SUFC Board vs Iron Trust

[Apollo11]

New email from the Trust discusses the Board reneging on a promise to sell shares to the Trust:

“Starting in spring of this year the Trust looked at various schemes and consulted with the FSA on how different arrangements have worked at other clubs. In June of this year we approached the board of Scunthorpe United FC about a Share Builder scheme we named OB1 (Our buy-in 1).

The scheme invites fans to make a monthly subscription to a Share Builder fund. The amount of monthly subscription would be down to the individual (or company). We felt this would be more attractive and affordable for fans than a single one-off donation although one-off donations could also be made.

This Share Builder/OB1 proposal was presented to Iron Trust board members via email and approved. At the end of June two Trust board members met with Michelle, Roj and CEO Matt Roberts to set out the proposal and to clarify any points or settle any concerns. We asked the club to make available up to £100,000 worth of shares to be owned by the Iron Trust.

To our surprise and disappointment, we have since been informed that the SUFC Board of Directors has declined to make any of their shares available for purchase via the scheme and the proposal has been rejected.

Given comments we have seen on social media over the summer we have assumed that there would be strong support for the scheme amongst members and fans, but now it would be useful to be able to present to the club Directors evidence of our members level of interest in supporting “OB1”. If there is strong support for the idea then the Trust intends to ask the club Directors to reconsider their decision.”

No mention of the other two Directors in the original agreement – and then later (presumably after it is presented to them by Michelle, Roj and Roberts) it is dismissed… Make of that what you will…

[64]

that’s appalling, a club who would have handed over power to a bunch a internet game players turning this down is disgusting

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ironingboard

[Awaywego]

Try like me and not to give the club a penny you don’t have to, you know it makes sense.

[64]

I’d have joined up for this

[ironingboard]

Disappointing. I would love to know the reasoning behind the refusal.

[Apollo11]

ironingboard wrote:

Disappointing. I would love to know the reasoning behind the refusal.

Ego and fear.

[ironingboard]

Ego and fear doesn’t hold any water though. As already mentioned, they were all geared up to sell out to internet randoms.

[Apollo11]

ironingboard wrote:

Ego and fear doesn’t hold any water though. As already mentioned, they were all geared up to sell out to internet randoms.

Okay, then. Ego, fear and grudge.

[64]

[ironingboard]

Apollo11 wrote:

ironingboard wrote:

Ego and fear doesn’t hold any water though. As already mentioned, they were all geared up to sell out to internet randoms.

Okay, then. Ego, fear and grudge.

If this turns out to be a grudge I don’t see a happy ending.

For some reason I can only imagine a grudge from a small section of the board.

[64]

All 4 I’d say

[ironingboard]

Well, my mind has been blown if they don’t want to accept fans’ money.

[ironlion82]

The Board were all over the Fans when things were more than desperate.
In fact I heard the Trust played a big part in helping to save the Club.
Now things are going a bit better but still far from good seems things have gone back to them and us !
The Board seem happy to bring outsiders in with money raising schemes but won’t accept money from fans many with lots of years supporting the Club.
Baffling !

[Awaywego]

Think the collective ownership under the guise of the trust owning all of them put them off.
Frightened of demands forthcoming, not like they paid anything for the shares in the first place, Michelle took them from the previous owner (her words) and eventually split them equally with the 3 other board members.
Oh they’ll accept your money all right but that’s it, they don’t want to give anything in return.

[Apollo11]

ironlion82 wrote:

The Board were all over the Fans when things were more than desperate.
In fact I heard the Trust played a big part in helping to save the Club.
Now things are going a bit better but still far from good seems things have gone back to them and us !
The Board seem happy to bring outsiders in with money raising schemes but won’t accept money from fans many with lots of years supporting the Club.
Baffling !

Most likely a personal grudge, then. Or fear of being challenged.

[Siderite]

They were more than happy to accept the voices of random people from London to Athens to Harare when going through with the FC100,000 idiocy, but don’t want to deal with actual fans.

[WonderGoals]

ironingboard wrote:

Well, my mind has been blown if they don’t want to accept fans’ money.

I wonder if they’re still pissed off due to the pressure fans put on them scuppered that deal with that cowboy outfit ?

This boards worries me. All this about the club is the fans not ours, we’re just the custodians…absolute load of tosh.

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Awaywego

[ironfromafar]

Awaywego wrote:

Try like me and not to give the club a penny you don’t have to, you know it makes sense.

Whilst this smacks of cutting ones nose off to spite your face after reading this latest news from the Trust i am starting to think similarly ..even though not based in the UK i have found ways to assist the club alas i did decide to cease after the FC10000 plan and its secrecy which was only thwarted by fan uproar… since then all we ever hear from the club are happy clapping soundbites and for the most part internal goings on and lets say important issues the fans should know about are kept under wraps.
The BovD should cast their minds back when the begging bowl was out to pay wages and buy STs n Merch etc as it seems now things have improved fans are being treated like mushrooms … kept in the dark n fed just the right amount of sh8t to keep them alive.

IMO the notion its the “fans club” is a load of twaddle.

I see no mention of this Trust idea on the actual club website but at least we all got to wish Mcatee the codhead traitor happy birthday.

UTI

[Siderite]

To be fair, if it involved buying shares, it might create an issue as to who would they buy the shares from if some people on the board don’t want to be the one to sell them. More receptive board members may become more reluctant if they felt they would have to be a lesser partner to sell their shares in this.

What bothers me is that they were eager to listen to a poorly thought out, amateurish and unclear FC100,000 scheme, but seem to just give this short shrift and not communicate effectively.

[Deereyme66]

‘now it would be useful to be able to present to the club Directors evidence of our members level of interest in supporting “OB1”. If there is strong support for the idea then the Trust intends to ask the club Directors to reconsider their decision.”’

I reckon they’ll reconsider and agree to it.

[TheJuryeffsOut]

Having received the email from the trust it makes for an interesting question.

Please reply to this email by August 4thwhether or not you would support “OB1” with a simple YES or NO.

My answer isn’t so simple – Yes, I would have, but now they’ve rejected the initial offer, probably No I don’t.

From what we’ve seen I don’t think this board of directors wants much involvement with The Iron Trust and would rather keep them at arms length.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Northumbiron

[cassidystash]

I thought the board were actively seeking new investment. Does that have to be a friend/acquaintance of a couple of them or a pair of chancers?

1 user thanked author for this post.

ironfromafar

[sufc_not_on_tour]

TheJuryeffsOut wrote:

From what we’ve seen I don’t think this board of directors wants much involvement with The Iron Trust and would rather keep them at arms length.

2 of them don’t, both of whom who have ego’s bigger than their bank balances!

[Northumbiron]

That was my take on it too TJO.

The Brexit referendum was a “simple” yes or no and we all know how that went!

[ironlion82]

The Board have short memories. They seem to forget all the work and effort put in by the Trust to help save our Club.
They seem to welcome outsiders with schemes and events to raise money more than they do a group of well over a thousand members many of whom have supported the Iron for many years
They embraced a weekender event that made how much money ? more than a scheme to guarantee an income !

[unity iron]

It’s good to see the Trust put some pressure on the club to answer questions regarding fundraising.

I can’t see them going for the share builder though, there’s no way the board members will want to reduce the amount of shares they have. I see it as a non starter unfortunately.

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Northumbiron

[Awaywego]

Cant see why the trust or fans would now want to persuade the board to change their minds.
Quite obvious there treating both with distain and only pay lip service to both.

They’ve fed us bullshit at best and hid the truth.

Ive called them out as soon as Sharpy got his foot in the door and being castigated ever since, hope you now see they aren’t what you cracked them up to be.

[cassidystash]

No calls for a clarification statement from the board? 64 will be upset!!

1 user thanked author for this post.

Awaywego

[Northumbiron]

If there’s a finite number of shares and no one is prepared to relinquish any then I don’t see how it can work.

[Noster]

Exactly.

[Author]

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