Takeover of the club at an advanced stage

[MellowYellow]

PhilGul what are you telling me. Are you saying that Gaming International are going to take over the club with a possible new stadia and run the business 7 days a week as a Southern League football outfit with attendances of around 700/900? Do you honestly think, as you state, the owners believe they will make a money out of this - I think not!

[PhilGull]

PhilGul what are you telling me. Are you saying that Gaming International are going to take over the club with a possible new stadia and run the business 7 days a week as a Southern League football outfit with attendances of around 700/900? Do you honestly think, as you state, the owners believe they will make a money out of this - I think not!

I don't think Plainmoor is worth enough with or without the covenant to go through the hassle of buying a football club just to make money as a property investor.
This is a company which, it appears to me have a history of working within sport (not football granted but sport nonetheless).
Given that half of Plainmoor is all that the club owns (I think the Council still owns the other half?) I really don't see how they can be 'asset strippers'. The only conclusion I can draw is that the main crux of their plan is for Torquay United to continue as a going concern and improve and grow in the future.

Added in 1 minute 31 seconds:

Philgull

Im afraid Dog racing is not dying in London at all, but I take your point that locally there is no need for it. "Flapping" tracks were closed in Newton Abbot, Exeter and St Austell in the last 15 years through lack of support.

However Music/Pop concerts is a complete non-starter around here. The population, and in particular make up of that population, will never support "headline acts"

The Club is almost being held hostage by this takeover and it remains highly concerning.

So where is it happening? With Walthamstow closed and Wimbledon closing and I think another one closed but I can't remember(!) Where are the dog tracks now?

[MellowYellow]

PhilGul, I don't think their in it to 'asset strip' either, I think the clue is Gaming International through its subsidiary, Stadia UK, currently manages and operates stadiums that are multifunctional with motorsports promotions, greyhound racing, indoor and outdoor markets, and sporting and leisure facilities. Why not add another multifunctional stadium with football included.

[MF68]

Philgull

Crayford and more so Romford and Sittingbourne (Kent) are thriving as is Peterboro.

[Southampton Gull]

Philgull

Im afraid Dog racing is not dying in London at all, but I take your point that locally there is no need for it. "Flapping" tracks were closed in Newton Abbot, Exeter and St Austell in the last 15 years through lack of support.

However Music/Pop concerts is a complete non-starter around here. The population, and in particular make up of that population, will never support "headline acts"

The Club is almost being held hostage by this takeover and it remains highly concerning.

I was head of security at Powderham Castle last summer for a music event that had 14,000 people in attendance. Radio 1 are doing a live feed event there this summer and I am contracted there for another concert also. Hardly evidence of it being a non-starter, quite the opposite in fact.

[MF68]

Perhaps you can tell me then why Plymouth get Rod Stewart, Elton John etc and Torbay doesnt. Exeter and plymouth like major venues

[MellowYellow]

Greyhound racing attendances at around 4.2 million at over 5,750 meetings, across 26 stadia, TV deals, a Parimutuel betting tote system with on-course and off-course betting available, with a turnover of £99,100,000 - which suggests that greyhound racing is far from dead. Hmmm I wonder what the Southern League turnover is?

[chardie]

Greyhound racing attendances at around 4.2 million at over 5,750 meetings, across 26 stadia, TV deals, a Parimutuel betting tote system with on-course and off-course betting available, with a turnover of £99,100,000 - which suggests that greyhound racing is far from dead. Hmmm I wonder what the Southern League turnover is?

I wonder what the hound to cost averaging is for this...

[Gulliball]

The Princess Theatre don't have too many major shows, and when they do the attendances aren't great. Torquay just isn't ever going to justify a major venue when there isn't the demand to regularly fill it.

Building a speedway venue is one of the hardest things you can do. Exeter have been trying for years to get a new stadium and are keeping their new location secret. They have to do noise tests and prove every conceivable thing, and yet locals will still try to stop it, despite it only lasting for about 20 x 90 minutes once a week, finishing by 9.30 and isn't actually that loud. Still, there is no chance of getting a speedway venue at the willows, or any other location that's not miles out of town. Plymouth Speedway also closed last week, so I don't see how Torquay would be able to sustain a very expensive sport when Exeter and Plymouth have both failed.

Regarding our proposed move, is having new owners linked to the proposed new stadium not very, very bad for us? It was already concerning that the money making element for them was the land deals, and we were being offered a new stadium to sweeten the deal and make sure it all go ahead with the council. There's no reason that we would be offered anything other than the lowest possible cost stadium to make the deal go ahead.

If the new owners are linked to the land deals, then at the negotiations with the council, the club would be represented by the same people looking to make money on the land deals, so would be fighting against themselves for any money spent on the 'Riviera Stadium'. For the cost of any 'investment' they agree to make on takeover, they have the potential to make it back very quickly in the land deals.

This would be a worst case scenario, but I do think the fans should be told what the motives are behind buying the club before any deal goes ahead. I trust the current fan/owners to look out for us, but any talk of ground/land deals should set off alarm bells, as it only takes one bad takeover and the club could very easily no longer exist.

[Southampton Gull]

Perhaps you can tell me then why Plymouth get Rod Stewart, Elton John etc and Torbay doesnt. Exeter and plymouth like major venues

Venue is the key word. Does Torbay have anywhere that could put on the kind of event the others can?
If it does you'd have to ask the council why they aren't looking to entice such a thing to add a little to the local economy.

[Dave]

Totally agree, and said this before, is about venue. 6,000 seats is more than enough for TUFC , however build a 10,000 seated events stadium you will start attracting the biggest acts down to Torbay and you fill the stadium, the council, the area and our football club would all benefit.

Sorry, just add, look what happen when Muse came home and played a gig in Teignmouth , the whole of South Devon was rammed with people, the local economy benefitted greatly, even the train companies had a windfall, as you couldn't drive to Tiegnmouth regardless of whether you were local or not.

[SenorDingDong]

SG beat me to it but yes venue is the absolute key. There's nowhere in Torbay than can host an event of over about 1k people other than our stadium slap bang in the middle of a housing estate.

No one believes that the likes of Rihanna etc will come to Torbay but it's perfectly viable to attract the old stars like Elton or mid level current bands like the Kaiser Chiefs or their like. In fact Torbay has advantages in that neither Plymouth nor Exeter have great gigging venues and it could work with the local hotels to sell gig/hotel room packages. You're telling me that people from Plymouth/Exeter wouldn't attend decent bands here? Or that people from further up like Bristol and Swindon, who already spend lots of long weekends down in Devon and Cornwall wouldn't love the idea of a gig/beach break combo if properly marketed over a long weekend?

Just last year Torbay was tentatively approached to host the big weekend that instead went to Powderham and it turned it down because we have no venues. Of course that is a different kettle of fish which would require large open spaces but it gives you an indication of interest. For a music venue to be a success it'd need to be run by people who knew what they were doing but it's a perfectly logical idea. Far more than greyhound racing (which has gone from 80 to 20 tracks in the past couple decades) or speedway.

[PhilGull]

Do Exeter Chiefs have much on at their stadium besides the rugby?

[wivelgull]

It depends upon the nature of the concert. If you put on Max Bygraves or Little and Large only the grockles will go - and they're only here for a few weeks.

[rooster]

Exeter chiefs seem to keep the pitch for rugby but have conference facilities which are used daily and being expanded and host many evening functions both public and private with the enhanced facilities they now have.......