Excellent again. this is the kind of thing we have to be looking at. We must make it clear that there is no intention of creating a club to compete with the official one and for there to be no reasons for fans to split alligencies or have divided loyalties. I like very much the FC United (Manchester) constiution which is based on one member, one vote. its a not-for-profit organisation (when's the last time OUFC made a profit anyway?) and its constitution commits it to strong links with the local community."SmileyMan" wrote:The best company structure would probably be a Community Benefit Society (BenCom) with an Asset Lock.
This would allow you to have votes based on membership rather than share ownership (think Barcelona). "Community Benefit" has a much looser definition than the "Public Good" required for charities - basically, so long as it doesn't discriminate against anyone or engage in political activity it would pass. The "Asset Lock" part would guarantee that the assets of the company would belong to the community, not the members.
The day-to-day running of the club could be done by a members-elected Chairman, and a permanent appointed Chief Executive.
This could be set up now, without a playing staff (or operational staff at all), and used as a fund-raising vessel until such time as the company is either in a position to buy the existing club, or the club goes completely bust, in which case there would be a fightiing fund to set up a new club. In the event that a new, super-rich owner comes along and financially bails out the present mess (don't hold your breath), the society could either keep going and continue to raise funds (because the fans will never be happy until the fans own the club), or wind itself up and give the money to e.g. the youth section (perhaps set up a trust and sponsor young players)
As an aside I see AFC Wimbledon are already in contention for promotion to the conference. I think the time to start Oxford Pheonix would be if/when AFC Wimbledon reach the conference whilst we are either still struggling in it or fill their position in the Conference South. It would be an omen: we could do it better alone but United.