I have just finished reading Alchemy , an account of the Clough and Taylor time at Pools. If you think things are bad now they were much worse back in the sixties.The ground was falling to bits, the team struggling and boardroom squabbles meant the clubs was always in a state of crisis.Even so support was reasonably good with gates of 4000+ and financial help from supporters associations helped to keep the club going.Eg A donation of £7000 was given, equivalent to over £150,000 today. Since then supporters groups have, on a number of occasions, helped the club to survive yet have not been given any kind of representation on the board. Is the time ripe for a fan based takeover or do you think that such a move is unworkable.
PS. In the sixties fans complained about state of the access to the Mill House side of the ground. Nothing changes.

Not workable, financially impossible, you need people with deep pockets and money to burn.

same for me, but would like to see a fan on the board who is just an average bloke in the crowd and not high profile voted on by fellow fans.

If you have no money invested in the club I doubt the rest of the board would take any notice of you, apologies for being a pessimist.

The worst enemy of Hartlepool United? Apathy. The town is soaked in it. The nonsense idea that there's some kind of DNA in the club that means that we will always be poor while there are other similar sized clubs that get by quite nicely. They haven't all got rich owners.

If we got fans representation on the board (who credibly represents the fans, properly voted for, not just arbitrarily plucked from the crowd) then we would get a say. Money does indeed talk and collectively WE have a fair bit of financial clout.

I agree with Pooly-Imp. I think we need an in-depth discussion on the nitty gritty of a fan based club ,and then and only then decide whether it is feasible. The Supporters Trust seem to have the will and the expertise to explore such a move. Discussions with other fan based clubs would be a starting point.

Cloughie used to drive the team bus.

There are over 40 football clubs in the pyramid that are fan run clubs. At our level Wimbledon, Exeter and Newport County are run by their fans. The average contribution from members of these clubs is about £5 per week. A minimum of 1500 members would be needed to make it viable . If the above clubs can make it work why couldn’t Hartlepool Utd. fans do likewise. I don’t think the idea should be dismissed out of hand.

[quote="Pooly_Imp"]The worst enemy of Hartlepool United? Apathy. The town is soaked in it. The nonsense idea that there's some kind of DNA in the club that means that we will always be poor while there are other similar sized clubs that get by quite nicely. They haven't all got rich owners.

its not apathy but the love of being downtrodden and a love of being short of cash even if they are not. a type of reverse snobbery pretending to be something many are not.

Not just the club, but the town. A total lack of self belief and a ‘not for the likes of us’ self deprecating attitude that runs rampant. It’s as though 75% of the town are locked in a generational mindset of victimhood as an excuse for their failings.
In effect a contradiction, a ‘rotten borough’ where nothing ever changes.
A total lack of civic pride in the widest sense.

there are far worse towns and clubs than hartlepool but many love being victims over doing something about improving what they and the town have to offer. shangri la does not exist anywhere.

Spot on, many fans just totally accept the garbage thrown at us most of the time. Other clubs fans would of been up in arms back in June, if they got what we dished up in pre season, it took till 30 minutes from the end against Crawley before people said enough enough.

“ people said enough is enough” excuse me what was the gate for the next match v Barrow.

Yep it was a good attendance, lots of people who had finally woken up and smelled the coffee.

So name a few.
72 clubs in EFL.

Oh dear
Too much sun today maybe?

It's all a shame that there is such pessimism. A town with people of utter quality with the biggest hearts, a football club with fanatical die-hard supporters. There's a lot to be positive and proud about. There's no reason why we can't have what other clubs have. They're not better than us.