Fan Zone 13/06/2025

TUST
Jun 14
4 min read

FAN ZONE

By Nick Brodrick, TUST's Chair and TUFC board member.

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OFF-FIELD REVENUE THE LIFEBLOOD FOR ALL FOOTBALL CLUBS

STUDY FINDS PRE-MATCH RITUALS MORE IMPORTANT THAN MATCHES

THERE’S STILL TIME TO BE A MATCHDAY AMBASSADOR AND BE IN THE LOTTERY

No football for another week, unless you count two extremely disappointing England performances, so attention is now on events off the pitch. At Torquay United there is much to talk about: the recent two- part Chairmen’s Chat, the appointment of a new full-time CEO, the value of the 1899 Lotto to both fans and the club and a popular new signing.

And for our CSI investors diary dates for the golf day and the Meet the Manager (and Neil Warnock) event.

Where to begin?

The Chairmen’s Chat contained a number of headline revelations the most revealing being the club is still losing money, around £300,000 and so the emphasis is on generating revenue 365 days of the year. And to this end this is going to be the responsibility of new CEO Mark Thomas who only started last Thursday – so give him space to find his feet before we start hearing from him.

For every football club, at no matter what level, there is a need to drive up revenue from non-football events. Those with the infrastructure and facilities can, for example, as Tottenham have done recently at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, stage six nights of the Cowboy Carter show featuring Beyonce.

The club’s £1billion stadium and its retractable pitch were designed specifically for staging non-football occasions such as concerts. As it stands, the 62,850- seat stadium will host 17 gigs this summer. They are one of the leading lights in a gig economy that can generate an estimated seven figures per show in rental fees alone.

Strangely, despite these sums, more than half Premier League clubs will not host any concerts even though the revenue is permitted as allowable additional income under profitability and sustainability rules to be used on squad building.

So, at United it’s going to be a mixture of off-field events, attracting a larger number of sponsors and an increase in match day/season ticket prices, the reasons for which were carefully explained by the club’s co-chairmen.

An example of off-field revenue is the expansion of what’s on offer at Boots & Laces seven days a week: Mondays Pizza & Pint £10, Tuesdays Pie & Pint £10, Wednesdays Disability Disco, Thursdays Curry Night £10, Fridays & Saturdays Breakfast 9am – 12, Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays Mixed Grill £15.

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This week a study by the University of Connecticut was published, following what they admit is a limited study of football fans in Brazil, which found a pint and a burger before a football match, a weekly ritual, are more important than the match itself.

The data shows that the overall joy of the group from the pre-game ceremonies exceeded the average excitement during 90 minutes of football.

What’s your view? How important is the pre-match routine for you? Let me know at: fanszone.tu@gmail.com.

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Last week’s column regarding the play-offs and the 3UP campaign provoked a response from a number of members. Tim Sumner and Geoff Earnshaw reflected on the play-off system with Geoff writing about 3UP, ‘I prefer a combination of League2 and National League on a regional basis – more derbies and less travel.’

Further comments on 3UP came from Kevin Foster, ‘Three up (and down) is the right move and would make the leagues played at national level consistent.

Mike O’Connell was another in favour.

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This week has seen the signing of midfielder Callum Dolan from League2 side Fleetwood Town. Many fans fondly remember his loan spell in 2023 so welcome back Callum.

And there are at least another couple of signings in the pipeline.

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TUST and the football club are looking to appoint a team of Matchday Ambassadors to support our new SLO Paul Bastard. So far, we have seven applicants and, ideally, we would like to have a team of 12 to 15 so that we can create a rota system. All the details are on the club website or you can contact Paul at: slo@torquayunited.com.

With Vanarama ending their sponsorship, the coming season will see the re-titled Enterprise Rent-A-Car National League.

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Are you one of the 477 players who have 556 entries in the monthly 1899 Lotto? With additional prizes this month and more again in July if you’re not in the draw there’s still time – next draw Saturday June 14th at 7pm. You have to be in to win it. All details at: https://draw.ourclublotto.co.uk/tufc/

The estimated first prize is £1748.

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If you are one of our CSI investors you should have received an email inviting you to apply to attend the Meet the Manager event on Thursday July 10th starting at the new time of 6.30pm for a 7pm start in Boots & Laces. 107 have replied, there is room for more but hurry.

Should you not have received this email please contact us at: info@tust.co.uk.

We will shortly be sending out further details to those playing or attending the Golf Day on Wednesday July 9th.

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Finally, National South fixture release day is Wednesday July 9th. The new season starts on Saturday August 9th.

COYY

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