What's the point of fan ownership?

[Steve T]

This was a question asked on the Darlington forum. I've included the link to the thread, which is a long one and you probably won't want to read it all but there are some similarities between the fortunes of the clubs.

Darlo were relegated from the Football League in 2010, thrown out of the Conference in 2012, then 'reformed' as a supporter-owned club and restarted in the Northern League. Three promotions in four years took them into Conference North, where they finished 5th in their first season but were prevented from taking part in the play-offs because their new home at Blackwell was inadequate. They are still keen to have a ground of their own and they have identified sites but that's about as far as it goes.


www.darlofc.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=52335

Read the first message and then that lower down from Spyman, who quotes a previous message from a Lee Kilcran of the supporters group (written in 2021 in case you're confused by the reference to the pandemic):

Cast your mind back to April 2017. Fan-owned Darlo had rattled through the leagues to reach National League North, and it looked like we were heading straight for the play-offs in our first season. That group of players seemed unstoppable. Unfortunately, the club wasn't.

Progress on the pitch had significantly outstripped the growth of the club, and the gap between the two was growing with each promotion. The organisation simply wasn't capable of sustaining the continuous on-field success, and this became apparent in spectacular fashion. Despite only recently having poured hundreds of thousands of pounds into developing Blackwell Meadows, our new home was found to be unsuitable for the play-offs and the National League banned us from competing.

The relentless pursuit of promotion was over, the manager left, and one of the most successful teams in Darlo's history slowly broke up. The meteoric rise of fan-owned DFC had plateaued and the idea that a move back to Darlington was going to solve all our off-field problems had been comprehensively disproven.

In answer to another message, he (Spyman) writes:

The more thought I give it, the more "I want someone else to take over our football club and pump their money into it and run it for us" sounds incredibly entitled and lazy.

It might have been only one promotion for Banbury but the questions about financing a supporter-owned club are just as relevant.

[liamr]

I do believe the possibility of changing the model of the club
(Getting rid of the cbs) is being discussed privately behind the scenes.

fan ownership can only take you so far, the higher up the leagues
You go the more professional set up you need and the less you can get by on just volunteers. and then there’s the debate of how much fan control there has actually been in the club recently, that’s a whole other discussion tho

Going to be an intriguing summer, lots of rumours flying around regarding Wilson’s ultimate end goal by returning. As I’ve said in another post before, his managerial stint here will not be helping his cause
To be involved higher up off the pitch.

The only thing we know for sure is Ronnie is going and someone somewhere in whatever form needs to come forward.

The elephant in the room with us a football club is the ground situation. If feels like very little progress has ever been made on it for the last 20 years. It’s been a silent ticking time bomb and sadly time is running out now, it’s almost like the club has just been waiting for a new ground to be handed to us on a plate- in hindsight if we had started self fund raising 20 years ago we’d be in a hell of a less scary situation now

I can’t remember what club it was, maybe Slough? But they had been raising their own funds over the years to put towards their new ground - rather than holding their hands out to council or hoping a sugar daddy drops out the sky

Again I know ultimately you need help funding a new ground, my point is as a club we could of been far more proactive over the last 2 decades in the ground situation rather than sleepwalking towards the inevitable eviction

For example, A simple bucket collection at every home game over the last 20 years to go in a new ground fund would have raised thousands.

We have literally made zero progress.

[spiritof86]

Good post let’s face it we all know we’re dealing with Cherwell district council not really renowned for helping out in the national game .

[Sparky]

The town historically has never been football minded and despite the council over the years saying they back a new ground the years have rolled by and no real progress, every time a site has been proposed the end result has been housing being built. The whole sad situation goes back to the 80’s when the ground was sold and nearly had a factory built on it then to produce wall cladding which was all the rage at that time, since then we have not been in control of our own destiny. I have to say I fear the worse for the future as a result of what Liam has said and we will fold and cease to exist , seasons like we are having now will not help the cause because revenue will now fall off the cliff. We are being managed into extinction.

[petet]

Liam makes some very good points.
The sad fact is that the council have promised lots,but delivered nothing. As a club we have relied on the council to gift us a piece of land, it's never happened and it never will.
Without massive financial backing we are deep in trouble. A couple more years where we are, and then what? Groundshare with Stratford or Leamington? Once we are forced out of Banbury it will only be a matter of time before we cease to exist.
A reformed Banbury starting again in the Senior league, playing at Horton View ? It could well happen.
In the next few years Easington Sports could very possibly become the towns premier club. That may sound alarmist, but it seriously could happen.
For far too many years we have allowed ourselves to be lied to by the council. For far too many years we have been reliant on the council. But now the reality of the situation is hitting home.

[Steve T]

Mar 24, 2024 17:06:08 GMT 1 spiritof86 said:

Good post let’s face it we all know we’re dealing with Cherwell district council not really renowned for helping out in the national game .

Leamington FC have for a long time had their eye on a site just off the A452, a mile or so to the SW of the town centre. The club held a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the proposals. Warwick District Council is very keen, it seems. Here are links to the Powerpoint presentation and a brief record of the meeting. I haven't yet studied it in detail.

www.leamingtonfc.co.uk/index.php/component/content/article/11-news2/2384-new-stadium-powerpoint