Argyle, a community club

Raul 1":1rtt4scv said:

Argyle are in one of their toughest periods in recent memory, and in the last few months have managed to aggravate just about everyone with a connection to the club. Under new management - and for the purposes of this thread, let's not dwell on who that might be - I don't think anyone would doubt that this club needs to take major steps to make itself loved again. For me, that means making it a part of the community in a way I don't think it has ever successfully achieved in my lifetime. I moved over to the USA last year, and have seen first hand how some of the sports organisations here really do play a part in the community. I therefore began to think what steps Argyle could take to start winning over fans who have had their patience and support tested to breaking point recently. My exam question is: how can the club embed itself locally such that we start widening the fan base, and in doing so, offer a tacit apology to existing fans who have had it pretty rough recently?

A couple of thoughts that occurred to me:

It's not as if there are going to be hordes of fans turning up each week, so we'll have empty seats a plenty. I assume that deals can be struck with local schools, universities and other institutions to give would-be fans a chance to see football cheaply, or indeed for free.

Plymouth is a forces city. Why don't we make more of it? Can Argyle start to foster better links, inviting guys and girls from the armed forces to games, especially when they are returning from deployments in hostile parts of the world.

Over here, the sports teams have linked up with local hospitals, to generate blood bank days. Basically, you give blood, you get a free ticket to a game.

I am sure some of these things have already been thought of, and may well be being done. But I wondered what else we could come up with, so that if and when we are a proper functioning football club again, we can have an institution to be proud of - regardless of ownership - rather than one which has been in the news for all of the wrong reasons in recent months. Whoever the new owners are, let's please try and make the city proud of Argyle...

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Don't let Totnes Comic geezer do it - apparently you'll get neat cider out!!

Come to think of it expel the Basingstoke/Sherborne lot - not sure what will flow there!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Perhaps one day fans could own part of the club , come on Trust time to step up to the mark.

John Petrie":n2dvbcen said:

Days like the GTs fun day are also a great way of bringing club and fan together. These are probably best left to the GTs to organise with the funds raised not going directly to the club.

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Jeez John, The Riddler would not have that. If there's not an angle in it for him, he simply wouldn't be interested.

I think for a lot of people, myself included, there is very little the present custodians could do to create a community club. Peter Reid might be the only figure head along with Roman Larrieu that could engage the fans.

I certainly don't want to offer any more of my hard earned cash to the present custodians. The club might need my financial support but those in charge have done nothing to make me want to part with any, quite the contrary (sp) in fact.

I love my team, I bought season tickets for the first two years I spent living in Ireland, I might have continued if our club hadn't become such a shambles. I still spent (last year) an equal amount of money buying shirts for my work footie team, although spending a season ticket worth of funds on merchandise is something I will not do again as long as this shambles continues.

The way the club is being managed even in administration is a disgrace as far as I am concerned and my wallet will remain firmly in its pocket I am afraid. I know I am not the only one that feels this way.

John Petrie":9kec3bbo said:

I've often wondered why it is that we don't use our famous manager more as a way of reaching out to different parts of the community/marketing. The University for example is full of football fans who I am sure would enjoy an evening with Peter Reid type of event. Coupled with something like this you could give out free tickets, students love freebies, and then introduce a student ticket price so that those that use the free tickets and enjoy themselves will go again. I don't think that many students with no previous affiliation with Argyle are going to pay £20 on a regular basis to watch League 2 football. Another way of getting more involved with students in the city would be to offer a deal including a professional training session, match ticket, beer and a pasty to all of the football teams at both of the city's universities. Give people who are interested in football a good reason to get involved with Argyle and it may spark more interest in the club. The worst thing you can do to try and build links with our large student population is to scrap cheaper tickets, and to not put enough effort into getting their interest.

The same can be said when thinking about engaging with the city's kids. The club need to make schools, children, and parents feel involved in their club. Get players and coaches out to them, give them training sessions, give them free footballs, give prizes to kids who perform well, and make them feel a part of the 'Argyle family'. Without the miracle of a successful team getting us to the Premier League, we need to work a lot harder to grab the interests of Plymouth's kids, and, maybe more importantly, make it more difficult for parents to say no to taking them.

It is very rare that we fill Home Park, so we may as well try and fill it with future season ticket holders with cheap tickets.

Free tickets for any of our armed forces on their return home could not hurt either. Build a relationship with the forces and make Argyle one of the first stops for troops getting back to England.

Days like the GTs fun day are also a great way of bringing club and fan together. These are probably best left to the GTs to organise with the funds raised not going directly to the club.

Given more thought there are plenty more things that can be done to help put Argyle back at the heart of the community, it just takes long term thinking and the drive to follow it through.

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John,

These are some of the things I was advocating a couple of seasons ago and indeed, how I got involved with Argyle. Free tickets and a good smattering of exciting games (and a couple of Championships to boot) ensured that when the freebies stopped, the ST was in the bag. Hook line and sinker!

IJN":ko7k0r4h said:

John Petrie":ko7k0r4h said:

Days like the GTs fun day are also a great way of bringing club and fan together. These are probably best left to the GTs to organise with the funds raised not going directly to the club.

Click to expand...

Jeez John, The Riddler would not have that. If there's not an angle in it for him, he simply wouldn't be interested.

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And there in lies the nub of the problem. Far from being set up to engage with/represent it's community PAFC 125 is being set up as a personal play-thing and has been actively offending it's community this summer. From the way the aquisition appears to have been stage managed, through the complete lack of transparency, via lies (they were admitted mods) and the insulting 'positive' news spins around slipped deadlines, the staff treated like slaves, the fans treated like idiots you can see it has absolutely no intention of reaching out with anything but an open hand for money to be put in.

Take the season ticket numbers, they were poor. So Ridsdale, rather than thinking he might need to reach out and engage, rather than sewing some longer term seeds by getting people in on reduced price or free entry just printed up some certificates and resold the whole season ticket package with a gimmick. If you were an emotionless business individual, devoid of soul and morals you might consider that a clever ploy, if you actually think about it though it's an insult, he actually thinks we're THAT stupid.

That's why I don't see PRFC 125 having the faintest idea about community Raul. Plan B?, that would be a totally different kettle of fish, liquidation and rebirth would be TOTALLY community focused. But the model we are being marched towards will ill gained confidence right now will never pay more than lip service to the wider community, it see's it's community as Peter Ridsdale and that is what it'll serve.

X Isle":1yd58kvx said:

IJN":1yd58kvx said:

John Petrie":1yd58kvx said:

Days like the GTs fun day are also a great way of bringing club and fan together. These are probably best left to the GTs to organise with the funds raised not going directly to the club.

Click to expand...

Jeez John, The Riddler would not have that. If there's not an angle in it for him, he simply wouldn't be interested.

Click to expand...

And there in lies the nub of the problem. Far from being set up to engage with/represent it's community PAFC 125 is being set up as a personal play-thing and has been actively offending it's community this summer. From the way the aquisition appears to have been stage managed, through the complete lack of transparency, via lies (they were admitted mods) and the insulting 'positive' news spins around slipped deadlines, the staff treated like slaves, the fans treated like idiots you can see it has absolutely no intention of reaching out with anything but an open hand for money to be put in.

Take the season ticket numbers, they were poor. So Ridsdale, rather than thinking he might need to reach out and engage, rather than sewing some longer term seeds by getting people in on reduced price or free entry just printed up some certificates and resold the whole season ticket package with a gimmick. If you were an emotionless business individual, devoid of soul and morals you might consider that a clever ploy, if you actually think about it though it's an insult, he actually thinks we're THAT stupid.

That's why I don't see PRFC 125 having the faintest idea about community Raul. Contingency Plan?, that would be a totally different kettle of fish, liquidation and rebirth would be TOTALLY community focused. But the model we are being marched towards will ill gained confidence right now will never pay more than lip service to the wider community, it see's it's community as Peter Ridsdale and that is what it'll serve.

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Correct - this guy runs on ego and some have brushed against it, this will entrench him!!

Might get lucky and the team gel, but even he knows that's a flip of a coin!! :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad:

Which ironically is all that he's brought to the deal.........one coin.

To gain a six figure salary and become the highest (self) paid non footballer in Argyle's history.........one coin.

Do you think he got where he is today by engaging with communities?.

No, he's been given the benefit of the doubt by the communities of Leeds, Barnsley, Cardiff and Plymouth only to have them left feeling angry, cheated, disenfranchised and used.

Does he act as a reflective practitioner and consider all the hostility might be to do with something he's done wrong, might this then indicate he'd be willing to trythe community engagement approach here?. No, he creates 'fearless', an entire enterprise set up to re-write history and promote himself as the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Along with all the other absent values, there will be no engagement with community on his watch.

I know I would say this but I still think this article is relevant

http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/Plymouth-A ... story.html


In fact, given what's happening with the contingency plan, it might not be far off prophetic..

The stumbling blocks some people seem to have with the Community Owned club concept are:

- it's amateurish and not 'business-like'; whereas I would argue the opposite i.e. its greater openness and transparency will enforce tighter financial and ethical disciplines - moreover, there are numerous examples around the world of community owned sport clubs or cause-related organisations that make substantial surpluses (that is the word that we can substitute for 'profit') which get re-invested in pursuit of their core purpose or cause
- it'll be a bunch of factional fans running the show; whereas the best model actually calls for a tripartite partnership between private sector, public sector (ie council) and third or voluntary sector (ie fans trusts, fans groups etc) and, by the way, that's not a million miles away from where the contingency plan seems to me to be
- it's limiting, it can never match the spending power of the rich sheiks/big clubs etc; whereas I'd argue that those debt-financed models are completely unsustainable, that the DCMS report will make them undesirable and that anyway, as I keep pointing out, financial success in football is directly proportionate to on-field success, that's how you make sustained money in football. Moreover, we need to remember where we are...!
- it's parochial, there won't be enough season ticket holders, let alone members; whereas I'd argue that the beauty of membership is that you don't need to purchase a season ticket to belong to the club, that you can be anywhere in the world and be a member and that memberships can be like shares i.e. you can have more than one type and you can have different classes of memberships, corporate memberships etc
- it's unworkable, it can't just happen overnight; whereas I'd argue that either it will be forced on us because of our plight or if we as fans want this to be the outcome then we can devise a 'step by step' approach where, say, in the first instance a relatively benign and public spirited private businessman gets together with fans and purchases the club (as is the Swansea case) and over time financially detaches himself while leaving the Club as a Community-owned venture....there's no reason why such a businessman can't make money from such a deal either directly or, more likely, indirectly from sensible property development in the City favourably looked on by Council and the Public at large...


Finally, there is one big piece of evidence in favour of Argyle as a community-owned club: it's the sustained efforts of the Club's community that is ensuring we are surviving at the moment!