John Doyle's latest letter

[McLovin]

Some of you may find this interesting, or not.

Council taxpayers should stay out of football club's grand plans says fellow forest protector
In response to Alan Hayward's backing for the football club, fellow Shaw Forest supporter John Doyle says the Swindon Town should sort its affairs out and not expect Swindon Council to help them. He writes:
In a Borough of 190,000, Swindon Town FC attracts average crowds of 5500. That’s less than 3% of the local population. Deduct the away fans and those who support the team but don’t pay the borough council tax and this number is woefully small.

The County Ground has a capacity of roughly 15,500 so nearly three seats are available for each spectator. SwindonLink readers can probably produce a long list of interests, events and activities that have more appeal and offer better value for money than a trip to the County Ground. For me, watching Swindon Wildcats playing ice hockey at the Link Centre is an altogether more enjoyable way to spend some free time than venturing to the County Ground to watch STFC. My need to watch football is now satisfied by a well know satellite TV supplier.

 
STFC has lost its relevance to all but a handful in Swindon. This decline may be linked to decisions in the boardroom to cease to be a Swindon concern. The club’s registered office is in Newbury, its legal advisors would be hard pressed to know where the County Ground is and none of its directors live in the Borough. Here they are:

Robin Holt – from Kent, living on the Isle of Wight

Willie Hunter Carson, from Scotland, living in Gloucestershire

Sandra Gray, a New Zealand citizen living in Wantage

Mark Devlin, a Londoner, QPR fan, from Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire

James Seton Wills, living in London

Sir David Seton Wills, 5th Baronet of Hazelwood, Laird of Meggernie Castle and President of Hungerford Town FC

Michael Agapios Diamandis of Hungerford

The Board of Directors are extremely unwilling to have a supporters representative attend its meetings to discuss issues - but it expects fans to turn up each week and to buy their ever more expensive tickets without complaint. When successful companies are spending large sums to develop their markets, get closer to customers and offer value for money, STFC chooses to do the opposite.

The Board has an odd view of its relationship with Swindon Borough Council. Far from being its landlord, the club has an expectation that the Council is its bank and that SBC should hand over public assets for free. This was the expectation with the stadium proposals for Junction 16 and Shaw. The latest County Ground stadium proposal is looking for £25 million of free land with £0 from the club.

STFC are tenants at the County Ground with a poor payment record; thousands of council taxpayers pounds have been written off by the Council who have helped them stay afloat. The tail is trying to wag the dog.

STFC are now threatening to move the club out of the Borough. It’s a threat that they are unlikely to carry out as they would have to pay the Council to terminate the lease on the County Ground early – a sum in the region of £1 million. How sure are they of finding another landlord so long suffering?

A football club can be a great source of pride for a town. The stadium proposals and posturing of the Board of Swindon Town FC are proving to be an embarrassment and a worry for the future of professional football in Swindon. If STFC is to survive, fundamental changes need to take place in the Boardroom to re-establish some sort of relationship with the area, the people and the fans.

This need for change has been recognised at other football clubs For example Chesterfield FC is now a fan based club working with its council and has turned a debt of £2.5 million into a small profit. Brentford’s supporters have just taken over their club. York, Swansea and others are taking the same approach.

The bad press Swindon Council has received from the three failed stadium plans has not put off some borough councillors from trying to play wheeler dealer with the club. As Salt Way Primary School faces a final closure decision by the School’s Organisation Committee, after the council’s cabinet decided to shut it down, and Windmill Hill faces an uncertain future, a "Task Force" of Councillors has visited Reading FC to see what lessons can be learnt from the stadium development by Junction 11 of the M4.

Bailing out a struggling business seems to be getting a higher priority than the education of children in West Swindon or perhaps there’s an urgent need to benefit from the Councillor’s recently agreed higher levels of expense claims.

Councillors should never have agreed to be on a Task Force. The council should have left club representatives to travel around the country to learn how to make their future work before returning to their landlords with a plan that makes sense and does not burden council taxpayers. Councillors need to devote their time to ensuring that the services provided by the Council are operated correctly and improved where necessary. It’s only a two star rated Council and it’s not as though there isn’t work to be done.

Undoubtedly the Council will soon have to look at re-developing the recreation facilities that it has at the Oasis, the Link Centre and around the County Ground. This will probably lead to a community stadium development of some sort for use by a number of sports including rugby, athletics, hockey, ice hockey, gymnastics plus amateur and professional football.

In the meantime, Swindon Town Football Club has to make some decisions about its future, the way it does business and interacts with the community and Council. If it decides that its future is as a Swindon concern and that it really does want to be an asset to the people and Borough then, and only then should the Council engage in any more discussions with the club.

[Asher]

Prick.  FACT

[land_of_bo]

My need to watch football is now satisfied by a well know satellite TV supplier.

 

Sums the prick up, and the reason our gates are low

[jonbd]

What a prize tit! Is it too much to ask for these pricks to at least get their facts right before writing cobblers like this?

[Batch]

Cock piss Partridge. We need club&supporters trust input to answer his claims before people start believing the half truths and making their mind up.

The thing is the average Swindon person is going to read this and think redevelopment is a bad idea. I mean, who wants ttheir council tax put up* in the name of funding something they have no interest in. How many schools could be built instead of an uneeded stadium, etc.

* don't confuse them with the  truth, their mind is made up.

How do we convince them that they are talking shit? The funding would come from redelvelopment of some areas. That the council won't be handing over 25 million actual pounds or commercial value land. Surely  they can't build on it without the same arguments coming up about losing green space, etc, etc.

I'm off to melt the link centre with a hairdryer. That'll learn him and his beloved wildcats.

[pauld]

Cock piss Partridge. We need club&supporters trust input to answer his claims before people start believing the half truths and making their mind up.

Absolutely. Dave, where does this come from so we can try to reply?

[McLovin]

From the Link magazine. The website is http://www.swindonlink.com/

[pauld]

Cheers Dave.

[el duque]

My need to watch football is now satisfied by a well know satellite TV supplier.

It is hard to have any respect for someone who thinks that lining the pockets of Rupert Murdoch is an acceptable course of action.

[Piemonte]

I was going to poast about this too but forgot. I read this the other day in the shitty free link mag (which seems totally anti-stfc by the way) and almost choked on my own rage.

As others have pointed out that article isnt even factually accurate. Also, does anyone care to look up Mr Doyle saying on thisis that he was a STFC "fan" and occasionallyt attended games?

His point about the ground being 1/3 full is bollocks too. Whilst factually accurate, yes we are currently 2nd bottom of league 1. Anyone who can remeber the play off game at home will remeber it being a 15,000 sell out, we probablly could have shifted 20,000 tickets.  So even moderate sucess brings the swindon residents out to watch STFC. If we had the new ground we would have more money and therefore stand a far greater chance of enjoying that moderate sucess again.

I hate you Jonny Doyle. with a burning passion. :evil:

[McLovin]

You might like this then too, Pie. This is a letter sent to the Adver and some councillors (i think) from West Swindon's finest... again, it goes on forever, and repeats some things, but i'm sure you will find some of the points entertaining.  Please note the mature and highly important reference to inbreedin he makes too.

Dear Editor

Though a Labour supporter and candidate in May’s local election, I’d like to write in support of Conservative Councillor Martin and his letter re No Public Cash for the Soccer Club, SA 11th Jan. The Council has many duties; funding Swindon Town Football Club is not one of them. Councillor Martin’s letter was spot on. It is for the Board of Directors of STFC to fulfil their responsibilities of raising the capital needed for any development, talking to their neighbours and presenting plans that have some semblance of legality and a chance of passing through the planning system.

A number of letters to the Adver show that many still fail to grasp the reality of the plans put forward and still have a muddled view of the Council as an organisation that owes STFC something. The opposite is in fact the case. N Swatton’s letter, SA 24th Jan, is one such example and it would appear to have been written far too soon after his lobotomy. When trashing Out of Towners did he mean :

Robin Holt – from Kent, living on the Isle of Wight
Willie Hunter Carson, from Scotland living in Gloucestershire
Sandra Gray, a New Zealand citizen living in Wantage
Mark Devlin, a Londoner, QPR fan living in Chalfont St Peter
James Seton Wills, living in London
Sir David Seton Wills, 5th Baronet of Hazelwood, Laird of Meggernie Castle and President of Hungerford Town FC
Michael Agapios Diamandis of Hungerford

Should we perhaps list the staff and player who are also out of towners? Or perhaps the out of town fans – yovile_red, melksham_red, Lancashire_red etc who help contribute to the very small economic impact that the club has in the Borough.

N Swatton should be asking why the club appears so unattractive to the people who have moved to Swindon since the end of World War 2….. Perhaps too expensive, perhaps the poor entertainment value or perhaps too many thoughtless and small minded people in the County Ground concentrating on in-breeding/avoiding new people.

Thankfully not all STFC fans are as daft as N Swatton.

There is not long to go until the lease at the County Ground expires. I hope this deadline and the three failed plans to date will focus thoughts and help the out of towners at the club to develop realistic plans that can be given support by the out of towners on the Council. Whatever finally transpires, and I believe it will be a smaller community stadium as seen at Doncaster, it should be an inclusive facility for all in the Borough and surrounds for more sports than just football.

John Doyle
Shaw and Nine Elms Ward

[Piemonte]

I love the way hes managed to mis-spell Yeovil  Does that make the mightly Yeovil red a celeb?

Someone (PaulD?, RobT? trust guys? )should draw the public attention to that inbreeding comment. I've seen politcians sacked for less than that.

[BrightonRed]

and almost choked on my own rage

 

[Ben Wah Balls]

Johnny Doyle regularly posts on the trust forum.

I see Rob Tuck has asked him a few questions about that article on this thread.

http://www.truststfc.co.uk/forum/index.php?act=ST&f=14&t=4028&hl=71&s=09048d20dc51e27151c9bdada2dadf40

Seems he has no answer though. No surprise really, it's not possible to defend such complete nonsense.

[Melksham Red]

Ooh i'm famous!

Seriously, does this bloke make it his life's ambition to shoot down everything the club tries to do?