HUST are hoping that Hereford FC could follow the fan-owned model adopted at Exeter.
On Thursday evening at the Special General Meeting they have a resolution asking for the club to set up a joint working party to look at a Hereford model for fans ownership based on the model developed at Exeter.
So here's some background and comment from David an Exeter supporter.
"If this is going to be a serious campaign - and you have no idea how
much I hope it is - I suggest someone travels down to have a look at
what we've managed to do to the stadium without getting into any debt
& see how crowds have exploded - nearly 7k average, when we haven't
even had 6k since 1964.
Under 100 years of private ownership we
were utterly shit - one of only four traditional clubs never to play in
the second tier, with only 13 seasons in the third tier since the
creation of the fourth tier. We were one of only around three clubs
never to have played at Wembley by the time we reached the 2006-07
Conference play-offs.
In more than half our 90 EFL seasons we
finished in the bottom half of our respective division - including 15
out of 16 seasons leading up to fan ownership. only being saved from NL
long before we eventually succumbed by reelection & Macclesfield not
meeting EFL ground regulations.
We had an absurd training ground
- essentially a muddy bog with wooden huts that was unusable in bad
weather & a half-finished ground, with the redevelopment of two
sides sending us into the first of two administrations in ten years. The
devastating effect of those insolvencies on our unsecured creditors
meant that for years our name was dirt among local businesses and the
Council. They love us now.
The first insolvency lost us ownership
of the ground & the second sent us to within a nanometre of your
sad fate. Only a Dean Moxey 2nd round 40-yard wonder-goal & a 3rd
round draw & replay against Manchester United saved us.
Things
were so bad that the current Fit and Proper Owner's Test was actually
introduced as a direct response to our near extinction and the jailing
of our owners. If you look you will see that the current prohibitions
are taken from specific examples of sharp practice Russell & Lewis
were both guilty of - for example Russell had unspent convictions when
he took over.
By contrast in 20 years of fan ownership we have
played four seasons in the 3rd tier - one third of our entire total
spent in the third of four tiers. We have reached Wembley five times
& only missed out on a sixth appearance by a last-minute goal when
our virtual youth side at times ran rings around a full-strength
Portsmouth featuring Markus Harness et al in the Papa John's semi-final.
In
fact our Academy has been one of the successes of fan ownership,
producing a steady stream of revenue, including our first two
internationals since probably Cliff Bastin in the 1930s - Ollie Watkins
& Ethan Ampadu.
I'm convinced fan ownership is the reason
for this, because the decision to build an academy meant accepting the
likelihood of more seasons in the Conference than we hoped - especially
when we failed to get promoted before the two seasons of EFL legacy
youth development money ran out.
When a collective of elected
fans are at the centre of decision-making they are more immune to the
short-termism of private owners - not least because individuals don't
like flak & abuse and will often pander to pressure from a vocal
minority.
A significant section of our more vocal moaners were
furious when we replaced the lost EFL youth development funding with
money from the playing budget. The same individuals went nuts when we
hired the unknown Tisdale over Jimmy Quinn - not knowing that Quinn had
said he wasn't interested in youth & wanted the maximum playing
budget, wheras Tisdale was fully on board with having to struggle while
the infrastructure & Academy was slowly built.
That greater
ability for a collective of fans to keep their nerve & provide
stability when a vocal minority are ruled by their emotions can be seen
in the fact we have never sacked a manager under fan ownership, even
when Tisdale was under fearsome pressure, right before he took us to two
successive play-off finals.
By dramatic contrast with our
dismal 100 years of private ownership, we have only been in the bottom
half of our division three times under fan ownership. Two of those
seasons were in League 1 when it was the strongest third tier in
history, as a consequence of the then new points deduction rules on
insolvency catching giant teams out & Tony Bloom doping Brighton.
We
were playing Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday, Sheffield United, Norwich, and
Southampton among other strong sides like Millwall - & they weren't
playing 3rd tier players. Norwich & Southampton were packed with
top players - even internationals - & two or three years later would
be in the Premier League. The Southampton team that drew 1-1, at SJP
contained Kelvin Davis, Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana, Jose Fonte, Morgan
Schneiderlin, Senegalese international Papa Waigo & Mikhail
Antonio.
In our 4th tier fan-owned stint we reached March/April
challenging for the autos or playoffs in virtually every season,
eventually regularly being talked about as promotion favourites. This is
astonishing for someone with my 40-year history as a supporter.
We have also revamped the stadium and the training ground without accumulating any debt.
Of course every model has it's ups and downs, but even then I believe our experience shows the strength of fan ownership."