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Vintage Cobbler
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MC, I wouldn’t say it is idealistic, rather it may come about by necessity. I think the worst case scenario is if there was a financial crisis and the club was bought out of Administration, has points deducted and players leave. It would be return to go. Plainly awful.
Better that that supporters get their ducks in a row now and plan properly for the future, identifying those in the local business community who would be willing to participate and play an activate part in such a project. When I say supporters I mean the Trust or a similar constituted body of committed people because nothing happens without hard work and dedication to the task.
On the financial side I readily accept it is a major challenge. I am assuming that the current owners would want rid and will sell for a nominal amount and let’s put aside for the moment the development land. I would hope that local businesses would get involved with money/support and not on unacceptable terms but none has been asked and so no-one knows. If local businesses are uninterested it certainly becomes that much harder but other clubs like Exeter, which has no debt, have dealt with this and are doing well. I recognise that the 100% model has its limitations and the Exeter representatives were very open in telling the Trust that League 1 has to be their ceiling based on their current model. North of the border Motherwell and Hearts have community ownership schemes in place. Motherwell has a very similar supporter base in numbers to our own but also have the Glasgow giants on their doorstep. With such competition it can’t be easy but they are managing. We have no competition in the locality unless Leicester City are drawing support away in numbers. I don’t know. I have always stated a strong preference for the so-called hybrid but the devil, financially and legally, would be in the detail.
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