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I couldn't care less about the stadium aesthetics or bushes. That won't bring back fans. The match day experience will. At the moment its a souless experience for all involved with fans and sometimes players just going through the motions. Atmosphere doesn't just happen. Sometimes it needs a bit of a nudge. Regarding the stands.It's the chicken and egg stuff the Gardiner was talking about. We need to attract fans first and foremost. Increasing the number of home fans provides a consistent increased revenue. Away fans are then a bonus, not a necessity.

I know every pound is a prisoner but for all the talk of a 4th stand, I'd rather see a covered terracing there. That's where most of us used to stand in the good old Pele days. That would do wonders for the atmosphere. And somebody will correct me but aren't you allowed to use terracing in the Premiership nowadays?

Agree with everything SO says. when we spoke to Scot on the pod I wanted to stress the importance of a good pre match experience for fans to gather at the stadium to create a buzz before games because at at the moment it’s a very flat experience before KO creating a mini fan zone will bring in extra revenue for the club and that can be used for any landscape or stadium upgrades

Doing up the car park and clearing the brush around the ground would be a better start. Looks like they've just slapped it down wherever they could and didn't bother making the place look nice first. The shortcut from the north stand to the Kessock Bridge needs cleared, cos all that is covered in jaggy bushes, and maybe sorting out the turnstile at the far end of the north stand (not sure if there's one on the south stand or not) but it would be useful to have it fixed, because the queues for the big games against C*unty, The Dons and the Ugly Sisters are immense and if I remember right, I missed kick off at the cup replay because they had issues with the scanner, and were putting everyone through that one turnstile on the roadside. A LOT needs to be done to the stadium and its grounds before the topic of entertainment comes up. Another thing that would be useful (not right now, but in a few years or so, would be the development of the fourth stand. Even something the size of what the old north stand would be sufficient. Because, for a Premiership side (well, a side that's mainly been in the premiership), it looks a bit off that we've three fully developed stands, and one stand that was intended to be temporary, and something that definitely would've benefited us with a much higher gate reciept if we had a decent stand for the game vs Astra, and hell, we'd definitely have needed it if we went on to play West Ham. If we're looking to be a relatively decent Premiership side, building up the ground comes just before the pre-match entertainment, mainly down to the fact that the stands are barren for ages until about 45 minutes before kick-off, so there's not really anyone to entertain...

Great podcast as normal. Also good to hear the club is looking at the land around the stadium. Could easily have a bigger bar which does meals so more people would head down before match. Even have training pitches for the team and maybe some 4G pitches which they could hire out.

I believe that is a possibility as the articles of association for the SPFL say something about being able to expel members if they take them to court or something like that .... dont know the exact wording, but someone did mention it in the discussion somewhere - or perhaps I read it online elsewhere. Bottom line I think is that Hearts and the League are waiting to see who blinks first .... but the outcome in the end, i believe will be that Hearts get a few extra dollops of cash to sweeten the blow (while Stranraer and Partick get ignored) and that things proceed as planned with relegation/promoton Scottish football has really shot itself in the foot yet again and proven that it is still stuck in the early 20th century. It comes from Doncaster down and includes some very small minded and parochial individuals who cannot see past the bifocals perched on the end of their noses. They can reconfigure and rename the leagues as many times as they like while basically staying the same. it does not improve the product, it is not progressive, and it does nothing to develop the game in the country and thereby improve the image and competitiveness of the sport at a national or international level. Improving the product on both those stages could and probably would lead to more investment, interest and sponsorship. We are on a downward spiral, and have been since the 90s yet no-one has the gumption to try and reform from the ground up. This time in history, with a global pandemic on a scale none of us have ever witnessed is/was an opportunity to press the reset button on many things in our lives and the methodologies by which we approach them ... it just seems ludicrous that an organisation who know their model is broken and needs to be fixed wont even pay it scant regard.