Supporters Charter Meeting Questions

[Ken Tram]

Do the Football Regulator proposals bring benefits to Derby?

... and to football in general?

[Ken Tram]

Are you pleased with what the Academy has delivered? ... and is it likely to provide the club with a net income?

 

Edited August 2, 2021 by Ken Tram

[Day]

I’m getting a little tired of getting emails through having to hide questions which are clearly a joke. 

The topic closes tomorrow at 7pm, now this is your last chance to put serious questions forward to be voted on in less than 24hrs.

If you have no interest in this meeting or what comes out, fine, but that doesn’t excuse you from the rules I have put in place for this topic to make it easy for us find the most requested to compile and put to the club.

The tl;dr from the opening post

- Serious questions only

- No replying to other members questions 

- 1 question per post

- Only the heart reaction is being counted as a vote, all others including the applause, sheep are being ignored

 

[MackworthRamIsGod]

As a fan of Derby County, if you werent the owner and you were subject to such lack of communication from the club you support at such critical times, how would that make you feel and would you deem that acceptable?

[hintonsboots]

Do you read this Forum ? 

[kevinhectoring]

You have made it clear you want to sell. But the pandemic has made this very difficult. 
 

have there been times when you have said to yourself: covid means I can’t get buyers to pay what the club is worth. So I’m going to hang on until we’re in a more stable environment   ?? 
 

if the current discussions do not come to fruition, might you consider that ? 

[Rab a dab doo]

If you can't find a buyer willing to meet your "price" for the club would you be willing to hand it over someone or some organisation who would management and run it for the greater good of local community, city and its loyal following of supporters.  

[Ambitious]

I think we need to get answers to every point on this, including the details behind each one. Why are we the only club in the entire football league default in payments to the HMRC. Do regulation 16.2, 16.3 and P&S non-submission of audited accounts really relate to purely amortisation or is there more to it? 

This is as of this morning. 

[Woodypecker]

The Stadium currently has ACV (Asset of Community Value) status, where a moratorium of up to 6 month applies in a situation where the ACV becomes subject to sale. This permits a Community Right To Bid for the Asset during the moratorium. Has this time condition proved a barrier to previous or current takeover bids? Is a local consortium involved in the bidding?

[MackworthRamIsGod]

"If we dont go up this year, I'll be here next year. If we dont go up next year, we'll go again the year after. The one thing that everybody who has ever dealt with me knows is that I'll just keep going at it until is succeeds"

That was a quote by you, what changed and is this the first time in your life as a businessman that you walked away before achieving your goal?

[Day]

Ok, submissions and voting is over, below is the order of questions to try and put forward to the club.

I say try, as I must stress again, there is no guarantees over how many I will personally be able to ask.

That’s not because we’re yes men, brown nosers who will be sat around laughing and joking which I’ve seen accusations of on other social media platforms.

I always knew the supporters charter meetings would draw criticism, but we have just a couple of hours with the club with several fan groups, all with a list of their own questions which they are looking to raise.

Some of which will quite possibly turn into lengthy discussions/answers given the current situation. 

I know we have a lot of fans that appreciate what we do, and I thank you. Tomorrow I will leave my house around 1pm and not be home until gone midnight, trains, taxis, £50 odd at my own cost, more than the price of a Huddersfield match ticket some of you are moaning about, to take questions that you all were given an opportunity to submit and vote on.

These are not questions I have come up with by myself, but that we have all contributed to.

I will do my best to represent you, and if my best isn’t good enough then I can only apologise. All I ask is be respectful.

Finally please be aware that there is an agreement in place that the meeting will not be discussed until the minutes have been released to us all to share within our groups and on the club website.

This is in my view the most important meeting since the formation of the Supporters Charter, with widespread frustration and anger at the lack of communication, it’s imperative we get the information out there to you all asap 

Questions

David: Mel, how are you and how is your health? (81 votes)

Rev: Can you give a cast iron guarantee you'll continue to fund the club with the minimum amount needed to ensure survival as a club, until any takeover how ever long that will be? (38 votes)

G Star: It would appear that insufficient due diligence was carried out on the prospective sales to BZI and Erik Alonso.

Who carried out due diligence and what measures have been put in place to ensure that we are not sold to such an unprofessional outfit? (38 votes)

Tombo: Supporters are aware that the club is very much up for sale, but what is the plan for the next few years should a takeover not come to fruition? (37 votes)

I-Ram: Upon completing the sale of the club, will it once again have a stadium that it owns? (28 votes)

Ambitious: I think we need to get answers to every point on this, including the details behind each one. Why are we the only club in the entire football league default in payments to the HMRC. Do regulation 16.2, 16.3 and P&S non-submission of audited accounts really relate to purely amortisation or is there more to it? (27 votes)

Ellafella: The name of Derby County has been radically sullied in the press of late, some of it very unfair. Does the Club have a communications strategy to set the record straight over some of the issues eg how we cheated relegation? How we fixed our accounts? How we sold the ground to ourselves? What we value as a Club eg fairness, community spirited, ambitious. (27 votes)

Anag Ram: What can we, the fans, do to help at this difficult time? (27 votes)

Carl Sagan: Derby County Football Club belongs to you, but also to the people of the city and the community of fans around the world. And many are very worried for the club's future. What are your plans for the club if the worst happens and you cannot find someone to buy it off you? (22 votes)

California Ram: Have you considered selling a small shareholding of the club to fans to bring in immediate capital while continuing to make the club attractive to majority ownership buyers. (19 votes)

Edited August 4, 2021 by David
Added Ambitious question which was missed out.

[Day]

Quick update, I missed a question out from @Ellafellawhich was in the top voted and have edited the list to include the question.

Apologies.

No questions have been removed from the list.

[Day]

I would also like to address the talk of being gagged tonight as I have been contacted several times over the last 24hrs by text/Twitter DM and Forum pm’s.

Can I ask you to think why I would survey the forum for questions if we were gagged?

So then David, good meeting?

Yeah great!

Can you tell us what was said regarding the takeover and if Mel will fund the club going forward until a buyer is found?

Nope, I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.

Can I ask you to think why the meeting was announced through the local media if we was gagged from reporting back?

If this was a meeting where we was all gagged, for what reason would they announce it through the media?

Also, myself and reps other groups attending, what would be the point in giving us information if we was not allowed to share it with you?

Yes, there maybe lines which are requested not to be repeated outside this room, I don’t know, let’s say for example we’re talking revenue and I’m asked how the pandemic has affected my ad revenue, what the impact has been online, it would be requested that this doesn’t leave the room as I shared my personal numbers.

Now some might say I want to know that information, I would say, well you start sharing your pay slips and bank statements online then I’ll talk and share mine publicly.

This might be a poor example given that tonight will be dominated by financial questions, however I assure you we will not be sat on vital key information.

I should be used to this, as I said earlier I always expected criticism from these meetings, Twitter is littered with fans looking to discredit a meeting that hasn’t even happened yet, they don’t know what questions will be asked and what answers will be shared.

Could understand if criticism came after the minutes were shared and fully expect that, but at least give us all attending a chance.

Given the amount of private messages I’ve received and having to respond to I just wanted to address being gagged so I can quickly link back to this post.

Honestly I’m worried all the ads I will see now across other sites will be S&M and leather masks! Please stop!

Apologies for another frustration filled lengthy post, but the good news is I’ll be up and on my way in a few hours so you’ll all be safe unless someone starts and I have signal on the train.

All your frustrations have been noted and I have no doubts will be conveyed to the club tonight. 

[Day]

Hey, look who’s back, it’s me the idiot.

I have just been alerted to the fact I missed out @Ambitious question which made the cut.

This will be edited in now. 

What can I say, I’m only human.

[Day]

Quick update: I have just left the meeting which is still ongoing otherwise I would miss the last train.

A decision was made not to release minutes for this meeting in the end, but I am free to get a write up out to you all as soon as I can. 

I do not have a laptop with me and would prefer to wait until tomorrow once I’m home and can go through all the notes.

I will aim to have it ready to post on the forum tomorrow.

Please do not bombard me with questions across the forum by mentioning me, PM, DM or text if you have my number.

I don’t want to be putting bits and pieces out there all over the place.