Fans Forum

[Uncle Urchin]

well as a new fan of the fleet and a fully paid up member of fcmyfc I shall be attending with my legal representatives to ask a few questions....

 

should I wear a suit and tie or will it be an informal do...?

[Slartibartfast]

You'll need to wear something to show that you are from Essex UU, white stiletto's and [****!!****] antlers should do the trick.

[Uncle Urchin]

ah right...I'll bring the escort cabriolet then....

[shootonsite]

I think it will be a total and utter waste of time and as such I have absolutely no intention of going.

 

Yep, guess this just about sums up most of the comments here!

All hot air, with no guts to show your face and repeat your crack-pot ideas in front of the majority of us. Nor give any alternative ideas of your own! methinks how cheap is talk?

Get off your [****!!****] and do something constructive!

[Uncle Urchin]

Originally Posted By: shootonsite

I think it will be a total and utter waste of time and as such I have absolutely no intention of going.

Yep, guess this just about sums up most of the comments here!
All hot air, with no guts to show your face and repeat your crack-pot ideas in front of the majority of us. Nor give any alternative ideas of your own! methinks how cheap is talk?
Get off your [****!!****] and do something constructive!

most subjective and I doubt that somehow and sincerely hope that true fleet fans will take serious objection to that comment...as a myfc member I am appalled....

[Andrewc]

Originally Posted By: John Pearce

The club and its supporters have been sold down the river, may they all rot in hell!

Thank you for your comment about the Club supporters!

I suggest you take up a new hobby, knitting fog perhaps.

[Harry J Allstars]

Originally Posted By: footynut

http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/sport/topsp..._supporters.php

That article sounds like an advert for the club.

I hope you charged them advert fees.

[Hempstead Gaz]

I cannot make it as I have a prior committment (school concert),

but I would have asked Jason 2 questions, which I hope someone would also ask.

1 How much, according to the official accounts, are we in debt?

2. How much money have we lost in each of the last 2 years?

 

The answers would go a long way to explaining why the boardhave approached MyFC.

They would not explain, however, why the club decided to go full time on gates that could clearly not support such a venture.

Nor would it explain why it decided to "adopt" Fleet Leisure - which according to reports has been running at a loss for years.

[PatMan]

Originally Posted By: Chatham Gary

1 How much, according to the official accounts, are we in debt?

I would hope that this one will be answered before its asked! If the Board intend to turn up and not be open and honest right from the start the whole evening will be a farce and a complete waste of time.... Hang on, this sounds familiar....

[Jeff]

Originally Posted By: Harry J Allstars

Originally Posted By: footynut

http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/sport/topsp..._supporters.php

That article sounds like an advert for the club.

I hope you charged them advert fees.

Exactly what I thought.

[John Pearce]

Originally Posted By: Andrewc

Originally Posted By: John Pearce

The club and its supporters have been sold down the river, may they all rot in hell!

Thank you for your comment about the Club supporters!

I suggest you take up a new hobby, knitting fog perhaps.

I was referring to the board, not the club's supporters!

[John Pearce]

If I was going to the meeting, I would be interested to hear the boards response to the following questions:-

 

(i) What exactly is the club's current level of debt?

 

(ii) How much of that can directly be attributed to the club going full time?

 

(iii) If the board thought, at the time, that the club could survive by going full time on its then existing financial streams, what has gone wrong?

 

(iv) Looking from the outside in, would the board agree that they appear to have mis-managed the clubs financial affairs?

 

(v) How much did the announcement by Gillingham FC of a possible move into Gravesham, influence the decision to go full-time?

 

(vi) How much of the debt can directly be attributed to the apparant loss making 'Fleet Leisure'?

 

(vii) How long is it before the club can extradite itself from the arrangement with Gravesham Borough Council on 'Fleet Leisure'?

 

(viii) What has happened to the sponsorship monies received from Eurostar and the television monies from Setanta?

 

(ix) What is the exact situation with regard to a new stadium?

 

(x) What contingency plans are in place to ensure the clubs survival should MyFc decide "thanks but no thanks" after the period of due dilligence?

 

(xi) Doe the entire board think, that if MyFc were to walk away from the deal, that their position is untenable?

 

(xii) Why does the club have a total disregard for its supporters?

 

There are probably more, but sadly I doubt for one single moment any would get an honest and truthful answer!

 

 

[Stu M]

Originally Posted By: John Pearce

I doubt for one single moment any would get an honest and truthful answer!

Well you won't know if you don't go. And whether any answers or truthful or not, should you be entitled to any response if you don't actually go and ask?

[Hempstead Gaz]

What IS becoming apparent, is that the board took their eye off the board concerning the finances.

More questions than answers have been the story over the last couple of years, as John rightly says.

Rather than the team going full time before the crowds were in place, why, for example didn't they employ a full time press/PR man whose remit was to put 500 on the gate.

To pay a guy £500 per week to do the job equates to 75 paying adult fans.

If he "failed" to get more than 100 extra, the club would still have benefitted.

I'm sure Greg Bettles is a really nice bloke and works hard for the club, but is he paid, and does he attract more fans than say Chas Webster does.?

 

[David Holden]

Quote:

To pay a guy £500 per week to do the job equates to 38 paying adult fans

 

Probably because their arithmetic is a lot better than yours.

 

£500 per week = £26,000 per annum.

Add Employers NIC £3,328

Total Cost = £29,328

 

£29,328 divide by 23 home matches = £1,275.13 per match.

 

Adult admission price (after VAT) = £11.06

 

£1,275.13 divided by £11.06 = 115.29 additional fans per game.

 

That's at current prices. At the time we went full time there were 21 home matches and admission was only £10. This means that you would have need around 200 extra fans just to break even.

 

[Hempstead Gaz]

I did amend it to 100 fans David, after rechecking my math.

So I was 15.3 fans out.

The question is still valid.

One must also question fleet's financial advisors.

Did no-one think to question the wisdom of going full time, or acquiring Fleet leisure at a time when attendances were not improving, or looking into the building of a new ground, when it seems we were already making a loss.

In general, would an accountant have a moral duty to advise a club of unwise or unaffordable dealing?

[Unrecognized Genius]

Originally Posted By: John Pearce

If I was going to the meeting, I would be interested to hear the boards response to the following questions:

You then go on to list 11 perfectly reasonable questions. (I wouldn't advise asking number 12 exactly as it stands, but a question that asks the Board to address the perception of many loyal fans that they are unvalued definitely needs to be asked, even though I personally do not feel this way.)

I think you should go to the forum, John and ask those of your questions that are not asked by others. It may be that circumstances dictate that we won't get a definitive answer to every single thing that is asked, but surely only those of us that are there will really be able to tell whether we have been dealt with honestly and respectfully or not.

If you haven't been going to watch games this season & yet you are prepared to invest this amount of thought, you are clearly only punishing yourself by staying away. Managers, players, even directors at the end of the day come & go, but many supporters stay for ever. I think it's pretty obvious that, despite what you have said, in your heart you are one of these supporters too.

[Hempstead Gaz]

If I could go, I would.

As U G has said, John, your questions are the same as many of us would ask - the board are no doubt not looking forward to what could be a quite lively meeting.

 

[footynut]

You are quite correct in identiying where the article came from Harry, it is no secret.

 

It is a round-up of news submitted by the club and no different from the weekly bulletin we get from Charlton.

[Friejose]

A lot of the issues raised here are very backward-looking, i.e. why did you screw everything up so badly in the past, you dolts. I'm wondering if people have forward-looking questions. Here's a few for me (as I can't go due to distance):

 

1) Why did you approach MyFC initially?

 

2) Why did you decide to do the deal in principle with MyFC?

 

3) How close is the due diligence to being completed, and has the DD raised any concerns about the deal?

 

4) What concerns do you have about the MyFC model as applied to EUFC, especially concerning 25,000 people picking the team? If none, why not?

 

5) What happens to EUFC if MyFC membership levels drop in the future?

 

I could go on, but you get the idea. There's a lot people could ask that wouldn't be about hurling recriminations, and would address a lot of the concerns I've seen raised here. It'll be interesting to see if people want to vent their spleens about something that can't be changed or if they want to get information that is helpful to them going forward.