City Alerts - message from Mike Truscott

Hi Everyone,

This is NOT something "official" from the club, but deadly serious for all that.  It's an idea which I'm putting out personally, along with a pledge of my own to start the ball rolling.

With City having come "back from the dead," not once but twice, just over a month ago now, and having grown accustomed once more to the idea of regularly watching Conference football in Cornwall, it's perhaps easy to lose sight of the fact that the club's very survival is still hanging by a thread.

Similarly, assuming the best-case scenario and the eventual outcome that we all desire, we are looking at an even thinner thread when it comes to the standard of football we can realistically anticipate by the time next season comes round.

I'm not exactly giving away any secrets when I say that there will obviously be severe pressure on costs, at least for the short to medium term, while the club embarks on the business of getting onto a stable footing, in all respects.

Cut to the core and we're looking, inevitably, at a big question mark against the affordability of a squad a) of normal size and b) of the present quality.  This is not least because we cannot realistically or fairly expect the present players' INCREDIBLE loyalty, in the face of all the recent and continuing financial restraints, to carry on forever.

So, assuming that at least the bulk of the present squad remain to the end of the current season (and even that is of course "a big ask"), I don't think it's a moment too soon to start looking ahead to the 2013-14 season and come up with some constructive suggestions.

More specifically, (working title coming up), let's kick off with a KEEP THEM HERE CAMPAIGN.

For what it's worth, here's my own proposal.  First, let's assume 20 first team players for next season. 
(Yes, I know that will have Lee googling words like  "squad," "tactical substitutions," "resting players," and so on.)

And let's in turn think in terms of each of those 20 players having an individual sponsor.  I'm suggesting that we're looking for 20 businesses or individuals who would commit to sponsoring a player to the tune of £50 per week. 

It is no exaggeration, I submit, to say that this would make all the difference to the aim of having a good-quality, Conference-level squad here next season.

If my arithmetic is correct (and I did fail my GCE Maths), over the season as a whole, and especially if some sponsors chip in with more than my £50, we're talking £40,000 - £50,000 for the first team squad.
My business, Golden Replay Biographies, is tiny compared with many businesses out there who must have football-lovers / Truro City supporters among their directors/owners, to say nothing of maybe some retired individuals with healthy disposable income.  But I will start this ball rolling by pledging to be one of those 20 player-sponsors, at £50 for my player, per week.   Are there 19 more of you out there?  There ARE, surely - aren't there???

Janet, my wife and business partner, thinks I've gone totally mad (but then again, she is a Man U fan and I'm Man City), and it did cause a fair bit of disharmony in the Truscott household (I'm not kidding) when I first floated this idea to her  (translation:  "told her I would be doing it").

But I also pointed out to her just how much Truro City, my involvement in it, and even more important the present standard of football seen at the club, means to me . . . to my quality of life, no less.   And this is the whole point, isn't it?  For a few horrible hours last month, we all had a taste of what it would be like without Our Boys, as we have come to know and love them.   Pretty empty feeling, wasn't it?

So I'm airing this idea and putting my money where my mouth is.  Essentially, each sponsor will do it for the love of it and because he/she feels passionately about Truro City and Conference-standard football in Cornwall.  But there can also be a mini-package of tangible benefits in return, namely (I suggest) free admission and match programme at home games, half-time refreshments in the PFS Suite, free travel on the team coach to away matches, and the business or individual's name printed alongside the respective player in every home match programme.   Plus for companies, of course, this will come under the heading of marketing and be a tax-deductible business expense.

I stress that a) this is entirely a personal proposal from Yours Truly, and b) my part in it all is simply to put the idea into the public domain and to pledge my participation in it if it comes about.  I'm afraid I'm already stretched to the limit in terms of how much voluntary time I can give to the club.  So if the envisaged scheme is a goer someone else will need to pick it up and run with it (but we can confidently anticipate a "proper" committee being set up to run the club on more conventional and sustainable lines if/when we have new owners post-administration).

And if someone else, even as I write, is already progressing such an idea, then that's wonderful - and I will still pledge to be involved at the level of £50 per week for one player.

Without putting too fine a point on it, I don't just think - I KNOW - that this scale of sponsorship support would make all the difference.  Twenty businesses or individuals (or rather 19 after me).  If you are potentially one of them, or know anyone who you believe fits the bill, and if, like me, you are passionate about KEEPING THE BOYS HERE, then I urge you to consider either being "up for this" yourself - or to work hard on anyone you know who is able and willing to support the club in this way.  Just 19 more to make all the difference. 

"No action required now."  Let's just get these people identified, ready and in place, making themselves privately known to the powers-that-be (or publicly through me if you/they prefer) so that if and when this particular scheme is adopted, it can go ahead with all possible speed - AND KEEP ALIVE THE "CITY" WE ALL KNOW AND LOVE!!

MIKE TRUSCOTT, CITY ALERTS