Basil-Don Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 After the sad demise of Southill Alexander how do people see the future of 'fan owned clubs'?? I dont really want to compare Southill with MYFC as we all know that MYFC was run by some very unscrupulous people who banned Darter and Loose,thankfully Southill was run in a more open manner and the only person they ever banned was me. Is it ever possible that a club can be run in a totally open manner?? for example when i was banned from their forum i wasnt allowed to see their postings about me,personally i think this is the correct policy,for example if a set up a private forum called 'john brown beats his wife' and i decide to deny john brown access to this forum is that not my perjorative?? Anyway i believe that forums and the internet are on the whole very informative and let the fans know exactly what happened, look at a club like Hornchurch for example, years ago we would have had to inspect the books to discover what a terrible state UU left them in, now we just need to visit a forum to discover the truth of what actually happened at the club, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eastside Urchin Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 Fans owned clubs are good but only in my opinion if they are owned by fans from a club with a fanbase already I don't blame southill for having a go,I just never thought it would work.I believe fans who have supported clubs over a long period would more or less give their last penny to their football club if they needed it,this was evident when our Harry who passed away 4 years ago now offered the club the deeds to his house to help save the club when we went bust in 2004,thankfully they never took the deeds as someones house isn't worth losing for that but "new" fans who are maybe investing a little bit of spare money and a bit of time won't go to those lengths that a long term fan will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missunderstood Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 Fans owned clubs are good but only in my opinion if they are owned by fans from a club with a fanbase already I don't blame southill for having a go,I just never thought it would work.I believe fans who have supported clubs over a long period would more or less give their last penny to their football club if they needed it,this was evident when our Harry who passed away 4 years ago now offered the club the deeds to his house to help save the club when we went bust in 2004,thankfully they never took the deeds as someones house isn't worth losing for that but "new" fans who are maybe investing a little bit of spare money and a bit of time won't go to those lengths that a long term fan will The big problem with fan owned clubs is that most of us tend to leave our brains at home when we go to a match, and would those same fans be able to take the tough decisions that may be hard in the short term, but beneficial in the long term. In my opinion the SA experiment probably failed because the people involved failed to properly market research the project prior to deciding to base in Biggleswade, a smallish town that already has two clubs that are not exactly setting the non league world alight. For any project such as this to succeed you need a reasonable prospective fan base to build on, a stadium with the possibility of extracting an alternative income from, and be able to embrace the principle of being an integral part of the community by encouraging sporting participation, and preferably be multi sport to enhance the probability of receiving the various grants that are available. It is also a massive help if the local council are supportive of the aims and aspirations of the project. In the course of looking for funding for my own club I probably logged on to almost every non league club in the country to try and discover how they raise funds, and was disappointed to find that apart from local business directories, and gambling there was not a great deal of originality. Maybe one possible source of income in the future would be if clubs embraced alternative green energy producing technology. With a guaranteed and generous national grid feed in tariff,for an investment of approximately £300,000 it would be possible to create an income of around £50,000 per anum for around 25 years, which in theory could enable clubs to pay a mortgage for building a modest stadium. Unfortunately, local authorities don't all have a vision of saving the planet, although with rapidly rising oil prices the future will hopefully be a lot greener. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pink Panther Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 MYFC was the big white elephant, therefore SAFC was surely Dumbo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhodes Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 I see that the other Southill Alexander thread has been closed down and that Loosely had the final word. I think that's befitting for a man who has given us plenty of laughs along the way and who has turned himself into somewhat of a figure of fun for the way he has conducted himself since the Club's sad demise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ground Hopper Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 My guess is that the staff got fed up with your bickering like a spoilt kid (sorry that is how you come over in these threads). Move on - I am all for clubs and regret not getting to Southill but you seem to be wishing to create a situation. Does it really matter if you were involved or not for a day or two? You did not hang around, so have no real say in matters. Move on, just as those involved who did put in their best efforts are going to have to do so. And grow up! Right that is off my chest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil-Don Posted January 28, 2011 Author Share Posted January 28, 2011 My guess is that the staff got fed up with your bickering like a spoilt kid (sorry that is how you come over in these threads). Move on - I am all for clubs and regret not getting to Southill but you seem to be wishing to create a situation. Does it really matter if you were involved or not for a day or two? You did not hang around, so have no real say in matters. Move on, just as those involved who did put in their best efforts are going to have to do so. And grow up! Right that is off my chest Groundhopper we all made fools of ourselves over Southill your a bit harsh with Rhodes as sometimes you have to read 'between the lines'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhodes Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 all a comedy of errors isnt it, im surprised that a highly successful businessman like you with a turnover of millions didnt put in any money yourself or indeed find some sponsors, remind people again of the business your involved with,where your money has came from? do you own property? are you a shareholder? any directorships? its all a bit of a mystery isnt it, at least with your Secretary we know where her money came from,i believe she came into a few bob a couple of years back around the same time you became close friends. Basil-Don - This was your post that said it all for me on the other thread, as you rightly said if Loosely was such a successful and highly regarded businessman with a turnover of millions of pounds why did he make such a pigs ear of running Southill Alexander Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syd_lexic Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 I think Misunderstood pretty much hit the nail on the head wth his post. We should have done more research & perhaps should have waited for a more suitable location. (There are reasons we didn't, but we've been down that road enough haven't we ?) I think it's safe to say with hindsight we would have done things differently, but that's life & sometimes we don't get that benefit. Whether this kind of project could work again, I don't know, maybe on a smaller scale it could. You would need local people putting the hours in to make it work & we never had that. You would need to build up relationships with the local press guys & we never did that. I think we probably tried to run before we could walk in some respects with regards to merchandising etc. but it's all done & dusted now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil-Don Posted January 28, 2011 Author Share Posted January 28, 2011 I think Misunderstood pretty much hit the nail on the head wth his post. We should have done more research & perhaps should have waited for a more suitable location. (There are reasons we didn't, but we've been down that road enough haven't we ?) I think it's safe to say with hindsight we would have done things differently, but that's life & sometimes we don't get that benefit. Whether this kind of project could work again, I don't know, maybe on a smaller scale it could. You would need local people putting the hours in to make it work & we never had that. You would need to build up relationships with the local press guys & we never did that. I think we probably tried to run before we could walk in some respects with regards to merchandising etc. but it's all done & dusted now. it certainly is,maybe this thread also needs to be closed now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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