Stan A. Einstein wrote:newgroundrodney wrote:What we needed was for the fans of the club to step up to the plate financially. What we needed is what I said all along, "1500 fans donating £30 a month"... trouble is, it was not focused on at the TIME. There was too much emphasis on the buying of shares, and not enough emphasis on the monthly donation ongoing. Many thought, and still do, that joining The Trust for a tenner is doing their bit. Joining the Trust gets you your right to vote & attend certain meetings, that's it. What ELSE will you do for the club? In a time when simply buying tickets and a bit of merchandise is not enough, we need fans who are willing to cough up monthly.
We have an average home fans figure of just over 3100..... now, as I've said before, around half of those will be children, seniors, students, low paid & unemployed, but the other half, the "financially able" half, have not stepped forward.
To paraphrase Chris Blight: "it's easier to ask 1500 people for £30 a month, than to ask one man for £500k"....and he is absolutely right.
For whatever reason, the fans who ARE able, have not been willing......and in a way, why should they, when you think of what we've been told:
... " there'll be much more transparency going forward, and we know we've fallen short on this so far. It will improve".....
... " you'll get more say on a range of issues"
... " there'll be regular meetings"....
...." there'll be regular updates ".....
If we ditch the model, we'll get even less say.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again, we need a packaged monthly payment scheme to include Trust Membership, Match Ticket & Benefits & rewards donation. When we have that, perhaps we'll get the money we need monthly.
Those who wish to buy their Season Ticket up front could still do so.
Hi,
I don't disagree with any of that but......
Unless supporters are engaged, informed and feel included they are not going to contribute. To put it succinctly. Would I donate £30 a month to Newport County? Yes. Would I donate £30 a month to Newport County the way they are run now? No.
It is a shame that it has come to this. In over 60 years of my supporting the County I was delighted when we the fans of the club took over from the private investor model.
These very same fans have been and still are turning on each other, we can't get to a position of unity and to have a sense of purpose to which we agree.
I have come on here and said we need to work through our Trust to get the changes we need and have been attacked for these views.
In short I still believe that what we are proposing to do (75% poll) is throwing the baby out with the bath water.
For once I agree with most of what Stan has said on this thread.
For me - initially either the Trust board got lazy/jumped/out manoeuvred or whatever you want to call it and the 'power' moved to the individuals (on) and the operational board. As a result 'the Trust' has been unable to deliver on the manifesto on which it was founded.
Some fans are starting to not see the distinction and pointing the finger at both (boards) for the shortfalls (hence why I keep saying work through the Trust to try and make things better over time).
The worrying thing for me is in jumping to a hybrid model just because we can't get the model we paid for to work. Like Stan's post above some fans won't support the existing model financially or otherwise. George's comment about a root and branch review might come out of all this and is what I hope for (where we could get 'control' back to the Trust).
In short I don't want a hybrid model, I want a strong Trust with teeth and delivering us a community club - we have seen what we want (by it coming up well short in this iteration) now let's make it happen before we give away our club. (The monies/investors stuff is just fools gold - please look further around the continuation and the very existence of our football club - get the Trust you want/ the club that you want and then support it with every positive vein in your body).
