KD: you are spot on there and that 7 promotions comment made me chuckle. Most of those were when we were the Wrexham type big hitters and could compete financially

I’d say the fanbase is pretty split on remaining fan owned and selling up - what’s required is probably unachievable, and that’s a compromise… The person who can get that done for the mutual benefit of club and fans alike will be worth their weight in gold, literally… 🏆

So Exeter City £3.8m playing budget and most productive in the league (just) - is that the sort of budget we're looking at 25/26?

Thks Martin - interesting to look at the over & under achievers but probably no surprises

TBK: do you know where we would come in that salary League 1 list?

We’ve been promoted twice and relegated once in 14 EFL seasons. A fair effort but nothing special - and not an advert for fan ownership.

In such a competitive people business there are no guarantees (as Bristol Rovers just found out) much as we would like there to be. Be honest, before the season started who predicted we would have by far the best defence in our division?

Martin - It is a start but if we get close to selling out every game, new ST holders displace other spectators (or themselves) and as season tickets bring in less per game, our extra income might be minimal We need fewer STs sold at heavy discounts, which we don't appear to have addressed despite suggestions from various people. But I'm glad progress is being made.

How much do we spend on salaries again?

I think the point about having the ownership conversation now, is that if we don't go the way of seeking 'proper' investment, what's the plan to avoid what ultimately happened last time we went up?

Sobering if anyone is not aware [Link]

Present us a plan for future fan ownership then TBK. Sell down to 50+1 failed miserably and will fail again with so many more members who couldn’t give a monkeys about fan ownership.

Womble (oh my eyes!), completely agree just find the usual "sell out" a bit odd now. Our easiest win would be to increase the north stand capacity for away fans due to the access issue DD raised earlier. Like at KM we could sell double the amount to some visitors (Luton etc.) if we can stay up long enough to get it built. Then use the new flexible capacity for more local casuals as we do now.

In fact perfect time to sell rather than being at the bottom of the league….

TBK - I think we should remain fan owned, but this the day after promotion is probably the most perfect time for a discussion on how we raise money for a better team and better stadium

Martin - you guys have one job right now which is to show us a feasible plan to eliminate the losses without outside investment. If you can't do that then we are heading for administration sooner or later if we stay fan owned.

Oh and we've found, bought or built two stadia in that time after starting from scratch. Something that no other club has had to do.

*last scored more than one, not one.

The view from Block 227 of the game itself was good. It was the choreography of all the pre and post match stuff I just felt we were left out on a limb for. I have a similar recollection about 1988 and Beasant picking up the cup. I could actually see it from the top of the terrace behind the goal even though it was miles from the pitch yet I couldn't see Reeves get his cup directly opposite the otherside of the pitch without looking at the screen.

That's our 4th season with fans at plough lane,to me we seem no further forward with our finances and loses. 4 years for a master plan..

Seems a strange time to sell given we've just been promoted for the seventh time as a fans-owned club but you go for it.

JG: That’s ok in theory but in reality it’s never going to happen (for all the reasons people keep saying). It really won’t. Then once one comes to that conclusion, there’s 2 options. A) stagnate and probably decline eventually due to financial difficulties, spiralling wages and the inability to compete on an equal playing field B) Sell to someone who has sufficient funds

Yes and I agree with some of your suggestions. I would love you to have a way to discover how many people (a) could and (b) would donate 5K per year to the club. You reckon both are in the thousands. I'd put (a) at somwhere around 300 and (b) at somewhere below 100. Then there is what they would want for their donation, I'd want good governance before I donated anything. I guess we'll never know who is right.

This nonsense reminds me of that big push on 25-year season tickets to tap into the sort of fan ‘John Galt’ froths about. We aimed to raise £4 million by selling 500. In the end we sold about 20.

ML - I am absolutely in agreement with you that the current model is wrong and we need significant investment to grow. I just believe that the best way to do this is to enable any fans that wish to - to do so. More fan ownership...not less.