Truro City end groundshare and now sold

[merse btpir]

[b...'professional football is ruthless so why hand your main protagonists an advantage even before a ball is kicked, stop being such a powder puff nobody remembers who comes second.[/b]

It's the dichotomy between what is desirable and what is necessary isn't it...

Desirable not to compromise the integrity of your home advantage set against the necessity of maximising your assets and the biggest asset of the lot is the stadium ~ EVERY revenue stream possible needs to be explored and utilised so having a tenant in to use it when it is 'dark' is almost a necessity in this day and age. Literally hundreds of clubs all over the country do this and Torquay United are no different in their obligation to run as efficiently as possible than any other.

The two part-time clubs closest to me and both operating just one tier below Torquay United are Haringey Borough where I am a (free) season ticket holder and Wingate & Finchley where my younger son plays. Haringey's Coles Park ~ with it's 3G pitch ~ is in daily income earning use as a home for the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation teams, has a tenant club also ~ Hashtag United ~ and in weekly use as a Saturday AND Sunday market; also renting out space for storage containers and now to a van hire company too...and that's apart from the income from private hiring of their social club.

Wingate sub let to Watford FC to stage their U23 games there; gain maximum income from their three soccer cages at the ground and also sub-let their excellent pitch with a perfect playing surface and pop-up sprinklers to Enfield Borough. The Maurice Rebak Stadium even stages bridge sessions every weekday Monday through to Friday charging players a tenner a day to play and accrues another grand a week doing that.

Then there is their Barnet Lane training ground (adjacent to where the former Barnet FC Underhill stadium was) producing maximum rental revenue from it's fully floodlit 4G and natural turf 'arena' pitches as having the facility to stage ALL youth game from U9s upwards (the U7 & 8play at the cages in the main ground) as well as spare capacity to sub-let to other clubs and all the time having it as their training facility witha fully functioning café and learning centre for their PASE academy boys.

Those of you who know me; read my posts and take on board what I have said know of my past history utilising Plainmoor for secondary income ~ it has to be done; Torquay United are not Arsenal or Man United and with much smaller clubs managing to achieve revenue streams far in excess of what is being achieved at Plainmoor, there is much to do.

No, it's not the best of situations having Billericay Town come to Plainmoor today already familiar with and having gone away once before with the points from an easy win against Truro City, but it has been a necessary one with the current ownership at least being more pro-active in maximising used of the ground than the previous ones.

...it'll have to do for now because this is precisely where we are!

[ACW2IOW]

A few games you say ! Plainmoor has already staged enough games to constitute a full season to date, even GJ was privately concerned, we shouldn't of even thought about entertaining them the way we have if we have serious designs on getting promotion first time of asking.
Your snowflake attitude is one of the main reasons we are where we are today, professional football is ruthless so why hand your main protagonists an advantage even before a ball is kicked, stop being such a powder puff nobody remembers who comes second.

I would suggest that when the £30,000 was gratefully accepted, there was no way achieving promotion first time of asking was in the equation! It is only since the arrival of GJ that this becomes a possibility.

[CP Gull]

Although it would seem that Treyew Road has passed its test and in theory could be used as early as the first week in December which had originally been mooted - Truro City have taken the “surprising” (not really!) decision to remain ground sharing at Plainmoor at least until the New Year. In other words to take in our “away” game against them which now seems set to take place at Plainmoor after all! Mr Masters gives his rationale behind the decision on their official website, citing their recent upturn in form (unbeaten in their last 5 games} as the main reason and not wishing to upset that!

I can remember speculating a few weeks back, whether Truro would hold off on a return to Cornwall until after THAT game on New Years Day ..... simply because as the “home” team they will get all the gate receipts (although I understand we keep the bar receipts - likely to be pretty substantial I would think!) and if we continue to do as well as we are at the moment, who knows what sort of crowd we might get at Plainmoor for that one, perhaps 3000, perhaps even 4000? Whereas if it were played at Treyew Road they would be lucky to get a third of that surely? Simply for the sake of a few lower gates (at Plainmoor) during the month of December, I reckon they may have taken the “commercial” decision that the potential rewards of a bumper gate on NYD at Plainmoor is worth holding off on an immediate return back to Truro! At least it should boost their average home attendance quite significantly!!!!

So, good news for us I think, albeit it will mean the pitch having to host a few more games !

http://www.trurocityfc.net/news/grounds ... 70670.html

[ACW2IOW]

Although it would seem that Treyew Road has passed its test and in theory could be used as early as the first week in December which had originally been mooted - Truro City have taken the “surprising” (not really!) decision to remain ground sharing at Plainmoor at least until the New Year. In other words to take in our “away” game against them which now seems set to take place at Plainmoor after all! Mr Masters gives his rationale behind the decision on their official website, citing their recent upturn in form (unbeaten in their last 5 games} as the main reason and not wishing to upset that!

I can remember speculating a few weeks back, whether Truro would hold off on a return to Cornwall until after THAT game on New Years Day ..... simply because as the “home” team they will get all the gate receipts (although I understand we keep the bar receipts - likely to be pretty substantial I would think!) and if we continue to do as well as we are at the moment, who knows what sort of crowd we might get at Plainmoor for that one, perhaps 3000, perhaps even 4000? Whereas if it were played at Treyew Road they would be lucky to get a third of that surely? Simply for the sake of a few lower gates (at Plainmoor) during the month of December, I reckon they may have taken the “commercial” decision that the potential rewards of a bumper gate on NYD at Plainmoor is worth holding off on an immediate return back to Truro! At least it should boost their average home attendance quite significantly!!!!

So, good news for us I think, albeit it will mean the pitch having to host a few more games !

http://www.trurocityfc.net/news/grounds ... 70670.html

Got it, in one!

[desperado]

Bet Julian Goldthorpe and the new groundsman when we get one will love that news. If we and Truro both get home games in the next round (surely Truro are not going to lose to Greenwich Borough at Plainmoor tomorrow ) by my calculations that means 9 games in 38 days up to New Year's Day. Better hope for a dry December .
Listening to it outside right now they could be busy after the game tomorrow

[standupsitdown]

Not wanting to move back home because the team is winning sounds rather strange. As you say, they want the receipts from what should be a big crowd.

[lucy6lucy]

If it's the gate receipts they want. Then surely stick Truro fans in the away end.

[merse btpir]

Not even the away end ~ just the away seats; there'll be plenty of room for them in there!

[standupsitdown]

Surely Truro will have the away end & away seats.
Otherwise it would need to be all ticket and the crowd (and receipts) would be well down.

[Dazza]

Just one fairly obvious snag with the plan with their 'home' game still to be at Plainmoor Mr Masters. Continuing playing on the Plainmoor pitch and the likelyhood of ever deteriorating winter weather makes it very possible that the fixture will get postponed and you will end up playing it down in Truro on a cold February Tuesday.

[Jerry]

Continuing playing on the Plainmoor pitch and the likelyhood of ever deteriorating winter weather makes it very possible that the fixture will get postponed

Is this the case though?

We now have excellent drainage, is this going to be damaged by playing more games on the pitch? Okay the playing surface will deteriorate but why would extra games cause the drainage to fail?

Obviously I am not a groundsman so I stand to be corrected on this by more knowledgeable posters.

[greb46]

As far as I'm aware most games are postponed by ice/snow so dangerous to play on or waterlogging so if the drainage works fine would imagine the pitch would cut up quite a bit but probably still playable.

[dennisk]

As far as I'm aware most games are postponed by ice/snow so dangerous to play on or waterlogging so if the drainage works fine would imagine the pitch would cut up quite a bit but probably still playable.

Pitch should hold up. We don't want a backlog of games at the business end of the season. We will be top by then, of course!

[arcadia]

This week was a bad time to lose our groundsman as the pitch was not good by the time Truro finished their F.A. Trophy game today. The ball would roll and water was spraying as it moved. Truro looked good going forward but suspect defending playing a 3-5-2 going forward and the wingback slotting in to make a 4 at the back defending. There was about 50 spectators disappointed they play on the pitch but it's got a bit of time to recover.

[dennisk]

This week was a bad time to lose our groundsman as the pitch was not good by the time Truro finished their F.A. Trophy game today. The ball would roll and water was spraying as it moved. Truro looked good going forward but suspect defending playing a 3-5-2 going forward and the wingback slotting in to make a 4 at the back defending. There was about 50 spectators disappointed they play on the pitch but it's got a bit of time to recover.

With extremely low attendances at Plainmoor for Truro home games, they really should be playing nearer to Truro, (Penzance or similar), I feel sorry for their supporters. From a Torquay perspective, it means we have an extra home game and additional funds (?). But the pitch will be hammered.