Club acquired by website

[EUFC FAN]

Some questions:

 

Most of the members of MyFC have paid for a year. What percentage (unrealistically, may be) were expecting to buy a league or premiership club? How many of these members will not renew now Ebbsfleet has been chosen? What happens if the membership free falls?

 

Nine clubs were considered. Do they buy one club or more than one?

 

One year we reach the 3rd round of the FA Cup and draw Man U at home (stop laughing at the back). Would season tickets holds still get priority on the tickets or will these new shareholds get all the tickets?

 

Has MyFC actually bought the club? It seems that a lot of Ebbsfleet fans here are paying up to join MyFC and it might not even have happen(ed)!!!

 

Positives:

 

Shed load of cash will land in the club.

 

The shop will look like it has be burgled as all these members seem to be planning to buy everything!!!

 

Potential new fan base of 20,000 people. Though it will be interesting to see how many of these are in Kent (and turn up).

 

 

[rsheard]

Originally Posted By: EUFC FAN

Some questions:

Most of the members of MyFC have paid for a year. What percentage (unrealistically, may be) were expecting to buy a league or premiership club? How many of these members will not renew now Ebbsfleet has been chosen? What happens if the membership free falls?

Nine clubs were considered. Do they buy one club or more than one?

One year we reach the 3rd round of the FA Cup and draw Man U at home (stop laughing at the back). Would season tickets holds still get priority on the tickets or will these new shareholds get all the tickets?

Has MyFC actually bought the club? It seems that a lot of Ebbsfleet fans here are paying up to join MyFC and it might not even have happen(ed)!!!

Positives:

Shed load of cash will land in the club.

The shop will look like it has be burgled as all these members seem to be planning to buy everything!!!

Potential new fan base of 20,000 people. Though it will be interesting to see how many of these are in Kent (and turn up).

For the last few months it was apparent that the club we'd buy would be a conference side, possibly league 2. After the initial dreams of grandeur of some members were shattered in the first ten minutes, no one seriously considered a club higher than league 2.

There's only to be a single club purchased. Why would we want to dilute our impact by purchasing more than one?

I can't speak to ticket sales, but the talk on the website has always been that season ticket holders would be first priority. We're not in this to squeeze out long-term loyal supporters. We simply want to join with them. We're not the Evil Empire, believe it or not.

[chris blanc]

So they get to decide the players wages too?? Bet they're happy

[LadyWomble]

Wimbledon fan here to commiserate with you on this awful news. Couldn't believe this would actually happen, i.e. that people would be taken in, when the idea was first mooted and sorry you've drawn the short straw. This is wannabe owners/reality TV-like madness. My sincere sympathies.

[chris blanc]

Got me thinking, what happens if 10,001 people decide to move the club somewhere more central, can they do that?

[PatMan]

Originally Posted By: chris blanc

Got me thinking, what happens if 10,001 people decide to move the club somewhere more central, can they do that?

What happens if over half the membership of MyFC were based in Essex, and wanted the club moved there - to a purpose built stadium?

[rsheard]

There's no concentration of membership like that. And the members are prohibited from taking an action like that which would inevitably burden the club with a great deal of debt.

 

What we were told is that plans have been out there for a new local stadium. We know less about this than anyone, having just learned the club's identity this morning. But it sounds very promising and fits with the stated goals of MyFC of preparing for future growth. I think the only members who want to move the club are the ones in Northern England and Scotland who don't want to travel to see the games. They'll get over it and make the trek, or at least see the away games up north.

[PatMan]

Originally Posted By: rsheard

There's no concentration of membership like that. And the members are prohibited from taking an action like that which would inevitably burden the club with a great deal of debt.

What we were told is that plans have been out there for a new local stadium. We know less about this than anyone, having just learned the club's identity this morning. But it sounds very promising and fits with the stated goals of MyFC of preparing for future growth. I think the only members who want to move the club are the ones in Northern England and Scotland who don't want to travel to see the games. They'll get over it and make the trek, or at least see the away games up north.

You know this as FACT? Its a hypothetical question - based on the theory of if over half the MyFC membership wanting something, would they get it? Never mind what the club and its 'real' supporters wanted?
Real football, Real Fans, Real worries

[LondonStatto]

The thing I can't get my head round is the reaction of the EUFC Trust chair.

 

This purchase does *not* fit the Trust model.

 

Trust ownership is about taking the club that the members of the Trust care about away from those who have little or no interest in that club, except (perhaps) to use it to make money for other ventures. True Trusts have no vested interests - what they want for their club is what the supporters of that club want for it -- because they *are* the supporters of it.

 

This takeover puts your club in the hands of 20,000 people who *are not fans of EU/G&NFC*. That they are fans *of football* is irrelevant to the Trust model. (My guess is that the biggest number is probably Leeds fans, followed by Forest.)

 

MyFC deserves to fail. Sadly, it has now reached the position that if it does, it takes a lot of real football fans and a real football club with it.

 

 

I write this as a member of a club-owning Trust. I am a part-owner of *my* football club - and I wouldn't touch "MyFootballClub" with a bargepole.

[toddybad]

Originally Posted By: MattWPBS

There's two things I'd suggest MyFC do as soon as possible:
1) Consult the Supporter's Trust on if the name should revert to Gravesend And Northfleet. The change to Ebbsfleet doesn't sound the most popular thing the current board have ever done (although at least it wasn't Eurostar Gravesend FC).
2) Look into giving the pre-announcement membership of the Supporter's Trust free membership of MyFC. Obviously that's got to depend on the numbers in the Supporter's Trust, but the fans have the in depth knowledge and passion to help carry the team upward.

I'd be quite comfortable with these ideas.

On the MyFC forums there have been numerous conversationsn and ideas about how to get the existing fans onside (not the best choice of words maybe - sound like some sort of underhand PR guru) and schemes like free membership for existing season ticket holders/members have been discussed and are likely to be discussed further now we are encountering the sort of backlash we expected.

I can only imagine how this must feel to the Ebbsfleet faithful and I don't expect you guys to come round overnight but hope that over time as you see no major changes aside from extra cash the idea has some merit. As a Leicester fan I remember how I felt the day Dennis Wise tried to have us served with a winding up order and the utter panic and bewilderment that set in. There is a world of difference between leicester and Ebbsfleet and also between what happended to us and the MyFC project but I fully believe that both can end happily.

Also, so you know MyFC members will not be voting on team selection from day 1 - there will be a lead in period to get to know the team etc and also test the technology. I understand this is probably the biggest ideological difficulty in the MyFC project but I don't honestly see that we would vote for anything other than Liabm Daish's choices to start with and then as we get to know the team better we might think "why does he keep pickinjg the left back he cack" and replace him. I dont forsee wholesale changes. (I'll be honest and admit I don't know anything about your left back).

Anyway, once you've had a chance to digest today's news I hope you're willing to give us some time to show we're not spoilt little football manager playes and begin to consider even joining this unique project yourselves.

Only time will tell.

[LadyWomble]

Not sure I've got the hang of this website but Andy Forest wrote:

 

"Even Wimbledon still have AFC Wimbledon after francise FC came along and this is not nearly as extreme as that case. It's not like the club are being moved or renamed by MyFC. It's just a new trust buying it and pumping some cash and publicity in."

 

Thanks for the sentiment and, as a Wimbledon supporter, of course I would agree! However, the Supporters Trust model that my, and other clubs, operate under is NOT the same as that propsed for G&N. Our model is about supporters owning and supporting their OWN club, not another club, in some cases thousands of miles away that they may never have heard of. Huge difference in my opinion.

 

Selecting the team, apart from being a joke, isn't really the point. Nor is money, fame or kuodos. It's about supporting YOUR club and G&N fans are being alienated, at the very least.

 

I'd hate to see another genuine club go to the wall but, as someone who saw my club take a 7 division relegation in a single season rather than turn to the dark side to follow a plastic franchised operation, I hope this particular "innovation" is treated with the contempt it deserves and the true G&N fans at some point get the opportunity to take over THEIR club as a true supporters-owned club. That could mean relegation to the Kent league. Hopefully not but, if it did happen, would that really be so bad? Easy for me to say? Possibly but I had a much warmer feeling visiting park pitches in our first reincarnated season than I ever got from the prestigious but clinical money-making grounds like Stamford Bridge et al.

 

Finally, just cannot believe the statement from the G&N Supporters Trust representative.

 

Sorry for (probably) screwing-up the post and its length!

 

 

[VS Rugby Fan]

Looks like a done deal to me, can't help but feel for the Ebbsfleet supporters who may feel a bit swamped by all the interest!