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Spion said:
So, Ebbsfleet have moved from a situation where no fans have any say to where some fans can have a say. And have moved from a situation where where chairman and manager (not necessarily passionate or connected or having heart and soul etc etc) are the only ones exercising control over club matters to a situation where thousands of people (including fans) are.

That you defend the status quo baffles me. This could be a model for colective/community control of clubs
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You still seem to be missing the point here. The Ebbsfleet fans that have invested in the club, will inevitably be out-numbered by everyone else who paid their £35. Unless the fans get 2 votes instead of 1, their input will not be any more valid than, say, a Manchester Utd fan living in the Outer Hebredes who invested the same amount.

How on earth is that a model for community control for football clubs? :confused:
 
Augie March said:
You still seem to be missing the point here. The Ebbsfleet fans that have invested in the club, will inevitably be out-numbered by everyone else who paid their £35. Unless the fans get 2 votes instead of 1, their input will not be any more valid than, say, a Manchester Utd fan living in the Outer Hebredes who invested the same amount.

How on earth is that a model for community control for football clubs? :confused:
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OTOH, by year two many of the crofting Man U fans will have got bored and moved on, and every die-hard Ebbsfleet fan will be a member. By year three, any Man U crofters remaining will have a strong emotional connection to Ebbsfleet, and most casual Ebbsfleet followers will have signed up too. By that point, you do have community control, even if the fan community has changed rather.

Anyway, clubs making decisions on the basis of the interests of dispersed, fair-weather fans isn't new. I'm thinking of Kazuyuki Toda, but I'm sure you'd have your own similar grievances.
 
Augie March said:
You still seem to be missing the point here. The Ebbsfleet fans that have invested in the club, will inevitably be out-numbered by everyone else who paid their £35. Unless the fans get 2 votes instead of 1, their input will not be any more valid than, say, a Manchester Utd fan living in the Outer Hebredes who invested the same amount.
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You're ignoring or really badly failing to understand my point. Do you know the difference between some and none? (ie, of opportunity to influence the club's affairs) Read my last post again and think about it for a bit.


Augie March said:
How on earth is that a model for community control for football clubs? :confused:
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You're seriously asking me how a web-based method of participation and voting on day-to-day affairs could be a model for community organisation? Spend some more time thinking
 
Spion said:
You're ignoring or really badly failing to understand my point. Do you know the difference between some and none? (ie, of opportunity to influence the club's affairs) Read my last post again and think about it for a bit.
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Neither ignoring or failing to understand your point, I do see where your coming from. I'm thinking you're a bit more of a pint half-full kinda fella. ;) Still I'll try and explain where I'm coming from again.

The way I see it, the opportunity here to influence club's affairs is based around team selection and transfers yes? Now, how will the 20,000 members make a unified decision on such matters? They're certainly not going to be able to take meetings, unless they have a small island handy. So they'll have to participate in a vote via the website. Every member voting has an equal say, so that means regardless if every Ebbsfleet fan votes the same way, they can always be out-numbered in a vote. The infulence you say they'll have, isn't really there at all. So, why is this a good thing? Should fans be happy with having a miniscule say in their own club, but in the end, bow down to thousands of people who haven't got a thing to do with the club apart from shelling out £35? You may say it's better than nothing, but I'd personally rather take nothing than the farcical illusion of infulence presented here.

But still if you think this is somehow a victory for communities taking control of their local football clubs, all the more for you and I honestly hope you're right. I personally think it's a crock of shit, that could will end up being a total disaster. I certainly don't wish failure on the club at all, but I just can't see this working at all. :)
 
How many clubs in England are owned by members of the club, rather than being companies ?
 
Oh dear!

20,000 brand new owners and how many turned up to see their new club beat Stafford Rangers 2-1 at home? Not discounting the away fans, the attendence was 1,055. :(

Yet the board seemed to be under the impression that this 'venture' was bound to create extra revenue with gate reciepts.

One of the MyFootballClub principles is that it is not allowed to take a club further into debt, and safeguards will be put in place to ensure this is followed through: the directors of the football club will continue to owe a fiduciary duty of care towards the club, and will ensure that there is responsible and sustainable spending.

However, the increase which should be generated in all sources of revenue (gate receipts, membership fees, merchandise sales, advertising and sponsorship income etc.) Should mean that the club has much greater spending power.
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http://ebbsfleetunited.co.uk/eufc/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=247&Itemid=100


Someone needs to get the calculator out again methinks!
 
It's going ok so far btw.

Ebbsfleet falling away a little from the playoff places, but in the semi finals of the Carling Trophy so they might make it to Wembley this year.
A... ahem, well know sports kit manufacturer has come onboard to run the club shop and take care of all the internet orders and stuff.
TV footage (full 90 mins) of all the games are available for free to downloand and watch.
And the extra revenue has allowed the club to offer a few of the players longer term contracts to help with stability (previously no one was offered a contract longer than 10 months).

Home attendances might not be through the roof, but the members have organised themselves into geographic groups, and they'll get together and organise a coach to bring members from a certain area down for a game.

Is a bit of a pain on public transport for now (45 mins on train from London Bridge), but that should sort itself out next year when the Ebbsfleet international train station opens.

Personally I've not made it to a game yet, but a couple of friends support teams in that league (Cambridge + Oxford) so I'll be heading along to those games soon.

7 members will be elected to the board, 107 names were put forward - elections and the like are currently ongoing.
 
TAE said:
Please God don't ever let this happen to the club I support. :(
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trophy_pickup.jpg



*whistles innocently*
 
trophyAP_450x300.jpg


If sporting success were all that matters, everyone would be supporting the 'big four'.
 
TAE said:
Yeah that totally destroys the point I was making ... :hmm:
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If the point you referring to is about how many of the MFC people cared about Ebbsfleet before the takeover then the answer is...

not many (though a lot of old skool Ebbsfleet / Gravesend fans also signed up). I'd not have even paid any attention to their scores on a sat afternoon last year.

However, since joining I've been following with great interest.
Overall, I've been somewhat disillusioned with the whole concept, however, the main plus for me is is having a footballing interest outside the premiership. I work with a Cambridge fan and an Eastbourne fan. and I'm getting all kinds of new banter going on with those colleagues. I'll probably renew the MFC membership just for that reason alone.
 
they look in pretty bad shape - 7 months without a home win until last week, 5 points from safety in the relegation zone, and a visit to league leaders Oxford on Saturday.
 
Onket said:
This isn't a club being run in the normal way though. The whole premise relies on lots of people remaining interested & contributing money.
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Final said:
No it doesn't.

All pre-existing revenue streams will still exist.

The money which comes in from the members is a bonus revenue stream which the club's league rivals wont have.
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Onket said:
So after a couple of years they will just have no bonus income. Ok.
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At renewals day in February, 21,000 members disappeared. Cashflow went through the floor and the manager was forced to release all but three of his squad. With a playing budget of just over £6,000 a week, the Conference side now look likely candidates for relegation. The club are facing annual losses of £250,000, and they need at least 2,500 of their 9,000 current members to stump up a membership fee increased by 65 per cent to £100.
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:facepalm:
 
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