Thetownend.com

Given the criticism over the last few days regarding not knowing what's going on with the County Ground purchase, I thought this could do with it's own thread/poll.

http://www.redarmyfund.co.uk/

So are we going to put our collective monies where our mouths are?

I've gone with bronze.

Just signed up with silver.

I really feel we should all get behind this, particularly the anti-Power brigade.

Something to feel positive about. Signed up for Gold.

I'll go for silver

I've signed up with Silver, with the view of, if this progresses well over the next 12 months or so then then I will leave it in place.  If it is treated with the usual apathy of the majority of our fans then I will likely eventually drop down to Bronze.

Hopefully everybody is serious about things this time around..

Silver, day before AGM. I'd guess around 200 signed up so far. (120 odd existing and 60 plus since AGM)

Was staring to get disappointed at lack of acknowledgement from Trust, but email came through yesterday.

I'd say it would need about 3,000 to sign up, half of the current regulars, to demonstrate real intent in terms of any discussions with the club & council, from a position of strength.

Maybe the Trust might consider a family option which might get the numbers up.

Gone Gold.

Not done it yet but will sign up for silver I think.

Looking forward to receiving my Tim Sherwood inspired fucking mug.

Just signed up for silver, hopefully many more get on board and put money where mouth is

Signed-up about six months ago.  Hope this now picks up a bit of a head of steam.

Signed up for silver.

Signed up for Silver last year. Good to see an impact on signups since they clarified the comms.

Signed up for bronze, will read through any new information and may up it fairly dramatically, the CG purchase is one thing that really makes a lot of sense.

Just signed up for silver.

Signed up for bronze.

Can we possibly merge the threads, its getting as bad as the Trust with their multiple websites?

On another matter I signed up for the red membership last week to just show willing, is it possibly to change this now as there does seem to be some sort of plan coming together?

 :D they missed a trick there.

Bronze for me, based on lack of funds rather than apathy.

Synergy.

I went for red because I want another name down, even if the money if insignificant. I'll change to Bronze or Silver before next season starts.

Just signed up

Signed up

Signed for silver

Bronze for me, which I did a year ago before all the bandwagon jumpers came in and ruined it with their highfalutin hipster ground owning ideas, but mainly because I needed a new pen.

Yep, been bronze for a year, mainly to assuage my guilt at not getting to games these days. Good to see some TEF movement, despite the grumbling. Bloody long way to go though.

You just know that loads of people will confuse it with their Power Out whining and refuse to invest until he's gone, whereas that's exactly why they should pay to the Trust what they're not putting into the club.

I was a Red and then just signed up for the Silver.  It recognises that your email address is already registered as a member and just upgrades you.  Just use the same email address to register.

signed up Bronze

Ironically, if they boycotted just one game they could sign up for a year and have a couple of pints with the change!

Maybe that's exactly what the Trust should propose. Pub subs nights for the price of a game. Seriously.

you have to be careful that if the time comes for the trust to make an offer with the backing of many members, that nobody can object on the grounds they were bribed with beer ...

Silver...do I get a nice polo shirt now?

Alternatively, if you were going to get a season ticket but decided not to after this year, this might be a better way to invest that money. Years gold is what,£300? And that's the top level.

I've had misgivings about the Trust in the past but this is at least a step forward in improving the country ground. I can't see sbc wanting to spend any money on it.

I've just signed up for the silver membership

I signed up for gold because I'm a better fan

You're indestructible

Oh. Seems we now need £2 million. Someone from the council taking advantage of the Trust being "nouveau rich"?

It will happen.

For any 'out of town-ers':

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/sport/15190331._Trust_bid_falls_short__but_there_s_room_for_business___says_council_chief/?ref=mr&lp=3

Just a bit of public posturing - council need to be seen to be trying to achieve the best possible price for any asset or they get accused of flogging off assets on the cheap (which they are, across a whole range of council assets but that's another discussion). Difficult for the Trust, on the one hand it's useful to give people a target figure they need to aim at; on the other if you do your negotiating in public you drive the price up. We have a low end of £1.1m and a top end of £2m, the actual sale price will be somewhere between that. Suggest any haggling around price should go out of the public sphere now or it can only serve to drive the price up

This still looks a very reasonable price for property in a prime location. Isn't it just the sort of long-term legacy project the Nigel Eady money was designed to provide for?

Don't think anyone outside the Eady estate and the club knows what stipulations there are for releasing the money.

e.g. was it bequeathed to the club only (under certain conditions) or merely for the benefit of the club?

Put in a low offer and see what happens...

Trust me when I say it will happen. The money is already there.

Based on nothing I'm going to use your confidence as a reason for optimism!

Agreed. A business would stump up half that just for the naming rights (shudder).

Imagine that

Are you cruising for bites?

Ha nah but this would be right up their street

Trust me I'm a doctor...

The kassam stadium mk2...

In what sense? Kassam separated the ownership of the ground from the club and rented it back to the club, effectively stripping the club of several significant revenue streams. That's precisely the danger that the Trust bid is designed to mitigate

He is also doing the same as the council are doing, he will not sell the ground to the Poxford owner, only to the Poxvox which is their "supporters trust". They are doing very similar to our trust and working with Kassam for him to sell it to them and they rent it to the club.

Basically the council and Kassam both know that the assets are worth tens of millions if they did something with it but they don't want to spend money on them, so they are willing to sell to a "community group" whose sole aim is to preserve it and not sell it for commercial gain.

Poxford have a better hand than ours though, they have alternative land they can build a stadium on if they don't get the stadium, they own large piece of land they use for training by Mini and also have looked at ground sharing with the City team and redeveloping that.

They only rent the place at Mini, hence why they are moving to Oxford City and using their place for training, they dont own any other land

Ah right, I thought they owned the land there, least they have options incase Kassam decides to be a dick though

In case? Kassam has been a dick from pretty much day one

he has but he is willing to negotiate but he can still be a bigger dick and refuse to sell to Poxvox or bump the price upto an unmanageable level. He holds the key to Poxford's future at the ground unfortunately.

Gareth... Kassam has rinsed Oxford for many millions... Power is angelic by comparison. We certainly don't want to be looking there for a road map.

Why's it unfortunate?

I know that that but I was just pointing out that they are in the same predicament stadium wise, got someone who owns it and won't do anything with it. By all accounts there is a lot of maintenance overdue and that he agreed to put in a 4th stand (temporary one) and then went back on his word.

I don't want Power to own the stadium, it should be owned by the club (ideally) or a trust and not the owner of the club as with Kassam they can royally screw you over when / if they leave. Portsmouth had the same issue, an old owner owned the ground and took a while to get him agree to sell it to the trust, they then sold all the land around it to pay for the purchase.

Signed up for Silver today. Let's keep it going....

Signed up for Silver just now.

I keep meaning to sign up but haven't got around to it yet.

I was previously registered but haven't paid anything for a while.

Please excuse my lack of knowledge on this subject but I am only trying to genuinely understand the situation. Swindon fans owning the county ground sounds to me like an amazing achievement of solidarity between a group of die hard fans.raising that amount of cash is no mean feat.  But once ownership is acquired how will general maintenance and upkeep be achieved?

Melinda Messenger will be recruited to persuade local tradespeople to do shit for free.

Apart from continuing monthly subscriptions from Trust members I would expect the monthly rent the club pays to cover any maintenance required. If you're talking about upgrading the stadium, I'd imagine commercial deals will be used.

Being tired, in a rush and general idiot I am I transposed two letters in my email address when I signed up. Steve worked out the correct one and emailed me as he got bounce back notifications. He also checked if a couple of other email addresses in their database were me (one was an old one I didn't use) so fair play to him as I realise it is a real effort to do that sort of thing when you have a job and other things going on.

#getyourbapsoutforaroof

Actually met her once, at The Star Inn, Kingsclere. It was my local. She was lovely but about 1ft shorter than TV would have you think. She was about 4ft 5" and i'd say about the same measurement was her bust (TV didn't need to accentuate that). All jokes aside, she was very friendly and so was her fella and two or three kids.

Useless info but oh well.

Siamese twin?

This came in from the trust via email.

"The RAF at the moment will raise just over £20k a year if you all stay with us, and hopefully once we have secured the purchase this can continue as a maintenance and improvement fund."

haha, nope just cant remember if she has two or three kids. it was about 5 years ago,

So the trust aren't buying the ground, and are just raising the money to 'run' the ground...

Just as I thought.

???

There is usually a management committee appointed which will include reps from stfc and this what would manager the day to day upkeep of the ground, anything needing doing would have to go through the committee which would have the authority to approve or deny any requests. 
Assuming this is how the Trust would intend to move forward after purchase.

Sorry let me rephrase that. The trust are raising money for ground maintenance. They are still buying the ground, but not using the money raised through the memberships. They already potentially have that money.

ah yes, right, good news. But what triggered this? Have they made a PR I've missed?

"The RAF at the moment will raise just over £20k a year if you all stay with us, and hopefully once we have secured the purchase this can continue as a maintenance and improvement fund."

They have some business people on board willing to put money into buying the ground, and when they get to that stage they will release "bonds" for fans to buy which will go into the ground purchase pot, the RAF is only being used currently for their campaign and the maintenance of the ground if they buy it.

Is there a link to this?

There's been no mention by the Trust that they already have the money to purchase the ground, just that they are looking at ways. (Unless I've missed something).

I think Sippo is suggesting they have someone in the background with a means to get the finance (a rumour of sorts).  So nothing would be public and they've said that the fund raising now is to get the professional fees sorted to kick this off.  I'd imagine that it helps show the commitment of the supporter base to the project, it also shows they have on-going financial commitments (because people are signing up to a subscription rather than one off payments I believe).

Spot on. See The Lounge Steve. It's no mean a bad thing. It's just a matter of dotting the i's and crossing the t's. the purchase will happen but it has to be at the right price.

Just a quick query for those like myself who signed up for membership when this was all announced. Have you received anything through the post from the TRust as yet, for instance the gift, memberhsip card or anything.

I only ask as, this is a strange one but bear with me. I received this morning a damaged envelope through the post in one of those Royal Mail apology plastic bags saying it had been damaged. The thing is the envelope is empty so whatever was in there is missing. I have no idea who sent it, I don't recognise the writing on the envelope and I am not expecting anything. Its got a Swindon postmark but that's the only identifying feature and I don't know anyone in the Swindon area anymore bar my old man whose writing I would recognise and who I know has not sent anything?

I have asked same of the Trust but wondered if anyone on here had started receiving things?

Royal Mail will be getting a visit also.....

no, had emails explaining they are working on getting stuff out, may take a while.

not had cash exit my account yet either though.

Had a couple of emails through asking for confirmation of delivery address / shirt size etc.

Delivery of items is due late May / early June apparently.
They can't hold much stock so have to order (and send) the goodies in batches.

I only signed up for red initially (as it was before the full initiative was properly announced) so it would only be a pin badge. I just cannot for the life of me think who else would be sending a hand written envelope from Swindon?

I got my pen this morning

Me too, reckon the postie's snaffled your badge, horlock!

I wonder if Froggy got Le Pen this morning?

Trust emailed back and confirmed it was my badge, at least it wasn't a cheque or cash or anything - said they are going to send me another one which is jolly decent of them!

I will keep an eye out for a postman wearing a Swindon pin badge up here, cannot imagine he will be a supporter!

Incidentally popped into the post office to get a form to query it (before TrustSTFC confirmed it was them) and it seems that if I didn't know who sent it or what it was there was nothing I could do about it!

Being a bit off the pace on this one, can someone explain whether the trust is trying to buy the ground ie only the stadium, the ground (stadium) and the land on which it stands, or just the land without the stadium. I don't get it at all.
 :headhurts:

My pen & pin badge arrived from the Trust today too. 

As they are taling to the Council it will just be the site in theory, however as I have mentioned before the stands are essentially worthless without the land so that's all they need really.