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Author Topic: Good Chairman  (Read 9517 times)
Don Rogers Sock

« on: Monday, February 13, 2017, 12:03:36 »

Have we ever actually had one?

In my 30 odd years as a fan i can't actually remember one.
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Nemo
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« Reply #1 on: Monday, February 13, 2017, 12:14:24 »

Fitton and Wray would have been pretty good if their respective money men had been totally on board. I suppose the 'best' chairmen are their own money men.
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The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey

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« Reply #2 on: Monday, February 13, 2017, 12:18:07 »

Apart from a lucky club or 2 does anyone in the lower leagues have one.

Vale fans are getting twitchy with Smurthwaite as he has put the ground, club shop and football club into 3 separate ownerships.

Some reckon Blackpool's actual home attendances aren't much above the 1,000 mark yet Oyston clings on with no intention of selling up.

I'd hazard a guess the vast majority of L1 and L2 clubs are being shafted by their owners. Tbh, who'd buy a club just to appease the fan base and chuck money at it.
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Reg Smeeton
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« Reply #3 on: Monday, February 13, 2017, 12:22:51 »

 We first need to distinguish between Chairman and owner. 30 years takes us back to Honest Bri.  He was a Chairman, the first owner as such was SSW, and he was never Chairman.

 Some of these individuals might be described as curate's egg...good in parts, rotten in others.  My father brought me up to always mistrust the hierarchy at STFC.... the same as Tories, inimical to the interests of the working class/ordinary fan.

 Honest Bri is the only one to have served at Her Majesty's Pleasure....his crimes, however were seemingly done in a misguided effort to bring success on the pitch, rather than feather his own nest.

 SSW, clearly was a genuine fan, but found the dodgy world of football a bit distasteful, hence the gross error of getting in Rikki and then Diamond Mike to do the dirty work.

 Others like Cliff Puffett, again a genuine fan, washed away by the level of financial problems.
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Flashheart

« Reply #4 on: Monday, February 13, 2017, 12:30:48 »

I'm not sure Wray was all some make him out to be. It's easy to be liked when you're just saying yes to things the fans like, in reality his tenure was a bit of a mess.
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Don Rogers Sock

« Reply #5 on: Monday, February 13, 2017, 12:31:50 »

Apart from a lucky club or 2 does anyone in the lower leagues have one.

Vale fans are getting twitchy with Smurthwaite as he has put the ground, club shop and football club into 3 separate ownerships.

Some reckon Blackpool's actual home attendances aren't much above the 1,000 mark yet Oyston clings on with no intention of selling up.

I'd hazard a guess the vast majority of L1 and L2 clubs are being shafted by their owners. Tbh, who'd buy a club just to appease the fan base and chuck money at it.
Probably right but that wasn't what i asked
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Quagmire

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« Reply #6 on: Monday, February 13, 2017, 12:34:01 »

I'd say Fitton was a good chairman
Sure he made mistakes, but all chairman do, the last 6 months under him on the pitch were awful. But overall I think he was good and actually cared a bit for the club.
I also think he would come back given the chance.
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Reg Smeeton
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« Reply #7 on: Monday, February 13, 2017, 12:37:14 »

I'm not sure Wray was all some make him out to be. It's easy to be liked when you're just saying yes to things the fans like, in reality his tenure was a bit of a mess.

Black/Fitton/Wray did many good things, but also bad things. On balance, given the state of the club when they took over, I'd say they just about managed break even. 
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horlock07

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« Reply #8 on: Monday, February 13, 2017, 12:47:35 »

Black/Fitton/Wray did many good things, but also bad things. On balance, given the state of the club when they took over, I'd say they just about managed break even. 

I think the problem is they came in sorted problems (fantastic), but left an equally large mess behind them, when you consider the diluting to nothing of the shareholding, the pandering of Wray to Di Canio pissing money up the wall which appears to have driven Black away, the subsequent fire sale which directly led us to where we are now actually we replaced problems with legacy problems of a similar scale. Interesting Fitton was mentioned as I was thinking about him the other night, I may be imaging this but didn't he get a large wad of cash personally off the back of the Austin deal?

Even should Power decide to sell doesn't Black still have a large legal charge over the club regarding proceeds of any developments etc etc? so another reason its not going to appeal to anyone sadly.
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Reg Smeeton
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« Reply #9 on: Monday, February 13, 2017, 12:55:09 »

I think the problem is they came in sorted problems (fantastic), but left an equally large mess behind them, when you consider the diluting to nothing of the shareholding, the pandering of Wray to Di Canio pissing money up the wall which appears to have driven Black away, the subsequent fire sale which directly led us to where we are now actually we replaced problems with legacy problems of a similar scale. Interesting Fitton was mentioned as I was thinking about him the other night, I may be imaging this but didn't he get a large wad of cash personally off the back of the Austin deal?

Even should Power decide to sell doesn't Black still have a large legal charge over the club regarding proceeds of any developments etc etc? so another reason its not going to appeal to anyone sadly.

Yes, which is why I said break even on their regime.
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ChalkyWhiteIsGod
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« Reply #10 on: Monday, February 13, 2017, 12:58:19 »

Yes, which is why I said break even on their regime.

I'd agree with that. Came in, sorted it all out, fucked it all up again and left us with Jed and Power. Pretty much right back where we started.
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Sippo
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« Reply #11 on: Monday, February 13, 2017, 12:59:18 »

What makes a good chairman?

It's not just about throwing money at the team. A lot of work is needed behind the scenes, that a lot of fans do not see.

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« Reply #12 on: Monday, February 13, 2017, 13:12:06 »

I'm not sure Wray was all some make him out to be. It's easy to be liked when you're just saying yes to things the fans like, in reality his tenure was a bit of a mess.

He was liked at the time because he was very good on the communication side of things.

Turns out he didn't have a backbone and pandered to every whim of a certain employee of his who wanted a new toy to play with every week or so
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« Reply #13 on: Monday, February 13, 2017, 13:41:49 »

Wray and Fitton will be remembered fondly I think just due to the fact they communicated with the fans and they tried to actually make us into a Championship team and tried to market the club to the Town.

The problem is when the whole Town (and even a lot of the fan base) are pretty apathetic to the club what can you do? Fitton spent money and did the 6k season ticket thing and we failed to meet it.
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RobertT

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« Reply #14 on: Monday, February 13, 2017, 13:45:20 »

Fitton was almost there I think, but even he can't be described as even good.  His single biggest achievement was shifting the goalposts with Season Tickets - that was a master stroke.  Unfortunately he did jack shit to structurally improve the underlying business.  Wray basically gave a bucket of cash to someone to get us promoted from the bottom division - you'd hope anyone could have achieved that.  So Wray's only achievement was somehow convincing Black to release all that cash.  Again, not much to hang your hat on.

Going back further, Hardman wasn't well liked, Hoddle even managing to publicly have a war with him over Kerslake.  Nope, in my time, not one.  Hillier was closest, and he was responsible for our demotion.  Hardman inherited the benefit of the preceding years, not sure whether he could claim responsibility, but he did manage us financially to the line while somehow keeping people like Hoddle here long enough.  Maybe him in the cold light of day - who was around for the Shrivenham Rd construction?
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