AFC Fylde and other minted clubs

[Spyman]

The key to engagement is getting into the schools and the kids teams in the surrounding area. Get kids interested and you'll hopefully attract a few parents as well as fans who will stay with the club for years.

[shawry]

The key to engagement is getting into the schools and the kids teams in the surrounding area. Get kids interested and you'll hopefully attract a few parents as well as fans who will stay with the club for years.

Which isnt quite as easy as it sounds at this level, when most involved with clubs have 'proper' jobs.

When you have full time Staff/Players then it becomes much easier to reach out, this is where MG Academy has been massively important for us really.

[Bogratsteve]

The key to engagement is getting into the schools and the kids teams in the surrounding area. Get kids interested and you'll hopefully attract a few parents as well as fans who will stay with the club for years.

agreed, this is where I also think each home game we should give a limited amount of free tickets to the children from a school/club (rotate the schools) to encourage them to come with a parent, we are no where near capacity now in terms of numbers so an extra 50-100 kids plus parents would not matter, but long term it could be vital

[Darl-Zero]

Back to the OP, I think the "minted" clubs are ultimately doomed for some of the reasons already mentioned. The owner will get bored or run out of money and the over stretched club will go pop. It's happened with Maidstone, Rushden & Diamonds, Colne Dynamoes, Rangers and others and will happen to Fleetwood, Salford, Fylde, Chelsea and Man City. Our setup now is greater than what went before but the challenge comes when we level off in Conference North and fans start getting bored. This is what I admire about the fans of FCUM. Everytime they miss out on the playoffs they say F Cum cause their idiology of fan ownership and not even having shirt advertising matters far more.

[princes town]

If darlofc ever go back to a single owner structure I would walk period. Buying a premiership title with a load of overpaid mercenaries is not my idea of success. The club was founded on the local community and I will never accept another reality whatever the self-imposed ceiling. I'm a fan not a customer.

TBH, this is the sort of comment that pisses me off, a single owner structure does not go hand in hand with trying to buy titles.

As a fan owned club we rely heavily on volunteers, and thats something I hate, because volunteers generally only have so much time to give. Im not sure quite how the volunteer route will work if we have to go full time, and this worries me, along with the worry about where we will find the extra money to go full time - hopefully the income will increase enough through being at a higher level etc.

If the leagues insisted on seeing accounts, and the only loans an owner could give to a club were for ground improvements (or similar), and only then if there was an obvious need, then clubs would start living within their means.

Its all well and good punishing clubs that go into administration, but by leaving the running of clubs to people who can loan a club money until they decide they want it back I feel the leagues/FA are to blame, its happened to too many clubs now for them to just stand idly by and say 'manage your finances better'.

Anyway, my point in the above was, that if the above was in place, then Id happily have a single owner again.

the point about volunteers is well made. I'm not sure how that would work.

[Maurice_Peddelty]

Just because a club is fan owned doesn't mean it has to be ran entirely by volunteers. If the club progresses and the commercial activity demands it, then it can always employ key staff to help the club develop further. We already have paid employees - the players.

[shawry]

Just because a club is fan owned doesn't mean it has to be ran entirely by volunteers. If the club progresses and the commercial activity demands it, then it can always employ key staff to help the club develop further. We already have paid employees - the players.

I understand that, but to employ staff, and make players full time is going to massively increase our costs.

I'm not saying that we wont be able to manage, but our income has to increase massively, and if Im honest, I want to get to a point where being fan owned doesnt mean we have to have regular fund raisers just to fund our playing budget etc.

Once we are debt free and in Darlo things will settle down and we will see better where we are though.

I am proud to be a Darlo fan though, and to know people who have put a lot of time and effort into ensuring I still have a football club to support.

[MCFCDarlo3]

Back to the OP, I think the "minted" clubs are ultimately doomed for some of the reasons already mentioned. The owner will get bored or run out of money and the over stretched club will go pop. It's happened with Maidstone, Rushden & Diamonds, Colne Dynamoes, Rangers and others and will happen to Fleetwood, Salford, Fylde, Chelsea and Man City. Our setup now is greater than what went before but the challenge comes when we level off in Conference North and fans start getting bored. This is what I admire about the fans of FCUM. Everytime they miss out on the playoffs they say F Cum cause their idiology of fan ownership and not even having shirt advertising matters far more.

I wish Darlo could get an owner with the good intent of the Sheikh......hes been getting bored so much he has just invested £200 Million in a training complex and invested Millions into a run down part of Manchester to regenerate it.Oh,and bought a club in Melbourne,New York and Japan.Bored shitless.

You admire the fans of FCUM? Some of them yes but a good number are just ex united hooligans,wait til next season when Darlo play them.

[fozzovmurton]

Heres hoping I can win Euromillions next week, will GIVE a few Million if the prize fund is high

Dont see why we cant make it back one day, though I think it will be 10-15 years, AFC Wimbledon had a rapid rise up the Pyramid, Accrington eventally got back after more than 40 years as did Aldershot and Maidstone are going through a good spell...Aldershot/Maidstone reformed quite low down(Todays Step 5 for Aldershot and Todays Step 7 for Maidstone) if my memories are properly working, with Newport County reforming at todays step 5...

I think a good example of a too much, too quick rise would be Gretna, went from 3rd Division to SPL in consecutive seasons, because of examples like that, I am wary of mega rich investors as more often than not they normally have there own agenda despite what they might say

[charlie]

I think as time goes on and were in a better financial situation we will have to start employing staff. Volunteers have have been fantastic they have and still are keeping the club afloat.
Three years is the time given when a volunteer burns out and were past that now
It's getting harder and harder to find fresh blood willing to commit to volunteering duties, I'm not having a go at anyone just stating a fact.
We are managing on some levels , from experience Michael who has come in to manage the club shop is a fantastic asset to the club with a wealth of experience and I've watched the shop go from strength to strength. It's people like Michael we need to attract to help us move upwards and onwards.
From a personal point of view I don't do the lottery now, unless it's a big rollover on the euro millions

[Darlo_Fanatic]

We need a Ste Gibson esk chairman but their are coming hard to come by nowadays.

[Beano]

We need a Ste Gibson esk chairman but their are coming hard to come by nowadays.

No, that would be the worst possible outcome.

Whatever our sustainable level is, we will find it in time, and that will create the stability and consistency needed for success.

[SwansQuaker83]

If it was gifted then I wouldn't have a problem. In fact every Friday I hold out hope a Darlo fan will win the euromillions and decide to make a charitable donation!

That's something that has worked literally for Newport County. Chairman Les Scadding won 45mil on the euro millions and has plowed it into County.

They're in the league two play offs.