Welcome back Bristol Rovers

[Ciderup]

I should think finance would be the top priority now as the wonga loan could cripple the club if not paid relatively quickly.
Higgs has said the playing side and budget won't be affected so that's one thing at least.
All joking aside, I am genuinely gutted for you lot on here. You're a good bunch.
Stay strong fellas and don't go near Ashton, it's not going to help you at the moment to see what's happening there.

 

[Duffy]

Yeah I remember that now, had a look and there was the student flats, a restaurant and some other stuff too.

I'd either sell the Mem land for housing (between £15-20m) and build a basic stadium at the UWE site with room for expansion, a la Wimbledon (there's is 11k with expansion to 20k for £16m). If UWE are no longer interested in giving us the land, revisit the redevelopment plans for the Mem.

I think that's the way to go rather than a stadium that I personally felt was over ambitious and probably too big. I would have thought something like 12000 would be ideal and you would certainly get something decent( although not as fancy) for that money.

 

[Ciderup]

I think that's the way to go rather than a stadium that I personally felt was over ambitious and probably too big. I would have thought something like 12000 would be ideal and you would certainly get something decent( although not as fancy) for that money.

I'm not sure that's a possibility. The 'carrot' for UWE (which is a huge place) was the provision of teaching and leisure facilities for the university and campus. A smaller development wouldn't provide that so why would UWE donate the space when they could utilise it themselves as they have already intimated?
I just can't see UWE as a stadium site at all now which is very bad news for rovers.

Back to this if you can sort the finances out?

 

[miagsygas]

I should think finance would be the top priority now as the wonga loan could cripple the club if not paid relatively quickly.
Higgs has said the playing side and budget won't be affected so that's one thing at least.
All joking aside, I am genuinely gutted for you lot on here. You're a good bunch.
Stay strong fellas and don't go near Ashton, it's not going to help you at the moment to see what's happening there.

This new girl I'm seeing has a house about 5 minutes walk from it, can't help but see it all the bloody time

It is impressive, to be fair. Far better than a pipe dream.

 

[WTTJ]

Surely Higgs has to go. Watertight the contract was not and now he is appealing. There is a money leak at Bristol Rovers and it is his arse.

 

[miagsygas]

Surely Higgs has to go. Watertight the contract was not and now he is appealing. There is a money leak at Bristol Rovers and it is his arse.

Just not going to happen. We'll moan about it but Rovers fans are just too passive to do anything substantial to get the clown out of our club. Years of being shat on from board level height have given the fans an attitude of acceptance, it's depressing.

 

[Aber gas]

Just not going to happen. We'll moan about it but Rovers fans are just too passive to do anything substantial to get the clown out of our club. Years of being shat on from board level height have given the fans an attitude of acceptance, it's depressing.

What would you have the fans do ? Boycott ? Not buying merchandise? form a group to buy the club ? I'm genuinely interested because without the club going bust I fail to see what we can do .

 

[Ciderup]

I actually feel quite sorry for Higgs. Hear me out.
He, obviously, wants the best for the club and its' future and has put his money in to try and get it. Unfortunately, for him, he's delegated tasks to trusted allies who have left him looking like an utter buffoon. He can't have done this all on his own and surely has been badly let down.
He has sought additional investment to no avail yet still persists to do his best for rovers when he could easily walk away and still have enough £££ to enjoy his retirement.
While he's the figurehead / Chairman and has been seen to fail, what other options are there?
Be careful what you wish for as change isn't always good and Higgs, for all his faults, obviously really does care.

 

[miagsygas]

What would you have the fans do ? Boycott ? Not buying merchandise? form a group to buy the club ? I'm genuinely interested because without the club going bust I fail to see what we can do .

Honestly, I don't know, but actually attempt a way to change what goes on at the top of the club? There are clubs throughout the land that have gone through less crap than us and atleast protest.

I actually feel quite sorry for Higgs. Hear me out.
He, obviously, wants the best for the club and its' future and has put his money in to try and get it. Unfortunately, for him, he's delegated tasks to trusted allies who have left him looking like an utter buffoon. He can't have done this all on his own and surely has been badly let down.
He has sought additional investment to no avail yet still persists to do his best for rovers when he could easily walk away and still have enough £££ to enjoy his retirement.
While he's the figurehead / Chairman and has been seen to fail, what other options are there?
Be careful what you wish for as change isn't always good and Higgs, for all his faults, obviously really does care.

Firstly, there was a firm bid for the club last year, the guy now owns Oxford. Higgs is after investment that doesn't involve him being cut out or lose his investment being returned to him.

Secondly, for years it has been clear that Higgs has been useless at running all football operations, spiralling us into further debt and into the conference (thank god for Darrell Clarke)

His one saving grace was the idea of the UWE stadium, the idea of him being somewhat of a construction minded man with his money made from Cowlins.

I know the reasons can be mainly looked at the solicitors poor contract and the Trash delaying us to a point that gave sainsburys time to change their minds, but surely as some sort of construction minded man you should have enough about you to understand a terribly flawed contract, or know who could draft up one that doesn't sound like it's drawn up on the back of a fag packet.

I understand that he's a rovers fan, but as a rovers fan, surely there comes a point in which you realise that the club has only gone backwards under your stewardship and the best thing to do would be forget about regaining your investment, find someone else and walk away.

We've owned the Mem for what, 16-17 years? The only thing we've erected is a tent. With the millions we've spent on pie in the sky stadium attempts, if we invested in playing squad and our own stadium we wouldn't be in the shit state we are. All I hear from Higgs is that at our current stadium we our unsustainable, well maybe ran beyond our means yes we are, but there are clubs with less gates than ourselves who don't lose the money we do and are more successful. That's down to people at the top, simple as that.

 

[Ciderup]

Fair enough Miagsy, you would certainly know a lot more than I do. My perspective was from an outsiders view and no offence was meant.
As for the stadium ownership, isn't that owned by a separate company owned solely by Higgs and Dunford?

 

[mowgli]

Higgs spends far too much time and money on useless lawyers. He tried to get us kicked out of The Football League after Rovers were relegated to non league football because of a transfer deal by Wycombe that happened 4 years before they got relegated on goal difference For Rovers to find themselves in so much debt is down to Higgs thinking the club he's chairman of did not deserve to be a Conference club even though the stats said otherwise. Most of my mates are Rovers fans given where i live and are decent fair minded people and were ashamed what Higgs tried to do to us in an act of desperation while trying to blame everyone else for the situation they found themselves in when they got relegated while he was chairman. Infamy, infamy they've all got in in for me!

 

[miagsygas]

Fair enough Miagsy, you would certainly know a lot more than I do. My perspective was from an outsiders view and no offence was meant.
As for the stadium ownership, isn't that owned by a separate company owned solely by Higgs and Dunford?

No offence taken, sorry if my post seemed narky, i'm just pretty pissed off with things at the moment.

I believe that's correct, I don't really know the ins and outs of things though.

Higgs spends far too much time and money on useless lawyers. He tried to get us kicked out of The Football League after Rovers were relegated to non league football because of a transfer deal by Wycombe that happened 4 years before they got relegated on goal difference For Rovers to find themselves in so much debt is down to Higgs thinking the club he's chairman of did not deserve to be a Conference club even though the stats said otherwise. Most of my mates are Rovers fans given where i live and are decent fair minded people and were ashamed what Higgs tried to do to us in an act of desperation while trying to blame everyone else for the situation they found themselves in when they got relegated while he was chairman. Infamy, infamy they've all got in in for me!

Mowgli, I believe the majority of Rovers fans thought the attempt to sue Wycombe was nothing but absolute stupidity. The majority of Rovers fans I've spoke to believe that the attempt to appeal Sainsbury's will be nothing more than futile. Unfortunately, there is no attempt to find out what the fans want or think should happen. We'll lose and probably have to pay even more of Sainsbury's legal costs where our lawyers, who advise Higgs to follow these wild goose chases, profit on the billable hours.

 

[mowgli]

No offence taken, sorry if my post seemed narky, i'm just pretty pissed off with things at the moment.

I believe that's correct, I don't really know the ins and outs of things though.



Mowgli, I believe the majority of Rovers fans thought the attempt to sue Wycombe was nothing but absolute stupidity. The majority of Rovers fans I've spoke to believe that the attempt to appeal Sainsbury's will be nothing more than futile. Unfortunately, there is no attempt to find out what the fans want or think should happen. We'll lose and probably have to pay even more of Sainsbury's legal costs where our lawyers, who advise Higgs to follow these wild goose chases, profit on the billable hours.

Yeah i know that mate but i still. think you need to employ new lawyers as the clowns advising Higgs are only thinking about how much money they can make and don't give a fuck about Rovers, if they lose the case they'll still be paid and if god forbid the worst happens to your club they'll move on to new clients. I know there's no love lost between us but as a football fan like youself i'd hate to see you go bust as it could happen to any of the clubs we support and if it happened to Wycombe who i've supported for 40 years i would be utterly heartbroken.

 

[chairboyexile]

I agree with Mowgli As I always say I'd hate to see ANY club go bust (with the exeption of franchise) even rovers

 

[miagsygas]

For some reason though, our chairman still listens to them. They advised to try and sue you, they advised that our contract with Sainsbury's was watertight and they advised that we should appeal the Sainsbury's decision. I just don't know how a man who is a multi millionaire could be so damn stupid to keep listening to it, particularly when our fans don't really want the club to.

 

[Gashead]

All lawyers try and grab money off of their client, look at TRASH's legal team. It's not just Rovers.

It's whether you listen to them that counts. We should have stopped doing that a long time ago and looked for an alternative to the UWE. It's viable, both financially and practically but it won't be done because we're chasing a pipe dream. Unfortunately too late now but if we'd let Sainsbury's eat their cake in 2013, sold the Mem for housing and built a scaled-down stadium on the UWE site we'd probably be sat in it by now.

 

[Ciderup]

Hmmm, appeal lodged. Final act of a desperate man fellas?
I can't see any judge saying a fellow judge is wrong if I'm honest. I think he's chucking good money after lost money and this could drag on for a long, long time now while you build absolutely nothing, to the detriment of the club.
Draw a line and start again time isn't it?

 

[chairboyexile]

Hmmm, appeal lodged. Final act of a desperate man fellas?
I can't see any judge saying a fellow judge is wrong if I'm honest. I think he's chucking good money after lost money and this could drag on for a long, long time now while you build absolutely nothing, to the detriment of the club.
Draw a line and start again time isn't it?

let em do it less money for the playing budget and relegation back to where they belong

 

[Aber gas]

Hmmm, appeal lodged. Final act of a desperate man fellas?
I can't see any judge saying a fellow judge is wrong if I'm honest. I think he's chucking good money after lost money and this could drag on for a long, long time now while you build absolutely nothing, to the detriment of the club.
Draw a line and start again time isn't it?

Everything he has ever wanted for rovers has been tied into the uwe and he can't let it go . If the appeal is successfull then il be the first to apologise but let's be honest it's not looking likely is it ? There are other options but he's blinkered and by the look of him it's making him ill .

 

[Ciderup]

Everything he has ever wanted for rovers has been tied into the uwe and he can't let it go . If the appeal is successfull then il be the first to apologise but let's be honest it's not looking likely is it ? There are other options but he's blinkered and by the look of him it's making him ill .

I'm intrigued by the highlighted bit Aber. Pray tell what you've heard bud?

 

[Aber gas]

I'm intrigued by the highlighted bit Aber. Pray tell what you've heard bud?

Selling for housing , the mem redevelopment plan and a takeover if Higgs was to walk away ( never going to happen without his cash ) there are ways out of this mess with admittedly scaled down plans but I honestly don't think Higgs is remotely interested .

 

[Ciderup]

Selling for housing , the mem redevelopment plan and a takeover if Higgs was to walk away ( never going to happen without his cash ) there are ways out of this mess with admittedly scaled down plans but I honestly don't think Higgs is remotely interested .

He wants his money back, that I understand, but the appeal is futile surely? Forget the UWE, it's gone IMO. They won't provide the land without being provided with the facilities they asked for originally and a 'scaled down' plan won't provide that. I really do fear for you at the mo WTGR, I really do.

 

[Aber gas]

He wants his money back, that I understand, but the appeal is futile surely? Forget the UWE, it's gone IMO. They won't provide the land without being provided with the facilities they asked for originally and a 'scaled down' plan won't provide that. I really do fear for you at the mo WTGR, I really do.

I'm old enough to remember leaving eastville and how going to twerton would destroy us . We will keep going but the loss of uwe has definetly dented a few dreams . Don't panic we' ll still be around to annoy you lot for a good few years yet .

 

[Ciderup]

I'm old enough to remember leaving eastville and how going to twerton would destroy us . We will keep going but the loss of uwe has definetly dented a few dreams . Don't panic we' ll still be around to annoy you lot for a good few years yet .

Like you, I remember Eastville, with 2 stands (I'm really THAT old) .
Long may you continue to ' annoy us' Aber. It wouldn't be the same without you mucker!!

 

[GEORGE]

Like you, I remember Eastville, with 2 stands (I'm really THAT old) .
Long may you continue to ' annoy us' Aber. It wouldn't be the same without you mucker!!

Don't worry we will. Me, Bob D ( God rest his soul ) Paddy and all the other Tote boys have made this our passion. Mind you its a simple piss take now we,re all over 60.

 

[AdamStag]

I hope there won't be any horses on the pitch this time when we visit you

 

[mowgli]

I hope there won't be any horses on the pitch this time when we visit you

If there are they'll need some head protection so they don't get punched again

 

[Ciderup]

I hope there won't be any horses on the pitch this time when we visit you

Oi, it's our job to take the piss about that
Thankyou for a very funny year by the way, we've had a right good laugh!!

 

[miagsygas]

Oi, it's our job to take the piss about that
Thankyou for a very funny year by the way, we've had a right good laugh!!

I actually really enjoyed the conference and we're undoubtedly in a better position on the pitch than we were, even if we stayed up. If only we could sort out the mess off the pitch.

 

[chairboyexile]

I hope there won't be any horses on the pitch this time when we visit you

If there are they'll need some head protection so they don't get punched again