This is a very good point.

Back in 2003 when Exeter City were hours away from being no more, our directors and owners did'nt really give a toss (and were subsequently jailed for fraud a few months after this episode), a few weeks beforehand two diehard fans went on to the ExeWeb forums and put the idea out there of buying and running ECFC as a trust based community club.

It is very important to point out that many people on ExeWeb forum scoffed at the idea, just denounced it as fantasy, and the feedback was much the same as what is being written here.

But the fact of the matter was that the whole aim of the trust is to ensure ECFC is run by the fans, for the fans. But it is not just that. When the club became trust owned we were 1.5 million in debt, relegated to the conference, and it just seemed all was lost. It took two people with persistence to make this happen with the help of a lot of other fan giving up their free time to provide assistance in their given fields (including me).

Yes the fact that we drew Man Utd in the 3rd round of the FA cup at Old Trafford in 2004 helped clear most of the debt. But as with any business the trust had to have a tangible vision which could be achieved within the budgetary limits of the Club. This vision was called 'V10', the aim of getting form Conference to L1 in 8 seasons. Business plans, and processes were implemented to how we can achieve this ( I actually had 4 pages of input into this document). This included detailed near term goals, medium term goals and ultimately the L1 goal.
We achieved promotion to L2 in 2007, and L1 the next season.
This is the most important point this post. It is just not a point of buying the club, if we are going to do this we need to outline a visions for the club (realistic visions).

In addition to people on here saying that there still will not be enough money with just us, the vision we adopt as the basis of the trust must include how we increase revenue streams, or find efficiencies in how we do business (which I can help with, it's my bread and butter),

You may have already done your homework and may have done a google on our Exeter City trust, you may have read that our manager Paul Tisdale has had his budget cut recently. I must stress that ECFC are not in financial trouble, we are actually one of the few clubs in L2 who actually post a profit (a small one). The ECFC trust will not go down that road of reckless spending without the vision, and without comprehensive reasoning for doing anything we do. We are the flag bearers when it comes to trust owned clubs, and the fans feel more empowered in the running of their club.

If anyone is driven enough to make this happen, then please PM me, I will be in touch and we can start this moving. Please note I am based in Aussie at the moment but I am in London (Twickenham) next week if you wish to meet over a pint.

Here is the link to our website should you want a squizz www.ecfcst.org.uk/home/trust-history/


Andrew

This is a very good point.

Back in 2003 when Exeter City were hours away from being no more, our directors and owners did'nt really give a toss (and were subsequently jailed for fraud a few months after this episode), a few weeks beforehand two diehard fans went on to the ExeWeb forums and put the idea out there of buying and running ECFC as a trust based community club.

It is very important to point out that many people on ExeWeb forum scoffed at the idea, just denounced it as fantasy, and the feedback was much the same as what is being written here.

But the fact of the matter was that the whole aim of the trust is to ensure ECFC is run by the fans, for the fans. But it is not just that. When the club became trust owned we were 1.5 million in debt, relegated to the conference, and it just seemed all was lost. It took two people with persistence to make this happen with the help of a lot of other fan giving up their free time to provide assistance in their given fields (including me).

Yes the fact that we drew Man Utd in the 3rd round of the FA cup at Old Trafford in 2004 helped clear most of the debt. But as with any business the trust had to have a tangible vision which could be achieved within the budgetary limits of the Club. This vision was called 'V10', the aim of getting form Conference to L1 in 8 seasons. Business plans, and processes were implemented to how we can achieve this ( I actually had 4 pages of input into this document). This included detailed near term goals, medium term goals and ultimately the L1 goal.
We achieved promotion to L2 in 2007, and L1 the next season.
This is the most important point this post. It is just not a point of buying the club, if we are going to do this we need to outline a visions for the club (realistic visions).

In addition to people on here saying that there still will not be enough money with just us, the vision we adopt as the basis of the trust must include how we increase revenue streams, or find efficiencies in how we do business (which I can help with, it's my bread and butter),

You may have already done your homework and may have done a google on our Exeter City trust, you may have read that our manager Paul Tisdale has had his budget cut recently. I must stress that ECFC are not in financial trouble, we are actually one of the few clubs in L2 who actually post a profit (a small one). The ECFC trust will not go down that road of reckless spending without the vision, and without comprehensive reasoning for doing anything we do. We are the flag bearers when it comes to trust owned clubs, and the fans feel more empowered in the running of their club.

If anyone is driven enough to make this happen, then please PM me, I will be in touch and we can start this moving. Please note I am based in Aussie at the moment but I am in London (Twickenham) next week if you wish to meet over a pint.

Here is the link to our website should you want a squizz www.ecfcst.org.uk/home/trust-history/


Andrew