merse btpir wrote: 05 Mar 2017, 23:15
As far as next season is concerned.......yes it has sailed and as far as thinking about such a concept; the town of Torquay only has one proper football ground and as that is Plainmoor the thinking stops there. A phoenix club simply isn't going to get it. Stupid bloody thinking anyway!
Coventry City have been protesting for nearly 5 years against SISU. Nothing happens. This is because it is the owners of the football club who decide when they speak, what they spend, when they pull out, whether they invest or whether they just let the club rot. Meanwhile thousands of fans will keep turning up, paying their money and years pass by with them supporting a decaying football club and waiting for that crumb of hope to be dropped into their arms from the owners. Some call it hardcore, unwavering support and some call it stupidity. I'm somewhere in the middle.
With Coventry you cannot help but admire the fans and the way they have kept it going but ultimately they have absolutely zero control on what the owners do with the football club. They could keep it running as it is for the next 20 years if they wanted and there isn't a damn thing any fans can do about that.
Leyton Orient. I gather their owner has just left the club to their own devices after getting the hump with supporters and left them to face liquidation. He has turned down all offers to sell the club as is his prerogative as owner. Now if your owner gets bitter towards your club and he's got a few quid then best of luck turning that around into a success story.
Chesterfield FC have been systematically plundered by individuals at the club for obvious reasons I won't name. I live 5 minutes from their ground and the dramatic speed that the club has managed to turn a thriving successful club on and off the pitch into one that could end up in Orients position soon enough is staggering but not surprising. When you've got owners who don't do things properly shall we say to be kind, then it's always the fans and the club that suffers and the most pertinent point is that there is absolutely nothing they can do about it.
Chesterfield need to be sold but the owner wants more money than buyers are prepared to pay. That's entirely his choice. He can hold out for years and years if he wants and meanwhile the club gets relegated and relegated again and yet the fans still turn up and beg for that one scrap of food to be dropped which they'll lap up like a starving stray dog.
Chesterfield fans miraculously saved the club in 2000 from former owner Darren Brown who got banged up and they relinquished it to owners who they thought would take the club forward in a sensible frugal manner. Initially they took the club forward but there was always question marks about where the money was going. They built a new ground, won the JPT, doubled attendances, held concerts like Elton John and Tom Jones, have conferences, have funfairs and allsorts of activities and events around the ground, they sold player after player including Bowery, Clucas et al and took pre season tours to Europe, had a renowned academy that took money from parents but no places were offered and money not refunded. They held a fundraising match for ex player and dementia sufferer Ernie Moss then charged the family thousands of pounds out of the blue for stewarding of it. They held a raffle for a fan to go on pre season tour but there was no prize so they made up a winner and posted social media messages from a made up winner. This is what we're dealing with here. People with morals like this. Then suddenly they find themselves skint and the owner wanting to sell.
Clark Osborne talks about a similar set up at Torquay but when the owners have ulterior motives then it really doesn't matter as again, nothing you can do about it whatever set up you have.
Phoenix clubs rarely if ever get set up whilst a club is still in existence. Maybe with the exception of FC United but that was a separate entity from Man U so doesn't count. Fans usually wait until the club goes bust and THEN goes about setting one up which is understandable but i'm talking more about a different ownership model for the club to move forward and progress within it's own means whatever the level and not ever being in a position again where the decision of one man decides whether or not your club lives or dies. Fan ownership.
Jerry has a valid point and i'm sure it's very frustrating for some reading about fans banging on about a fan owned club and yet doing nothing about it.
I don't think fans feel compelled enough to start something now but maybe it will be different when the club goes under once and for all.
I do get criticism for deciding to stop going to Torquay games after the final whistle at Mansfield and that's fine. People are entitled to their opinion but I made that decision based on a deep rooted feeling I had about the people running the club being ungenuine and unable and I could only ever see things getting worse so I decided to stop wasting my valuable time and money on something I knew behind the scenes was immoral and not in line with the values I would hope to identify with. Sadly things have turned out badly since relegation but i think the key point to my story is that if i attended every home and away game for the last 4 years and bought the shirts et etc, it still would have not effected what has happened. I have no say. I have no influence on what happens at the football club so i feel helpless and withdraw.
If i start attending now i STILL have no say. GI do what they want because they own the club and i'm certainly not going to be strung along and lied to and trying to placate myself by saying it's ok to be treated like that because it means you are a true football fan. I had more than enough of that from the people who sacked Ling by text and wouldn't give him any support in such a devastating period in his life so on and so forth.
I will still want the very best for the football club but I've decided against going to Lincoln to dip my toe in again. I don't see the point. If the time comes to reform a phoenix club then absolutely i'm passionate about it and will be there to help and there for it's birth and growth or even if the current club get taken over by a fans trust (which i cannot see happening) but otherwise i see the club going under eventually and i cannot do anything at all to prevent that. Whether i go or not, whether i go and watch Chesterfield, Matlock, York or whoever or whether i win the lottery and give 3 million to the club. None of these things will prevent the club from regressing unless it turns out that GI are genuine, decent, honest, responsible business people.
It's not giving up or throwing the towel in. At least it's not in my eyes. Fans that stop going because the team is losing or paying crap and then start going again when they are winning are a lot worse in my eyes. I have never and will never be one of these. It's more about accepting reality and accepting whatever my actions, they won't have any influence at all on the decision making of the owners.
Just my feelings about things. I respect others views on the way forward and what they have chosen to do regarding supporting the club (or not) i don't think there is any easy solution.
