Fenway Frank
Well-Known Member
13815, lowest for 20 years 
OldRobert
Well-Known Member
Whoops..................
Din
Well-Known Member
Is that the attendance or is it actually the number of years since they last played in a division that wasn't the Championship?
hogesar
Well-Known Member
The worst thing is thats including season ticket holders who weren't there. Actual attendance believed to be between 10-11k.
Im not laughing, i promise.
Im not laughing, i promise.
morty
Moderator
Staff member
I get the feeling if we beat them next week it will pretty much finish their season off, and utterly crush the tiny bit of morale that a few of their fans have left. Seing some on their forum saying they will be lucky to get 7 or 8 thousand season ticket renewals.
Still, they are a bigger club than us apparently....
Still, they are a bigger club than us apparently....
Dubai Mark
Active Member
Wow that's very sad for such a big club with a rich owner too !
OldRobert
Well-Known Member
N
Number 9
Well-Known Member
Glorious history - what is it now? 20 years in the Chump?
Fenway Frank
Well-Known Member
Are we giving them a minutes applause again ?
morty
Moderator
Staff member
Haha, had forgotten about that, that was hilariousAre we giving them a minutes applause again ?
N
Number 9
Well-Known Member
You can't beat a local derby, and they really are the gift which keeps on giving.
morty
Moderator
Staff member
This is worth a read, you could almost feel sorry for them.
Almost....
http://turnstileblues.co.uk/blog.aspx?nid=1112
Almost....
http://turnstileblues.co.uk/blog.aspx?nid=1112
Fenway Frank
Well-Known Member
That’s actually quite an interesting piece on what’s happened to them, explains where it’s all gone right
OldRobert
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't feel sorry for them if the place blew up. Where are the tenners now? Mind the gap etc. etc. Let 'em rot, mind you they don't think they are in debt or in any sort of financial trouble so let them get on with it. Apart from anything else, we have our own problems.
N
Number 9
Well-Known Member
Agent Evans
OldRobert
Well-Known Member
Fenway Frank
Well-Known Member
13031 for the Hull match, lowest since 1998
morty
Moderator
Staff member
Shamelessly nicked this from my buddy Eddie on "the other site", its a blog piece from 2008. It gives a very interesting insight into just what happens when your golden prince comes riding over the horizon with a big bag of money. Be careful what you wish for....
Locked in Debtors Prison
Ever since Town went collectively insane after one mind-blowing year in the prem, the club has been trapped inside a prison of its own making. We¿ve been literally suffocating under an unsustainable mountain of debt. A debt so vast, it not only stripped us of a generation of good players. It ultimately stripped the club of its will to live.
As 2007 ground on, the club was at such a low ebb that we were no longer even bothering to pay the interest - let alone repay the capital. And the 'for sale' sign that had been hoisted over Portman Road years previously was being frantically waved with ever increasing vigour.
So deep was the hole that Town had dug themselves into that there appeared no escape. Apart from the one pointed out to the club by an opportunist vulture that had been circling any number of wannabee football clubs - the Marcus Evans Group. The solution appeared so odd, so illogical, that seemed scarcely credible and contrary to the best interests of the club. Yet the directors apparently agreed it was a sensible way out.
Well we think they did - not many of them have been too vocal in public - apart of course from Mr Sheepshanks. So, strangely, the very people whose solemn duty it was to act in the club's best interests seemed to champion the Marcus Evans Group approach which seemed so clearly to be against the club's best interests. When the details of the offer were made public - it seemed little more than scandalous. In effect Town swapped an £8million debt for a £32 million debt - and sold their soul at the same time. And nobody seemed remotely concerned.
Even now, a month since Town sold out to an invisible man, I still can't understand how or why it happened. The facts bear repeating one more time. Town's suffocating £32million debt had been written down to just £8million. Whilst that might be a lot of money to you and I - it is reasonably small beer to a club that could in theory get promoted to the Premier League with just a bit of fine tuning.
Let's look at £8million in close up. One of Town's board could use £8million in firelighters - let alone use it to prop up a football club he was duty-bound to look after. Another, Holly Bellingham was in the process of selling a majority share in her company for £55million. So £8million was certainly a figure she could have helped raise. Yet she exited stage left from Town's board without even a whimper.
£8million is even a figure that could have been easily raised by Town fans. If we accept that there are at least 24,000 regular fans... that is only a £333 contribution from each and every one of us to wipe out Town's debt once and for all. Not in exchange for meaningless shares to fund Finidi George's pay off - but a unique chance to wipe Town's slate clean and share in something good and tangible that would guarantee a fresh start on a level playing field.
Admittedly, in the past, when Sheepshanks has gone cap in hand to supporters for meaningless share issues to keep Town afloat, he's been largely (and very sensibly) ignored. But those risible share issues were just throwing money into a bottomless pit of Sheepshanks' creation in exchange for utterly worthless shares. This time it could have been oh so different - and structured not as shares but as membership.
But it wasn't - and our club has been handed over as an investment vehicle to a faceless investment arm of an over-hyped junket company of debateable worth fronted by an invisible man without so much as a whimper. The sums of money involved are relatively tiny - even the reputed £12million put into the club to stabilise is spin. Not one penny can be spent without a nod from three faceless suits. I say it again - the club was sold under very, very dubious circumstances with very few if any alternatives being aired for a mere £8million.
So now we face up to an unknown future as an 'investment' of someone who refuses to be seen, whilst on the face of it being run by an utter incompetent who seemingly cannot bear not to be seen. In an industry where brash American soccer enthusiasts, alleged arms dealers, third world despots and assorted riff-raff from eastern Europe are queuing up to be lavish their ill-gotten gains on third rate footballers this is strange indeed.
As the AGM draws near I live in hope that one or two voices might be raised about the very strange circumstances Town now find themselves reduced to. Although the hype would have you believe our £32 million debt has vanished and the club is 'in the money', the exact opposite is very much the case. We still owe £32million - the only difference is that it is not to a financial institution with tangible assets and known business practices. Hardly a big step forward.
And we still don't have any money. Last year, we were being run so recklessly that we managed to rack up another £2million of debt whist not paying interest on our debts. That now has to change - which means tightening the purse strings. The only tangible difference I can see from the restructure is that 3 suits will seek approval from elsewhere if Town want to buy paper clips in future, let alone an overpriced midfield trundler from Plymouth Argyle.
We're still very much locked in a debtor's prison of our own making. Only this time we threw away the key.
Locked in Debtors Prison
Ever since Town went collectively insane after one mind-blowing year in the prem, the club has been trapped inside a prison of its own making. We¿ve been literally suffocating under an unsustainable mountain of debt. A debt so vast, it not only stripped us of a generation of good players. It ultimately stripped the club of its will to live.
As 2007 ground on, the club was at such a low ebb that we were no longer even bothering to pay the interest - let alone repay the capital. And the 'for sale' sign that had been hoisted over Portman Road years previously was being frantically waved with ever increasing vigour.
So deep was the hole that Town had dug themselves into that there appeared no escape. Apart from the one pointed out to the club by an opportunist vulture that had been circling any number of wannabee football clubs - the Marcus Evans Group. The solution appeared so odd, so illogical, that seemed scarcely credible and contrary to the best interests of the club. Yet the directors apparently agreed it was a sensible way out.
Well we think they did - not many of them have been too vocal in public - apart of course from Mr Sheepshanks. So, strangely, the very people whose solemn duty it was to act in the club's best interests seemed to champion the Marcus Evans Group approach which seemed so clearly to be against the club's best interests. When the details of the offer were made public - it seemed little more than scandalous. In effect Town swapped an £8million debt for a £32 million debt - and sold their soul at the same time. And nobody seemed remotely concerned.
Even now, a month since Town sold out to an invisible man, I still can't understand how or why it happened. The facts bear repeating one more time. Town's suffocating £32million debt had been written down to just £8million. Whilst that might be a lot of money to you and I - it is reasonably small beer to a club that could in theory get promoted to the Premier League with just a bit of fine tuning.
Let's look at £8million in close up. One of Town's board could use £8million in firelighters - let alone use it to prop up a football club he was duty-bound to look after. Another, Holly Bellingham was in the process of selling a majority share in her company for £55million. So £8million was certainly a figure she could have helped raise. Yet she exited stage left from Town's board without even a whimper.
£8million is even a figure that could have been easily raised by Town fans. If we accept that there are at least 24,000 regular fans... that is only a £333 contribution from each and every one of us to wipe out Town's debt once and for all. Not in exchange for meaningless shares to fund Finidi George's pay off - but a unique chance to wipe Town's slate clean and share in something good and tangible that would guarantee a fresh start on a level playing field.
Admittedly, in the past, when Sheepshanks has gone cap in hand to supporters for meaningless share issues to keep Town afloat, he's been largely (and very sensibly) ignored. But those risible share issues were just throwing money into a bottomless pit of Sheepshanks' creation in exchange for utterly worthless shares. This time it could have been oh so different - and structured not as shares but as membership.
But it wasn't - and our club has been handed over as an investment vehicle to a faceless investment arm of an over-hyped junket company of debateable worth fronted by an invisible man without so much as a whimper. The sums of money involved are relatively tiny - even the reputed £12million put into the club to stabilise is spin. Not one penny can be spent without a nod from three faceless suits. I say it again - the club was sold under very, very dubious circumstances with very few if any alternatives being aired for a mere £8million.
So now we face up to an unknown future as an 'investment' of someone who refuses to be seen, whilst on the face of it being run by an utter incompetent who seemingly cannot bear not to be seen. In an industry where brash American soccer enthusiasts, alleged arms dealers, third world despots and assorted riff-raff from eastern Europe are queuing up to be lavish their ill-gotten gains on third rate footballers this is strange indeed.
As the AGM draws near I live in hope that one or two voices might be raised about the very strange circumstances Town now find themselves reduced to. Although the hype would have you believe our £32 million debt has vanished and the club is 'in the money', the exact opposite is very much the case. We still owe £32million - the only difference is that it is not to a financial institution with tangible assets and known business practices. Hardly a big step forward.
And we still don't have any money. Last year, we were being run so recklessly that we managed to rack up another £2million of debt whist not paying interest on our debts. That now has to change - which means tightening the purse strings. The only tangible difference I can see from the restructure is that 3 suits will seek approval from elsewhere if Town want to buy paper clips in future, let alone an overpriced midfield trundler from Plymouth Argyle.
We're still very much locked in a debtor's prison of our own making. Only this time we threw away the key.
Fenway Frank
Well-Known Member
“Shamelessly nicked this from my buddy Eddie on "the other site",”
That conversation has deteriorated slightly
That conversation has deteriorated slightly
morty
Moderator
Staff member
Haha I noticed lol.“Shamelessly nicked this from my buddy Eddie on "the other site",”
That conversation has deteriorated slightly