Osborne meeting with Kevin Foster MP and Cllr

[Neal]

I would start and say that no one can for see the future, so its just guess work.

But my chosen option is 3b - Cannot guarantee anything but for me boycotting several months ago MIGHT and I say might have started the process towards that goal. Will that happen no, because as far as I can see most (excluding a few on here and the few hundred who don't go anymore) obviously don't agree.

But its a shame because I an willing to risk it, because the other options above except maybe 3c are terrible.

[Yorkieandy]

I'm fully share the frustrations of Neal although boycotting wouldn't have made Osborne do anything differently IMO. All it would have done is cost him a bit more and for a businessman that surely will rankle more than protests. If nobody turns up then the club still has to be funded and he still has to appear to look as though he's running it properly but just he has to fish out more from his own pocket. This was my point a while ago but we've seen on this forum that fans have their own ways of deciding what their course of action should be and no one fan is correct.

The concern for me is the supposed 'best case scenario' option of Osborne not getting the freehold and the club getting new owners. Correct me if i'm wrong but didn't the club struggle to find a buyer when Thea left and that was with no debt and a club a league higher? Trying to offload the club whilst it's in NLS, at it's lowest ebb and with fewer punters coming through the turnstiles will be a task for even the most astute of businessmen.

Even if the club DO manage to somehow find a new buyer then once you've got over that hurdle then you are then left with the worry about their integrity, just like when CO took over. Just because a new owner steps in doesn't mean they have the best of intentions for the football club. Could be a case of out of the frying pan maybe?

There is no doubt though that the result all TUFC fans would surely want is a new owner to come in who is genuinely passionate about football, genuinely passionate about progressing TUFC, is prepared to chuck a few quid at it and prepared to start running the club like a fully functional and professional outfit on and off the field for once.

Failing that then the only other option is for Osborne to sell to the TUST assuming they have enough funds and assuming Osborne isn't spiteful enough to just let the club go under rather than at least recoup something back financially by selling to them.

The freehold is key but also key are Osborne's actions should the freehold slam shut in his face but there could be a scenario where the club is eventually put up for sale but not the TUST is able to afford it nor any buyer can be found. Could this be a possibility? Like Neal says, it's all guesswork at this stage.

At least this Kevin Foster sounds like a decent level headed bloke who won't be sweet talked, hoodwinked or coerced into anything without it benefitting the greater good of the area.

[Plainmoor78]

At least this Kevin Foster sounds like a decent level headed bloke who won't be sweet talked, hoodwinked or coerced into anything without it benefitting the greater good of the area.

Although it is useful having the local MP on board, it must be remembered that he has no say in the matter as it is the council who will make the decision and he is not a member of the council.

[TorquayDNA]

If nothing else, the notes from Kevin Foster highlight just what an ignorant buffoon/crook Gordon Oliver is, something we all knew of course, but this is hard proof. Let's hope Kevin Foster and co can hold out until GO is gone for good, because I seriously doubt the longevity of TUFC otherwise. The shambles that was the mayor's forum was the epitome of his incompetence.

One thing's for sure: CO isn't just going to give the club away and write off his debt (why would he, even if he were an honourable businessman) so unless the unimaginable happens and he turns the club around, I'm very much afraid the TUFC we've grown to love has already died and is currently in shut down mode.

I hate doom mongering, but sadly it's the truth... Anyone got some good news?

[Yorkieandy]

Although it is useful having the local MP on board, it must be remembered that he has no say in the matter as it is the council who will make the decision and he is not a member of the council.

Ah. Yes. Thanks P78.

The club is right in the shit then in that case.

[TorquayDNA]

Although it is useful having the local MP on board, it must be remembered that he has no say in the matter as it is the council who will make the decision and he is not a member of the council.

Good point, but it is a good start that he is obviously working with council members to bring this issue to light.

[Soupdragon]

Good point, but it is a good start that he is obviously working with council members to bring this issue to light.

More like the local councillors have roped Foster in for a bit of pr ... there are local elections early next year!

[Tufc1]

Option 4.
We merge with Truro City. Play at Truro whilst new ground is built.

We are losing £6000 a week. £300,000 per year

A club 2 divisions below us earn this by way of renting out their 2 4g pitches at £30 an hour. Includes local schools that do their sports lessons there.
Basically £300 a day easy profit in a average week.
Car parking 100 spaces mostly full weekdays at £4 a car.
£700 a week £350,000 profit on a sustainable club.

And still you lot think plainmoor is fine in today's modern running of a football club??

We are so far behind a club 2 tiers below us earn this much more than plainmoor generates.
Do you get it yet???

Stay at plainmoor the club dies.

10 years to late to save the club.

Football has moved on off the pitch we have not.

[ACW2IOW]

Option 4.
We merge with Truro City. Play at Truro whilst new ground is built.

We are losing £6000 a week. £300,000 per year

A club 2 divisions below us earn this by way of renting out their 2 4g pitches at £30 an hour. Includes local schools that do their sports lessons there.
Basically £300 a day easy profit in a average week.
Car parking 100 spaces mostly full weekdays at £4 a car.
£700 a week £350,000 profit on a sustainable club.

And still you lot think plainmoor is fine in today's modern running of a football club??

We are so far behind a club 2 tiers below us earn this much more than plainmoor generates.
Do you get it yet???

Stay at plainmoor the club dies.

10 years to late to save the club.

Football has moved on off the pitch we have not.

...and where in Truro would you play?

[Louis]

Option 4.
We merge with Truro City. Play at Truro whilst new ground is built.

We are losing £6000 a week. £300,000 per year

A club 2 divisions below us earn this by way of renting out their 2 4g pitches at £30 an hour. Includes local schools that do their sports lessons there.
Basically £300 a day easy profit in a average week.
Car parking 100 spaces mostly full weekdays at £4 a car.
£700 a week £350,000 profit on a sustainable club.

And still you lot think plainmoor is fine in today's modern running of a football club??

We are so far behind a club 2 tiers below us earn this much more than plainmoor generates.
Do you get it yet???

Stay at plainmoor the club dies.

10 years to late to save the club.

Football has moved on off the pitch we have not.

Option 5 invest in the players and get back in the league and get the funding we need to sustain the football club again. All this pretty stadium drawing is taking eye off the ball litterally. We are a football club owned by a business man who doesn’t care about the football.

We are in a rubbish league because high up are not focusing on footballing matters.

[Shangull]

Option 4.
We merge with Truro City. Play at Truro whilst new ground is built.

We are losing £6000 a week. £300,000 per year

A club 2 divisions below us earn this by way of renting out their 2 4g pitches at £30 an hour. Includes local schools that do their sports lessons there.
Basically £300 a day easy profit in a average week.
Car parking 100 spaces mostly full weekdays at £4 a car.
£700 a week £350,000 profit on a sustainable club.

And still you lot think plainmoor is fine in today's modern running of a football club??

We are so far behind a club 2 tiers below us earn this much more than plainmoor generates.
Do you get it yet???

Stay at plainmoor the club dies.

10 years to late to save the club.

Football has moved on off the pitch we have not.

There are already excellent artificial pitches in the local schools. The restriction of use of Plainmoor would involve Plainmoor becoming Westlands sporting area which would prob include an artificial pitch and sale of Quinta for housing. Given Plymouths attempts at using Home Park for concerts and the low disposable income for these events at Plainmoor previously and their lack of success there's no clear route to financial success in this. Given the track record of GI the best route is prob to close the door, let GI stop investing and let's start from scratch and resurrect ourselves through community/supporters group ownership. in short it's a bloody mess but the reality is that it's probably impossible to run the club at any profit that would interest a genuine business person. if it had a chance someone would have stepped forward rather than the on going attraction of cowboys.

[standupsitdown]

Other clubs survive and some succeed with grounds no better than Plainmoor. Look at Accrington, now League One, who had smaller crowds and an inferior ground to Torquay.
Maybe we are losing so much money now because we have League Two expenditure but non league income. No TV money.

[lucy6lucy]

Other clubs survive and some succeed with grounds no better than Plainmoor. Look at Accrington, now League One, who had smaller crowds and an inferior ground to Torquay.
Maybe we are losing so much money now because we have League Two expenditure but non league income. No TV money.

600k lost income for not being a league club. But as Accrington Stanley are concerned "who are they "(as the milk adverts said) Well for sure they have a chairman who clearly gives a shit and look where they are now. Accrington is a shit hole, the ground is a shit hole , there fan base and attendances are crap but they are in league one. We have a fantastic ground and fan base, where has it gone wrong ? Ownership springs to mind

[MellowYellow]

Whilst I don't buy into a Truro groundshare - tufc1 does make some valid financial points. Whilst you have to admire Accrington success in 'farting again thunder' theirs is not the business model to follow. Made no bones about it Accrington are still a 'starving peasant begging for scraps'. Much like Torquay their only source of income is: 1) fan base; 2) from players sales; 3) Cup runs; 4) Sponsorship and 5) Beer/food sales. They do have one huge advantage over us: They have a Chairman who cares about the club with a passion. And that is really the hub of all this debate. Deep down, no supporters really disagree with the concept of a new ground and greater revenue streams. The contention is with a 'wrecking ball' Chairman who has a history of making promises of new Stadia and never keeping them. To the point that when you are sold pictures of a 10 year old Indian Stadium as the 'Future of Torquay United' that translate to me as the 'Death of Torquay United'.

[merse btpir]

A club 2 divisions below us earn this by way of renting out their 2 4g pitches at £30 an hour. Includes local schools that do their sports lessons there. Basically £300 a day easy profit in a average week. Car parking 100 spaces mostly full weekdays at £4 a car. £700 a week £350,000 profit on a sustainable club.
And still you lot think plainmoor is fine in today's modern running of a football club??
We are so far behind a club 2 tiers below us earn this much more than plainmoor generates.Do you get it yet??? Stay at plainmoor the club dies.

10 years too late to save the club and football has moved on off the pitch we have not. I agree with you whole heartedly on that and who was in charge ten years ago?

The business models that should have been put in place then were not, and they are very similar business models sustaining a host of small clubs at our level and below in the football pyramid by clubs that do only have one ground with no other training/ancillary facilities too aid them. I'm talking about clubs like Hemel Hempstead Town, Chippenham Town as just two as an example.

They achieve the sustainability that they have through hard work using their business sense that was never in the minds of the board that ran the club after obtaining it from Mike Bateson; all they wanted to do was take the lazy way out of using the benevolence of the Bristows who were silly enough to buy into that concept. It was obviously limited to finite sustainability and so it turned out...any fool could have seen that and all the time I was bending one particular member of that board's ear about it; he shrugged and avoided the issue.

Torquay United could perfectly well set up an expansive youth development structure that could be run in a business like manner and charge parents for their children's participation. They could perfectly well buy into the English Language School market here and make it attractive to overseas customers in the close season. The facilities are there around the bay to rent and utilise before any conceived new facility of the club's own even comes into the equation. They have the training ground in Newton Abbot and use of other education sites around the bay to persue and secure.

But the old board were too lazy and didn't want to know; their benefactor tired of the disproportionate financial responsibilty and quit and we are where we are now ~ in the hands of a predator who saw the bankrupt nature of the small consortium of supporters who took on Thea's poisoned chalice without a hope in hell of running it properly and yet here we are with two significant members of that 'Bristow Board' sitting there as Presidents for Life.

Well thankyou very much for leading us into this cul-de-sac of despair and hostage to Clarke Osborne; remind me to kow-tow to you when next I see you!