Grimsby Town - Operation Promotion

[Gibber_McGee]

At Wrexham we have over 4,000 club members/owners paying a minimum of £12 a year (most pay much more though - I pay £10 a month myself). Additionally many members/owners work for the club for free which again helps with our budget. We also have a loan-note scheme which paid for the refurbishment of the club shop at The Racecourse as well as the regular "pop up" shops we have in the town centre.

 

[The_Boss]

Dont see an issue with it, if the fans are happy to donate then it can only be a help. Just £50k will cover a decent players wages for a year, no long term ties to worry about. If he works out then you get the fruits, if not then its not cost the club anything. Its only the same as if people paid £1 extra per game, just doing it in a lump sum early on.

 

[Luke Imp]

At Wrexham we have over 4,000 club members/owners paying a minimum of £12 a year (most pay much more though - I pay £10 a month myself). Additionally many members/owners work for the club for free which again helps with our budget. We also have a loan-note scheme which paid for the refurbishment of the club shop at The Racecourse as well as the regular "pop up" shops we have in the town centre.

Our Trust are currently, or have just come out of, a legal challenge because those on the Trust board at the time decided to illegally transfer 1,000,000 shares from the Trust to a Holding Company a couple of years ago without asking or notifying its members, along with other things like allegedly paying for ST's for Trust Board members with fans money. They all resigned en masse ages ago as you can imagine. It then left it with less than the legal amount of Directors to run it and therefore we lost our supporter representation on the Board.

It's due to be re-launched soon by a Working Party, although it seems like there's tonnes to do.

 

[Gibber_McGee]

Our Trust are currently, or have just come out of, a legal challenge because those on the Trust board at the time decided to illegally transfer 1,000,000 shares from the Trust to a Holding Company a couple of years ago without asking or notifying its members, along with other things like allegedly paying for ST's for Trust Board members with fans money. They all resigned en masse ages ago as you can imagine. It then left it with less than the legal amount of Directors to run it and therefore we lost our supporter representation on the Board.

It's due to be re-launched soon by a Working Party, although it seems like there's tonnes to do.

That sounds like a very odd situation. Our trust is an Industrial & Provident Society (IPS) and is fully regulated by the Industrial and Provident Societies Act and accountable for all its financial dealings and transactions. I guess yours isn't or wasn't.

 

[Luke Imp]

I don't know the full ins and outs but I assume we'd have to be with them.

We were with Supporters Direct but member(s) on the Trust Board decided not to renew the membership on that, presumably to stop them peeking at what was going on. It basically became an old boys club and closed shop.

The newly elected Chairman, who came from the 'outside', tried to sort it all out lasted a week I think and was basically verbally abused and hounded out. Many others have tried to get their feet under the table but resigned (there were some genuine, younger, clever, highly motivated individuals full of ideas). They just didn't move with the times, didn't really do social media/emails etc and rarely updated the website.

One of the existing members even, allegedly, voted for himself. Twice.

In the space of 12 years it went from raising, on average, about £100k/year to pretty much nothing, which is where the FPS/Share Scheme etc came in about 4 years ago.

 

[Gibber_McGee]

I don't know the full ins and outs but I assume we'd have to be with them.

We were with Supporters Direct but member(s) on the Trust Board decided not to renew the membership on that, presumably to stop them peeking at what was going on. It basically became an old boys club and closed shop.

The newly elected Chairman, who came from the 'outside', tried to sort it all out lasted a week I think and was basically verbally abused and hounded out. Many others have tried to get their feet under the table but resigned (there were some genuine, younger, clever, highly motivated individuals full of ideas). They just didn't move with the times, didn't really do social media/emails etc and rarely updated the website.

One of the existing members even, allegedly, voted for himself. Twice.

In the space of 12 years it went from raising, on average, about £100k/year to pretty much nothing, which is where the FPS/Share Scheme etc came in about 4 years ago.

Sounds like a really bad situation. We have elections for our Trust board so it is pretty easy to remove people who aren't up to scratch. I hope you get it sorted as I really believe trust involvement/ownership is the way to go for most clubs below Championship level, but the Trust has to be accountable and run in a transparent way.

 

[Luke Imp]

Yeah, I think it'll sort itself out I think. With the legal process hanging over it for the last two years, the Working Party (all 3 of them...) haven't been able to do anything but now can.

It basically evolves around the transfer of those shares a couple of years ago and they tried to cover their tracks and stop people delving into things too much. It was working 'ok' up to then, if a little slack on the fundraising side.

More disappointing for the people who set it up initially, putting a lot of time and effort into doing so.

 

[pontoonlew]

Likewise.

We have a Share Scheme and Fans Player Scheme. Both are done on a standing order basis (although I think there might be a one-off payment on the FPS if you want). Minimum of £1/week (you can put in whatever you want) and once a month there's a draw for shirts, meals, gym membership, pints on match days, tickets, ST's (May-August for ST's) etc that have been donated by companies.

There are quite a few fundraising bits and pieces that supporters do but lots of smaller schemes as opposed to one main, focused one like this.

We have the trust on top of this, which has seen a huge surge in memberships since the play-off defeat. That money gets spread across the whole club which is obviously great and is a great back up should anything go wrong in the future. In light of Hursts comments though, the fans just wanted to do something that would get us a couple of players in. The fact we've already now assured ourselves 40k within 8 hours is astonishing.

 

[Gladders]

So we've already hit the £20k 8 week target in less than 12 hours with less than 450 backers, and that doesn't include the £5k the trust are putting in, so with the Mullens money that's £50k towards the playing budget already. Not too shabby, am sure more will be donated over the next few weeks, lets hope Hurst can find a quality striker or two to use it towards.

 

[Gibber_McGee]

Has this money been paid by fans already or is it pledged?

 

[Gladders]

Has this money been paid by fans already or is it pledged?

It was pledged until the 20k target.

 

[BeeSting]

Just a quick hello from the football league

 

[Chris FGR]

Lol at Grimsby fans posting on other clubs forums asking for donations. This isn't a charitable cause.

http://www.gasheads.org/thread/3374/1-00-grimsby-town

 

[pontoonlew]

Lol at Grimsby fans posting on other clubs forums asking for donations. This isn't a charitable cause.

http://www.gasheads.org/thread/3374/1-00-grimsby-town

I saw that

I can't work out if it's massively embarrassing or just laugh at the sheer audacity.

 

[DarkSithLord]

Lol at Grimsby fans posting on other clubs forums asking for donations. This isn't a charitable cause.

http://www.gasheads.org/thread/3374/1-00-grimsby-town

Oh dear.... now that is TINPOT

 

[Gladders]

I saw that

I can't work out if it's massively embarrassing or just laugh at the sheer audacity.

Its the former

 

[Gibber_McGee]

It was pledged until the 20k target.

Wonder if they'll all pay up?

 

[Gladders]

Wonder if they'll all pay up?

No choice, when you pledge you pay the money to paypal who then release it to whichever party when the target is met or not

 

[clarkosa]

Shouldn't this be in the tinpot thread?

Are we not essentially doing the same with the 125k the trust have put in for scoreboard seats etc

Good effort I say when fans go above and beyond buying match tickets and shirts

 

[CFC2010]

Don't get why anyone would do this sort of crowdfunding.

You already charge £18 in, which is derisory at this level no matter how many clubs charge similarly.

Chester did similar in their Conference North season to sign Ben Mills and Lee Trundle up. Like that helped.

We have had a squad builder fund ever since we reformed that goes towards the playing budget for the management to use on any player they like not just Mills or Hughes.

 

[GTFC1979]

Lol at Grimsby fans posting on other clubs forums asking for donations. This isn't a charitable cause.

http://www.gasheads.org/thread/3374/1-00-grimsby-town

That is cringe-worthy......

 

[GTFC1979]

Don't get why anyone would do this sort of crowdfunding.

You already charge £18 in, which is derisory at this level no matter how many clubs charge similarly.

Chester did similar in their Conference North season to sign Ben Mills and Lee Trundle up. Like that helped.

It is only £18 entry if you buy your tickets last minute.
Buy earlier it is £16.

 

[les.gtfc]

Almost £24k now in less than 12 hours. £50 from me and another £50 at the end of the month on payday.

 

[Chris FGR]

So if you fall short again, will the fans do the same next year?

 

[pontoonlew]

So if you fall short again, will the fans do the same next year?

Our fans have backed this club from the highs of playing at Anfield to the lows of playing against Forest Green, they'll always do so.

 

[Clarkey_GTFC]

It would be an absolute disaster if by Christmas we're not looking like challenging, we'd lose many of the fans we've recently gained. The core group will remain as they always have done, but it's vitally important that everything goes to plan and we actually look like achieving promotion. If we very narrowly miss out again, while it'll be twice as devastating, I'd like to think we'd get the exact same response as we have done now.

 

[mallyx68]

Aye great idea, now already raised over 9k in a few hours, plus 5k from the trust and the Mullens matching anything over 20k, could end up adding 50-100k to the budget at this rate. Money doesn't equal promotion but it certainly helps, and shows what positivity there is running through the fans right now despite the wembley disappointment.

According to the crowd funding site the Mullens will donate a maximum of £20,000 not match the total raised.

"What's more, Grimsby Town-supporting Euromillions winners Lee and Susan Mullen have generously pledged to match the fans’ total with their own donation to a maximum of £20,000."

 

[DarkSithLord]

According to the crowd funding site the Mullens will donate a maximum of £20,000 not match the total raised.

"What's more, Grimsby Town-supporting Euromillions winners Lee and Susan Mullen have generously pledged to match the fans’ total with their own donation to a maximum of £20,000."

Another Mariner. Welcome!

 

[mallyx68]

Thanks DSL.

Long time reader of the forum, finally decided to participate.

 

[GEORGE]

And if Grimsby are to succeed next season I have one tip. Forget about the FA Trophy.