Fans owned club | Page 4 | Vital Football

Fans owned club

shotshy said:
Yep. Two places more successful than us at the moment 👍
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For a bit of context AFCW we're formed in 2002 and worked their way from a grass roots team through the leagues to being back in league one. They've grown their supporter base and designed and built a new stadium that is now in use.

In approx 2003 GFC put up an ahem "temporary" stand at the Brian Moore End and have talked about a new stadium ever since.
 
markinkent said:
For a bit of context AFCW we're formed in 2002 and worked their way from a grass roots team through the leagues to being back in league one. They've grown their supporter base and designed and built a new stadium that is now in use.

In approx 2003 GFC put up an ahem "temporary" stand at the Brian Moore End and have talked about a new stadium ever since.
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That is a rather silly comparison. You forget to mention that the formation of MK Dons and the whole franchise episode occurred because Wimbledon couldn’t get permission for a new ground.
 
markinkent said:
Are there not similar arguments for any lower league club?

Surely places like Blackpool are more deprived than Kent?

I actually struggle with the argument that medway is deprived. Some parts might be but there is plenty of money in other parts. Every town has deprived parts.

We'd be better focused on the untapped potential. Wembley visits draw tens of thousands. How do we turn them into regulars?

I don't see a fan owned approach working. That's for phoenix clubs in my view. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

We need a benefactor/consortium to buy potential.

The new ground is key. Need to raise the profile of the club so that it is exciting and visible to the local community.

It's neither today.
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I agree totally. There is potential, its just that our performances over the last few years have had the effect of lowering our profile.Also other Clubs like West Ham have done great deals with season tickets that we just cannot do ( was stunned to find out one of Gills greatest long time fans is now a season holder at WHU ) which has had the same effect.
However, when PS turned up he behaved in a way completely different to previous Chairman by raising it in a way we’d never seen before and we had 37,500,48,000 and 29,000( albeit v less exciting opposition ) at Wembley.
New owners with actual investment and a new stadium etc would have people coming back. I realise that i’m stating a perfect world and even then the team would have to do well also for this to happen, but it is possible.
Sadly with the latest shenanigans re banning people for protesting in the street its a new low and i suspect it will get worse.
Lets see what tomorrow brings
At least negative news gets us national
 
Billy Goatham said:
I agree totally. There is potential, its just that our performances over the last few years have had the effect of lowering our profile.Also other Clubs like West Ham have done great deals with season tickets that we just cannot do ( was stunned to find out one of Gills greatest long time fans is now a season holder at WHU ) which has had the same effect.
However, when PS turned up he behaved in a way completely different to previous Chairman by raising it in a way we’d never seen before and we had 37,500,48,000 and 29,000( albeit v less exciting opposition ) at Wembley.
New owners with actual investment and a new stadium etc would have people coming back. I realise that i’m stating a perfect world and even then the team would have to do well also for this to happen, but it is possible.
Sadly with the latest shenanigans re banning people for protesting in the street its a new low and i suspect it will get worse.
Lets see what tomorrow brings
At least negative news gets us national
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Soz was gonna say negative news broadcast nationally e.g Quest, BBc south etc might bring someone new to the table !
…anyone got any straws ? Pass me one..
 
We were stagnant Billy. Now decline is setting in. Many will say we are lucky to have a club and mutter "gawd bless you Mr Scally if it wasn't for you ......".


Problem for scally is he can't take us forward. Someone else needs to or I fear we will need to ask AFCW for the blue prints.
 
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markinkent said:
That's what's missing for me at Gills. Too wide a divide between club and fans at the moment and for the first time I don't think it will resolve itself in time. I think both parties have overstepped the line and there isn't a resolution that brings both sides together. One has to go. As it stands that's the fans who disagree with him. The damage to the club will depend how many more join those who have made that decision.
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At last MinK. You've come down off the fence and told us how you feel.
:-):grinning:
 
markinkent said:
It's what they've done since 2002 was the point I was making. Bloody miraculous. Meanwhile .....
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And Luton are still not in their new ground. When they started trying to get one it was literally before anyone, including Scunthorpe United had managed it.
 
I sometimes wonder if TherealWaldo is trolling us all with his username and he’s actually Scally himself!
 
Therealwaldo said:
And Luton are still not in their new ground. When they started trying to get one it was literally before anyone, including Scunthorpe United had managed it.
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But Luton have established themselves as a decent Championship side.... in a toilet of a ground ....... and as an area Luton is a bigger shithole than Medway.

There is hope.
 
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shotshy said:
There used to be a regular poster who backed Scally in everything.
I wonder what happened to him and I wonder why I can’t remember his username 🙄
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Durham?

I don't mind the extreme scally backers to be fair. They balance the extreme outers and the truth is usually in the middle.

As I've said all along the loudest people aren't the status quoers or the outers. The loudest people by far are the we've just stopped going group.

You can't hear them of course but you can sure as hell see the empty seats they used to fill. They will have the most impact on the future as well, not the outers or the quoers. The apathy group.
 
markinkent said:
Are there not similar arguments for any lower league club?

Surely places like Blackpool are more deprived than Kent?
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From what I see and hear I must admit that there seems to be a closer bond between clubs and their fans in the North - especially when it comes to lower league clubs. The impression I get is that clubs are generally more community focused up here. Take Blackpool as an example - for an area that is deprived, their away followings are exceptional. Next week the club is also gifting a Blackpool FC replica shirt to every single Year 2 school child in the area`s Primary Schools - that`s over 1,700 shirts - pretty good community enterprise, that. The Community Trusts of the N/West clubs are very active and get a lot of media coverage. Maybe the GFC Community Trust could be a bit more visible ?
 
LancsGordoRoad said:
From what I see and hear I must admit that there seems to be a closer bond between clubs and their fans in the North - especially when it comes to lower league clubs. The impression I get is that clubs are generally more community focused up here. Take Blackpool as an example - for an area that is deprived, their away followings are exceptional. Next week the club is also gifting a Blackpool FC replica shirt to every single Year 2 school child in the area`s Primary Schools - that`s over 1,700 shirts - pretty good community enterprise, that. The Community Trusts of the N/West clubs are very active and get a lot of media coverage. Maybe the GFC Community Trust could be a bit more visible ?
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I read about the shirt presents lancs. What a brilliant idea and what a way to get those kids asking to be taken to games. I was going to post the story on here and then decided whats the point.

If I don't it will save people repling with how we couldn't possibly do something like that, etc etc.

Good on Blackpool. Not so long ago they were a club in crisis with falling gates, protests etc.

Now look at them. Still there is absolutely no hope that anyone would buy a provisional team in a deprived area is there.
 
It’s possible that it may be something to do with the identity of the club.
The good folk of Medway just don’t seem to identify with the football club.
I’m of the opinion that the club hasn’t done enough over many years to attempt to integrate itself into the local community.
When my lad was younger, we used to go all over Kent in preseason football tournaments and I can only recall one time that Gills were present and that was under Hess. Charlton often had a presence, giving out various goodies to the kids.
The club needs to take a long hard look at how it’s marketed.
I’ve never lived in Medway and nearly everyone around were I used to sit in the RE didn’t live in Medway either.
For an enterprise of it’s size, the lack of awareness in the community is pretty poor in my opinion.
 
Lark said:
I sometimes wonder if TherealWaldo is trolling us all with his username and he’s actually Scally himself!
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Unless Scally has had a 40 year career in local government for the most part dealing in large projects for new, enlarged and improved school buildings that he’s kept very quiet about, I think you might be mistaken. It’s perhaps my experience with these projects that gets me riled when people think there’s some simple path to getting a new ground because some clubs have managed it. It’s also nonsense to suggest that a new ground has been ”promised” by Scally. It’s a clearly stated ambition and I’ve never read anything to suggest that it’s more than that.
 
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