Paul Baker on his future

[Jon Palmer]

Details here: http://bit.ly/PB20years" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Ralph]

Be a sad day when PB retires at the end of the season. So many memories and amazing days out. Spoken to Paul many times standing with the fans or in hospitality sections. We owe him a massive debt of gratitude.
Time to name a stand after him.

Hopefully Andy of LCI Rail will take the baton and run with it.

[confused.com]

Will be a sad day indeed, used to play 5 aside with Paul and a real gent. He also had the decency to stick with us after relegation to the conference and steer the ship,

[Nesty]

its says the end of 2017/18 season

[Artemis]

Its says active until the end of the season and "play a role" next season. I guess that means a transition to the new Chairman before he leaves the board at the end of 2017/18.

Sad day when he does go - a shoe-in for the name of the new / updated main stand?

[Reliant Robin]

Paul Baker has given everything for this Club and we can never repay him. If we think of the success we have had since he became Chairman, we have been incredibly fortunate. It's the main reason I get so annoyed when some of our more recent 'supporters' start kicking off if we hit a bad patch - Paul Baker doesn't deserve to hear that.

There were of course the dark days after one of our more recent managers almost took us to administration, but Paul Baker steered us out of that mess and we then got to a Play Off final and a Play Off semi. We then get relegated out of the Football League and it's Paul Baker again who helps mastermind our "Bounce Back" at the first attempt. What an incredible journey.

Then there are the times when he has given his house over to CTFC personnel when they have needed accommodation. It just goes on and on. We have been very lucky to have a Chairman that has always put the Club first, when you consider alternatives at other clubs who have lined their own pockets and driven their Clubs into oblivion.

It will be a very sad day indeed and we need to give him a decent send off. As a minimum a new stand should proudly display his name.

[everyman]

Be a sad day when PB retires at the end of the season. So many memories and amazing days out. Spoken to Paul many times standing with the fans or in hospitality sections. We owe him a massive debt of gratitude.
Time to name a stand after him.

Hopefully Andy of LCI Rail will take the baton and run with it.

Hang on ! He has yet to earn the confidence of many of us who don`t know anything about him.

[Nesty]

Paul Baker has given everything for this Club and we can never repay him. If we think of the success we have had since he became Chairman, we have been incredibly fortunate. It's the main reason I get so annoyed when some of our more recent 'supporters' start kicking off if we hit a bad patch - Paul Baker doesn't deserve to hear that.

There were of course the dark days after one of our more recent managers almost took us to administration, but Paul Baker steered us out of that mess and we then got to a Play Off final and a Play Off semi. We then get relegated out of the Football League and it's Paul Baker again who helps mastermind our "Bounce Back" at the first attempt. What an incredible journey.

Then there are the times when he has given his house over to CTFC personnel when they have needed accommodation. It just goes on and on. We have been very lucky to have a Chairman that has always put the Club first, when you consider alternatives at other clubs who have lined their own pockets and driven their Clubs into oblivion.

It will be a very sad day indeed and we need to give him a decent send off. As a minimum a new stand should proudly display his name.

vert well put, agree with every word

[Robin]

I just hope his successor can invest more money and continue with the way PB has ran the club, sadly if we don't have a benefactor we will lag behind.

[Ralph]

Be a sad day when PB retires at the end of the season. So many memories and amazing days out. Spoken to Paul many times standing with the fans or in hospitality sections. We owe him a massive debt of gratitude.
Time to name a stand after him.

Hopefully Andy of LCI Rail will take the baton and run with it.

Hang on ! He has yet to earn the confidence of many of us who don`t know anything about him.

And yes i know it might not be him at the end of the day, but when you look at the other options currently in place on the board, it makes sense that it might be what PB is aiming for.
It's not down to us to "approve" whoever takes over, we have to trust them and see what happens.

[paperboy]

I just hope his successor can invest more money and continue with the way PB has ran the club, sadly if we don't have a benefactor we will lag behind.

I wouldn't want a new chairman to come in and "invest" lots of money. Those characters never seem to stay around for the long haul.

[Robin]

There are good chairman who invest Paperboy look at the guy at Peterborough, Wigan, Rotherham, Chelsea, Bournemouth and what those clubs have achieved.
PB also put quite a bit of his own money in during the early days back in the conference.

The reality is with so many clubs reliant upon benefactors if we don't have one we won't progress.

[Ralph]

There are good chairman who invest Paperboy look at the guy at Peterborough, Wigan, Rotherham, Chelsea, Bournemouth and what those clubs have achieved.
PB also put quite a bit of his own money in during the early days back in the conference.

The reality is with so many clubs reliant upon benefactors if we don't have one we won't progress.

I think you will find he has put a lot more of his money in since we have been in the FL too

[asl]

There are good chairman who invest Paperboy look at the guy at Peterborough, Wigan, Rotherham, Chelsea, Bournemouth and what those clubs have achieved.
PB also put quite a bit of his own money in during the early days back in the conference.

The reality is with so many clubs reliant upon benefactors if we don't have one we won't progress.

I think you will find he has put a lot more of his money in since we have been in the FL too

I rather suspect he is the club's single biggest investor.

[Ralph]

that is a 100% guarantee

[andgarod]

Before we spend someones money lets remember that Mr Keswick walked away and why perhaps he is coming back
Will the new chairman run a B&B for players it helps build the bond
In PBs legacy I would like to see that he has appointed 2 trust board members as directors
How will the new club board involve the trust and BJs legacy if theres anything left

Do shareholders have any say in the new chairman or does PB just appoint someone
Interesting times after PB said that the club was not sustainable or at least that is what is being reported by the echo

[horlickfanclub]

Why would a new Chairman pour money in? Better to run on a business like model and only spend what you have. Football clubs are not charities. Look at Orient. The owner poured his money into purchasing the club and then fails to pay the Revenue Tax. That is cheating the country out of cash. Expecting a Director to donate masses of money is what puts some off being involved.

[Ralph]

Why would a new Chairman pour money in? Better to run on a business like model and only spend what you have. Football clubs are not charities. Look at Orient. The owner poured his money into purchasing the club and then fails to pay the Revenue Tax. That is cheating the country out of cash. Expecting a Director to donate masses of money is what puts some off being involved.

Unfortunately there are people that believe that is what you should do.

[Robin]

As Paul Baker recently stated you cannot run a club sustainably in the lower leagues, it's not a level playing field as there are so many benefactors. Unless we have a chairman and board who can put in their own money (within reason) then we won't progress it's as simple as that.

[andgarod]

there is of course the chance of being successful and giving youngsters a longer contract and then make money from selling them on and sell on fees . Or drawing a top 4 prem team in the cups ( except we have to get to round 3)

[Robin]

But developing youngsters also costs money, unless we can upgrade our academy status we won't get the better ones and the bigger clubs will cherry pick the ones who look good - Bristol recently signed two of ours for example. It's ok in the conference where we had far more resources than the majority of clubs but money ultimately talks in leagues one and two.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

If we are unsustainable we are unsustainable. As per the Annies thread, a benefactor for an unsustainable club can be exciting, but at the lower levels generally ends in tears.

[vickeryc]

A club like Cheltenham is never likely to break into the big time, but that doesn't mean it can't be ambitious within reason without breaking the bank. I personally find the Premiership out of touch with ordinary supporters, superficial, and riddled with prima donnas and huge doses of gamesmanship. Supporting a lower league club can be frustrating at times, but it's arguably more rewarding when success does come your way. It's a case of scaling-down one's expectations to a realistic level. Getting to the 5th round is like winning the FA Cup to a team like Cheltenham. Similarly, reaching the Championship would be our equivalent of reaching the Champions League.

[Reliant Robin]

A club like Cheltenham is never likely to break into the big time, but that doesn't mean it can't be ambitious within reason without breaking the bank. I personally find the Premiership out of touch with ordinary supporters, superficial, and riddled with prima donnas and huge doses of gamesmanship. Supporting a lower league club can be frustrating at times, but it's arguably more rewarding when success does come your way. It's a case of scaling-down one's expectations to a realistic level. Getting to the 5th round is like winning the FA Cup to a team like Cheltenham. Similarly, reaching the Championship would be our equivalent of reaching the Champions League.

No pun intended - but this is Bang On the money. Couldn't agree more.

Worth pointing out from other points raised in this thread, that talk of CTFC being "unsustainable" only applies to its current projections, because of the rising costs of running a professional football team. People like Finners are working wonders behind the scenes bringing in extra revenue. Sometimes a bit of 'spending to accumulate' investment can increase the income, that's why a new stand with decent facilities that can be hired for events outside of football, can be such an important new stream of revenue. Unless we can increase our revenue streams we will always be a small Town club living within our means at whatever level it can sustain.

It's unrealistic to expect Directors to bankroll success, they understandably want to see some return on the investment, such as seeing more punters come through the turnstiles as an absolute minimum. An analogy would be for example, if a group of businessmen opened up a Theme Park somewhere in North Gloucestershire needing to attract 15,000+ customers every week, but only 2,500 ever turned up, how long would they keep it going for? And why would they keep it going?

Sadly, we have a fickle fan base in and around Cheltenham, we have our hard core support of around 2,500, a 'floating' 500 who may turn up depending on the weather & what's on the telly, and then the occasional glory hunters in their hoards when big ticket games come up.

We took over 18,000 fans to the Milenium Stadium for the Play Off Final v R&D, but (either side of the Grimsby final) less than half of that attended Wembley for the Crewe final, we know ticket pricing had an effect on that one, so there is potential in the Town if we could find a sustainable way to progress. What we are not going to see is that group of Businessmen investing in the hope of attracting 15,000 every match day, but only seeing 2,500 - they know how fickle our fan base is. It needs to be built up steadily and without too much risk, so we don't lose everything.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

Fickle, or just price concious? If two friends go to ten games each in a season that is £410 combined costs on tickets alone. They could go to Spain for five days for less.

Not just Cheltenham but at most L1, L2 and Conference clubs ticket prices are obscenely high. When average incomes have not grown in real terms since 2008 and more people than ever are on zero hours contracts you cannot expect people around the country to fork out £20 for lower league football.

Until the costs of running clubs falls there is little incentive for people to invest in over priced loss making enterprises unless they have a constant stream of money to write off and a passion for the club.

[confused.com]

Fickle, or just price concious? If two friends go to ten games each in a season that is £410 combined costs on tickets alone. They could go to Spain for five days for less.

Not just Cheltenham but at most L1, L2 and Conference clubs ticket prices are obscenely high. When average incomes have not grown in real terms since 2008 and more people than ever are on zero hours contracts you cannot expect people around the country to fork out £20 for lower league football.

Until the costs of running clubs falls there is little incentive for people to invest in over priced loss making enterprises unless they have a constant stream of money to write off and a passion for the club.

very true, Spurs at wembley middle tier, £20

[Robin]

I agree with both the above clubs. As far as investment goes I'd like to see someone put money into building a new 3500 main stand for the reasons I've described several times. Money could also go into improving our academy status and training facilities but artificially inflating the wage budget is not likely to bring long term gain.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

Unfortunately Sky/BT will inflate our wage budget no matter what we do. Wage inflation from TV deals trickles down the leagues, but the TV revenue does not. So you end up clubs in L1 with high expectations having to pay players multiple thousands a week. With no TV money, the burden to fund this comes from ticket prices.

[Shade]

And as you say that it's announced BT have secured exclusive rights to the Champions League until 2021, no highlights on ITV, for £1.2bn. Up go prices again.

[Red Duke]

And as you say that it's announced BT have secured exclusive rights to the Champions League until 2021, no highlights on ITV, for £1.2bn. Up go prices again.

I am paying £5.00 / month for BT Sport. If it goes up then I'll be off as I have no real interest in the Champions League. (A classic misnomer)

[kora]

Will they carry on their free game in every round on the showcase ch.59 I wonder. Wednesday it's Barca v PSG. There's usually 2 Europa league games on the Thursday as well.

[Ralph]

It's scandalous what you get charged there for football. We get every single Prem game live, a few Championship and 4 Champions League games each week as well as Europa for no extra cost on our usual TV charges

[Shade]

Will they carry on their free game in every round on the showcase ch.59 I wonder. Wednesday it's Barca v PSG. There's usually 2 Europa league games on the Thursday as well.

Apparently not, but they might yet announce a separate deal with ITV or someone else for highlights or live matches. I wouldn't hold my breath, though.

[confused.com]

Unfortunately Sky/BT will inflate our wage budget no matter what we do. Wage inflation from TV deals trickles down the leagues, but the TV revenue does not. So you end up clubs in L1 with high expectations having to pay players multiple thousands a week. With no TV money, the burden to fund this comes from ticket prices.

I canned sky sport just for that reason, sick of coughing up to pay some big time charlie

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

It's scandalous what you get charged there for football. We get every single Prem game live, a few Championship and 4 Champions League games each week as well as Europa for no extra cost on our usual TV charges

Scandalous, but Brits only got themselves. Whether it is trains, energy, football or whatever, the more the ruling elite line their pockets with our hard earned, the more people vote for them at the General Election!

It is the neo-liberal market after all, so if clubs go bust or you can't afford to go, that's life. Community and society doesn't matter.