Rolls: I'll walk away from Terras (From Dorset Echo)

Rolls: I'll walk away from Terras

8:44am Monday 14th February 2011 in Sport By Adam Summers

'I'LL LEAVE': Chairman George Rolls

GEORGE Rolls has warned Terras’ fans that he will walk away from the club at the end of the month if the hate campaign against him fails to cease.

The controversial chairman has also sensationally revealed that a possible groundshare with local rivals Dorchester Town is being considered in the club’s short-term plans.

Rolls aired his views just an hour after an aggressive outburst at Ian White, whose successful Wessex Fantasy Football initiative contributes a monthly sum to the club’s playing budget.

The public spat took place not long after the final whistle of Saturday’s 2-0 win over Salisbury City with Rolls accusing the long-time supporter of contacting ex-chief executive Gary Calder in a bid to dig up dirt on the legality of the CVA that saved the club last year.

White and Calder have both since refuted the allegation with the former expressing his disappointment over the row and insisting it will have no adverse effect on Wessex Fantasy’s continuing work.

However, Rolls is adamant the ongoing abuse being directed at him is having a detrimental impact on his business and reputation.

Reflecting on his flare-up with White, he said: “That was no way for a chairman of a club to act. “However, I am fed up with a certain section of supporters who keep trying to stir up trouble and it has got to the stage now where I am considering resigning.

“When it is purely about the club I can take their comments but recently it has started getting personal and if it does not stop I will walk out at the end of the month.”

Rolls went on to add: “There are Internet warriors out there, many of which don’t even come to the games, who keep taking their frustrations out on me but the club was haemorrhaging money and the assets were all stripped a long time before I came along.

“All I have done over the past 15 months is try and keep the club going but still people are not satisfied and now enough is enough.

“I have even had people making up stuff about fraud squad investigations into the club and betting scandals, and getting it all put over the front of a newspaper but whatever happened to all that?

“Do people really think I would still be allowed to run a football club if all that was true?

“At the end of the day, I have got nothing to hide but the fact certain people keep rubbishing my name on forums is beginning to have an adverse effect on my business and reputation, and it cannot continue.

“As a board of directors, we have recently brought in a new manager and backed him financially, and we should be talking about a great result against the team that will probably go on and win the league.

“But, again, due to the constant negativity from certain supporters, we are talking about off-the-field matters instead.”

Rolls believes the club would probably have to be liquidated if he resigned and has also conceded that it cannot continue to afford to remain at the Bob Lucas Stadium.

He said: “The club has no commercial business coming in and many of the sponsors have not been able to pay their bills.

“The reality of that is, if I decide to walk away, along with a few of the other directors, it would take a six-figure investment to keep the club going to the end of the season and pay back the loans we have put in.

“After that, the club would then certainly have to play at Dorchester as it wouldn’t be able to afford to stay at the stadium and also fund the budget for a team playing in the Southern League.

“I have already spoken to Shaun Hearn (Dorchester chairman) about the possibility of a groundshare and a deal has been done in principle where both teams would help each other out, if it came to such a point where one of us needed it.

“People say a groundshare would be the death of the club but I don’t agree because at the end of the day in the current economic climate it makes financial sense.

“It is something that needs to be considered through open discussions with the fans. But the fact of the matter is unless more people start coming out and supporting the club, it could well have no other choice.”

Meanwhile, Hearn has confirmed that talks have taken place on the matter. He said: “From day one I have always said that if we can help Weymouth out then we will.

“There isn’t an agreement in place but if a time came where they could no longer play at the Bob Lucas Stadium then we would listen to them and try to help them out.

“I don’t want to see anything adverse happen to Weymouth but Dorchester is my priority and whatever happens will be in the interests of Dorchester Town FC.”

This latest development comes just days after Echosport published startling statements from landowners Wessex Delivery Partnership and West Dorset District Council, concerning the future of the Weymouth Wildcats and the possible change of use of the site respectively.

WDP, who own the land surrounding the Bob Lucas Stadium, has confirmed there are no plans at the moment to lease out the Wessex Raceway for “motorsport activities”, while WDDC has stated that any planning application on the land “would be judged on its merits”.

WDP is part owned by Morgan Sindall, who are currently building a new community fire station at Radipole Lane.