Ebbsfleet - MyFC fails miserably

[Stooper]

Just 18 months after buying Ebbsfleet for £635,000, the MyFootballClub dream is dead. Members have voted overwhelmingly to scrap the team selector which was never used. They voted to buy the operating system from founder Will Brooks for £15,000. He previously took 21 per cent of membership fees to cover the cost of running the site. Ebbsfleet is now effectively a fans' club. At renewals day in February, 21,000 members disappeared. Cashflow went through the floor and the manager was forced to release all but three of his squad. With a playing budget of just over £6,000 a week, the Conference side now look likely candidates for relegation. The club are facing annual losses of £250,000, and they need at least 2,500 of their 9,000 current members to stump up a membership fee increased by 65 per cent to £100.

http://www.footballeconomy.com/

[Dirk Gently]

No great surprises there.

[Barry the bird boggler]

Bloody daft idea in the first place.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

the only daft bit really was to budget on the assumption people would renew every year

[Dirk Gently]

the only daft bit really was to budget on the assumption people would renew every year

Was there that assumption? Will Brooks did very nicely out of his 21% of it all, even if it was just for one year.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

the only daft bit really was to budget on the assumption people would renew every year

Was there that assumption? Will Brooks did very nicely out of his 21% of it all, even if it was just for one year.

If there wasn't then the club wouldn't be screwed by people not renewing.

[bobbybottler]

Good article about it in this month's WSC. The salient bit for me was when MyFC actually went to purchase a club - contributors must have fancied their chances of getting Leeds or Newcastle or even something slightly less grand but didn't want to get involved with Ebbsfleet.

[Stranded]

It wasn't so much that but that the members didn't get what they were paying for. They signed up to play Championship Manager for real but had no say in team selection or indeed anything of any real note - I think they were asked to vote or accepting a transfer fee for one player so unsurprising that people lost interest quickly.

[Dirk Gently]

It wasn't so much that but that the members didn't get what they were paying for. They signed up to play Championship Manager for real but had no say in team selection or indeed anything of any real note - I think they were asked to vote or accepting a transfer fee for one player so unsurprising that people lost interest quickly.

They also got to choose the team shirts, but essentially you're correct - they were sold total control including team selection but they got a few minor decisions.

[Arnie_Pie]

It wasn't so much that but that the members didn't get what they were paying for. They signed up to play Championship Manager for real but had no say in team selection or indeed anything of any real note - I think they were asked to vote or accepting a transfer fee for one player so unsurprising that people lost interest quickly.

Me included.

Waste of £25.00.

[From Despair To Where?]

Did anyone honestly believe that total control would be granted to the members? Naive in the extreme in my opinion. It's a real football club, real players, real employees, real fans of said club, not something you can reset and start again when it goes tits up. No offence to anyone on here who signed up but it's a massive shame that a club has to be shafted to prove what an unworkably idealistic folly of idea this was from the outset.

Just a shame it wasn't Leeds.

[Archie's penalty]

I signed up for the first year but couldn't be arsed with it tbh.

[From Despair To Where?]

I think there was a fundamental flaw in the whole concept, blurring the distinction between running a football club and managing a football team. There has to be a distinction between the two. People compared it to playing FM for real, but on FM you've still have a chairman making financial decisions for you. If you want to run a club, invest by all means, if you want to manage a team, go into coaching. To me there'd be no difference than say, Madejski picking our team. There'd be uproar on here if that happened. I'm sure Hearts or Brentford fans could warn anyone of the perils of having the owner having a say in team affairs.