't know anything about Brent Pilnick so forgive me if I'm missing some information but according to his Twitter account, he's a Jerseyman living in Torbay who supports Liverpool.

That kind of sums up the problem with modern fan culture. Everybody wants to follow a big club. Little clubs have no chance.

[Rjc70]

I don't get the downer on the Trust. It is, after all, the sum of its members.

If, as a member, you want it to do something, speak up (and through the correct channels, not just on here). Send an email to the chairman. If you're not a member, and you want it to do something, then join.

Personally, I don't think the Trust should get involved in organising demonstrations that are likely to turn ugly if comments made recently on here are any indication of an outcome. Who would take them seriously afterwards? Certainly not any grant-awarding organisations. It smacks to me of just finding someone else, anyone else, to blame in this mess: whining that the Trust did nothing while Rome burned.

I'm certain that Michael and his Trust board colleagues will not be doing nothing.

But as individuals it's down to you, too, to at least try to do something. It's down to all of us, whether Trust members or not.

There was the following earlier this month before the change of date for the Council meeting:-

Plainmoor Lease

Dear Member,

Please find below the current published agenda of the Overview and Scrutiny Board meeting scheduled for March 15th at which the disposal of the Plainmoor Lease will be discussed.

You will note from the agenda that this is a verbal report and to our knowledge no detailed report has yet been published.

Riviera Stadium Limited have made no secret of the fact that they wish to build a new event stadium but until they publish their plans and explain their reasons for needing to own the freehold of Plainmoor before a new stadium is built we have no choice but to challenge any decision to dispose of the Plainmoor lease.

I would like to take this opportunity to ask Riviera Stadium Limited to start the promised consultation process with all stakeholders at the earliest opportunity.

Below are the email addresses of the members of the Overview and Scrutiny Board if you wish to contact them before the meeting.

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]


Kind Regards ...

Michael



I don't expect a daily or even weekly update, but they have been pretty much up to speed regarding anything concerning our ground. I don't think it needs a trust to state the obvious regarding how a fan feels with our club in the bottom four and the ownership failing to back the manager. Everyone with the best interests of the club at heart will feel the same about GI's recent inactivity as is demonstrated on here.

In terms of GI and their interest in land, most forum members and the trust are aware of that also. TUST did, of course, get the ACV status for Plainmoor registered and will be keeping as up to speed as any one of us can. Some of the earlier TUST updates re Plainmoor are on the thread on this board. I don't speak for TUST, but I very much doubt they trust GI's intentions with TUFC. It's a gut feeling.

Personally, I see us fans being very let down by the local media on the issue of GI and land grabbing. Getting the message out without a hefty budget is going to be problematic for anyone or any organisation when the local media is 'cosy' with the owners. Jerry mentioned on one of the other threads that ITV's Jeff Welch was happy to be critical of GI that time that they failed to turn up to a press conference or give explanation prior to the great unveiling. They sound like the best bet.

What GI or members of the Council may have discussed behind closed doors is something else difficult to keep on top of as Adrian Sanders's previous emails between his and the Mayor's office quoted on here underlined.

[SenorDingDong]

I don't know anything about Brent Pilnick so forgive me if I'm missing some information but according to his Twitter account, he's a Jerseyman living in Torbay who supports Liverpool.

That kind of sums up the problem with modern fan culture. Everybody wants to follow a big club. Little clubs have no chance.

Apparently Brent Pilnick is on leave. So I wouldn't tweet him too much, although the BBC were always a long shot as they won't report on things unless they're beyond the state of rumours and have verified sources. We're reliant upon Dave Thomas awakening from his 8/9 year slumber, that should be fun...

[Forest gull]

emails sent

[lucy6lucy]

TUST has responded just know. Thank the lord


Plainmoor

Dear Member,

It has now been over 14 weeks since our Club was sold to Gaming International yet despite many promises to engage and involve supporters during this very difficult period in the Club's history, nothing has been forthcoming.

I will not list all of the things we were told, but notably:

There would be meetings with fans and other stakeholders to engage in discussions about a 5 year business plan.
There would be a Fans Forum within weeks of GI taking over.
Local people would be invited to join the Board.
Funds would be made available to the Manager to strengthen the team.
The match day experience at Plainmoor would be improved to attract and retain supporters.
GI have not delivered against any of these promises and therefore it is not surprising that the Club continues in a downward spiral both on and off the playing surface.

From the outset there have been genuine fears about GI's real interests in purchasing the freehold of Plainmoor, and many fans will be aware that GI have held discussions in private with Torbay Council on this subject. TUST and many individual supporters have raised their concerns with local councillors and there is now a growing army of resistance against the Council selling the freehold to GI without adequate safeguards built into any agreement that will protect the long term interests of Torquay United.

The mayor will be making a public decision about the disposal of the Plainmoor freehold at a meeting planned for the 26th April.

Our current precarious league position coupled with the failure this week to strengthen the team to help the fight against relegation only serves to reinforce the view that GI are indifferent to the club’s predicament and instead are only interested in the land the club has played on for over 100 years. Clarke Osborne and Chris Rich have failed to honour promises made to TUST and the absence of any information or actions to contradict and dispel some of these fears is cause for concern, worry and anger about the way in which the Club is being run.

The importance of the meeting on the 26th April cannot be emphasised enough as the outcome will go a long way in determining whether the freehold of Plainmoor is to be sold to GI or not. Whatever the decision we should have a clearer picture as to whether GI are in it for the long haul or whether they might walk away. TUST cannot predict the outcome of that meeting but is working hard to identify possible ways to protect the future of the Club if the nightmare scenario is realised.

If we are to believe that the existing covenants and proposed additional restrictive conditions will safeguard Plainmoor from the developers then we must ask the question why are GI so fixated on owning the freehold of a piece of land that seemingly has no commercial value?

Mr Osborne, you do not need to own Plainmoor. If you genuinely want to build a new stadium then build it first.

Whilst some supporters will be comforted by the sound bites emanating from Plainmoor the reality is we are potentially facing our darkest hour both on and off the pitch.

The nightmare scenario is the club going into administration, but as long as Plainmoor is secured by public ownership we will always have a home for a professional football club.

Supporters need to be concerned.

Please click on the following link and see what happens when the developers takeover.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39354998

If you are concerned about the future of your club I urge ALL supporters to make their feelings know to their local councillor. You can contact your local councillor by following the link below;

http://www.torbay.gov.uk/DemocraticServ ... aspx?bcr=1

Kind Regards ...

Michael

[Rjc70]

TUST Response


Plainmoor

Dear Member,

It has now been over 14 weeks since our Club was sold to Gaming International yet despite many promises to engage and involve supporters during this very difficult period in the Club's history, nothing has been forthcoming.

I will not list all of the things we were told, but notably:

There would be meetings with fans and other stakeholders to engage in discussions about a 5 year business plan.
There would be a Fans Forum within weeks of GI taking over.
Local people would be invited to join the Board.
Funds would be made available to the Manager to strengthen the team.
The match day experience at Plainmoor would be improved to attract and retain supporters.
GI have not delivered against any of these promises and therefore it is not surprising that the Club continues in a downward spiral both on and off the playing surface.

From the outset there have been genuine fears about GI's real interests in purchasing the freehold of Plainmoor, and many fans will be aware that GI have held discussions in private with Torbay Council on this subject. TUST and many individual supporters have raised their concerns with local councillors and there is now a growing army of resistance against the Council selling the freehold to GI without adequate safeguards built into any agreement that will protect the long term interests of Torquay United.

The mayor will be making a public decision about the disposal of the Plainmoor freehold at a meeting planned for the 26th April.

Our current precarious league position coupled with the failure this week to strengthen the team to help the fight against relegation only serves to reinforce the view that GI are indifferent to the club’s predicament and instead are only interested in the land the club has played on for over 100 years. Clarke Osborne and Chris Rich have failed to honour promises made to TUST and the absence of any information or actions to contradict and dispel some of these fears is cause for concern, worry and anger about the way in which the Club is being run.

The importance of the meeting on the 26th April cannot be emphasised enough as the outcome will go a long way in determining whether the freehold of Plainmoor is to be sold to GI or not. Whatever the decision we should have a clearer picture as to whether GI are in it for the long haul or whether they might walk away. TUST cannot predict the outcome of that meeting but is working hard to identify possible ways to protect the future of the Club if the nightmare scenario is realised.

If we are to believe that the existing covenants and proposed additional restrictive conditions will safeguard Plainmoor from the developers then we must ask the question why are GI so fixated on owning the freehold of a piece of land that seemingly has no commercial value?

Mr Osborne, you do not need to own Plainmoor. If you genuinely want to build a new stadium then build it first.

Whilst some supporters will be comforted by the sound bites emanating from Plainmoor the reality is we are potentially facing our darkest hour both on and off the pitch.

The nightmare scenario is the club going into administration, but as long as Plainmoor is secured by public ownership we will always have a home for a professional football club.

Supporters need to be concerned.

Please click on the following link and see what happens when the developers takeover.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39354998

If you are concerned about the future of your club I urge ALL supporters to make their feelings know to their local councillor. You can contact your local councillor by following the link below;

http://www.torbay.gov.uk/DemocraticServ ... aspx?bcr=1

Kind Regards ...

Michael

[MellowYellow]

TUST has responded just know. Thank the lord

The mayor will be making a public decision about the disposal of the Plainmoor freehold at a meeting planned for the 26th April.

To reiterate the most scary part of this story is that under the Council’s constitution the decision to sell is solely the Mayor’s, provided the market value for Plainmoor is offered approx. £1,000,000. (if the offer is less than market value than the proposal must be considered by a group of Councillors). So decision on the future of Torquay United is not down to GI or Torquay Supporters but all down to one man and his dog!

[TUST_Member_Rob]

Gordon Oliver to make the decision?

Jesus wept.

[Plainmoor78]

Personally think if the club was to fold, it would fold long before any bulldozers moved in, the key going forward is who owns the ground, as long as G.I do not, then there's no reason why a deal couldn't be struck to allow a phoenix TUFC to use plainmoor.

Aldershot, Chester, Halifax, are among the phoenix clubs that retained their original stadiums and I'm pretty sure, but could be wrong Hereford still use Edgar street.

However one problem regards TUST ownership now is a massive loss of goodwill, I know there were some, who were prepared to put a bit of money up for TUST ownership, who probably will not now, because it would be needed to pay off G.I, which many will not do.

I refer to your last paragraph. Jeff is talking about launching a Phoenix club, which would be a completely different entity from the current club; hence there wouldn't be any need to pay GI anything, because GI wouldn't own the Phoenix club.

[Neal]

Some democracy that.

Never understood the argument for Mayors, other than London which seems to have some validity.

When I sent emails to councilors right at the start of this, the response wasn't great but some do care, I think Im right in saying that they were mainly the Liberal Dems group and were in favour of stopping this sale.

There is not allot fans can do, other than lobby the councilors, but they might just go on party lines who knows.

The other action is Boycott the next home game. The reason I say that is that it needs to get into the media somehow. If there was no one at the game that would be something the BBC could report, because it would be fact. It wont be on national news I know but somehow we need to let councilors know and the Mayor the degree of anger and unfairness in all this.

What you must realise is that councilors have allot on their plate with the cuts to real services, like social and home care as just one example. And the freehold of a football ground might not be their main prio right now. So we should up the ante and push this up the priority list. There are not too many options, but a boycott in my opinion would be the most effective at this stage.

Like someone else said, I actually don't care now what league we are in, I have said that many months ago actually. I just want to secure the club, as it is, in any league, if we can. And securing that at Plainmoor is the best option.

Boycott the next game.
Write to your councilors
contact any media source you can.
Convince your friends who support the club to do all these.

Don't let them destroy this club that many of us have supported for a VERY long time!

[Neal]

Just thought. If the council decide to sell the freehold. They surely cannot just sell it to GI. It would have to go out to tender? We should be prepared for that.

[notnow]

In addition to filling the family stand what about trying to get all the TUFC fans at the Ellacombe End whether it is Family Stand, Bristows or Popside.
And stay there after the game. Wd 20 stewards remove 1000 people?

[notnow]

A nice fast one and to the tune of one of fave Gulls chants ever. The Elliot Benyon boy from up the road tune.

They stole our club and we want it back, GI , GI
They stole our club and we want it back, GI, GI
They stole our club and we want it back
Osborne's lying and Harrop's fat
The Torquay fans will never give in til the end!

Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah