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The end of TUFC is now a very real possibility. Only the fans, collectively and through TUST, can save the day.

So let’s have no more booing. Let’s get behind Nicho and the team he has got. It’s not his fault or the players fault that we in this position in the league but GI’s. If we can stay up that’s half the battle won. The other half is to save Plainmoor from GI.

I thought that Dave Thomas on the podcast this week was very naïve when he said that the money for players couldn’t have been there 2 weeks ago and have now disappeared. Wake up Dave! GI were telling you porkies. You are in a position to help the club through your position as a journalist and you are a lifelong fan so for goodness sake do your bit now before it's too late. Print some facts about GI and get the club’s plight into the wider media!

The discussion on the Plainmoor lease in the Policy Development and Decision Group (Joint Operations Team) has now been put back till Wednesday 29 April. This is the third or fourth postponement. It may be that this will work in our favour and that the councillors are preparing to rebuff GI. Whatever the reason, these postponements have meant that the political campaign has lost momentum and this is in GI’s favour. As TUST and other posters have suggested a fresh batch of emails to councillors and Kevin Foster and other local MP’s would make sure that the issue does not drop off the political radar.

Protest works. Putting the problems of the club, letting the world know that Clarke Osborne is a **** and that GI are a bunch of slimy ********* on the Vanarama highlights show would be a start. The media loves a story – let’s give them one!!!! Surely even Clarke Osborne wouldn’t want the world to know what a **** he is?

I still like the “plastic pigs” approach.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... est-valley

(Not too difficult to work out what we would chant!)


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/32176856 ... 636&crdt=0

Cheap and easy to get into the ground.

I am a TUST member and will write to Michael separately on this. I just wonder if TUST has the funds available to get a legal opinion on how GI might be challenged now and, if do, whether it is going to do this? Planning law is highly complex and there are many bear traps, I am only hoping that GI might fall into one. If TUST needs a planning law advisor whip round urgently from fans I would definitely contribute.

I think there are alot more than 1400 people who give a damn but quite a few have given up with the current regime. My reading of it is if the ground is lost to GI we're fecked. If its saved for football then they will likely walk away but what state that will leave the club in is anyones guess. Bust quite likely. I cant be bothered anymore but will jump straight back in if there is a TUST ownership or phoenix, ie honest ownership.

Plainmoor78 wrote: ↑25 Mar 2017, 01:13
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.

Yes, I know exactly what Jeff was referring to, but there is a massive problem with launching such a club, Jeff highlighted it, in his post. He talked about where such a club would play, he mentioned Coach Road, and sharing Homers Heath with Buckland, the chances of either of these being an option are zero, not a chance in the world, Devon FA have made it quite that Coach Road will be used exclusively for local cup finals and high profile games only.

And I know Buckland have invested a huge amount of money into their pitch, and are very protective of their pitch, to the point they don't always allow their 3rd team, or youth teams to play on it, so I doubt very much regardless of rent they'd ever agree to share with TUFC.

Clennon valley, again forget it, even if you installed a 4g pitch the chances of having playable surface mid winter would be slim, and then we have to remember even for entry into the peninsula league, there are very strict minimum requirements on pitch size and standard, and ground requirements.

There is no where else.

That's why the only option to keep the club running, even if it is a phoenix club would be the retention of Plainmoor, which in turn, may mean having to buy the club from G.I.

Our underlying problem is that we have not been able to run TUFC on a sound financial footing.

Between 1500 - 2500 paying supporters have seen their well earnt matchday contributions thrown down the drain week in, week out.

We have enough history to have a good idea of our total running costs. We've been in existence for over 100 years FFS!

I know the TUST needs our support in order to raise enough funds to make a viable take over bid. Possibly between 150,000 - 200,000

However

As yet, I have no confidence that the TUST's present leaders have any business acumen and therefore I will
not commit my money to it.

If a business framework were established, indicating TUFCs estimated running costs and required budgets I would then contribute.
They might seek advice from ex directors who would know the exact running costs and the number of personnel required to run the club.

The TUST needs a vision and this should ultimately be the take over of the club. So give me a well thought out, costed plan, with the right people at the helm and then I would contribute.

My experience with TUFC over recent years is that is has constantly fattened the Handle and consistently reduced the size of the Blade!
And that my friends is why we are, where we are.

Neal wrote: ↑25 Mar 2017, 07:08 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!

A boycott is absolutely pointless for the following reasons:

It would only attract media attention if the attendance only ran into two figures. It would be impossible to arrange this without forcibly turning people away at the ground.

A boycott, ie a very low attendance might be interpreted as a sign that the local population has lost interest in the club by those on the council who have no interest in the club themselves and could persuade them to hand over the freehold to GI.

Also forget about pitch invasions as mentioned by others; any illegal actions will not help our cause, it will give the anti football brigade on the council the excuse to sell the club down the river.

Neal wrote: ↑25 Mar 2017, 07:11 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.

The terms of the ACV on plainmoor state that if the council decide to sell the ground the local community will be given 6 months to try and put a bid together. However if a rival bid is higher then the rival bid wins.

I would expect that GI could easily outbid any fan based offer.

forevertufc wrote: ↑25 Mar 2017, 09:32 Yes, I know exactly what Jeff was referring to, but there is a massive problem with launching such a club, Jeff highlighted it, in his post. He talked about where such a club would play, he mentioned Coach Road, and sharing Homers Heath with Buckland, the chances of either of these being an option are zero, not a chance in the world, Devon FA have made it quite that Coach Road will be used exclusively for local cup finals and high profile games only.

And I know Buckland have invested a huge amount of money into their pitch, and are very protective of their pitch, to the point they don't always allow their 3rd team, or youth teams to play on it, so I doubt very much regardless of rent they'd ever agree to share with TUFC.

Clennon valley, again forget it, even if you installed a 4g pitch the chances of having playable surface mid winter would be slim, and then we have to remember even for entry into the peninsula league, there are very strict minimum requirements on pitch size and standard, and ground requirements.

There is no where else.

That's why the only option to keep the club running, even if it is a phoenix club would be the retention of Plainmoor, which in turn, may mean having to buy the club from G.I.

I see your point now. However if GI were still around by then I would expect it would be because they got the freehold meaning plainmoor would rubble.

However if we did have to buy the club consider one thing: we would then be at the mercy of their rent demands.

I agree that finding a ground is the hardest thing. I think our only hope is that the council keep the freehold and GI piss off leaving someone to come in and reestablish football at plainmoor.

kevgull wrote: ↑25 Mar 2017, 09:52 Our underlying problem is that we have not been able to run TUFC on a sound financial footing.

Between 1500 - 2500 paying supporters have seen their well earnt matchday contributions thrown down the drain week in, week out.

We have enough history to have a good idea of our total running costs. We've been in existence for over 100 years FFS!

I know the TUST needs our support in order to raise enough funds to make a viable take over bid. Possibly between 150,000 - 200,000

However

As yet, I have no confidence that the TUST's present leaders have any business acumen and therefore I will
not commit my money to it.

If a business framework were established, indicating TUFCs estimated running costs and required budgets I would then contribute.
They might seek advice from ex directors who would know the exact running costs and the number of personnel required to run the club.

The TUST needs a vision and this should ultimately be the take over of the club. So give me a well thought out, costed plan, with the right people at the helm and then I would contribute.

My experience with TUFC over recent years is that is has constantly fattened the Handle and consistently reduced the size of the Blade!
And that my friends is why we are, where we are.

Well put, this problem goes a long way back though the last 4 regimes.

There are places to start again,
Torquay Boys Grammar has the space, there is already a 3G pitch for the training, I don't know anything about the legalities of such a move if tufc had to start from scratch, but I guess it should be noted.

I refer you back to my previous post, there are minimum pitch and ground requirements for entry into the Western league and peninsula league, only level lower than the peninsula league is the SDL were you can play on just about anything, anywhere. So no there are not plenty of places to start again.

Again I do not know any of the requirements needed, but wouldn't be hard to find out.
I am guessing minimum pitch size, hard standing, the means to keep spectators safe and away from the pitch, toilets and changing facilities, flood lights.
Drive past Torquay Academy, they have a brand new pitch with drainage, and 4g too.
I don't know the costings involved, or the permission needed, but yes it can be done.
Where there's a will, there's a way.

kevgull wrote: ↑25 Mar 2017, 09:52They might seek advice from ex directors...

Taelee73 wrote: ↑25 Mar 2017, 13:17 Again I do not know any of the requirements needed, but wouldn't be hard to find out.
I am guessing minimum pitch size, hard standing, the means to keep spectators safe and away from the pitch, toilets and changing facilities, flood lights.
Drive past Torquay Academy, they have a brand new pitch with drainage, and 4g too.
I don't know the costings involved, or the permission needed, but yes it can be done.
Where there's a will, there's a way.

Yes, your right, however, a point being missed here, both the grammar school and Torquay academy are what it says on the tin, they are both schools, their first priority is to educate the children that attend. Would the authorities, governors and parents be happy with a pitch, of a minimum size, and club house, enclosed secure pitch being installed with in their school, that might see 500 plus people attended home match's , I don't know, they might, personally I would think not.

you obviously know about minimum pitch requirements, more than I do, but I find your postings quite negative. No one said it would be easy, and you might be right, impossible, BUT at this point IF we have no club, what do you advise, just give up. I personally think the journey would be exciting. The 2700 Hereford fans who attend their games obviously think that way.

We might have to ground share with Truro, ah they aint got one either, oooooh perhaps we can build a new one halfway in Plymuff and share it. Joking before anyone gets on their high horse!!!!

Rugby club?