Ok whose crazy idea was it to locate the Highland Football Academy in a tiny Ross-shire village?

Theres only one place it should be and thats in the capital of the highlands Inverness

I say we now cut ties with our near neighbours and start raising the doh for our own academy in the city

ICT being the front runners sit round the table with Clach,Inverness City,Inverness Welfare Football Association,Inverness Shinty Club,Highland Rugby Club and the Highland Council too draw up a business plan to submit to the Scottish Government for help with the funding

What we create is a sporting complex which will be the pride of the highlands and be the envy off all clubs throughout Scotland

We sell Grant St Park to a developer and we construct a fully enclosed football ground made off 3G astroturf at the bught and this will be homes too and shared by Clach and Inverness City but will also be available to ICT for training and for hire by the Inverness public

We build an indoor arena that can be used by all the mentioned clubs which will be ideal especially in the winter months

Level off/upgrade i.e new drainage etc all the remaining pitches at the bught

No longer will ICT have long journeys too and from Fort George on inadequate training facilities

I realise this kind of a plan doesnt happen overnight but if carefully adhered too we could have this up and running within five years

Thoughts?

Dougal

Dougal, you are a right revolutionary mun! I think we'd struggle with any funding from the government. SportScotland rejected a grant for accies around 2 years ago as it would only help accies and not other clubs. With a very good academy already in Highlands, i think i know what the outcome would be. Not even worth the effort contemplatng it IMO.

:sleep:

Hate 2 say this but the one in dungwall is quiet good.but would like one in inverness.

Pretty sure there is one in Inverness is there not? i thought the artificial pitch at Charleston was also for the football academy or am i seeing things?

Personally I think it makes a good impression on potential new signings having it there. Point out the academy and also mention the fact that we have a feeder team playing next door to it as well.

Surprise surprise, another contentious post from dougal.

Away and read through the archives and find something thats no been posted before, theres a good lad.

I smell a rat.

Does the OP actually know what or who the Highland Football Academy is? The Academy is a trust whose main partners are Highland Council, Inverness CT and Ross County. They have facilities at Dingwall, Charleston Academy and Bught Park. Funding comes from the Trust partners as well as H&I Enterprise, SportScotland and The Scottish Football Partnership.

The academy facilities are used by both clubs and by many other organisations around the highlands.

The main aims of the Trust and other information can be found HERE

As to the rest of the OP's comments............please refer to Caleyd's reply

I smell a rat.

Third time round - so do I, so I am not even going to bother to reply to the OP on this occasion.

You think nothing of it when it happens once and somebody floats a suggestion which is clearly miles out of tune with the vast majority.

When it happens a second time, you are tempted to become impatient but do your best to be sympathetic and take the "poor soul,well I suppose there's one born evey minute" line.

But when it gets to number three you do realise that such persistent idiocy can only be the result of a wind up!

However I have to say that I wasn't too convinced by the suggestion on another similar thread that, partly on the grounds of similarity of name, the wind up merchant was one B Hornell. As I said elsewhere,even in the interests of winding up people on an ICT site, I simply couldn't conceive of BH writing of that club in such positive terms. In particular I think he would rather choke than refer to Inverness Caledonian THISTLE in the first person plural!

So what will the next post be from "dougal"? Merge ICT and Ross County and build a new stadium at Tore?

I just wonder who it is, though? I don't know how many folks have been on here long enough to remember an absolutely brilliant wind up which went on for ages (something to do with Larsson was it??) and was the work of a certain IHE?

Edited October 28, 201014 yr by Charles Bannerman

Ok i seem to have further damaged my reputation by this topic:annoyed:

Sorry to dissapoint the ones that have replied on this thread but i most definitely do not have a hidden agenda and i'm not on any fishing trip

Being an outsider i maybe dont have the same local knowledge as most on here

I have no idea who this B Hornell is but it most definitely is not me

I'll admit to maybe have been under the influence of alcohol last night but i'm genuinely interested in all things ICT and the football academy

I dont see either of my polls as failures ,they were valid questions that i never saw asked anywhere else on this site thats all

I'll think or do some research first before i post anything in the future

Sorry

Dougal

Charleston Academy is class and has the best indoor sports hall in inverness,i like the Football Academy in Dingwall but should have one here

I know that we are a partner in this but sometimes I think our "partners" over the bridge conveniently forget this when in the press.

It is only right that we locate our academy adjacent to our feeder team.

I think the current location for the academy is fine. It means County can take it's prospects who have the use of top facilities, then once trained up we can cherry pick their best talents. Thats what feeder teams are for. It allows us to blood players early and then sign more complete articles for minimum pricing.

It's a joint venture.

I haven't read the OP other posts so dunno if he's on a wind up but the question he asks is sensible enough.

The city of Inverness is devoid of quality sporting facilities, ICT much like many other clubs in Scotland have little in the way of top class training facilities of their own and there is a market for a good indoor multi purpose venue here.It would be nice to think local business , local government and the community as a whole could rally together and produce a lovely shiny arena for us all.

However, given the economy is going down the toilet etc etc, i'm forced to agree with the nice picture above of a slice of pie in the sky sadly.

Big sigh.