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Author Topic: Trust look to buy the CG  (Read 382091 times)
Simon Pieman
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« Reply #300 on: Thursday, September 21, 2017, 20:26:29 »

With a statement that it's all Power's fault?
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horlock07

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« Reply #301 on: Friday, September 22, 2017, 07:27:41 »

Cannot believe you have banned the Advertiser from this hard luck story....
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« Reply #302 on: Friday, September 22, 2017, 08:08:45 »

This story should really go to the Adver, complete with pics of Si and Mex doing the classic local paper "folded arms and Compo Face" pose:

Or the classic "it has ruined our childrens Christmas" headline
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« Reply #303 on: Friday, September 22, 2017, 08:51:27 »

Or the classic "it has ruined our childrens Christmas" headline
Can't believe the Adver missed that angle on this hot breaking story, tbh. No wonder Power has banned them from covering it.
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The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey

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« Reply #304 on: Tuesday, November 7, 2017, 07:10:32 »

Here’s the latest
http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/sport/swindon_town_2014/15644012.Trust_pushing_on_with_plans_for_County_Ground/

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/sport/swindon_town_2014/15644025.TRUST_MATTERS__Don_t_worry_about_silence___talks_are_ongoing/
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Don Rogers Sock

« Reply #305 on: Tuesday, November 7, 2017, 08:48:23 »

I just want my prize i won  Cheesy
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PetsWinPrizes

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« Reply #306 on: Tuesday, November 7, 2017, 10:09:32 »

I just want my prize i won  Cheesy

Good point, that may still be in a box of things from when I moved house. Have set an alarm on my phone to dig out tonight..
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Reg Smeeton
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« Reply #307 on: Tuesday, November 7, 2017, 10:33:32 »


Scary times ahead folks.

SBC, are presently having to cut 420 jobs as the Tory austerity project continues to bite, this to save £ 30 mill over the next couple of years, despite a 10% rise in Council Tax. So there can be little doubt that divesting themselves of assets will continue. 

So, it does present an opportunity for the Trust. The danger is that it will require a chunky financial input from fans at a time when gates are falling and we're in Div 4. £500 per share is a significant sum for most, especially in a low wage economy town like Swindon, where the value of those wages continues to fall post Brexit

I daresay the TEF could maybe muster such a sum as a collective, but how many individuals would buy in  Hmmm

If it comes off then great, but there will be plenty of vultures out there looking to strip STFC of its final asset.
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Private Fraser

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« Reply #308 on: Tuesday, November 7, 2017, 10:58:38 »

For those who are not [yet] contributors to the Trust's Red Army Fund, here's the full text of the latest newsletter:

"It’s been two months since our last newsletter, and you could be forgiven for thinking that things have gone quiet on the Trust front. I can assure you, they have not!

Whilst the aim is to keep you informed throughout our bid to purchase the County Ground, the truth is, it’s been very difficult to do that, so this is quite a lengthy update (apologies).

There has been a tremendous amount of work since April, and we have had more than forty meetings with various parties related to the bid, as well as our monthly Trust board meetings. These meetings all need to be planned and conducted in a professional manner, which eats up a lot of time.

We’ve also submitted not one, but two proposals to the council for both the land and the buildings (for those who are still wondering about that), one of which was a 29 page document detailing how and why our bid makes great sense for the community, but also analysing all of the risks and issues that we have gathered over the last six months.

We’ve continued to meet and discuss the deal with the council, and talks have remained positive and encouraging throughout. Last month we held a behind closed doors meeting for all local councillors in Swindon, and sent personal invitations to over 50 people as part of that.

Support from these councillors will be very important as things move ahead, and the vast majority showed tremendous support, either by email or by coming along on the night and letting us know in person. We had leaders of both main parties present, and covered some background on the Trust (for those unfamiliar with our previous work). We also talked through the concerns that have been raised about the current state of the stadium, and some very exciting development possibilities that we have generated since the campaign was first mooted back in March.
Your support via the Red Army Fund has been immense, and we thank all of you that continue to back us every month with whatever you can comfortably afford. We have needed every penny so far, and your donations have contributed to some very important pieces of work:

We’ve funded a professional financial review of the County Ground and the Football Club, and we are working hard with Supporters Direct to establish a community share offer that appeals to as many Town fans as possible. This is no small task, it’s an incredibly detailed process and requires many formal agreements to be in place before the launch.

We’ve also funded professional due diligence and dilapidations based on information attained via the council, and we have met with a host of potential partners to discuss matched funding schemes, community fundraising and possible loan arrangements.

It’s been fascinating to be involved with, and exciting to see how just a little bit of positive football fan intention has generated some very (very) exciting possibilities for Swindon Town fans, and for Swindon as a whole. There is a long way to go, but hopefully these early discussions are the start of something good, not only for Swindon Town fans but for football fans everywhere, as we strive to set an example and show how a well organised group of supporters can do more than just moan, they can actually bring about some very positive possibilities for their community.

Earlier in the year we met with multiple fundraising partners to discuss how we can get the money together to purchase the stadium. Our initial £1.1m bid was not accepted by the Council and we can expect that number to more than double when all of the associated taxes and costs are taken into account and before a final offer is accepted.

Does that make this an impossible dream? No, definitely not. We might not necessarily need all of that money up front, and there are many ways in which the deal may be structured to ensure that the local taxpayer gets the right deal. As local people ourselves, that’s important - our proposal and our associated work is 100% supportive of an arrangement that is great for Swindon Town, but also great for the Town of Swindon. We are all local people, and we want the Town to thrive and improve on the back of what can be the most exciting fan based activity seen in this country for many years.

We want to be trailblazers and set an example for football supporters everywhere - our message is, take positive action and work together to bring about improvement for your club and your area.

There is no doubt we will need your help to make this happen. Whilst we may be able to achieve our goal without fan investment, it goes against the true appeal of this campaign - fans working together and every supporter contributing and owning a share in the stadium and it’s future.

We are very close to confirming a £1 million matched funding arrangement, where every pound you put in as a supporter will be matched. There are still some technicalities to work through but we have been working on this deal for over two years - it’s almost there.

With your support we can make this happen. Our team have worked tirelessly to form the basis of the biggest and most professional fundraising scheme this club has ever seen, but it will all be for nothing if you - the fans - don’t respond in numbers.

The Red Army Fund has taken us so far (all TrustSTFC shirts have been posted but several people have not provided sizes so let me know if you are one of them), and now we’re delighted to have the backing of major Swindon employer, Nationwide, for our community campaign.
 
We have been able to build a promotional team that consists of specialist PR experts that cover both national and regional news, business and social media and we have a professional video production company lined up. After much discussion we can confirm that our fundraising partners will be Crowdfunder.co.uk who are the leading experts in this field, having already raised over £40million on community based projects over the last few years.

Members of our PR team have worked on local Community Share offers previously and have been part of fundraising efforts that have exceeded £7m in the past.

Community shares will not come cheap for some supporters, and are likely to start at somewhere around the £500 mark. We had originally intended to launch them at the end of September, but the due process has proven to be slightly slower than we would have wanted, and now it looks most likely that our campaign will start in March 2018.

Community shares will allow people to contribute anything up to £100,000 each, but no matter what the donation - all supporters will have an equal say, and crucially, a vote in what happens to the County Ground. You will literally be buying a share in the future of Swindon Town’s stadium.

Our experts tell us that it’s usually enough of an incentive to offer the share in a community asset to reach a fundraising target, and that a club of our size can easily exceed targets raised by other smaller clubs around the Country, but we want to go further than that. We realise that football fans spend enough money on their passion already, season tickets, travel, memorabilia, clothing etc, and we are determined to make this a campaign that gives back as much value as possible.

We are still finalising the arrangements for a reward based system that will be part of the Crowdfunder offering, but have already put together a likely package of rewards that every community shareholder will receive, things like: commemorative paving, personalised granite blocks in the County Ground area that can be laid upon completion of the deal, showing the names and messages from each and every community shareholder.

This will not only improve the look of the approach to the stadium, but also give future generations the chance to point at the floor and say “my family played their part”.

We’ve also commissioned a very special piece of artwork by David Squires, a Town fan known all over the world as the resident cartoonist at the Guardian. These will be limited edition prints offered exclusively to community shareholders and will again recognise those contributions.

These things will be joined by other rewards to add value to our proposition and help convince supporters to part with their hard earned money, and in doing so, own a slice of Swindon Town’s future.

We will continue campaign planning in detail, and will take several months to do it right and ensure maximum reach. We hope to get a period of exclusivity for fundraising with Swindon Borough Council by end of the year, or possibly January - and after that we will launch the campaign in March.

Whilst matched funding and more generous donations (and possibly loans if needed) will get us over the line, the real success of this project will be down to one thing - YOU - the supporters.

£500 will be a lot of money to many of you, so please start saving now. If you are an existing Red Army Fund member and need every penny you can get toward this, then please cancel your monthly contribution immediately and start putting the money to one side, ready for our launch in March.

If you’re financially comfortable enough to continue with the Red Army Fund, and put aside £500 or more for Community Shares, then please go ahead and do both. All surplus funds will continue to benefit Swindon Town fans as we move forwards in the future.

Our work won’t stop if and when we get the stadium. We have had some amazing conversations with potential developers that could potentially see HUGE improvements to the stadium within the next 24 months, however time is against us and we need to move quickly to finalise these deals.

If we succeed in our bid, it will be national news, and we will attract even more interest in Swindon Town and it’s fanbase. In this day and age of the Premier League and Football League seemingly uncaring about fans welfare, empowered supporters is a great message and will attract commercial sponsors and interests. This last six months has proved it, the media are fascinated and it will be a real “community” moment if we can pull this off.

We will attract further donations and sponsorship from large corporates, and also get offers like the ones we have already seen come in. It could be amazing,

Back in March, we launched the “Let’s work together” campaign, which called for Town fans, the media, the club and the council to all join forces and improve our club. Although it wasn’t enough to prevent relegation to League Two, it’s been noticeable how much things have improved since then.

The club have really embraced the idea, and with the help of a new and positive manager who is happy to engage with supporters, we have seen some great strides. The recent open training session held during the half term holidays proved that point, and saw lots of children get to meet the players, all of which helps to confirm our next generation of supporters.
There have been improved ticket offers and lots of encouragement. We take our collective hats off to the management of the club and long may this positive work continue. On the pitch, things have been hit and miss, but with a new batch of players coming in, that was always likely to be the case. Over time I’m sure things will settle down and we will mount a decent push toward promotion.

We’re often asked how the club feel about our campaign, and the truth is - we don’t really know. We have been so entrenched in the work that our only communications have been via the press, where it looks like Lee Power has some ideas of his own regarding the stadium.

Our view is that we should let the supporters focus on the stadium and infrastructure, as we have a very skilled and resourceful fanbase, and let’s not overburden the club with the costs associated with purchasing and improving the stadium.
What matters most of all is that we get things right on the pitch, and through our work we can all play a part in improving that. We can give beneficial rates to the club and let them focus on spending money where it really matters - on the football team.

The stadium needs a lot of work, and serious dilapidations still exist. Under the terms of the current lease, all of the repairs will require funding by Swindon Town. These are compulsory and remediation will not come cheap. Supporters can find ways to help ease the burden on the club and the additional publicity will be on a national scale and will bring a lot of interest to the club and to the town as a whole, with new backers coming forwards as we proceed.

The future of the County Ground is currently uncertain, but we are in no doubt that it could become a brilliant community facility that brings benefit to all, not just football fans, whilst also benefiting the club and helping them to focus on what really matters, the football.

Going back to our message from March - “Let's work together” - the fans can concentrate on finding ways to fix and improve our tired, old stadium, and let’s leave the club to concentrate on building a team that gets us back up the leagues, where we belong.

Please get in touch if you still have questions, there will be more to come via the media and other newsletters, in the months to come - but as Town fans you should be excited about what’s coming and the potential that we have to make a big change to the club’s future.

Get saving now!

Thanks for reading,
 
Steve
Stephen Mytton
Chairman, TrustSTFC"
« Last Edit: Tuesday, November 7, 2017, 11:06:04 by Private Fraser » Logged
Nemo
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« Reply #309 on: Tuesday, November 7, 2017, 11:52:12 »

Well, you couldn't accuse them of half-arsing this. £2m+ seems a massive sum, although when you think about it as less than Massimo Luongo, the economics of football seem a bit odd.

Will probably try and chip in for £500, it's a fairly big amount but it's good that they're trailing in advance.
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jayohaitchenn
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« Reply #310 on: Tuesday, November 7, 2017, 12:21:36 »

I reckon I can stretch to £500.
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Power to people

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« Reply #311 on: Tuesday, November 7, 2017, 12:51:07 »

It would be good if there is a way of supporters being able to get together perhaps to get to £500 between a few fans as obviously every penny counts so rather the trust lose £500  - but no sure how it would work under the 1 vote jobbie - but I suppose 1 vote in the grand scheme of votes....
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« Reply #312 on: Tuesday, November 7, 2017, 13:17:46 »

If shares are up for grabs then I'd be willing to invest some dollar!
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Ardiles

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« Reply #313 on: Tuesday, November 7, 2017, 13:22:04 »

Very positive news/update.  Steve Mytton & his team deserve a lot of credit for getting things to this stage.

The next stage will be up to the fans.  The £500 minimum contribution will be a big ask for most, but we need to get behind this.  Some will club together, I'm sure.  I will find the cash from somewhere.
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BambooToTheFuture

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« Reply #314 on: Tuesday, November 7, 2017, 13:30:35 »

It would be good if there is a way of supporters being able to get together perhaps to get to £500 between a few fans as obviously every penny counts so rather the trust lose £500  - but no sure how it would work under the 1 vote jobbie - but I suppose 1 vote in the grand scheme of votes....

I guess whoever your syndicate involves, you "vote on the vote" privately and then whichever one represents you, votes in favour of your syndicates outcome.
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