Torquay United made a great start to the season at the top of League 2, but have since slipped back. Budget constraints have meant that the club has not been able to replace players who left and strengthen the squad.
Torquay United made a great start to the season at the top of League 2, but have since slipped back. Budget constraints have meant that the club has not been able to replace players who left and strengthen the squad.
An underlying problem is average attendances which are around 2,500. The Torbay area has a relatively elderly population, many of whom may not be very interested in football. Those who are may have allegiances to clubs in areas where they used to live and prefer to watch football on television.
The Gulls were promoted back to the Football League at the end of the 2008-9 season and have made losses of around £1.3m since then. These losses are not sustainable, even though board members have pumped their own money into the club, including lottery-winning director Paul Bristow.
Bristow, who won £15m on the National Lottery in 2005, was hailed as the saviour of the club when helped to buy it as a part of a consortium of local businessmen in 2007. Sadly, he died suddenly in June this year at the age of 59. His widow, Thea Bristow, decided recently to become a director, cementing the stability of the current Plainmoor regime.
50 per cent of Plainmoor Ltd, is owned by the Bristow estate with the eight other directors owning 50 per cent. Plainmoor Ltd. owns just under 75 per cent of Torquay United football club, the remaining shares being spread around smaller holders. Mr Bristow’s estate therefore owns just over 37 per cent of the club.
The club decided earlier this year that it could no longer afford a chief executive and placed Colin Lee on ‘gardening leave’ for the rest of his contract. He was paid just over £100,000 in the last year for which figures are available.