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Flounder

By Flounder
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Milo

Milo

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Bristol City Holdings Ltd has 3.54 million shares, of which 3.22 million shares are owned by the four directors.

It leaves 319,536 shares in the hands of other shareholders. About 10%. The Supporters Club owns 17,000 of those shares (that's the Supporters Club itself rather than the individual members of the Supporters Club).

Let me ask you shareholders - what does it mean to you to own a stake in our club?

To me, it shows a commitment, and a desire to be a part of the Football Club. You should be proud of your certificates. I respect and admire you like I admire my brother for buying shares back in 1982 (I was 13 at the time).

For what it's worth, their value could be enhanced with a Supporters Trust. Whether you are a shareholder of Bristol City Holdings Ltd or Tescos, you have the right to assign your voting rights. If you were convinced that a Supporters Trust would use your proxy vote responsibly (and what better way to ensure this than by helping to make it happen?) you could retain ownership of your shares but delegate the voting rights to the Supporters Trust.

(The Supporters Trust would have a membership fee of, say, £10 a year. After meeting costs, the surplus is put towards shares. The Supporters Trust then starts to own its own shares in the same way that the Supporters Club does currently.)

So, what does your share ownership mean to you?

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RedTop

RedTop

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Posted
For what it's worth, their value could be enhanced with a Supporters Trust. Whether you are a shareholder of Bristol City Holdings Ltd or Tescos, you have the right to assign your voting rights. If you were convinced that a Supporters Trust would use your proxy vote responsibly (and what better way to ensure this than by helping to make it happen?) you could retain ownership of your shares but delegate the voting rights to the Supporters Trust.

Wouldn't supporters have the same collective power - perhaps even more so - if the proxy votes were given to the Supportsr' Club? Then they could be merged with the 17,000 SC ones.

I guess that's academic, though, as it's not enough to alter any votes compared to the substantial investments by the directors. Which is quite right. They've stuck their money in and it's only right they should dictate how the club they have invested in is run.

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Milo

Milo

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Wouldn't supporters have the same collective power - perhaps even more so - if the proxy votes were given to the Supportsr' Club? Then they could be merged with the 17,000 SC ones.

I guess that's academic, though, as it's not enough to alter any votes compared to the substantial investments by the directors. Which is quite right. They've stuck their money in and it's only right they should dictate how the club they have invested in is run.

The difference is the constitutional make up of the Supporters Club compared to a Supporters Trust. Personally, I'd be happy to see a Supporters Trust run alongside the Supporters Club with the Supporters Club feeling comfortable that a Supporters Trust will use its proxy vote in a sensible manner.

To expand on the difference, a Supporters Trust has to operate with clear democratic and community principles established in its rules, and is authorised by the Financial Services Authority as an Industrial and Provident Society. If the members don't like the muppets running their Supporters Trust they replace them. It has tight and orderly governance principles set down by the government that ensure that funds are used for the right purposes by the right people. I don't know what the Supporters Club's rules are, but I am confident that they don't have the same level of protection for members keen to raise funds for the club in return for shares as a Supporters Trust would.

Some Supporters Clubs have converted into Supporters Trusts, and speaking personally, I'd be very willing to help the Supporters Club towards this goal if they were interested in doing so.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that the board have no right to dictate how the club is run. Of course they do. They have invested in the club, they own Bristol City Holdings Ltd, we don't.

Of the £7M turnover last year, what percentage was made up of directors' money? Despite the success of the concerts, the lion's share of revenue comes from gate receipts, merchandise and refreshments paid for by you and me. Without the directors' support, this club would go into administration. Without the fans' support, it would also go into administration. Somewhere along the line there has to be an acceptance that the money that the fans put into the club should be respected.

But without an equity stake, we'll always bow to the commercial realities of supporting our football team. We'll have to accept the merchandise, the season ticket price, the price of a cup of tea. Pesonally, I'm a fan of Bristol City Football Club not Bristol City Holdings Ltd, although I want Bristol City Holdings Ltd to be a success because it will bring Bristol City Football Club along with it. But the current level of commercial activity can only be seen as acceptable to the staunchest of Thatcherite supporters. We need to move to the centre ground. The upset on this forum relates to a feeling of being fleeced, of not getting value for money for what we put in.

And against this capitalist backdrop, our only hope of getting our voice heard is to play their game. To have a whip round, to make an annual pledge of a tenner, and to start acquiring a stake. And you're right, if it was set up tomorrow, it wouldn't make one jot of a difference in terms of decision making by the end of next season. Or the year after. Or the year after that. But at some point ... at some point the balance will shift.

To give you an idea, if a Supporters Trust acquired the proxy votes of every non-director (a tall order I'll grant you), the Supporters Trust would need to raise just over £200,000 to give it the same voting power as John Laycock. If it had this many shares and had input to the executive, it would of course be voted down if it came up with daft suggestions but it might get itself in a position to have its voice listened to on important matters.

We tend to think that only the mega rich can own football clubs, missing out on the fact that collectively our income and wealth dwarfs the directors. If Real Madrid can be the club with the world's second highest revenue (behind ManUre) and yet be owned and run by its fans, there's no doubt in my mind that little old Bristol City can too.

So I say a big thank you to the board for their support, long may it continue. But why not work with them to generate more funds in return for equity and build ourselves a football club worthy of its latent potential?

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