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I think the posts above mask a potentially serious issue regarding the home support that becomes more urgent as time passes. There are (honest!) people around who think about this issue for periods of time large enough to be harmful to them. We come up with idea after idea but it doesn't seem to get organised or get through. The team delivers results - you simply can't argue against them being top of the League. They have arguably delivered on style as well. The concerns that were had in the days of high-octane Butcher football, when we pressed all over the field and sometimes ran out of steam and then didn't have a plan B have been addressed by possession based football. It's certainly different.What you can't argue with is that it's delivering by the only criteria that a football club works to and that the fans demand - results. We are not a club of a size who can afford to prioritise anything over results, because that's where our income is generated from SPFL and television. We don't have an investor of the magnitude of a Roy MacGregor and I'd venture to suggest that the support might not want one - and not just because County are currently illustrating the limitations of that kind of strategy. We'll never get the income required to run the team from gate receipts alone unless and until the size of the home gate reflects our League position. That means getting more people to home games and that's never going to happen when people can't get behind the club and team for whatever reason. If I have a fear about this (and it's a serious one), it's that we will lose the majority of what could well be our most successful team because it feels like they are playing in front of "two men and their dog". Let's face it, the majority of our first team are not here for the money and they are increasingly not getting much else out of it. What's to be done? The club always has and always will continue to work with fans, cjt etc. to improve things on and off the pitch. CTO has a role to play in that as well. If you have concerns, let the club or cjt know. If you have energies, please expend them for the good of the club. For instance, Rodger the handyman could really do with a hand to paint the perimeter railings and gates at the ground but doesn't have the manpower or the budget to do it. If you can help, pm me and we'll get it done. If you have a commitment to ICTFC, there are initiatives currently being discussed for upcoming home games that are designed to energise the support but they will only do that if you support, attend and feed back. If you have friends, persuade them to come to at least one game. We've recently seen how effective grass roots movements can be and if 500 existing fans can persuade one of their mates to come along for County, Hamilton, you will be much more effective than any committee. Please support as much as you can.

Crowds dropping is nothing that's unique to us and one of the reasons I've never really bought this "we're a new club so we don't have generations of fans" argument. If it was all about how old the club was, the likes of Kilmarnock and St Johnstone, would be attracting 7,000+ to every game and formerly big supported clubs like Clyde and Queens Park wouldn't be out in the wilderness, attracting a few hundred to every match. Lets be honest though, prices are too high and that's across the board in Scotland and it's even worse down south. People can throw around the "we're top of league" and "we're playing good football" arguments until they're blue in the face, but the fact of the matter is, £25 to sit in the North Stand and watch ICT play Aberdeen is far too much for the standard of Scottish football and £30 for the Main Stand is quite simply a rip off. I know it's been done to death as well, but the location and design of the stadium has never helped matters. If we lived in Florida or Australia or somewhere like that, then it would be great, but the fact of the matter is, any stadium right on the seafront in Britain is going to be cold for three-quarters of the football season. Why wasn't this considered at the time? Places near the sea are cold and windy. People, especially old people, don't want to sit in places that are cold and windy. It's not rocket science. The design is also something that should've been looked into at the time. McDiarmid Park was supposedly based on Ibrox, why didn't people from ICT go to lots of different grounds prior to the Caley Stadium being built to see what worked and what didn't? We're far from the pitch, in a openly designed stadium in a location where it's usually cold and windy. Not exactly enticing is it? Around where I sit I can think of quite a few people who have stopped going to matches over the last few seasons. Maybe in all these good intentioned efforts to entice more people was done while taking those who were already there for granted. Maybe the time has come to accept the crowds for what they are and try and maintain the regular fans we already have. What about creating some kind of incentive to make them stay. Three consecutive season tickets and then a free one for example? And what about the dwindling away supports? What about allowing season ticket holders of opposition clubs in for a discount as well? Match experience must surely come into play here. Someone earlier mentioned MK Dons and match experience at events in North America. These are both good suggestions. I've heard that teams like the Braehead Clan do match experience very well, particularly for a minority sport. Why don't we bring the person in charge of that to the Caley Stadium and allow them to sample our match experience? And when I say bring them to the stadium, I don't mean sticking them in a warm and cosy director's box, I mean sticking them with a normal seat in the North Stand. Maybe bringing in from the outside would be the best thing we could do.

How about we turn this into a 'suggestions to increase matchday attendances' thread. Here are my 2 cents. First of all the marketing is virtually non existent. If you've just recently moved to Inverness you could be forgiven for not even realizing the city has a Premier League football club. Marketing should also include making the public aware of the various buses to and from the ground that are available. Most Invernessians probably have no idea they can get a free bus to the games. The Sports bar also never gets advertised. It isn't even mentioned on the club website. Secondly, match day experience. Other than corporate entertainment (£60 per person, way out of the budget of any normal working class family) you could hardly call a trip to TCS a 'family day out'. You have the match, and nothing else. Third, cross promotion. The club could cross promote with other local businesses for mutual benefit. E.g. A season ticket comes with a 1 day trial at Inverness Leisure, in return a 12 month membership at Inverness Leisure entitles you to attend one home league game. This is just one hypothetical example. All kinds of 'bonus' deals with local businesses could be incorporated into a season ticket, and the 'one free match' tokens that go out in return would bring in new fans who might become regulars. It's a no brainer really.

Davie makes a very good point. The team simply do not get the support they deserve and have earned! It's clear that team success is not having the impact we hoped for, so I'd like to see the club try some radical initiatives - e.g. £10 tickets in December, kids for a quid etc. - to try and get numbers up. I appreciate there may a short-term financial hit, but it would get a lot more people through the gates. It would be much better for the team to get 5,000 attendance on £10 tickets, than 2,700 on £20 (I know a lot of people are season holders, but more for less is more - if you get my point - though less financially perhaps - but maybe not if it takes off ) This is a golden age for ICT, with the best team we've ever had. We've got to make the most of it. Let's try some different approaches and see what works.

Either drop Billy or get doran and Watkins round the full backs with low cross balls into the box for Billy to create chaos in a poor Dons defence. If we drop Billy then we need Foran up front and doesn't look like he will play this side of new year so we are currently a one trick pony without another striker

Could this have any bearing on our lack of big crowds ? Do the people who post ' negatively ' on here speak to their peers in the same manner? Word of mouth is the best form of advertising and can also be the worst so consequently when someone hears such talk the natural reaction '' they may be at the top end of the league but I hear their play is so boring it's not worth spending money watching '' roby is right we should all be taking positives from our games and passing these on to our mates, friends or whatever. I also find it strange that when people post in the positive and criticise negativity from other posters they are jumped on straight away yet the reverse is met with sarcasm, rage or rebuke.................Usually followed by words to the effect that they are the real supporters or it was topics of discussion on tactics. I liken this approach to the old saying...I used to think he was indecisive but no he just can't make up his mind !!!! Keep up the positivity roby, sticks and stones and all that........