Andy b

Well said Philliggi. what turn out can one expect?

Well said underdog. Fans need to get involved.

Sheridan going could be the spark that forces fans into action though. The trust should really be looking to take advantage of this to get people on board and give it the numbers it needs to make a difference. Now is the time....

The trust or another equivalent needs to step up. Change is clearly needed in how the trust (again or an equivalent) works. Fans feel no more connected to the trust than they do to the club. The trust can't bury its head in the sand anymore. It's not working. More than prepared to do my bit. When is the AGM?

Hear hear new blue. Agree with every word of that

it's too easy to say it costs money and to just shelve the idea. It wouldn't have cost money to get JR and a few ex players on the pitch before a game to acknowledge the occasion.

Thanks for your contribution Danny

Good points Derbyshire latics. I acknowledge some key attributes remain and in bp we have a place steeped in history. However insofar as the club is in control of these things I assure you it is stripping the charm out of oafc and the experience of visiting bp. Thankfully the club has no control over its history and the people which support oafc. These are the only things left which give the club its character. It is telling that you point to away fixtures as being the enjoyable part - ie the experience which the club has no control over. Oh yes and just because you don't get to bp to experience the ground pre-match it doesn't mean you can't accept my point.

The connection fans feel for their team is no different to how one feels about their home, their favourite town or their local pub. It is the interesting quirks, the history, the atmosphere, the people and the memories which define the club and which create that sense of belonging. Without these attributes that sense of connection will soon erode. Granted in the case of oafc some of these ingredients still exist. The memories will always be there which is why people cling on. But the club has been stripped of all its character over the last ten years. These are the things that define oafc and which make it distinct and which ultimately make people fall in love with the club. It is the equivalent of your local boozer with its interesting selection of ales and larger than life landlord known to the whole village being taken over by a large chain. It immediately loses its usp and unless it's in a town or city centre where there is a large customer base on tap, the pub will fail. Everything which we hold dear about oafc and which gives it some charm has gone - mouldy old dough, fanfare for the common man, junior latics lounge, clayton arms. The 25th anivsary of the greatest moments in the clubs history passed with barely any recognition. That was the most devastating part of all this and really made me question what is left to love. Top flight clubs can afford to be soleless businesses. Smaller clubs can only compete if they offer that sense of being independent and offering something different. The minute you strip a smaller club of everything that makes its different and which football fans with more discerning pallets appreciate you are destined to kill the club. This is the path oafc has gone down. You can't turn back the clock but I am not proud of being an oafc fan any more.

Worth exploring the appetite for something of that type. The them and us culture between the fans and the club is extremely damaging for a club of our size. However I am convinced that the fans have the ability to effect genuine change at the club if they can pull together. That will breed a sense of ownership. Fans will ultimately get more out of being an oafc fan. Realistic option or rose tinted spectacles?

You don't need consensus but the inability of the score board funding initiative to get above 20k shows just how much the fans feel disconnected from its owners and the club. A top down initiative imposed on the fans proclaiming to be 'owned by the fans'. The trust model does not facilitate true engagement where fans feel a sense of influence and ownership. It is not working.

The absence of any unity amongst fans is clearly the stumbling block to fans having any real infuence over the club even in the absence of outright ownership. Not enough fans are prepared to pull together towards a common cause. Fan ownership may not be a panacea but the fans of this club need to have a greater influence over its future. Fans need to pull together and critically need a leader to set the tone and agenda. The breakdown in relationship between fans and the club is as much the fans as the clubs fault. The club gets no clear direction as to how the fans feel. They are totally fragmented and from my observation act independently and probably give contradicting opinions to the club. Misguided endeavours like the failed score board fund result from this.

If that is the case why would it cost money to purchase the club if it effectively makes a 1m + loss every year? It either makes a loss and the owners would, in these circumstances, be willing to sell for peanuts, albeit fans would have to cover day to day running costs or it makes a profit and day to day running costs would be covered by income. It cannot be the case that the club is worth millions whilst also making a loss every month. That's a direct contradiction.

My point being that I have not seen any evidence that the current owners dont make a financial profit out of. If that is the case then why can't a profit also be made under fan ownership? Other than then purchase of the club fans would not need to fund the day to day running. Normal income streams would cover it. If I am wrong and the current ownership do fund the club from their own financial resources then surely the club is not worth a penny and they would be willing to sell. Am I missing something here?

money to run the club? Are guy suggested that the current owners still bail us out every month?

Agree with all that is said to some degree, though not the point about being unable to compete in this division under a fan ownership model. Whilst not fan owned Walsall, Rochdale and burton are surely proof that you don't need money to compete at this level. You need vision and togetherness, amongst other things. Attributes that have been lacking at bp for many years. Totally agree with the point that only a catastrophic event galvanises fans into action. In a perverse way I wish we had hit rock bottom. People might have sat up and done something about it. Instead we have a slow and painful death that no one realises is actually taking place. So in the event that we are put into administration, does this become a viable option?

Am sure this has been on the minds of many Latics fans for some time, yet I have yet to see a proper debate on the appetite for this or the viability of this ownership model for Latics. This is long overdue for many reasons I don't need to spell out. Key questions are Under what circumstances is it viable? As a collective are Latics fans prepared to make the sacrifices (financial and potentially the league standing of OAFC) to make it happen? What is stopping it happen at OAFC? Do fans want it? For me fan ownership is the future for this club and personally I would far rather see us in the 10th tier of English football owned by fans and with prospects for growth than in our current position. That is no disrespect to our current owners but I am sure they would be the first to admit that it ain't worked out.

Totally unfair criticism. :censored: service, :censored: team, a significant injury, loads of managers, very low on confidence etc. I defy anyone to thrive in such an environment. For what it's worth he looks like a footballer to me and I would be more than prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. Next 15 games may change my opinion but for now leave him alone. That probably goes for the rest of the team as well. Judge in may

There are very few examples where new grounds have not galvanised a club. Colchester have had a season in the champ have they not? Shrews came back from the brink on the back of their move and I would give my right arm to have had the recent success of Chesterfield. Northampton are riding high in league 2. Doesn't guarantee success but Darlington aside name one team which has ever gone into decline oafc style since a stadium move. Ps get over the M postcode thing would you. Most people aged 40 and below don't care about such things and the younger ones (ie the future fan base) certainly don't

Oafc1955. We will of course never know but there are few teams who have not gone onto bigger and better things on the back of a stadium move. At the very least it has prevented most going into decline. That's a simple fact you cannot disagree with. Obviously that doesn't mean that you move at all costs but you have to move with the times. Nostalgia can cost you. On the capacity point please try and see the context to the point I am making. 13k is currently too big based on our current situation. My point being that I don't believe we would be in the current position had we moved. Just cos 13k is too big now does not mean 12k would have been too big at failsworth. You are comparing apples and pears there.

No I am saying that fans are too disbursed relative to the size of our ground and fan base. It makes sense on many levels to concentrate fans into smaller areas. May be a sweeping generalisation but that's my prediction. Guess will never know if I am right. My point being that times change and we got to move on. No point being nostalgic about the crumbling main stand. That's life mate.

No bad thing in my view. Fans already too disbursed within a stadium that's currently too big for us. Upper section of chaddy shut have been closed when it was our home end and the small section of the RRE should not be used. Are people really mourning the loss of the main stand upper? I suspect that the same people were against the failsworth move. We wouldn't be in this situation if that had come off.

Leeslover, the point is if Oafc was a positive brand to be associated with then OEC would make more of the fact that OEC is part of Oafc - it would be a selling point of the OEC. Do a quick comparison of facilities at other clubs. The fact that it has, in my view, actively sought to disassociate itself from oafc tells you everything about the owners priorities.

Land and any profitable development that can be realised from it - eg oec

There may or may not be inaccuracies in there with regards to the detail but the fundamental point being made is 100 percent accurate. The division that oafc is in has very little impact on OEC profits so why wouldn't corney run the football club a shoe string? Why do you think the OEC has so little OAFC branding on it. Look at the website - no real reference to latics to speak of. This disassociation is a conscious decision. The less connection between OEC and oafc from a branding point point the better for the success of OEC. It means OEC as a business isnt associated with a failing brand and so when oafc declines it doesnt drag OEC down with it.