As i have just posted on another thread i'm a pensioner but i have already ordered my grandson and mine season ticket and because of this thread have just now signed up for foxy bingo

Not a bad idea but the problem, and I'm not one to put a problem in the way of a solution, is that the Supporters Trust is truly democratic in so much as everyone who joins the Trust receives a £1 share and its constitution is "one man(or woman)/one vote". If we could offer membership of the Trust at say £25 and get 2,000 members, that's £50,000 which would enable the Trust to acquire 50 shares (or whatever it could raise) and then Supporters would own a little bit of the Club because the Trust is owned by its Members if I'm making sense.

And what happened to all that money Bradford raised through bucket collections and auctions?

Club should contact football league football clubs seeing if they fancy going 50-50 on the foxy bingo scheme. Maybe see if wonga fancy sponsoring the club too.

I am willing to subscribe to the proposed share issue, but do feel that if the ST is going to be the conduit for significant investment in the club, then the true picture (warts and all) needs to be revealed to them by the club, so that people know whether their investment will help us move forward or just paper over the cracks.

Lets face it, if one person was willing to invest a significant sum, they would be allowed to review the books before committing to doing so, and whilst I have no reason to distrust Michael Carter, I would hope an independent assessment of the books could be obtained.

The things that concern me are we already have received :

- advancement on sky monies from RFL

- over a quarter of the budgeted number for next years season ticket money (including some platinum memberships)

- Tim Smith transfer fee

Consequently, if we make it through the off season we are alreadty going to be significantly down on revenue, so how are the club going to deal with this?

If SL at the present time is not viable, I would rather put my money into us being sustainable in the championship then have another few months next year in SL

I agree, anyone wanting to buy shares in the club in what ever form; would want to know a lot more than what we do now.
IF that vehicle were to be the ST would they be allowed a full and detailed look at the club accounts and would that be passed on in full to ST members/potential investors?

We have suggested a share offer to the club and it is being considered. As part of the process I have asked question relating to our financial position. We know what happended to the cash that was donated at Bradford and we don't want a repeat of that.

We met Michael Carter last night and he was very open and honest and I'm sure he will equally be honest with his answers. If he decides to offer shares we would relay these answers to enable anyone thinking of investing to make a decision.

If you get an answer to that question, and you're satisfied that the money would not simply be thrown away as it was at Bradford, and if Michael Carter is prepared to issue shares through the Supporters' Trust, I would join again and contribute towards them.

I've read enough on here to know that you and the others involved are very level-headed and have the interests of the club at heart. You've put your money where your mouth is in the past, so that would be good enough for me.

As a member, I wouldn't need to know every single detail of the club's predicament. The knowledge that you and the others are convinced there is a sensible and realistic way forward, where we operate within our means, is enough for me. If that seems unrealistic/unlikely to you, then we have to accept that whilst the interest in rugby league in our city is clearly there, we do not have the means, as things stand, to compete at this level, and find a level we can afford to participate at and enjoy.

I remember back in the mists of time a season ticket got you into the AGM & very interesting they were too. If my memory serves my right, we even lost money the year we last got to Wembley – I digress.

I fell for the last “share issue” which was basically a worthless piece of paper, but if a share certificate gained you entry to the AGM & was not silly money I would probably take another punt, some of them were more feisty than the actual games.

I don’t know whether there’s more chance of getting four hundred people to shell out a thousand quid or two thousand people, for instance, paying a couple of hundred, when the certificate could be consigned to a draw to sit with the last one in no time.

There would have to be some benefits, maybe ten percent discounts on future STs, otherwise the only advantage would be, helping your club in it’s hour of need (again) & watching the annual bun fight of the AGM.

I am of the same way of thinking - if Sandal Cat and TRB are satisified with the detail then I would contribute

A consortium of investors wishing to put £400k into a club would want a full due diligence by a qualified person.
Remember this is an investment of funds (whether you expect a return or not isn't the point) in a business with big problems.
You would want to know at the very least a full account of all debts and creditors including likely new creditors.
A list of all other investors and investment over the period of spirit of 1873's ownership.
A full break down of annual costs and all staffing including possible claims if any services have been dispensed with.
A projection of how the funds would be used and a viable business plan going forward taking into account these new funds and other investment.
If all these conditions were satisfied I would agree its worth progressing.
Andrew Glover paid £40k (?) (I can't remember the exact figure) and he and the other potential owner Steve Parkin both did their own due diligence for a much smaller (initial) investment.

Never play bingo but have just signed up for foxy bingo. Now contemplating upgrading season ticket to platinum

Sheffield United would be a good starting point.....

Just read, Residents for Newmarket tweet,he would be willing to buy shares and proxy them to Supporters Trust.Maybe this is the way to get round the one vote one member .

That is exactly the model we are looking into.

When we began to discuss the idea of the Trust - in the dying days of the Ted era - we had hoped to request the proxy of the then shareholders in sufficient numbers to force the clubs hand and allow a rep on the BoD. The process to set up took us past the time of that company and, in any case, we were not satisfied that we could support putting additional finds into the club at that time - hence not backing the call for 500 people to pay a £1,000.

We believe, on the basis of what we know so far, that this is a different proposition and certainly the response to the idea has been met much more warmly than we had 3 years ago.

Our ideal scenario is that a number of individuals purchase and own, in their own name, shares for which they would then proxy their votes to the Trust - who are run on a one member / one vote basis - in sufficient numbers to ensure that we demand (in the nicest possible way) a place on the board. We are also investigating 'Community Shares' and will report back on these matters shortly.

Fair play to our Loiner friend - Inflatable Armadillo - who has offered to stump up on our behalf - as if he owes us anything??