This is a good initiative, but can't we wait until the present incumbents have walked away?

Pledges mean power. I would think it would be best for an orderly handover to whatever succeeds David Hughes' reign; if this is a goer we need to be in position.

I genuinely can't see you getting 1000 people to pledge £1000 each. £200-250 is sensible for the average fan.

OK. I'll be up for it.

Happy to get involved if we have a clear understanding of exactly what it is we are trying to achieve.

Back of a beer-mat plans are all well and good, but in reality, if we were to make an effort to Engage DH and the RFL I a meaningful discussion about taking over all, or even some of the responsibility, then a clear and documented plan and process need to be devised.

Keen to hear feedback from any who attended the match tonight as to what was discussed.

I'd strongly recommend not doing that. One reason the Shots Trust bid fell to bits was they all but had to start from zero the day the club went into admin and they didn't have the necessary time.

If, and it is a huge if, this looks viable a Trust could put forward its vision this winter and ask for initial donation, possible putting most into an escrow account? Next season could see another appeal. Build up a cash base and you'll be in a much better position if suddenly needed to run the club.

I doubt the club will generate 1000 donating £1000. Key donors would be needed. Realistically there us more chance of funding a Championship outfit than a SL one. Both may well prove beyond us, remember Shots Trust only got to £82k. What is certain is that we won't be in any position to assist in keeping the club alive if no-one tries. Also if there are other investors out there a motivated fan base willing to share sine of the financial burden might just tip the balance and bring them out of the woodwork.

OK. [urlhttp://rllist.wordpress.com[/urlWebsite is updated and ready for pledges! Will be developing a quick "Manifesto" over the next few days, and hope to kick off a publicity drive. Spread the word!

Twitter @rllist

Personally, I won't invest a brass farthing into any scheme based on the statement on that site.

I would need to see a plan that identified where we would look to be based, what management structures would be required, what support we would get from the RFL (if any) and a set of key goals with timescales attached.

You're working on the premise that the club would continue to need a million a year....I would rather pare back the finances and see if we could save that Million before I looked at "investing".

1 x Office Manager was essentially running the day-to-day business of the club up until Gus arrived. I see no need for anyone else, other than a CEO who is responsible for the high level discussions with the RFL and suppliers. The Suppliers would include a marketing agency engaged on a small retainer, but with a high level of reward available based on increased attendances.
If needs be, an assistant to the office manager can be engaged, but that's it for the non playing staff at the club to start with.

The Luxury of age group teams would need to be seriously considered.....the main focus on the park has to be a competitive and well looked after first team squad and training group. Rooster Booster would be better placed to identify these key roles.....but a playing group of 30 with 5 coaches would be about it to begin with.

The thorny issue of where we play would need to be addressed quickly. If we are realistic, we will be in the middle 8 section of this new scheme....the Hive might just be OK for the first 5 years of our existence with the aim of averaging 5k by the 3rd year of existence.

Income would be based purely on SKY/RFL grants and whatever we can raise ourselves....I see no benefit from continuing to plough cash into a failing model. If we are on 650k a year from SKY and we can retain 1,500 at 20 quid each in ticketing, we have a budget of 1.1 million based on 11 league games with 4 home play-off ties.

That's all we should be looking to spend! If we need to field a team of Londoners and journeymen to start with, then so be it....trying to buy a winning team has cost David Hughes an estimated 7 million over the last 5 years.....not a chance of me investing 5k going down the same route. Sorry.

I would suggest submissions on ideas as to a business plan would be a good place to start. Contacting the club and letting them know what the fans are trying to achieve, asking for as much info as they are prepared to release, permission to contact Brentford, Barnet, Orient etc...get an idea of what is causing the club to continually fail

If 1,000 people just donated 1,000 all you have is a million quid, but no plan as to how to make it work.....you'll never get 1,000 people to agree on how to spend their money after they've donated it, so better to have a plan first for people to buy into!

I would also look at opening dialogue with Mr Hughes directly. He has gone on record as saying he can't afford to prop up the club indefinitely, but if he were to buy into the idea of this ownership model, he may invest say one last payment of 2 million over the first 10 years, giving the club an extra 200k a year to play with?

I know I go on about him being part of the problem (he is), but if he was to invest as a fan and not as an outright owner, then he may see the benefit of this, especially if there is a documented plan as to where the club would be heading...self sufficiency!

I'd make him a lifetime member of the club and a non executive chairman, but with no say in the day to day running of the club. If the club became a viable entity and we looked at developing or sharing a part owned ground, by all means call it the David Hughes stadium, but no control over the running of the club.

You've missed one important expenditure/issue there GF.... Flowers

I agree with you GF. I've set out an initial vision for a Trust, and just asking for pledges not for money to be paid in to an account. I will work hard over the coming weeks and months to make this happen and if we get momentum on this then a dialogue on what we can achieve can get started.
I have lots of plans in my head, as will many others, and a good many of them will be shared by most.
The £1,000 from a thousand people is a hook and very short term. I can assure you I would not be interested in a Trust that just passively threw money down a hole, which is why the pledge page also asks if you could commit actions as well as money.
Sign up and let's see where we can take this. A £1,000 pledge is not compulsory! I see the Trust membership of around £50 a year - the higher the pledge levels though the more clout we may have in the short term.

You will need to get some leaflets printed for the Hudds game as only a small % of fans go on here. Contact Ian Ramsdale to see if he will give you a mention so you can test the water. Good luck.

Thanks poplar. The leaflet idea is a great one.

How are things going with this? We had a few offers on here but have they been backed up by pledges on the blog? At the blog, it's not clear what the total of pledges is - it might help persuade others if there was a running total.

Early days but really encouraging start. We have received pledges already - some from Oop North, and more importantly offers of support and immediate help. Forums and Twitter will only reach so far and so the plan is to leaflet at the Huddersfield game, and people have already offered to help with leafleting and printing! Not sure how well this will go, but it is heartening to see others committed to the Broncos who think a Trust could be viable. Remember the pledge form is just a pledge, not a binding commitment. go along and fill it in, or e-mail me at rllist@me.com

Early days but really encouraging start. We have received pledges already - some from Oop North, and more importantly offers of support and immediate help. Forums and Twitter will only reach so far and so the plan is to leaflet at the Huddersfield game, and people have already offered to help with leafleting and printing! Not sure how well this will go, but it is heartening to see others committed to the Broncos who think a Trust could be viable. Remember the pledge form is just a pledge, not a binding commitment. go along and fill it in, or e-mail me at rllist@me.com

Fantastic. This has really cheered me up.

Might I be so bold as to say that this level of enthusiasm isn't obvious from the Wordpress blog? Is there some way that you can keep a tally of the number of pledges and the amount pledged? It helps on two levels, I think. First, so that visitors to the site can see that the Trust potentially has legs and is worth supporting - if visitors don't see numbers, they may consider the blog inactive. And second, it makes for a nice tweet when certain milestones are met.

Good point, I just didn't want to start doing that with the initial trickle. I'll see what I can do!

This is frustrating in that there is a lot of goodwill and people wanting to do something but the Warder has managed to alienate all of this and turn the tap of this resource in his 3 years

There seems to only be an option of £500 / £1000 or membership only. Nothing in between?

agree with all of this and gutterfax's posts on the subject - where do i
find this blog?

Think this is it: rllist.wordpress.com/

Think this is it: rllist.wordpress.com/

We will be distributing flyers at the Huddersfield game next week - see you there. We should have a better idea then whether this idea has legs.

I do believe York City Knights have a similar thing happening, its an annual pledge, I could be wrong I think they are looking at £250 PA as a share holder of the club

Nice start guys, can I mention one small word of warning about which you need to ensure doesn't happen with this idea. When we nearly lost the club last time when we got the Spanish archer from tricky, we had lots of pledges of support [not hard cash across lots of areas, within a year however it had dwindled down to the usual hard core and the same happened with the ill fated RSG's, I would hazard a guess and say the same had happened time and again in the history of the club, the supporters club, and other times when the grim reaper was knocking at the door.

Lesson being if people pledge to support then it's needed to be delivered time and time again not just when the concepts all nice and shiny, even back then when we spoke with supporters trusts this was the one area it kept coming back to, having enough bodies to carry the load. Plenty of help and assistance from the other clubs supporters as well as supporters direct is available.

Good luck.