CountHermanDeBanker wrote:bedforddiamond wrote:coltrane wrote:I don't think that the trust can be blamed for anything that has happened since Keith handed the club over to novices and if the club folds then it will be Keith and his oppo's who are to blame imho!
How can the trust not be blamed??
They handed the club over to Keith in the first place, after blowing £750k of Max's money. They also had many more paying supporters than we have now coming through the gate! Sadly there inexperience blew Max's legacy in a year and a half and handed a football club and 22 acres to a business man and his associate (a developer) for £512k. As I stated earlier that's where the decline of this once great club started. :(
Mistakes may or may not have been made, however, the Trust stepped in at a time when no-one else would and those who stepped forward to take on the mantle and put themselves in the firing line as the Trust board members of the FC should not be blamed for their possible lack of knowledge in running the club, they all had the club at heart presumably and did the best they could given difficult and challenging circumstances?
I was not involved in the Trust, and would not have put myself forward for the involvement required in any way, but certainly appreciate them for doing what they did - did you?
I guess due to inexperience, combination of circumstances, falling incomes etc, they were left with pretty much no choice but to sell to KC, otherwise their own homes and families lives would have been put at financial risk - would you have committed to such investment, did you?
Some good points there. I think this is an interesting discussion to have given our current plight in a thoughtful and reflective way.
I'm not sure that no-one else would step forward when the trust took over. I thought the £750k "dowry" was only available to the trust and not any other investor. I also imagine that the land assets were only on offer to the Trust (they were not owned by the club at that stage I understand) and not another investor. It was really an offer the Trust/fans couldn't refuse in my view.
With hindsight, I wish Max/his family had continued to own the land & club, but funded to a very minimal extent (i.e. KC levels). I guess we would have fallen out of the league, but the club would have been safe and it's assets in Max's hands. He would still have had to write out cheques but wouldn't have written off the speculated c£30m of investment. Nonetheless, slashing costs back then still wouldn't have impressed us fans! Football, eh?
As alluded to above, I think the big issue (and failing of the Trust) was not being radical enough on the costs. They should have cut more and tried to balance the books on cost, not revenue. With hindsight, three regimes have failed to "sweat" the assets. I'm concluding you can't. We maybe should have closed stands & other parts of the stadium and cut playing budget substantially much earlier. Of course, we would have been highly critical of this on the playing side, but it could have protected the club long term.
Unfortunately, once a debt of c£500k was accrued it was a obvious solution for an investor of paying up, but taking the assets as security. No criticism of KC here, most would have done the same and I can't think of many who would invest £500k without security. Banks don't!! One the debt was there, the assets were at risk and had to go. The Trust would have had a much better strategy if, rather than focus on revenue & league status, they focussed on cost, balancing books and asset protection. If the books had balanced, even a few divisions below league two, we could have done a much better deal with an investor later on with SOME of the assets (not stadium) and now be looking at growing again. I think we would have had investment interest with a good name and unincumbered assets, even in the BSS/BSN and with dwindling support.
All hindsight and utopia, I know, but interesting to think about. I hope similar structures at other clubs in the future learn from our mistakes. The Trust board did, I'm sure, work really hard for no reward and for that they deserve thanks and respect. In essence all I'm suggesting is that they had the wrong strategy. All they were guilty of was being fans first and focussing on the league status short term, not the long term.
