Our Club. Our Future. New Film: CAST meets Foundation of Hearts

castrust

Since CAST launched “Our Club, Our Future” just over a week ago, the numbers signed up continue to grow. The total now stands at over 3,000.

It's been quite a week of speculation around the sale of ESI with various potential investors stepping forward into the media. Whatever might be going on in the background, severe uncertainty remains.

We have been investigating a number of ownership models  initiated by fans at other clubs. While the Trust treasurer, lawyer and volunteers have been getting under the bonnet of the structures, we thought it was a good idea to see how those models felt from a fans point of view. So step forward our very own former Valley pitch announcer, Big Dave Lockwood @BDL. He has grabbed his virtual pitch mic and started a series of investigative chats over a virtual pint. In this first film he chats with Garry Halliday, the self-styled 'fireclay artist' / brickie who came up with the idea for The Foundation of Hearts. Please do pour yourself a virtual pint or cup of tea and have a listen to how he focused everyone on what fans could afford and yet was inspired by the lairds and ladies in the Highlands. Oh and you'll also hear how despite being in different capital cities, we have both enjoyed the rare pleasure of relegating our local rivals in our home ground.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGmnggf3IW4

As Garry says, we have already made the first step as Charlton fans, but please do keep spreading the word and sign-up here: 

https://www.castrust.org/ourclub/

 

Rob7Lee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGmnggf3IW4

castrust

There's always a technical whizz and thank goodness @Rob7Lee is ours!

GlassHalfFull

Excellent video - really not to be missed!!

Blucher

A very good and interesting discussion and well worth watching. It's really helpful to listen to and draw upon the experience of other supporter groups, so that CAST can then consider which elements of those approaches or models might work for us if push comes to shove. 

Let's hope for Hearts' sake - and ours - that supporters are back in stadiums in the not too distant future, as the TV money in the lower divisions is pretty small. I see that Murrayfield has offered itself as a venue for Hearts and Hibs on the basis that it could host crowds whilst adhering to social distancing rules, although I'm guessing the match day costs would be pretty chunky - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52938590

carly burn

Really good interview that.
If fans screw their heads on they can prevail. And so they should.

Feel a lot better about things after listening to that.
Thanks

N01R4M

I found that interview was both informative and reassuring.  Thanks @BDL .  Contemplating a fans' rescue of the club is a daunting task, but clearly - like eating the proverbial elephant - it can be done by a multitude of ants, one bite at a time.

The key to Foundation of Hearts' ultimate success was prior planning, so they were ready to move quickly when the time and opportunity came, and could demonstrate they had the support of lots of fans. 
That is exactly what CAST have been doing, by investigating what has been done elsewhere, no doubt looking into legal and financial matters, and starting to assemble a database of Addicks who are interested in the project. 

3000+ signed up to the principle of "Our Club, Our Future" after just a week is an encouraging start, but the more the merrier. 
Not only will many more be needed if the worst comes to the worst, but also it would send a signal to a good new owner that numerous Addicks are ready to be potential partners in efforts to recover from the tribulations of much of the past decade.  

seth plum

Very informative film.
Worth watching.

Mascot

This is a great interview. We should start raising money asap.

sammy391

In a similar vein to this , 
the AFC Wimbledon share capital for their new stadium (via seeders) has been completed and they raise £2m+ from individual fans 

could be an idea for CAST to look at?