Leaderboard

Good discussion. I totally agree that the club needs to find new avenues to attract future fans. I will be eternally grateful to AS for saving our club but I do agree we need to find new ideas to bring money in and new ways to attract folk to games. I am a bit disappointed in the lack o progress so far on both these. Seems like business as usual? No half time entertainment, not a lot of stock in shop and certainly nothing different from past stock and same old hospitality. I hate to showcase our neighbours but they seem to be running several events including a gin cocktail hospitality with a one course meal. Theyve also done a whisky one. At least trying different things. I do think they need a marketing consultant but with a football background. NB Re Bishbashbosh post above, is the Highlands unique that a fair few fans go to watch both senior clubs? Not something I hear folk doing elsewhere in Scotland.

bc or is it Herman now, keep up the good work, this is just my tuppence worth. I have 15 grandkids. Since 94 I attended ict games with my father and stopped going when he passed away 20 years ago. To get me back to the football my wife persuaded me to take the oldest grandchild when she 7-8, as SHE wanted to go. It was a porky pie but it got me back to the game. Through the years all the kids came to the games with me but fell by the wayside over the years when they started activities of their own on Saturdays, mostly by the age of 10. The oldest grandson saw the glory days before he stopped going after the cup win. I am now down to the last 2 grandkids. I also have a 16 month great grandchild so maybe taking him in future is a plan if I am still on the right side of the grass.😀 or I need help finding the stadium. They all play sports, tennis, rugby, basket ball, golf, football, darts, hockey even fishing, mainly on a Saturday with home/ away, matches/ tournaments all over Scotland. There are lot of kids doing the same. Last home game I was Johnny no mates as one was playing for clach u 14 away to Elgin with a 1pm KO, the other had a party to go to. Even IBM felt sorry for me and came over to chat to me. Ps………. I have several season tickets for both ICT and RC. The last 4-5 years ( championship and premier league) when I was away on a Saturday or both teams at home, I couldn’t off load any to anyone. People are too busy or just don’t fancy it. I don’t bother offering them anymore. You either want to watch football or you don’t. You know, you can lead a horse to water etc. Sorry for the negativity but the way it has been for me.

Important to catch them when they're young, before they slot into the Rangers/Celtic thing. Support your home-town club!

I suppose any initiative like this will have pros and cons and won't work for everyone. Getting young kids in is a good idea (before they give their alliegence to a "bigger" team at the other end of the country) but they take a lot of supervision in big groups and can get easily bored and distracted from the match. Perhaps it's worth using a couple of remaining home games to discount the U16 price from £8 to a nominal £1 ("kids for a quid") with a paying adult to boost the youngster numbers. Getting teens is good in that they can get to games with their mates and not need such supervision. But by that age have they already decided to support another team and are just going for a freebie with their pals? Again maybe offer a couple matches of £5 per 16-20 year olds tickets. I do think there is a need to attract younger fans as we all drop off the top end of the scale for various reasons along the way. Attracting them while in a successful period is much easier then when struggling so now really is the best time to get them hooked and wanting to come back.

A slight surprise. However, the Stenny game is currently very critical to our season. As for the KDM semi final we will need to control Oakley - a case of Ayr on the side of caution.

this came up on my facebook feed today .... https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1HvYTN15RK/

I was just about to ask if players still go to schools etc but you have actually answered that above @IBM 👍. I know they regularly attend breakfast clubs and the community development sessions because that group are really good at uploading pics on their Facebook page quite regularly 🙂. Fwiw @big cherly I think that is a fantastic idea, I'm sure there are plenty ICT fans at each of the schools in the area that would love to attend more matches if at all possible. I also totally understand where @old caley girl is coming from too so I suppose there is all opinions to consider here. Most of us would like to see better atmospheres during games other than the singing section (if that's still available). Me and my friend are thinking of going down at some point when he gets his plus 1 bus card seeing as we missed the Peterhead game so I will be back sometime soon. I am trying to convince him to make it at least an annual event, he works weekends so I can't make it a weekly occurrence unfortunately.

Mrs Kellacher had the first team players visiting Lochardil school last week, my grandson 8 who has a season ticket and his pals were delighted. There are a few from that age going already and have all the gear! Get them in at any age.

Unpopular opinion of mine is that this is wrong age group! Its been shown they have too many competing interests and dont keep coming. Personally think should be aimed at secondary kids who are more likely to keep coming provided they dont move away for uni etc.