Originally Posted by
Red Zone
Probably the nearest example to us would be hertz. It is 75.1% owned by the Foundation of Hertz, which is a not for profit arrangement that hertz fans pay into on a monthly basis. They have roughly 8000 members paying in about £1.5m per annum that gets handed over to hertz to use as working capital. Similar to our dna scheme but that only nets AFC £600K per annum albeit our fans are contributing something like £1.2m per annum but get a bunch of that money back via free shirts/money off season tickets. Over the years they have also funded about £3Million of stadium redevelopment and bought out Ann Budge for £2.5 Million. The key here was a willing owner that committed from day one to hand over her shares to the fans as they repaid her for what she paid for the shares when she bought them after they went bust following the Romanov fiasco.
The foundation of hertz control the Board and therefore effectively every decision made regarding the club and how it is run but let's be clear there is no input from your average fan other than what directors are appointed to run the club via a vote. As I understand it hertz are then funded just by what they raise from normal footballing means plus this £1.5m per annum from fans donations
Whether we can replicate this would entirely depend on whether Cormack and pals would be willing to sell to a similar fans foundation for a fraction of they money they have invested unlike Budge who got ball her money back. Personally can't see it any time soon, maybe down the line once Cormack and friends are fed up with their plaything but even then assumes they don't flog their shares to another businessman to get more money back than they would from a fans arrangement