New owners of TUFC

More or less as expected they need to try and calm the stormy waters somehow. whatever their true intentions.

Whatever thet may be we really have three options - accept what they say as gospel - continue to moan and deride everyone connected to the deal - or walk just away and abandon the football club.

I guess most of the hard core will stick with the club for the time being until their plans are either confirmed or exposed.

I still believe it can go either way and remain open minded cos after all we've been here before havent we and have listend to big ideas and empty promises before about a decade a go if my memory serves my right..

post queestions and see what you get back?

Excellent summary!

For those who haven't used the link and wondering on the subject of 'militant again' Alpine's latest personal attack, here's the blog post in full giving an overview on events from their perspective:-


Not “the best of bedfellows” according to chairman David Phillips at the November fans forum. “Not a party we’re talking to at this moment”. Yet, not fewer than six weeks later, Torquay United are being sold to Riviera Stadium Ltd, a subsidiary of Gaming International (GI).

You may ask yourself what has changed in a month and a half.

Without a home game in a month, one can see how a potentially perilous cashflow situation could have forced the board’s hand. But Gaming International? The same buyers who pulled out of a deal earlier in the year after a four-month exclusivity period, because they couldn’t purchase the freehold for Plainmoor? Are they really the best option for the future of this club? Our club?

Many fans feel that they’ve been misled. The Torquay United Supporters Trust (TUST) called it a “betrayal”. Even if they were the only option on the table, once you examine a little of GI’s track record, you can begin to understand why.

Gaming International formed as the Bristol Stadium Company in 1932, and ran the Eastville Stadium in Bristol, home to Bristol Rovers and a popular greyhound racing scene. In 1986, Bristol Rovers were forced to move to Bath City’s Twerton Park, in the end for a decade, and a new greyhound stadium never materialised after the stadium was sold to Ikea in 1997 for £19m. The man fronting the purchase of Torquay United, Clarke Osborne, was a director of the company when Eastville was sold.

In the mid nineties, the company started to run the greyhound and speedway stadium at Poole and the dog track at Milton Keynes. It also became involved in the running of the Milton Keynes Bowl in 1999. Greyhound racing no longer exists in Milton Keynes. Plans to build a new facility next to the Bowl did not come to fruition and the dog track closed in 2005. The land has since become housing. As for Poole, the company still operate the stadium, and talks have been ongoing for several years about a potential new home.

Between 1996 and 2001 the they joined forces with a company called Chelverton Properties and acquired the leases to Hereford United’s Edgar Street ground, with rumours of plans to develop the site as a supermarket, using a company called Formsole. The plans, if they existed, never came to fruition.

Becoming Gaming International not long afterwards, they purchased the greyhound and speedway stadium at Reading in 2002, with greyhound racing ending there in 2008. Again, there were proposals for a new stadium, but they never came to pass and the stadium has since been demolished.

In 2003 Gaming International joined forces with both Bristol football clubs in a project known as South Gloucestershire Arenas. This proposed a potential 30,000 capacity stadium for both teams to use. The project was abandoned after a few months.

GI also runs the speedway stadium at Swindon, and bases it’s operations there. Since 2007, efforts have been underway to build a new stadium, with new houses to be developed on the old site. After a long and drawn out planning process, work eventually began in November 2016.

Given all the above, it seems reasonable to ask whether they sincerely have the future progress of the club at heart? Considering GI’s aim with their previous bid was to acquire the freehold to Plainmoor, and that the subsidiary who’ve acquired the club is called Riviera Stadium Ltd, what do you think their intentions might be?

The former Liberal MP for Torbay, now local councillor and Gulls fan Adrian Sanders recently asked the Mayor for “the dates, times and venues when and where he has met with officials of Torquay United AFC to discuss the future of Plainmoor and alternative ground locations since May 2015” The answer was eight, and, Sanders says, “all were held in secret”. There is a covenant which restricts use for the land to recreational purposes, but whether this can be overturned or not remains to be seen.

What also of Peter Masters’ involvement? The Truro City chairman, whose own collapsed bid in 2015 led to Dean Edwards’ consortium, has been a constant presence around the club ever since - he tweets about Torquay United almost as much as he does Truro - and he proudly boasts to have brokered the GI deal. What is his interest? His own club have stadium problems themselves, with a proposed new stadium at Silver Bow delayed at least until January, and he has already purchased a ground-share agreement at Plainmoor that still stands.

Thanks to a six-figure loan made by GI which, if not repaid by January, meant the club’s ownership would have defaulted to them anyway, the club was hardly the most attractive opportunity, but how seriously were the other options on the table properly explored? Groups from as close to home as the Midlands, and as far afield as Canada and China, were all linked at one stage or another, and community ownership was also a possibility.

Not turning up to their own public unveiling yesterday wasn’t the greatest start for GI. Today’s utterances from Clarke Osborne - who up until now had taken a vow of silence - of backing the manager, five year plans, youth schemes and sustainable futures are, thankfully, more encouraging and worthy of being given a reasonable chance. If they are what they say they are, then there is hope.

But sadly Gaming International’s track record means Torquay fans still need to watch them extremely closely, scrutinise their every move, and help TUST with their push to purchase the Plainmoor freehold.

Let’s hope David Phillips has put us into bed with the right fellows.
Posted 3 hours ago by John Cadigan

It's no surprise that Alpine approves of the new owners. They are here to finish the job that his mate Chris Roberts started around 10 years ago.

Nothing to remove or apologise for and as you know I am quite comfortable with alternate views on here.

The apology from John was that a year ago he thought the club was heading for relegation and we should get an experienced manager in which probably represented the overwhelming majority view. Pretty decent of him and while most or even all on this forum have been wrong at some point, not everyone admits this, much less make an apology. Whether this blog is a clear pointer that his subsequent blog is also wrong can be left to the reader....