Conference south - make up

[Cookie]

Taken from "forums" heading at top of page. Other interesting items up there too.

 

Conference South (Step Two)

 

Basingstoke Town ***

Bishop's Stortford

Bognor Regis Town

Cambridge City

Carshalton Athletic

Dorchester Town

Eastbourne Borough

Ford United

Grays Athletic

Havant & Waterlooville

Hayes

Hornchurch

Kettering Town**

Lewes

Maidenhead United

Newport County

St Albans City

Sutton United

Thurrock

Welling United

Weston Super Mare

Weymouth

 

**If Margate fail to meet ground criteria Kettering will be placed in Conference North and Margate in Conference South

 

***Hendon withdrew membership of Conference South so Basingstoke Town take their place

 

 

 

 

[JohnKirbChe]

Have to look at the positives here because its a sunny day.

 

top goes up

 

2-5 goes into a play off eventually facing

 

winner of northern play off

 

potential of getting back to hartsdown

 

CK still in charge

 

still being in a Div above Dover

 

and Pulman in attack, tearing these teams to shreds.

 

dropping a division i hate to say could be a blessing in disguise to sort out our mess and stop us haemoraging money (excuse the spelling) and we dont truly know how close we are to folding do we?

 

if we drop to this division, am very confident we can bounce straight back up.

[alan the fly]

As much as I would love the gate to stay in proper conference i feel that droping down and getting abck to hartsdown would be the best idea rather than ground shring with dover for another 10 years

[Guest]

I think that once we lose our main conference status we will not get back-a lot of good and some full time teams.

 

Alot easier getting to stay in conference than get there.

 

I think you could drive a coach and horses through any legal agreement preventing club returning until end of 3 year break.Not in the conference interests for that to happen

[Guest]

[color:"blue"]But isn't the Conference next season the first under the wage capping rules? We've already one of the smallest wage bills & we'd have to cut back even further. We'd have to rely on the likes of Conrad Whitby, Moses Njuju and other YTS youngsters as mainstay first teamers. I don't think CK would be able to manage to keep us up for three seasons, as if anything our gates at Dover would go smaller and smaller. [/color]

[Guest]

Good and valid point Peter, but is it not up to the fans and the club in particular to find proper fund raising ideas , with proper leadership rather than play at it as has been the case.

Interesting that on conf guide forum there is reasonable support for us staying in conference.

 

Realistically seeing the TDC position as reported by 'Don' today, whilst it looks likely now that the project will eventually get the green light, it will take 6 months to get planning and legals sorted-probably longer with new leases.Thus build will not start until 2005-i suspect the funders will want commercial side to be developed quickly to give an income stream ,so with a 12 month build to include comeercial side, it looks like 2006 before ground will be ready anyway, so we might aswell enter into a groundshare-i am sure in circumstances conference would allow break after 2 years-not 3.

Frankly ,even if club accept conf south there will not be a ground built in time.

 

Not at meeting, but either way as KP suggested ,there seems to be a £400k shortfall.Eother to

a)fund conference national side.

 

b)build a ground to minimal standards

 

If it is built to minimal standards(and that would take to Xmas anyway )-same problem will arise at end of 2004/5 season by when ground needs a B list grading;and beyond, in unlikely event we do get promotion to conf .national ground needs an A grading so we could not go up anyway .

 

Seems to me best option is to fight to retain current status and negotiate a 2 year break clause.

 

 

[Guest]

Meant toconclude with-get everything out in open, get joint statements from club and council with complete honesty, lets take the pain, do the job properly, get a good stadium all finished in 18-24 months, let supporters forget about this aspect and do the best to support team in whatever financial,logistic and vocal way we can.

 

Let players play,supporters support, builders build, managers manage,stop getting in everyones way and wasting energy on things we cannot really influence

[Cookie]

Sorry to get on the end of your well thought out conclusion Micheal but Ive just got home and seen the statement and I for one would just like to get back to hartsdown and if that means dropping a league then so be it.To lose our conference status hits me real hard but we just have to get back to our own town and own ground. Have taken note of peoples words about the lenghth of time it would STILL take to get that built and therefore a groundshare would have to be made, even if only for a short period. But it HAS to be "come home margate f.c." surely, whatever the options. I would like to see an appeal first, though that will not get us back here but will preserve our status for a while longer but in my opinion that will fail and if it does then the last option of getting back to hartsdown just has to be a must. Rebuild both the ground and team. Dont think we would fare too badly and yes, I do think we can get back to the conference straight away and it will be done by playing on our own ground.

[Guest]

tony i think the big issue will be money. to stay at dover will cost mega bucks with 300 crowds no revenue. going to hartsdown is going to take ages. enter into a ten year deal with clauses only if someone can cough up half a million to cover our dreadful debts.

 

otherwise i think toodling off to ashford for perhaps 18 months and have a proper ground to come back to.