Sadly, for any players reading, not a helping hand for the Xmas party...

 

A Partick fan was telling me about a fund that their club have recently started which allows fans to contribute directly to the playing budget - more details here. Essentially, you set up a direct debit that allows you to make a regular payment to help support/develop specifically the first team playing budget. It sounds like a decent idea to me, and something that those who live away from the area and don't (if ever) attend games could use to support the club in a meaningful way. It would surely cost very little to administer and may raise a few quid every season? As seen from the cup final there is a huge disparity between home attendances and a maximum interest level, say 10,000 fans in this case. If 5% of them contributed £20 on a monthly direct debit that could be 500 x £20, an extra £10,000 a month, or £120,000 p/a if you prefer!

That's a good idea, but like the Partick Fund donations should start at £5 per month and increase in multiples and then it is what each fan can afford. I live in Spain and for the past 4 years I have donated a father and son season ticket to the club and they have added a second child each year and that has gone to various different people each week.

So on that basis I would not want to be paying out another £20 per month but I would be happy to make a smaller monthly Donation

I would love to see this take off

 

Sorry to burst anyone's bubble ... but read Ian Broadfoot's book and you will see I tried to create such a scheme many years ago. It was termed the "Pay A Player" scheme and designed to give Steve Paterson extra funds when ICT were on the brink of bankruptcy due to the stadium debt. I got tremendous verbal buy-in when it was publicised on the internet and among the supporters but when I was offering direct debit forms to people the mood changed a lot ! People were fine with the concept and the cause, just not so keen to part with their own money. Luckily, David Sutherland came along and made the whole project irrelevant but its not as easy to prise the hard earned away from someone as it sounds !  

Time has moved on now and perhaps its easier to implement this. If I had to do it again (which I sincerely hope we never have to) maybe it would be a recurring donation or a gofundme page or something like that. Other options include purchasing seasons tickets (as mentioned), sponsoring players, or buying shares, merchandise etc. I usually end up with a comp ticket or a spare from one of my friends when on my travels and I do always appreciate it, but I always make sure I spend far more than that in the shop for merchandise etc ... and thats doubled now with the wee man being both an ICT and TFC fan too !    

No bubbles burst in the slightest Scotty, merely highlighting what I see as a positive initiative from a club with similar resources and circumstances to ourselves.

 

All the revenue streams mentioned are clearly very important, and kudos to those who willingly spend in the club shop, but there is only so much merchandise someone can buy. Where I constantly feel the club miss a trick is tapping into the out of towners. Inverness has historically been a place where if you've grown up in the area often you have had to leave for education, employment, etc. There is a market there that is relatively untapped, that being 'ex pats' with an affinity to the club who won't buy a season ticket etc. but who would potentially wish to continue to support the club with £5/10/15/20 a month donation. Perhaps even develop it a step further and offer it as a club membership. Benefits could include offering access to tickets ahead of public sales, extra multimedia content/access to any future digital subscription service, a club shop discount, or similar low cost giveaways from the clubs perspective. Plenty clubs offer such plans and for many fans it's just a way of officially belonging and supporting their club, and for many that's reward enough.