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14 minutes ago, Firhillista said:

We don't need an international consortium of venture capitalists to achieve that. It could be argued we already have that with the current board - it's just the enjoyable football bit that's at issue.

What happens when the SFA knock back this proposal for joint ownership?

How sustainable is the status quo?

I for one welcome our transformation under the lifelong Jags fan Paul Goodwin into the Maryhill Meerkats:

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/exclusive-250k-plan-to-rename-struggling-1047855

 

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20 minutes ago, VictorOnopko said:

I for one welcome our transformation under the lifelong Jags fan Paul Goodwin into the Maryhill Meerkats:

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/exclusive-250k-plan-to-rename-struggling-1047855

 

And has this stupid idea actually happened? Maybe if the fans owned a club they could stop nonsense like this.

Or maybe if a bunch of venture capitalists decided they'd make more money by selling the ground and moving to Scotstoun we'd be okay with that? Well, we'd have to be because we'd certainly get no say in it.

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22 minutes ago, Firhillista said:

And has this stupid idea actually happened? Maybe if the fans owned a club they could stop nonsense like this.

Or maybe if a bunch of venture capitalists decided they'd make more money by selling the ground and moving to Scotstoun we'd be okay with that? Well, we'd have to be because we'd certainly get no say in it.

It was a stupid idea at Stirling Albion where Paul Goodwin last attempted to be the figurehead /attention magnet of a fan takeover then walked away because he "didn't get enough thanks".  (Stirling are currently in last place in League 2). The fact that he is involved here in the TFE plans is a red flag to many Thistle fans.  If he isn't a Thistle fan, why is he doing this?  If Colin Weir genuinely wants to underwrite a fan-owned Thistle, why doesn't he make a genuine, alternative offer to buy the club from the current board/shareholders, then set up a fan ownership structure to hand over to? Why were various media outlets led to believe that a bid had been made by TFE when this is not the case? Is a home gate of 2,500 people, many of whom already put plenty of money into the club, sufficient to achieve anything as a genuinely fan owned entity given that pledges are already made to support Thistle in our current form of ownership? 

Just because you don't like the proposed takeover plans - and I agree that they are worryingly opaque - that doesn't mean that fan ownership, particularly in the present guise - is anything other than an unworkable shambles led by an oddball chancer and a previous benefactor who took his ball home in a huff when he didn't get his way.

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2 minutes ago, VictorOnopko said:

Just because you don't like the proposed takeover plans - and I agree that they are worryingly opaque - that doesn't mean that fan ownership, particularly in the present guise - is anything other than an unworkable shambles led by an oddball chancer and a previous benefactor who took his ball home in a huff when he didn't get his way.

Not does it mean that we dismiss this approach out of hand. Fan ownership is not an 'unworkable shambles' elsewhere. Why would it be so at Firhill?

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1 minute ago, Firhillista said:

Not does it mean that we dismiss this approach out of hand. Fan ownership is not an 'unworkable shambles' elsewhere. Why would it be so at Firhill?

I'm not dismissing it out of hand, but I wouldn't support it with Paul Goodwin as the figurehead. 

Any response to the questions I raised in the first paragraph above?

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1 hour ago, VictorOnopko said:

. The fact that he is involved here in the TFE plans is a red flag to many Thistle fans.  If he isn't a Thistle fan, why is he doing this?  If Colin Weir genuinely wants to underwrite a fan-owned Thistle, why doesn't he make a genuine, alternative offer to buy the club from the current genuine, alternative offer to buy the club from the current board/shareholders, thenboard/shareholders, then set up a fan ownership structure to hand over to? Why were various media outlets led to believe that a bid had been made by TFE when this is not the case? Is a home gate of 2,500 people, many of whom already put plenty of money into the club, sufficient to achieve anything as a genuinely fan owned entity given that pledges are already made to support Thistle in our current form of ownership? 

Okay, here goes.

No idea what Paul Goodwin's motivation is. Don't know the guy. I do recognise some of the other people in TfE and I recognise them as longtime Thistle fans 

By getting behind TfE, I believe Colin Weir is doing exactly what you suggest - a genuine, alternative offer to buy the club from the current board/shareholders, then set up a fan ownership structure to hand over to.

No idea whether a bid is the same as a proposal, but I'm fairly sure TfE are genuine in that they want to see Thistle fan owned. I don't think they're telling lies to further some nefarious project.

I don't think Thistle is too wee or too stupid for fan ownership. It works perfectly well at other clubs smaller than Thistle. It's not being proposed that the fan/owners would be the main source of income for the club, in the same way we don't expect current shareholders to finance the running of Thistle.

The big difference for me in what is proposed is that Partick Thistle fans would have a say in what happens at Firhill in the future. Unlike at the moment when we're completely at the mercy of shareholders who are considering selling the club to a group of venture capitalists 

Edited by Firhillista
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Does the day to day running of a club change any under a fan ownership model?

The not inconsiderable challenge of running a sustainable football club able to meet the ambitions of its fan base still remains.

It is one of the many responsibilities of a BoD to try and source the additional funding (through sponsorship etc) required to help maintain a sustainable football club.

That's one of the tasks the current Board at Firhill are trying to do. As did the Board before them, the Board before them and so on and so on. All managed that with varying degrees of 'success' but the fundamental task remained the same. Provide the necessary funds to run the football club. 

And so it would under the fan ownership model. Indeed the composition of the Board needn't actually change.

The big difference is that the club would be owned by the supporters which for me is a much more appealing prospect than handing the keys over to a consortium that we nothing about and then keeping our fingers crossed that they have the long term wellbeing of our club at heart.

The thing re fan ownership that does nag away at me surrounds the ability to source outside funding. The pledges though would amount to additional funding. There isn't any suggestion, I think, that this money would the the club's sole source of income. The club would still be funded by gate receipts, TV/prize money, sponsorship etc.

IMO too many historical battles/squabbles are clouding people's thinking on the subject of fan ownership. We need to move away from that but, as one post further up the page perhaps highlights, I'm not sure we can ever get away from that type of thinking.

Edited by John MacLean
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6 hours ago, Firhillista said:

By any reasonable standards, the information put out by TfE HAS been substantial. They've set out what fan ownership is, they've outlined how they hope it can be implemented at Thistle and they've published responses to questions asked of them by Thistle fans. In none of that information have I seen anything that resembles 'sly digs and petty insults'.

This is in contrast to the consortium who have not just published nothing of substance, they have in fact published... nothing.

I get why people might want to take a punt on a billionaire foreign investment group in the hope that Thistle go shooting up into the Premiership and Europe with some cup wins along the way. If I thought that would be the outcome of New City Finance buying us, I'd sign up for that in a heartbeat. But all the evidence suggests that if we go down that route we're unlikely to be much better off in a sporting sense and very likely to be saddled with debt.

Fan ownership works at other clubs. It could work at Thistle. We shouldn't be rejecting it out of hand.

I wouldn't reject it out of hand if different people were involved or if they had gone about the last 2 months in a proper manner. Instead they have acted like bitter twisted children with ab axle to grind 

With that in mind I want nothing to do with them and then to have nothing to do with the club. 

 

I'm ashamed to say some of them I would have called friends 

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39 minutes ago, Firhillista said:

Okay, here goes.

No idea what Paul Goodwin's motivation is. Don't know the guy. I do recognise some of the other people in TfE and I recognise them as longtime Thistle fans 

By getting behind TfE, I believe Colin Weir is doing exactly what you suggest - a genuine, alternative offer to buy the club from the current board/shareholders, then set up a fan ownership structure to hand over to.

No idea whether a bid is the same as a proposal, but I'm fairly sure TfE are genuine in that they want to see Thistle fan owned. I don't think they're telling lies to further some nefarious project.

I don't think Thistle is too wee or too stupid for fan ownership. It works perfectly well at other clubs smaller than Thistle. It's not being proposed that the fan/owners would be the main source of income for the club, in the same way we don't expect current shareholders to finance the running of Thistle.

The big difference for me in what is proposed is that Partick Thistle fans would have a say in what happens at Firhill in the future. Unlike at the moment when we're completely at the mercy of shareholders who are considering selling the club to a group of venture capitalists 

Where was their drive for fan ownership 4 months ago? 

 

Surely they have always wanted it. Yet they only get up n running when Beattie comes back and there's a suggestion someone wants to buy the club

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2 minutes ago, dave.j said:

Where was their drive for fan ownership 4 months ago? 

 

Surely they have always wanted it. Yet they only get up n running when Beattie comes back and there's a suggestion someone wants to buy the club

Happy with that last shambles of a board running the club into the ground, but as soon as they’re kicked out and someone else lined up as a replacement, we suddenly must have fan ownership. A funny coincidence, that.

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13 minutes ago, cilitbang said:

That terrifies me. 

This.

The potential of fans "having a say" purely depends on what fans you're asking.  What qualifies most fans to make decisions that actually matter, other than supporting the club and, presumably, wanting the best for them?  That's an incredibly subjective concept, and I'd imagine running a football club and making certain decisions is really quite hard.  Like Billy Connolly once said, "The desire to be a politician should bar you for life from ever becoming one.  Don't vote. It just encourages them....".  

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This.
The potential of fans "having a say" purely depends on what fans you're asking.  What qualifies most fans to make decisions that actually matter, other than supporting the club and, presumably, wanting the best for them?  That's an incredibly subjective concept, and I'd imagine running a football club and making certain decisions is really quite hard.  Like Billy Connolly once said, "The desire to be a politician should bar you for life from ever becoming one.  Don't vote. It just encourages them....".  
People are still equating fan owned as meaning fan run.

The running of the Club would be tasked to the BoD. Precisely as it is now. Indeed, as I said earlier, the composition of that Board needn't change. In fact I'd personally, at least in the short - medium term, like to see that kind of continuity.

The big difference is in who owns the club. Not in how it is run or who it is run by.
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6 hours ago, Cerberus said:

Get Weir, Goodwin and the TFE chancers in the sea.

If Beattie thinks the “venture capitalists” will be good for the club then that’s the way we should go.

I agee. How would our meagre fanbase be able to fund us in anyway going forward? I've always been with the consortium. I spoke to Barnsley fans n they like the owners. Say they like to sign young players with potential.

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1 minute ago, hardest ned in glasgow said:

I agee. How would our meagre fanbase be able to fund us in anyway going forward? I've always been with the consortium. I spoke to Barnsley fans n they like the owners. Say they like to sign young players with potential.

 

1 minute ago, hardest ned in glasgow said:

I agee. How would our meagre fanbase be able to fund us in anyway going forward? I've always been with the consortium. I spoke to Barnsley fans n they like the owners. Say they like to sign young players with potential.

There’s quite a few Barnsley fans don’t like their owners as well

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16 hours ago, Cerberus said:

Get Weir, Goodwin and the TFE chancers in the sea.

If Beattie thinks the “venture capitalists” will be good for the club then that’s the way we should go.

What evidence are you using to come to that conclusion?

Edited by Alan Murray
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