SOS call to all Torquay supporters..

[ROADRUNNER]

dont really know what will happen, the one thing that the club really needs is for the whole of torbay and teignbridge to get off their backsides and supoort their local football team , forget the premiership teams, get out of your armchairs and support your local team, i fear the worst for our club if things dont change soon, i hope that we get a miracle soon,i think the herald express needs to get this on the front page and make people see that the club is in dire trouble and needs the support of the local community.
come on torquay united needs you!

[royalgull]

Absolutely desperate state of affairs, club has been left on life support from the old regime but I had my own concerns that this current board whilst good hearted with the right intentions wasn't qualified nor had the capitol to keep this club going. It was folly to rely on 1800 home crowds when we have been shocking for 3 seasons, signed a bunch of lads on absolute peanuts which almost certainly meant a bottom half finish. Crowds are not going to stick around to watch a poor team playing poor football in a poor league so the board has to have some backup cash to cover the shortfall, especially when we have fixtures such as Boreham Wood or Guiseley who will bring 15 fans if we're lucky.

I've seen nothing thus far off the pitch to fill me with much confidence other than some genuine passion, that's a start but without the muscle it's irrelevant. I seriously worry for our future as a football club and if we somehow don't go down we may end up not seeing the season out.

[Yellow74]

As terrible as it sounds I see no way of us having a football club in the future unless......

A - Someone comes in with the financial resources to run the club and the business acumen to be able to run the club within its means and build solid foundations in the community.

B - We survive this season financially by the skin of our teeth and then, begin to grow the club again starting with links to all the schools and employing a commercial / marketing manager that can really get the fun back into match days and drive attendances up.

Unfortunately I don't see either of these happening and I really do fear the worst, not enough people care about having a professional football club in Torbay to cover the cost of running it. And the main issue is finance.

20 - 25 Years ago we didn't have so many options of where to spend our money, Holidays were not so common, cars were cheaper to run and a great deal of our disposable income is now spent on technology like mobile phone contracts. Unfortunately given the area and the economy £16 - £20 is to much of a strain on the majority of the community, add to that a few beers, chips and transport that's £40+ to watch lower end conference football. I love the club but I still find myself deliberating whether to go to a game or spend the money on taking the children out for the day. (Before anyone says take them to the game I have done and there is nothing to entertain them and they get bored, at least when I was a kid we could kick a ball around beside the old mini stand when our concentration strayed)

Unfortunately the situation we find ourselves in means that there is no way of lowering the cost of attending a game as it is to much of a risk and unlikely to see an immediate increase in attendances. Therefore I don't see a positive outcome from all of this, Ill continue to go to games whatever league and situation we are in but totally understand why many now stay away.

Unfortunately just having a board that cares is not enough this time, we need £££ and lots of it.

Can someone just win the lottery and save the club!

[Richinns]

The club can survive and grow back but it will not happen without it's supporter base and the desperate thing is that it seems some of that base has distanced itself from the club.

It's fairly simple - 1800 average for home games.

I suspect we all know people who have stepped away from attending. Time to ring them up and convince them to come back.

It's not pretty right now but a true fan does not jump ship because a storm has hit - they wait it out for better days and we can have them if we get people back through the turnstiles.

[royalgull]

But you can't chuck all your hopes on fans turning up because we need them to. Well the club needs you so please turn up and part with your hard earned by the way the football will be awful, we've got no good players and chances are we'll lose more than we win.

Playing on people's 'loyalty' to the cause, whilst that will be there for a bit you simply can't run a club that way. You have to provide something people want to watch not feel forced into coming and this board can't cope without it, recipe for disaster.

[frenchgull]

Royal gull you sound like a decent chap,this season was never going to be easy,all the club is asking is for eighteen hundred people to turn up for home games,it's the only way that Torquay can raise money,the board put in their hard earned money for the club to continue surely it's only fair that the supporters dig deep and support .I don't think people who say it's a poor team who play rubbish football so I am not going are true supporters,what ever the situation you should support your team,that's why Sunderland and Newcastle have tremendous support despite having unsuccessfull teams for the last few years.

[tomogull]

Royal gull you sound like a decent chap,this season was never going to be easy,all the club is asking is for eighteen hundred people to turn up for home games,it's the only way that Torquay can raise money,the board put in their hard earned money for the club to continue surely it's only fair that the supporters dig deep and support .I don't think people who say it's a poor team who play rubbish football so I am not going are true supporters,what ever the situation you should support your team,that's why Sunderland and Newcastle have tremendous support despite having unsuccessfull teams for the last few years.

Excellent post, Frenchgull. We are not 'a poor team playing poor football' and we're not a team 'with no good players'. Some fans have very short memories. We had a very tough start to the season - remember? Apart form the Cheltenham fiasco, the team has acquitted itself reasonably well in my opinion. We have at times played some good football but not for 90 minutes. Fans say we should get three points from teams like Guiseley but I've got to say that Guisely surprised me. They are not a bad side and will cause some upsets during the season. We should get 6 or 7 points from the next three matches (Kidderminster, Bromley and Boreham Wood). If we don't get at least 5, then maybe it will be time to get concerned. But I'm very confident that Paul Cox and his assistant will pull the club through this difficult season.

As for gates, the average for the season is over 1800. We'll struggle to get over 1800 for the next two home matches without the help from Plymouth & Exeter fans (a fantastic gesture) but the home match after that is, I think, Aldershot which will be above 1800. In my view, the biggest threat to the club is the possible wrongful dismissal cases, but even with those, there is no certainty they will be going ahead.

[royalgull]

You mean Newcastle and Sunderland of the Premier League? Not quite getting mullered at home by Cheltenham bad is it!?

Our crowds have dwindles over the last few years simply because it isn't value for money to go to Plainmoor any more, we still have our core element of fans that go regardless the same as Newcastle and Sunderland do they just have far many more because the area being what it is, a working class, passionate about football area that are very dedicated to the north east and have been atached to one or the other for decades. People in the Torquay area have come from all over the place and don't have the same affection for Torquay United or for football generally.

Back to the value for money point, we have been a losing team for 3/4 seasons on the spin, all of our good players have left and been replaced by young lads, triers and no one you really want to go and watch. A few years ago we had Eunan O'Kane, Zebroski, Howe and others who on a given day could destroy teams, we don't have a single player like that anymore, so is it worth paying £16-20 to watch an extremely average team play losing football in a part time league? That's the question you have to ask, it's no use just slagging off people who go or don't go you have to look at the reasons why and like I said, blind faith and loyalty only goes so far when you are shelling out a substantial amount per home game only to not be entertained on a saturday. There are other choices for people and in lots of cases no choice in terms of spending money on leisure activities.

I accept it was never going to be easy, but football is still entertainment and Torquay don't and haven't provided any entertainment for absolute yonks. The point about the board is you can't just go well we need 1800 a game but we aren't going to have a competitive budget, we've lost all of the possible 'big gate' games in terms of Bristol Rovers going up, no Luton's or Exeters etc we barely scraped 2000 early doors against sides that you would possibly have hoped for nearer 3000 so were they really alarmed to see 500 fewer turn up for Guiseley? Never going to bring any fans and when away fans don't turn up it ruins the atmosphere which ruins certain people's enjoyment of the game, if you are on a budget and you pick one game do you go to Cheltenham or do you go to Guiseley?

This is the problem being in this league as an ex league club, the amount of garbage tinpot matches you have to play against nobody clubs. Kills you financially and we don't have the board/money to cope with those games.

Tell you what it's a good job Argyle are planning on bringing a few to Boreham Wood on a Tuesday night because that would barely hit 1200 without them.