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Club Ownership... watch the video!

I've just watched the video and there were some interesting points raised at the meeting but I can't believe the comments made about the fact that there were TUST members missing!....Bloody hell guys, we don't all live in Torquay.

Public Meeting... Update to TUST Members

It's been a busy week for Torquay United Supporters' Trust. Last Thursday (2 April) saw a series of positive meetings with Kelvin Thomas, Bill Phillips, Simon Baker and Andrew Candy. Then, over the Easter weekend, we had the opportunity to meet many supporters when we leafleted the games against Dartford and Aldershot. And, today (9 April), Alan Robinson has been at the Herald Express recording a podcast which you'll now find on the paper's website. In between all this we had a very successful public meeting at Torquay Museum on Wednesday evening (8 April). This featured a series of presentations which you can discover at

After words of introduction from Alan Robinson, we heard from James Mathie of Supporters Direct (SD). James told us about the growth of the supporters trust movement and how SD has been helping trusts secure ownership of clubs over the past fifteen years. At the current count there are four Football League clubs under supporter ownership: Exeter City, Portsmouth, Wimbledon and Wycombe Wanderers. In our league examples include Chester, Telford United and Wrexham. SD is able to provide a certain amount of free advice and help to clubs. Then, once things progress, SD provides services on a costed basis. These include an assessment of the club's financial affairs and supervision of the arrangements needed to launch a community share issue.

We were then treated to an inspirational talk from Martin Weiler of the Exeter City Supporters Trust. Martin took us through the trials and tribulations of Exeter City since 2003 leaving us with several key messages. One was to always remember that a trust owns a football club but doesn't necessarily run it. As such, operational matters continue to be looked after by a committed team of employees and volunteers. Another message was how community-owned clubs are somehow "different". This is not only in terms of identity and outlook but also in the active part they play in community life. Martin described this as a "transformational" process.

Finally, Robin Causley of TUST gave a fascinating overview of positive and successful community activity in Torbay. Robin, of course, is well-placed to do this in his professional capacity as funding adviser with Torbay Community Development Trust. Robin surprised many when he explained just how many community organisations exist in Torbay. Two of the best-known are Rowcroft Hospice and Torbay Hospital League of Friends. Each is much-loved in the area and hugely successful in what they do. Each organisation is also run on similar lines and principles to those which might be applied to a community-owned football club.

Around an hour of questions followed. Some were supportive of the concept of a trust-owned football club; others were more sceptical and probing. The concerns were pretty much as anticipated: where is the money coming from? Is there enough support from, not only the local community, but also the followers of Torquay United themselves? A recurring theme was that TUST simply doesn't have enough members. To allay this fear, James Mathie explained how the trusts at Exeter City and Wrexham had similar membership levels to us when they begun the journey towards supporter ownership. Then, once there was momentum, numbers rose dramatically. Wrexham, for example, now have 4,000 members.

The meeting concluded with an informal show of hands in favour of TUST taking the next step towards making a bid to acquire ownership of Torquay United. This will involve undertaking an assessment of the club's financial affairs through the channels of SD. This will involve a cost to TUST and, all told, the next stages of the process are likely to amount to several thousand pounds. However it needs to be stressed that SD's investigations, conducted by the former financial director of a Premier League club, will be at a fraction of the normal market rate.

A final point to emphasise was that last night's "vote" was a simple means of capturing the mood of the evening. We realise this caused some confusion in that non-trust members were able to vote whereas absent trust members were not. This was very much a "one-off" decision in the spirit of an initial community meeting. Please be assured that any subsequent steps will be decided by trust members through formal procedures.

Kind Regards...

Michael

Public Meeting... Update to TUST Members

It's been a busy week for Torquay United Supporters' Trust. Last Thursday (2 April) saw a series of positive meetings with Kelvin Thomas, Bill Phillips, Simon Baker and Andrew Candy. Then, over the Easter weekend, we had the opportunity to meet many supporters when we leafleted the games against Dartford and Aldershot. And, today (9 April), Alan Robinson has been at the Herald Express recording a podcast which you'll now find on the paper's website. In between all this we had a very successful public meeting at Torquay Museum on Wednesday evening (8 April). This featured a series of presentations which you can discover at

After words of introduction from Alan Robinson, we heard from James Mathie of Supporters Direct (SD). James told us about the growth of the supporters trust movement and how SD has been helping trusts secure ownership of clubs over the past fifteen years. At the current count there are four Football League clubs under supporter ownership: Exeter City, Portsmouth, Wimbledon and Wycombe Wanderers. In our league examples include Chester, Telford United and Wrexham. SD is able to provide a certain amount of free advice and help to clubs. Then, once things progress, SD provides services on a costed basis. These include an assessment of the club's financial affairs and supervision of the arrangements needed to launch a community share issue.

We were then treated to an inspirational talk from Martin Weiler of the Exeter City Supporters Trust. Martin took us through the trials and tribulations of Exeter City since 2003 leaving us with several key messages. One was to always remember that a trust owns a football club but doesn't necessarily run it. As such, operational matters continue to be looked after by a committed team of employees and volunteers. Another message was how community-owned clubs are somehow "different". This is not only in terms of identity and outlook but also in the active part they play in community life. Martin described this as a "transformational" process.

Finally, Robin Causley of TUST gave a fascinating overview of positive and successful community activity in Torbay. Robin, of course, is well-placed to do this in his professional capacity as funding adviser with Torbay Community Development Trust. Robin surprised many when he explained just how many community organisations exist in Torbay. Two of the best-known are Rowcroft Hospice and Torbay Hospital League of Friends. Each is much-loved in the area and hugely successful in what they do. Each organisation is also run on similar lines and principles to those which might be applied to a community-owned football club.

Around an hour of questions followed. Some were supportive of the concept of a trust-owned football club; others were more sceptical and probing. The concerns were pretty much as anticipated: where is the money coming from? Is there enough support from, not only the local community, but also the followers of Torquay United themselves? A recurring theme was that TUST simply doesn't have enough members. To allay this fear, James Mathie explained how the trusts at Exeter City and Wrexham had similar membership levels to us when they begun the journey towards supporter ownership. Then, once there was momentum, numbers rose dramatically. Wrexham, for example, now have 4,000 members.

The meeting concluded with an informal show of hands in favour of TUST taking the next step towards making a bid to acquire ownership of Torquay United. This will involve undertaking an assessment of the club's financial affairs through the channels of SD. This will involve a cost to TUST and, all told, the next stages of the process are likely to amount to several thousand pounds. However it needs to be stressed that SD's investigations, conducted by the former financial director of a Premier League club, will be at a fraction of the normal market rate.

A final point to emphasise was that last night's "vote" was a simple means of capturing the mood of the evening. We realise this caused some confusion in that non-trust members were able to vote whereas absent trust members were not. This was very much a "one-off" decision in the spirit of an initial community meeting. Please be assured that any subsequent steps will be decided by trust members through formal procedures.

Kind Regards...

Michael

TUST Link on Twitter...

http://t.co/ZgvwtcaP4Y

I see there have been some development in this issue and that formal talks are ongoing. Hopefully this is a serious bidder.

http://www.torquayunited.com/news/artic ... 02273.aspx

News about the new ownership expected by the end of next week; see the end of this Herald Express article: http://www.torquayheraldexpress.co.uk/T ... story.html

http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Tor ... story.html?

Can we please have an owner who knows how to balance the books!

I would cut right back to the bone and give priority to the 1st team squad.
P*ss up in a brewery springs to mind.

Good luck with that! You're dreaming if you think TUFC will balance the books.... not in the near future whoever the owner is.

kevgull wrote:http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Tor ... story.html?

Can we please have an owner who knows how to balance the books!

I would cut right back to the bone and give priority to the 1st team squad.
P*ss up in a brewery springs to mind.

We had one, he was called Mike Bateson. He was a very shrewd businessman and Torquay often finished off the season in profit.

No one liked him.

Thinking about what Mr. Cambgull has just said: it's true, I have never met anyone who liked him.

I Liked him

cambgull wrote: We had one, he was called Mike Bateson. He was a very shrewd businessman and Torquay often finished off the season in profit.

No one liked him.