Ebbsfleet?

[Roger Kettle]

How are you guys getting on with your investment? (For those who don't know, this was an experiment where fans bought a share in a football club and then---supposedly---had a say in running it). Tarks and Peeps both got sucke...er...persuaded to join up. How's it going, boys?

[The Peepmaster]

I haven't renewed because I didn't get the excitement that I originally thought I would. Had it been a share that I could have owned and sold on, I might have kept in there. Other interests have taken over I'm afraid.

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

I haven't renewed because I didn't get the excitement that I originally thought I would. Had it been a share that I could have owned and sold on, I might have kept in there. Other interests have taken over I'm afraid.

[A Woman]

I haven't renewed because I didn't get the excitement that I originally thought I would. Had it been a share that I could have owned and sold on, I might have kept in there. Other interests have taken over I'm afraid.

[peter]

There is a sucker born most days sometime there are three.

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

Actually, I rather resent that, Peter - when I told them I was not going to renew, based largely on what Peepsie wrote above, I wished them every success for the future, and told them I was very happy to have been in on the ground floor of what was an innovative and highly imaginative enterprise, and one deserving of far more than I could contribute to it. I stand by that pompous statement.

So there. 

[peter]

I believe that so many share holder have not renewed that there is a good chance that they will go bankrupt

[Malc]

Not that Peter's trying to make you rats leaving a sinking ship feel guilty or anything.

[Roger Kettle]

Okay, it's easy in hindsight but I was never comfortable with the whole concept. It was, I suppose, a clever attempt to cash in on the fantasy football/computer age and it has, briefly, worked. Let's face it, over 30,000 people paid ?35 a head to be part of it. The idea---and selling point---that each investor was going to be involved in team selection, transfer deals and management decisions was never going to happen.
Depending on your viewpoint, this was either a cynical or glorious way to involve the fans. I'd love to say it was the latter.

[peter]

How could thirty five thousand people select a team of eleven players.

[Mince]

Fight!

[Diane CBPFC]

The Calgary Zoo lets you sponsor an animal - owning a pink famingo could be more fun than owning a soccer player.

[Diane CBPFC]

That's right - I had nothing to add to this thread but wanted to be included anyway so came up with the pink flamino post.

[Roger Kettle]

I liked that Manfred Mann song about flamingos.

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

I do honestly believe this was an innovation with very noble and worthy intentions, and that for many people disillusioned with the way the beautiful game has been hijacked as a fashionable corporate pastime at his highest levels, devaluing the loyal fan bases that put the big teams where they are, this was an understandable backlash by those desperate to reclaim the game in some form, for its working class roots.

It may prove to be ill-judged in time, who knows? Hindsight is always easy. But thousands of people saw something to get a little excited about when this started, and many of those remain faithful to the cause. I didn't have the time, nor the enthusiasm I actually yearned for. These days, I'm a long way from the football club I've actively supported man and boy, and was looking for something to replace that. Ironically, my old team have done that themselves, and are currently favourites to win their league, and the subject of many in-depth speculative emails between me and my kid brother (also in exile near Leeds), plus his Liverpool-supporting squash rival, whom he has persuaded to adopt St Johnstone as his second team, in light of Liverpool's determination to be this season's nearly men yet again. It's all been too fascinating for me to even begin to want to look over my shoulder at how Ebbsfleet are doing.

Wouldn't you agree, Diane?