buckett

Quoth ICT: "The size of the TOWNS you mentioned are similar to Inverness, but with the exception of Perth they all have far larger "catchment areas". eg. Dunfermline, Kirkaldy and Glenrothes are all over 40k population and are within 20 mins of each other. Falkirk has an immediate catchment area of over 100.000." The Highland Region, which can reasonably be considered to be our catchment area has a population of about 250,000. Then there's the Western Isles. I stand by what I said, but respect your opinion nevertheless, ICT. There are numerous different methods of defining the catchment area. Nice user-name, by the way. How did you manage to get that one uncontested ya jammy sod!!

Population-wise, our catchment area exceeds that of teams like Falkirk, Dunfermline, Kilmarnock and St. Johnstone, the last two having finished in the top 4 in the last 10 years. (Seem to remember St.J finishing 3rd recently). So there is no reason why we can't do likewise. I've no doubt our gates will improve over the years as a new generation of INVERNESS fans emerges and having pioneered a sensible wage structure, it is surely just a matter of time before other teams will be forced to follow, putting us on a more level playing field, so to speak. Bigger crowds would be consistent with a better team and improved wages, generally speaking. If we survive in the SPL for another couple of seasons, then we can realistically look to consolidating a mid-table presence for the years ahead with the occasional foray into the top 4. (Oh yeah, and this is my first post on the new site.)