Not much in the Express

[Ted]

Poor coverage of Slough in this weeks express. Fixtures on an inside page, one letter from the Liberals playing down Stoke's remarks, and a small areticle on page 3 saying theres a meeting between supporters and council chiefs on Monday.

Thereport says we will be offered 3 options--advertising for a new owner,amalgamating with another club, or moving to another ground. Article states we currently lose £125,000 a year.

 

Nothing pro Slough on the letters page---did people write in and get ignored, or does the lack of letters indicate no one wrote in?

[GarySTFC]

First I heard of this meeting was this morning when BFR told me... Will be interesting to see what they can come up with to 'appease' us and aid our situation. After all, in two days time, they'll be the ones in charge of the club when Martyn hands over control to them.

[Ted]

If the council take control, they won't subsidise it, so unless Deaner funds us for the year, there will have to be cutbacks---the start of a short slippery slope?

[PJ-STFC]

The Express coverage last week was very low-key, compared to the Observer, so not very surprising if little interest shown this week.

 

Seems that the Observer may be more interested in our plight than the Express?

 

Did anyone write to the local papers (bearing in mind that last week's coverage was mostly pro-STFC) or was everyone concentrating on mailing the Council?

 

PJ <img src="/images/graemlins/chat.gif" alt="" />

[PJ-STFC]

...but see the latest posting on the Save STFC Guestbook (from Niall Campbell)...

[Guest]

Hi everyone.... again the council has put this meeting to the paper before I had a chance to speak to the new board tonight to tell them of this meeting !! It would have been nice to let our new members of the board to get the news first ! but that's how things are done these days...apologies to you all......

 

Yes we have had a invitation to meet at the town hall on Monday night at 6-30pm ..this maybe to head off our meeting for the Tuesday - WE STILL GO AHEAD WITH THIS 10AM to 9PM .....!!!!!

 

We as a board will not decide the actions from this meeting until we have discussed these with a solicitor and our members.....

 

I have also told the papers as I understand they have said again without being told directly about an amalgmation !!!! I feel I had to reply to this comment in the express !! NO WAY !!!! this is not an option....

 

hope you agree with this ????

 

will keep you posted....

 

cheers Chris S....

 

<img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

[GarySTFC]

I think amalgamation is the equivalent of no club really. Effectively it would be starting as a new club and whichever club we merged with would effectively keep their history whilst we lost ours?

 

No disrespect to any of the surrounding sides, but I still feel of the six main sides in the very local area (Marlow, SYCOB, Maidenhead, Windsor, Burnham and us) we have the most potential to resume Conference status if we were sorted out and run properly. It is encouraging to see how healthy the attendances are despite being homeless and some could say being run badly in the past.

 

Northwood and Wealdstone have proved that it can be done on a small budget (Northwood won the Division One North in our last season in that league, and Wealdstone got 'promotion' last season despite also being homeless), so if we get ourselves in shape and running on a tight ship which is affordable, then it can be done. We have a very good management team in Eddie and Mickey, and obviously the more backing we can give them, both financially and vocally, the better chances we have.

 

Will be good to discuss the options this evening ahead of the meeting with the council on Monday. No doubt they will try to get us to call off the protest on Tuesday as well, or perhaps better yet, they will be able to provide us with solid solutions which would mean we wouldn't need the protest? Ok, so that's a bit too much to ask for....

[BFR]

I only read what it had said in the newspaper.

 

If there was an amalgamation, there still wouldn't be football in Slough, so this is not an option. The BILLD might be happy to take down the Slough signs that some people have got ridiculously annoyed with, but we are proud to be supporters of Slough Town, and want to see Slough Town play in the future - not under some stupid name like East Berkshire FC.

 

By all means advertise for a new benefactor - but if there is still no base for Slough i.e. a stadium with facilities that will bring in non-football related funds into the club to run the football team then what is the point? Businessman who plunge their fortunes into a football team without a catch are few and far between - if there was a Slough supporter willing to put millions into the club then it would have happened by now. We haven't even got an assets to strip, apart from two or possible three contracted players, but nobody would pay for them anyway.

 

Which brings us back to moving to another stadium. If there was one then we would have moved there in the first place. Wexham Park is not a viable option unless bought from the Thornes, complete with all of the facilites. That isn't going to happen.

 

I look forward to discussing this further tonight at the board meeting.

[Burnham Lad]

There is one other option which has not been mentioned at all at this stage in the Press or in the discussion - Mr Deaner.

 

I would make a plea to the Board to try and talk to him and see what it would take to persuade him to carry on the fight a bit longer, at least for the year until the Council has had the chance to review the Feasibility study if they are in the process of distancing themselves from Councillor Stoke's initial reaction. He has invested a lot, so whilst I totally understand his frustration and annoyance, might it not be worthwhile hanging on a bit longer?

 

It would also be useful to find out from him at what stage the process of handing the club over to the council has reached - I cannot see anything formal being completed in the timescale he indicated. He has told W&E that he will fund the year's rent and that would be money thrown away if there was no money for the team - he would be better trying to do a deal with them if that was the case.

 

Clearly the last thing the Council wanted is to be running the club and in any case who would handle the infrastructure? I cannot see a club without the skill and experience of a Roy Merryweather to actually make things happen, aside from the management on the field, by Eddie.

 

And is Wexham Park a total dead duck? I am sorry to bang on about that, and I know that long term it probably isn't viable unless somebody takes up BFR's suggestion and buys it off them, but could it not be a bolthole for us temporarily? Surely a deal could be worked out to get a lease on it? At present it is sitting there doing nothing and surely the Thornes are enough of business people to want some income from it? Even if they have development plans, they still have to create them and get planning permission and if they want to get that, those of us that are Slough Fans and live in South Bucks will put up a hell of a fight to make sure they don't get it after what they did to the club. So maybe they could be persuaded to do deal even with Mr Deaner.

 

I know the Ryman Rules are 7 years for a lease, but we don't have that on the current ground share and they have broken their own rules before!

 

So maybe it is time for us to think a little outside the box and have some suggestions to make to the Council rather than just debate what they want to offer, which is probably to find a way for them get out from under as fast as possible and collecting as little political flak on the way. THEY MAY THINK THAT, BUT WE WON'T GO AWAY AND WE WON'T SURRENDER! They must realise that we will make any failure to resolve this satisfactorily sit at the centre of their administration like a boil on the backside - it will hurt every time they move, all the time they are in office.

 

Nil Illegitimis Carborundum, as my engineering Dad used to say - don't let the B*stards grind us down!

[Tom]

Personally, this shows how uninterested the council are towards the club. The options presented for the meeting show how prepared they are to pass the buck every time something happens to the club.

 

What does each council have against us, the are willing to help out the ice hockey and other sports but not the football.

 

What is it going to take for them to take us seriously?

[Woody SUFC]

Tom perhaps you can go on Hunger strike!?

 

Good news for Windsor if it's true that Deaner is going to pay this years rent and i hope the Council will fund you to stay here for another season. TBH if the Slough Express is run by the same people as the Windsor one they are not very good for Football but the Observer is. Good luck with your fight to save your football club. It seems the Council don't know much about the history of Slough. Perhaps you could invite them to A Windsor Vs Slough game and show them how much it means to locals!

[Ted]

Since no one has said that they wrote in, I presume that not many did.

 

There were in fact 2 letters that were not exactly pro Slough Town.

 

Credit to those who have written in in the past, but one letter is not enough---get writing again.We need letters every week. If anyone hasn't written in, please do so.

[Tom]

I hope the councilors realise that when the club gets far into a major cup tournament (he hopes) they will be the ones expecting to get first class treatment from the club.

 

I hope they will be refused due to the treatment they have put the club through unless some sort of productive agreement can be made.

 

 

[mal316]

You say anout the council helping out others sports, well the Ice Hockey team play at Montem. This is a public ice arena run by the council which they allow them to rent. It was not built for them.

 

The athletics was a joint set up between Slough Council, Windsor & Maidenhead Council and who ever runs Eton. This was a community project with the 'profits' going back to the relevant councils.

 

The reason they are probably making it so hard for you is that they know tha they will get nothing back at the end of it.

[BFR]

Mal, the Britwell regeneration plan, including the stadium would have given the area a much needed facelift and at no cost to the council. But to the councillors it is not about what is good for the town or what is good for the football club, it is about destroying anything that has Labour's name on it out of spite, not for the good of the town or its residents.

[mal316]

BFR, I agrre with you, but I bet that if the money or part of it from he club was going back to the council then they would be more than happy to set you up with a ground

[GarySTFC]

As the board of the trust are meeting with the council on Monday, we will be able to go over a number of option with them then and see what they can offer, and also what we as a supporters trust can offer in return.

 

I am sure that the council would be happy to see a successful Slough Town FC on and off the pitch which benefits their constituents and not necessarily the councils piggy banks alone....

[PJ-STFC]

Is that you practicing your diplomacy, Gary, ready for Monday?

PJ <img src="/images/graemlins/chat.gif" alt="" />

[GarySTFC]

Of course!

[Guest]

to chris,you do mean the fans first and with the board in this trust or is it the board first aka deaner thorn cutting ect ect