I once watched a documentary about a football club (Now called Ebsfleet United) that went through certain hard times. As we often do the fans became disillusioned about the situation......and the long and short of the situation was that the club was put up for sale and was eventually bought out by a mixture of fans and other investors.

After the sale to the fans, via their own appointed committee, the fans now have a say in many major aspects of how the club is run, big signings, team choices etc etc.

A few weeks ago, I was amazed to see how quickly substantial amounts of money were put forward in an attempt to save the Bradford Bulls. Added to which I've just read RW's latest blog in which he states that both he and Jack Fulton would sell their shares in Cas to the right bidder if it was in the best interests for the club's future. This got me thinking.......what sort of monetary figure would be involved in buying out the shares currently held by RW or Jack Fulton or both?

I could be way out with this figure...but if it was about £200K instance to buy out RW's shares, would you as a fan be interested/willing to put up say £200 x 1000 fans (or £50 on top of your season ticket etc) .....if you were promised to have significant involvement in the club, real transparency of the stadium situation and a vote/say about the squad for the present or future?

So...what do we know about the shares held by RW and Jack Fulton?....and for the sake of discussion would the fans be interested in such a 'fans' presence in the club?

I wouldn't trust the majority of our fans in having a say how to run the club.

We'd be bust tomorrow.

I would guess that many at Ebsfleet would have thought exactly the same about their fans, but with the right structure in place it seems to be working for them.

I'm guessing that RW or JF's investment value in the club isn't common knowledge then!

Anybody wanting to buy into the club can. Shares are £40 each with a minimun buy of 5 shares per application. If fans want to have a say in meetings and a vote when it comes to re-electing board members they can do so by becoming a shareholder.

Cheers for that!

Do you have any idea how many shares have been issued and how many remain? It could be a very interesting time to buy into the club.

Shares are classed as 1p on the certificate. A couple of years ago there was a halt on buying shares and selling your shares to other shareholders. This has now been opened up again to the public. The share offer is something like 30,000 1p shares available (1.2 million) - but I don't know since this offer (last year) how many are still available. Also the club cannot publicise selling shares via advertising. Contact the club on 01977 552674 for an application.

I think you need to read up on Ebbsfleet United. They got relegated and a couple of months ago they were close to going out of business as a football club. I'm not sure if they ever sorted that. They've gone backwards since this takeover.

I'm not sure about your comments of them going backwards since the take over....weren't they at the point of closure and hence the take over gave them a life line for a few years? During the take over year they won their division final at Wembley and won two other regional finals also.

Their problem came when their initial share ownership numbers dropped from 27,000 @ £35 each to just over 9,000 and hence for the level at which they wanted to compete, they were suddenly short of the funds that would allow them to do so. The main sources of funds at Cas of course being SKY money, merchandise and gates. Hence a different kettle of fish!

Any way, the Ebbsfleet example was just a thought and a talking point!

Bought a lot of shares over the years up the road mate and while i did not expect any return i did it to get a say/vote, they did not listen and my shares are up the creek.

But those fans who can afford it should buy shares imo.

The thing you are forgetting Grobs is that while the shares are relative worthless, the directors loans & charges against Wheldon Road are not! I don't know the exact figures but I know several other posters have seen the accounts & the land registry entries, and the totals run in to several million. I think Jack has over a million owed in directors loans. I would think that any takeover bid would have to account for paying Jack back his money or reach agreement with him about not calling in his loans... but the new shareholders would have to understand he could still call them in, at any point!

The point is, the potential or actual cost of a take-over of Cas Tigers, runs in the millions & not hundreds of thousands!

Correct.

When you have got everything related to your club (Shirts, Season tickets, Lottery and so on) and you have an interest in the business side of running a professional RL club - buying shares can be a good gift or present. For a couple of hundred quid you get into meetings and access to the accounts. They were only £10 each when I got some but are now worth £40 each.

Also another point worth noting is that JF's son is now a director at CT. He could effectivly hand over to him when the time is right. There is no sign of any take-over happening down the lane.

Hold on....at ease everybody, before I'm found guilty of starting a mutiny at the club ..........I am talking about 'buying into' not 'buying out'!!!!


My thoughts were leading in two different directions.

The first way was as put by others to buy a few hundred quid's worth or a couple of grands worth of shares, just to get a glimmer of what is discussed at shareholder meetings.

The second thought pattern was for a fan based consortium to buy a significant number of shares to get a bit of 'say' in what happens behind the closed doors. Would £50K...£100K, £200K etc get a consortium of fans a significant say?

If by "a bit of a say" you mean to have a majority over JF/RW, about £600K should do it!