Good luck! 😊👍⚽️

Good insight Ian into the meeting. They certainly had a sizable number of speakers from officialdom putting the case for Winklebury. David Partridge who was excellent again and myself spoke for remaining at the Camrose for the time being and honouring the Covenant. Obviously it looks like the puppet master is likely to get his way; why listen to the fans ?.

The Winklebury project already had a fair head of steam behind it prior to the meeting and will probably succeed. A number of Councillors are going to look in to the Covenant so it is not completely dead.

I feel we are taking part in a play 'Ali Baba and the 40 thieves' in downtown Baghdad.

Terry Brown of course commands respect from all and I liked his presentation.

So not much more left to say except to wish them good luck. I will not be watching BTFC anytime soon that is for sure.  

Jul 19, 2017 21:40:12 GMT mickys said:

You done yourself proud tonight Dave as IMO everyone did who spoke regardless of which way the club's heading.
Not a bad turnout but in all honesty disappointed with many fans who talk the talk but always seem to have a bigger pressing engagement or work gets in the way
Sorry to hear you've decided to give football a miss down where ever we'll be playing next season as it's plain to see you still have so much passion for the club

Thank you Micky. As I said at the meeting it is a great pity that good fans like yourself, Martin, Ian and David Partridge are not more involved and your opinions sought.  The present management at the club should really resign after this affair.

I am pleased that the club appear to have been saved and playing in Basingstoke at Winklebury if it goes ahead is not a disaster. The sad thing is we are replacing a multi-million pound modern stadium at Eastrop with a £250K upgrade at the Hampshire FA HQ.  You are correct I still hold a lot of feeling for the club and remember taking my sons to virtually every home match and a lot of away matches over many seasons. I think the supporters are superb and deserve so much better than what they have been given. I will monitor who finishes up running the Community  Club and if it looks as though we get capable folk on board I will drift back to watching 'stoke.  All the very best.

Jul 20, 2017 12:15:42 GMT steve said:

I'm really sorry folks bu I am trying hard to understand why people are still holding out hope that there is something in this Covenant issue and it is still cropping up! I try very hard when posting to stick to the facts of the subject I am posting about. After having the opportunity to be able to have people look into this, When it became legally clear there was nothing anyone could do I had to accept this. 

Can those people explain clearly to me and others why they do not believe the two experienced independent property Lawyers working for two different firm of Solicitors in the town, who are clear experts in their field and who have looked deep into this (1 as I have said before a BTFC season ticket holder for a good number of years now and the other one who at one time had a slot on BBC Radio Solent a few years back). Why could they not find something wrong in this, perhaps you experts out there can let me and others know.

Do people not think if the two of them had come across good news to pursue it would be out by now along with me pushing it hard! I like many of you held out enormous hope in the beginning that this would bring good news but there comes a time when you have to admit that nothing more can be done, that time has passed.

You also have to remember there is a 3rd experienced Property Lawyer involved in what went on and that is the one at Phillips Solicitors who would have been behind putting it all together. If this deal involving the covenant was a no go from the beginning Rafi would have been advised accordingly and I can assure you all it would not have gone ahead.

Are all 3 really wrong! I don't think so.

What does interest me though is how this was all allowed to happen in the first place and Rafi was happy to let the ground become unprotected because he must have known. I brought this up early in the first Fans Forum when Rafi actually said I had a good point but never answered the question! 

There is a wording in a land registry document from last year that suggests the covenant remains, this being the major part of the argument put up by the two David's last night. A couple of Cllrs also commented on their experience with covenants.

Most of us don't know who to believe if we're honest and that's why clarity is needed. I have no reason to disbelieve your lawyers or the research done by the two David's but they are at odds and until this is crystal clear I don't see how we can move on.

FWIW I reckon Rafi has been planning this for a very long time.

I agree with Matt's point. Putting the Covenant to one side for a moment I feel certain there is one thing we can agree on. That is the sheer fact that it has taken the ordinary fans on the terracing to reach this point. A determined effort prevented the move to Farnborough and now it seems to have possibly secured a home in Basingstoke.

It has taken much research and effort throughout without any information being given up by the club in our quest for answers. As I said last night the club have a great group of supporters and they can be proud of their efforts. What is required now is that the club starts listening to them and act on the feedback they receive.

Another point brought up by Simon Hood's replacement was the money Simon generated a few seasons back and where it went.

The  Winklebury project will cost a lot of money and that is going to come probably from the Basingstoke taxpayer through the Community Club project as we understand it. The ground at present would barely reach Hampshire League standards and definitely not Combined County League standards.

I was pleased to get my 2 minute slot after agreement with the Labour and Tory leaders just 5 minutes before the meeting started. Luckily I had prepared a few notes before going to the meeting.

So we move on and the club need to get some new people with a professional outlook at the helm to prevent this sorry state of affairs ever happening again.