If someone with more technical abilities than me could place up the BBC Sport article about Exeter supporters trust I would be grateful.

Clearly Exeter are very similar to us. They also face the same problems re fans ownership. I think that the article shows that whilst not perfect or without difficulties that the trust model can and does work for clubs like Newport County.

This the one Stan... https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44331219

Isn’t it basically saying the the owner puts in 5% of the turnover and that’s not sustainable.

We are even worse the owners put in about 1.5% if turnover.

Jimmy Exile wrote:Isn’t it basically saying the the owner puts in 5% of the turnover and that’s not sustainable.

We are even worse the owners put in about 1.5% if turnover.

For me the overarching point is that the trust system is not perfect but over the years for Exeter it has evolved and got better. Exeter at heart remember that it was the supporters who saved the club and that the trust is the method by which the club was saved.

My view though is no more valid than yours. I think that the best thing to do is to allow County fans to read the article, if they so wish, and make their own minds up.

All good at the moment but a couple of years with nothing decent coming through the academy, a bad cup run and a manager not getting the results they want and it will be back to cap in hand for them

daftasfxxx wrote:All good at the moment but a couple of years with nothing decent coming through the academy, a bad cup run and a manager not getting the results they want and it will be back to cap in hand for them

I agree, they've managed the same way we have. Lucrative Cup run and young player sales. Albeit more than us. Sometime that will run out.

NewportProud wrote:This the one Stan... https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44331219

Are Exeter City supporters the most powerful fans in England?

By Brent Pilnick
On BBC Sport Website
In 2014 Exeter's fans followed the club to Brazil to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the national team's first match against a touring Exeter City

Exeter City have just changed managers for the first time in more than a decade.

But what saw Paul Tisdale leave the club after 12 years was not a run of bad results or a disagreement with the chairman - but Exeter's fans serving notice on his contract.

It led to the longest-serving manager in English football deciding not to take up his new terms and the two parties parting ways.

Less than 24 hours after Tisdale left and former defender Matt Taylor replaced him, BBC Sport examines how Exeter's fans were able to wield such power and what it might mean for the future.

Fans save Exeter from the brink of ruin

"If it was a Facebook relationship status it would say 'it's complicated'."

That's the view of Exeter City broadcaster Graham Kirk on the relationship between the Exeter City Supporters' Trust and the club.

Exeter City are owned by their fans through the trust, a group of more than 3,000 supporters who nominate four of the eight directors who run the club.

Criticising the trust model is not always the easiest thing to do in Exeter as without it there would be no Exeter City FC.

Back in 2003 the club was in a financial mess. They had been relegated from the Football League and were on the verge of going out of business - the former chairman would later be jailed over his role in the affair.

The trust took on the club and its £4.5m debt and the rest, as they say, is history.

A model that 'players and managers would be attracted by'

"It's a big talking point the trust model," said life-long supporter and trust member Kirk.

"I truly think that the termination of Paul's contract wasn't about Paul. I truly believe that the trust felt the contract was not sustainable.

"For a League Two club to have a manager on a two-year rolling contract, is that sustainable? I'm not sure that it is really, so I think something had to be done.

"Whether it was done the right way and how it was done, that's up for discussion."
No Exeter City manager can match the two promotions, four play-off finals and eighth-placed finish in League One that Paul Tisdale achieved

Tisdale's demise began in October 2016 when the club were bottom of League Two after a series of injuries.

Enough supporters were minded to support a proposal to serve notice on his deal, and that month around 85 trust members voted on it at their annual meeting with the motion passing reasonably comfortably.

"What the trust does is provide governance around how we would like our club to be," said current trust chairman Nick Hawker.

"We want to be a club that is welcoming and has a family environment that people are pleased to come to.

"You kind of hope that players and managers would be attracted by that environment."
But that environment alone does not pay the bills - City needed a Professional Footballers' Association loan to pay their wages in the summer of 2014 and the club's much-admired academy has produced players that have gone on to sell for fees in excess of £5m since January 2015.

"Paul fitted extremely well into the ethos and the community element of the club and bought into it and understood it very quickly," said Exeter chairman Julian Tagg of his former manager.

"We would certainly be looking for somebody with that kind of empathy going forwards I'm sure," added Tagg, who was one of the original trust members who helped save the club back in 2003.

More funding from the trust?
St James Park is currently two-sided as work goes on to build two new stands

Off the field, Exeter are a club that seem to be going places - their academy is continuing to get better and two new stands are being built at St James Park.

Funding for those projects has not come from the owners, but rather transfer income, FA Cup windfalls and developers.

"The trust say that they're ambitious, but what we need to see now is more money being generated from the trust going into the club," said Kirk.

"When you look at the turnover of the club and what the owner puts into it, it's probably less than 5% of turnover.

"It feels like a really crucial point in Exeter City's recent history now; someone described it to me as our 'Brexit moment'."

And those who own the club say they will discuss whether they need to change as the months and years go on.

"It's a model that saved the club; I think the model has evolved in the last 15 years," said Hawker.
"The fact that we have stayed in the Football League, have been very successful, and got to two Wembley play-offs in succession, says something about the governance of the club and the way we choose to run it.

"It's a little unfair to say we haven't been successful on the back of lack of finance but, as in any organisation, we have to evolve and the trust has evolved and will continue to evolve as we go forward."

At just 36, and in his first managerial role, Taylor inherits a club that is in good shape on and off the field, even if it is run in a different way to many others.

I think where we could learn from Exeter City is their club 1931 transfer fund. Possibly one of the reasons why the rewards and benefits has not taken off in my opinion is that it is not really specific. For instance If Flynn or the board were to suggest that a £100k yearly 'donation' by the supporters would secure the signature of a James Collins or a John Akinde for example they would be pleasantly surprised at the financial support they would receive in my view. The budget is what we are willing to put in at the end of the day.

Alan G Bryant wrote:I think where we could learn from Exeter City is their club 1931 transfer fund. Possibly one of the reasons why the rewards and benefits has not taken off in my opinion is that it is not really specific. For instance If Flynn or the board were to suggest that a £100k yearly 'donation' by the supporters would secure the signature of a James Collins or a John Akinde for example they would be pleasantly surprised at the financial support they would receive in my view. The budget is what we are willing to put in at the end of the day.

If we could raise enough money for for the rent for the coming season and the following season. The fans would feel more like they are doing something because at this moment in time "we the fans feel useless" and perhaps some of the directors might think differently about the fans.

Maybe as before some of the fans could get together as a group to raise money towards the rent for every season ( so as not to give the WRU an excuse or reason to kick Newport County out of Rodney Parade). There lots of ways to raise money towards the rent and of course anything raised more than needed for the first season will go towards the following seasons rent and so on.

But first of all we need to know what the rent is?

I'd certainly be against a fans' transfer fund, especially if it was earmarked for a 'headline' signing. By that I mean a (possible) quality player who would be on top of our wage structure. Two year contract would be inevitable to prevent it being guaranteed to come around every July. Asking the average working man to donate to the wages/fee of someone earning more than his own income would go down like a lead balloon. What if the player was either hopeless or injury prone? At least with a fund to cover rent you'd be well aware of where the money ended up. And currently, paying rent is a certainty year on year.

excessbee wrote:I'd certainly be against a fans' transfer fund, especially if it was earmarked for a 'headline' signing. By that I mean a (possible) quality player who would be on top of our wage structure. Two year contract would be inevitable to prevent it being guaranteed to come around every July. Asking the average working man to donate to the wages/fee of someone earning more than his own income would go down like a lead balloon. What if the player was either hopeless or injury prone? At least with a fund to cover rent you'd be well aware of where the money ended up. And currently, paying rent is a certainty year on year.

Ok I get that , let's say for instance the rent is £160k, the fans pay the rent , the budget increases by £160k, It works either way. I just think if there is a targeted figure it motivates people to donate accordingly.

The fans need to be polled and ASKED what they'd like it ringfenced for. Five or six options with fans listing their choice preferentially, so that every fan's opinion of every option is taken into account.

Problem with that though NGR is that a lot of fans won't pay towards a choice they did not make.

newgroundrodney wrote:The fans need to be polled and ASKED what they'd like it ringfenced for. Five or six options with fans listing their choice preferentially, so that every fan's opinion of every option is taken into account.

Problem with that is that if, for the sake of argument, fifty percent of responses favour one of the options, there is a chance that the other fifty percent will decide not to contribute. They could quite rightly say, well you consulted me and I don't favour the outcome. The flip side is to set up a fund first, then consult on what to do with it. From a personal point of view I'd rather a limited option (maybe one) and consult on who would be prepared to donate.

It's my view that as a supporter funded football club we should be involving the supporters more meaningfully and more regularly on a whole raft of topics.