AmberRundgren. wrote:Hi everyone, I’m not a newcomer to Rodney Parade but I am to this forum, drawn in by the ownership discussion.
To me it’s impossible to have this discussion without first establishing the ambition and aspiration of the club. If it is to one day achieve premiership or championship status then cold hard conclusion is that the trust structure is unsustainable. It will absolutely require greater investment, greater commercialization and wider external expertise.
If however we wish to remain a community club drawing a 4-6000 regular fan base, with perpetual roots in league 2 then the trust can work as long as the guiding hands are both accountable AND firmly committed to securing through constitution a medium to long term future, by minimizing expenditure and maximizing fan (customer) involvement.
The latter will not mean attracting ambitious playing youngsters, and so the trap door is everpresent.
We need to agree and set aspiration first, and only THEN determine the model.
MJ
Thanks for a genuinely interesting contribution.
Two questions.
I agree entirely about greater external expertise and commercialization. However I don't understand why this is not possible under the Trust model. I think that there's no reason why the board should not hope to attract people with skills in that area.
Secondly with respect to investment. Are you of the view that investment should be seen in it's proper sense? By that I mean do you believe that properly managed a football club can offer a return to the investors? If that is the case would not the German model, 51% owned by the Trust and 49% by the investors allow for them to make a return whilst ensuring that the club doesn't fall into the hands of rogues?
If however your view is that investors in football clubs are really altruistic people, could they not do so via a trust model?
Again thanks for putting the case for private investment I look forward to your reply.