The way forward without a new stadium?

[Taelee73]

I had a brief chat with Kevin Nicholson yesterday, he gave me a very basic idea of the formula Exeter use. It's all obvious stuff, I appreciate City are fan run and have a larger fan base than us. However should it be what we aspire to do to be self sufficient, if on a smaller scale as Torquay United or a phoenix club ?

Subscription service, the fans pay a set amount per month into the club. The number stands at around 5000, if they pay £10 a month that's £600,000 a year income, if it's £20 a month............ Not sure what number we could get to, but a 1000 paying £20 a month could give us a decent income.

Football in the Community. We do do this, but City go further, they do marathons etc and spread the word/engage the local and wider community, as well as bringing in extra income.

Centre of Excellence. A must for us. Exeter and Plymouth will take their pick, but there will be still enough young players to pick from. Exeter base it on making more money overall from them than what they spend. Either through a player having extended time in the first team or selling them for the profit.

Loans, no relations, no injury prone players. They tend to thoroughly scout for 5 decent players. These can then integrate with the main squad and have consistency in the first team. No chopping and changing the first 11 constantly.

Good communication. Both City and Argyle want to help, it's beneficial for them to have a lower level professional club nearby. Trusts should also work together providing information and ideas.

City also have regular meetings between all the above strands, good communication is key.


Anyhow, it took City 15 years to get there, it also takes a lot of time, energy, willing people to get there. It have starts small and necessarily cheap. If a new owner could get these all up and running, it would put an end to a new stadium or other ventures needed to be financially viable.

Could it happen here? Well the subscription could work if not outright ownership, if those paying had some say in the clubs running on non playing matters.

Anyhow I appreciate it's all pie in the sky as we sit on the brink. But if we get a new owner or have to start from scratch, aren't all of these these necessary to be sufficient long term?

[WestLondonYellow]

I see no reason why we couldn't successfully copy the model Exeter Trust have created and I think Kevin is right in what he's suggesting. There is a lot more that we can do in the community, to benefit and also raise funds.

I also believe we can get more than 1000, a lot more, if as things progress, we are faced with fan owned as the only option. We seem to be a 2nd club to a lot of people who have visited Plainmoor over the years whilst on holiday. In addition, it's not just the attendance figures we need to use to gauge potential because so many people leave the area for work or other life reasons and cannot attend but remain 100% Torquay.
If we actively promoted the fan ownership on a large scale we could even attract new interest. Maybe there are a lot of fans of premier League clubs who are fed up with the ticket prices or the lack of connection they may feel with their club nowadays?

I wonder if a deal could be done with a Hotel chain or a few local hotels where members are entitled to a large discount on rooms during the football season? When hotels are typically quieter during the winter months

[Admiral]

Wouldn’t it be great if all English clubs were 51% fan-owned like in germany

[Brewers boy]

We seem to be a 2nd club to a lot of people who have visited Plainmoor over the years whilst on holiday. In addition, it's not just the attendance figures we need to use to gauge potential because so many people leave the area for work or other life reasons and cannot attend but remain 100% Torquay.
If we actively promoted the fan ownership on a large scale we could even attract new interest. Maybe there are a lot of fans of premier League clubs who are fed up with the ticket prices or the lack of connection they may feel with their club nowadays?
I wonder if a deal could be done with a Hotel chain or a few local hotels where members are entitled to a large discount on rooms during the football season? When hotels are typically quieter during the winter months

I've lived down here for seven years now and still yet to see a poster up anywhere in the bay or surrounding area advertising the club and fixtures. We have an enormous amount of tourists down here all through the year, and yet we do nothing to attract them. We have a great family stand with a nice bar above and food,pop, sweets all available. Why not make a family ticket available as well.


Club should engage with the tourist board over this and those hotels willing to give a discount should at the very least get a free link on the club website and also someone would need to engage on opposition clubs forums to push this. After all if someone is offering a discount on a hotel when we are visiting I would like to think that I would see it on this forum.

[TommyGunn]

Subscription service, the fans pay a set amount per month into the club. The number stands at around 5000, if they pay £10 a month that's £600,000 a year income, if it's £20 a month............ Not sure what number we could get to, but a 1000 paying £20 a month could give us a decent income.

Could it happen here? Well the subscription could work if not outright ownership, if those paying had some say in the clubs running on non playing matters.

I feel this is a good idea. I'd be prepared to chip in £10 a week at least.

How would we have a say on the clubs running? We we get a vote to elect someone to the board meetings? The more money we put in the more votes we get? Or one person one vote?

I think there are some good ideas here. Nice to see people with good positive suggestions.

[Brewers boy]

We have good links with Exeter and Plymouth. Why not invite their season ticket holders down for a couple of games through the season when their team is playing away or not playing, on a freebie. We have an empty away end, why not make use of it. As long as it's a reciprocal arrangement it can only benefit all three clubs. Season ticket holders get a bit of a perk, most people like a beer, coffee, chips, burgers etc some will buy programs, some might like it and come back again when their team is away. On top of that the attendance goes up and one of the first questions asked when someone is buying advertising space is "How many people will see my advert?" so advertising rates will also go up. It's a win win for everyone.
On top of that it's good to see fans in all four sides of the ground.

[desperado]

All good ideas and it all helps but it's the massive money Exeter have made from transfers that keeps them afloat ! Where would they be without that ?
Watkins 1.8 m initial plus 4.6m add ons when moving to Villa
Ampadu. 1.6m plus 1m add ons (Leeds)
These two for starters

[greb46]

What the club hasn't been good at is sell on fees ,it can't be too difficult apart from a possible sale of a player to also set up a percentage fee if sold on to another larger club afterwards the potential income must be worth doing as often as possible.

[UnitedinDevon]

I've found it bemusing over the last couple of seasons why we haven't had more local plans

The success we've had with Randall, Sparkes (for a short period) and - not to the heights of AR but WJD this season

With the likes of Plymouth, Exeter, Bristol rovers & City to only have 1 loanee at this time seems very poor in a network view in the South West

[happytorq]

Subscription service, the fans pay a set amount per month into the club. The number stands at around 5000, if they pay £10 a month that's £600,000 a year income, if it's £20 a month............ Not sure what number we could get to, but a 1000 paying £20 a month could give us a decent income.

Centre of Excellence. A must for us. Exeter and Plymouth will take their pick, but there will be still enough young players to pick from. Exeter base it on making more money overall from them than what they spend. Either through a player having extended time in the first team or selling them for the profit.

Have said this exact thing (same figures, even!) a few times in the past few months. All of this is done through the ECFC trust, of course, while currently TUST charges 2 quid a month. That's never going to be enough for them to even get close to a board seat, so I do think they need to look at that closely in the not-too-distant future. You could even have tiered memberships if you like, but the ability to reap all the rewards of being in the trust (a vote in leadership, or eligibility for the a discount at the club shop/bar etc) would come at a higher cost.

Centre of Excellence is something we'd like to do better, of course, but my understanding is that Legaue clubs get some sort of assistance or stipend that makes it a lot easier to finance. Falling out of the league meant we lost that, and I don't know of a way to make it anywhere near financially viable in non-league. Somebody can correct me if necessary, but I think bneing outside of the league academy system is why we didn't get any sort of compensation when that young highly-rated goalkeeper moved on (don't remember his name or where I went; althoguh 'wigan' is in my mind for some reason).

I've said before that getting back into the league would, oddly, make it easier for us to be sustainable. I don't think the wages will be hugely increased vs NL but you get a whole lot more revenue from the 'pyramid' (along with high gate receipts from the larger away followings)

[happytorq]

I should add, that I think in the long term, a fan-based model is probably the best way forward. But we're miles away from that right now, and so we'll need an owner who make an effort to move us towards some sort of sustainability in the meantime. If they could also get us into League 2 at the same time - great.