Bridge_Ender

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.

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!

Can't see what all the fuss is about personally. Fairly small change, and to a system which many clubs have used elsewhere with success for many years. Should speed up access at the turnstiles for everyone as no queues build up as someone fiddles for change at the 1 cash turnstile. Personally I think the club should be applauded for trying to address the access issues on matchdays. Re: scanner technology, I have experience of these systems at festivals, concerts, etc. and they do work well. For a one off event the whole ticket and access package can be hired, but that's clearly not suitable for a football club. I would imagine the stewarding company the club uses would have contacts and insight into the pro's and con's, as well as costs, of such a system.

I didn't make the game but presumably it was this one, given the response from an official channel.

I could not agree more caleyboy. As an image for marketing, social media, etc. the new text is fine, positive even, as it merges the ICTFC brand identity to the official imagery. However, as an official crest for the club it has been ill thought out, cheapened by using the abbreviation and by adding a throwaway tag line to the banners. The 'Pride of the Highlands' slogan is cringeworthy enough but to include it on official club imagery is arguably disrespectful to other clubs in the region, not to mention appearing arrogant. Neither attributes that I would have associated with ICT before. I really hope this is just a mistake that can be rectified quickly (and a refund sought from whoever provided the advice!!) and the old, credible, badge reinstated ASAP.

The new kits look great, really like seeing the stripes back. The badge redesign though... Not good at all. It looks amateurish, like a piece of fan art. A truly naff tagline on to an official crest dilutes the branding, uniqueness and identity to a level you'd expect from a street trader with a stall outside the ground. Really disappointed to see this move and hope that it is returned to the full title sooner (is it too late for this season?) rather than later. I completely agree with Scotty re: suitability on social media, etc. but absolutely not appropriate for a club crest.

I think CB may have missed the point of OTB. It bills itself as the most petty and ill informed football show on the air, and lives up to it! It's irreverent style is no accident and is a welcome reprieve from the seriousness, and repetitiveness, of Scottish football coverage. Sure, it's not going to win many awards (although, if I remember right, it has done so in the past?) but I enjoy it when I manage to catch it. Where I would be critical is regarding the SportSound offering in general nowadays. Inarticulate ex-players on open all mikes, every discussion generally reverting to the 'glory days' (i.e. pre 1990...) and a general staleness. Don't get me started on SportScene either. Absolute amateurish, parochial, over cosy mince. I often listen to 5live on a Saturday and it really is chalk and cheese in comparison. Professional reporters combined with decent interviews and features, you'd scarcely believe it was from the same organisation. I appreciate that the budgets may be a little (majorly) different, but surely the producers themselves must wince at OAM whenever forgotten never was ex-footballer #23 utters the same standard cliche over, and over, again?

Out of interest when have the club trialed a 10 game season ticket before? Personally it is not something I have been aware of in the past, although I have seen the 'half season' book advertised around Christmas, which is also a decent initiative. I just can't help but feel this is something of a missed opportunity given the large support we took to Hampden, and in indeed turned up on Thursday. Not everyone can commit either financially or time to a full season ticket. As for costs incurred, the cost of producing season books could be easily dismissed by the use of a membership number and a spreadsheet system. Think of it as more of a pre-payment card than a season ticket, if you like. 10 game ticket holders would just have to drop into the stadium on matchday or before and reference their membership number against the clubs ticket database. Perhaps the facility for such a system would exist via the existing eTicketing platform? I really don't see how that would make any huge additional administrative burden.

C*unty introduce £175 10 game season ticket Our friends over the bridge have released details of a 10 game season ticket for £175. To me, this is a brilliant idea and would surely appeal to a lot of our central belt / offshore / shift working fans who cannot commit to a full season ticket. As someone who lives outside the area and works away I know that I would certainly buy one at that price. I did email the club about it a while ago and received a good response, but have heard nothing since. If even 200 people took that up that would be an extra £35,000 in club coffers. An extra player, or a couple of youth players? I'd expect a lot of out of area folk would buy one, even just to support the club, and at £17.50 a game it hardly matters if you miss one or two.

Overall it looks like a fairly fair reflection of where a club is in general. Couldn't really argue that the facilities and set up of the clubs above us are superior to ours and likewise with those below us. Dens Park and Tynecastle being graded the same (Bronze) as Borough Briggs, Station Park or Balmoor? I don't pretend to understand that one!

Great idea! Given the proximity to the Merchant City, and that's its early in the day, it could be worth thinking about a medium sized bar club that a pre match 'fan zone' could be set up in? I'm thinking somewhere like Maggie Mays, with club downstairs and large bar/restaurant upstairs, or O'Neills down that end of the city, places that would have no issues with youngersters and would offer food, entertainment, that kind of thing?

Did Mike Newlands ever play a game with us? Came from Aberdeen, IIRC, with a very promising reputation back in the div 2 days

The state of the stadium isn't great and I can't see how anyone can argue otherwise. If there is any rain it becomes a mess, especially at the Main stand corners and the West stand, which with it's collection of portacabins acting as kiosks and toilets just looks and feels messy. That said, until a sugar daddy or euromillions winner wants to develop the ground properly or build something new, what's the alernative? I seem to remember the North and South stands having a 10 year life (correct me if I'm wrong) when they were put up in the winter of 2004, which would indicate something may need to happen pretty soon with them! As far as attendances go, they are what they are and we're pretty average and in line with the whole population % thing and I can't see that improving much without Inverness doubling in population again.

High ticket prices Saturation coverage of games on TV All seater stadiums

Really, really, do not want Shiels anywhere near ICT. Massive chip on his shoulder and by all accounts a divisive personality. Not at all what the club needs to take it forward. Hartley would be a great appointment but maybe with an experienced no. 2 beside him, a la Robbo and Park? Not a negative comment on Hartley's ability, of which he obviously has plenty, more a recognition that we are a fair step up from Alloa. We've done pretty well with managerial appointments in the past, ignoring the blip of Brewster #2, so I've every faith the board will do their due dilligence and appoint the right man.

Shiels - No chance, wouldn't want him near ICT ever Levein - I'd take that. At club level at boht Utd and Hearts he was excellent, especially Utd when he was allowed to shape the whole club. Sheerin - Has been doing OK but bit early for me Hartley - A good shout but only with an experienced no2, i.e. Malpas (assuming he stays) Wilson - Far too early for him

http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/Sport/Football/Munro-departs-Ross-County-15102013.htm Anyone know what his career outside of football will be? Just out of sheer nosiness

I was at their game v Motherwell a couple weeks back and I have to say he did look out of condition and off the pace. Fantastic servant for us over the years though, just wish he'd been allowed to see his top level career out with us. Deserved to be remembered as a one club man.

It's a shame that that was your last post as it raised a few interesting points. Not least with your incredibly simple minded assumption that because I acknowledge that Scotland, and west central in particular, has a deep rooted historical sectarian problem of which one side have utilised the Union Jack as their badge that I must, by deafult, have a 'big team'. The debate over their legitimacy for doing so is another debate altogether but for the record, and to remove all assumptions you've made (and as an educator I'm sure you are very aware of what it means to assume...?) I have no 'big team' and I never have had any 'big team'. In fact, just to make it very clear, I dislike what the Old Firm stand for to the extent I do not visit Ibrox or Parkhead as a spectator even for ICT games and haven't done for a good few years. They may not be the direct cause of the deep social problems in Scotland but they've both become very successful off of reaping the benefits of it, to the detriment of every other side and the sport of football overall in this country. I really do not want to discuss the armed forces on a football forum but I suggest your naivety is displayed by your choice of words above. They are not 'sent out by uncaring governments to be shot, maimed and killed for a country that does so little to help them'. They have made an informed choice based on balancing the element of risk against recompense (not necessarily financial but also opportunity, career, lifestyle, etc.) offered and decided it is worthwhile to be there. That does not detract from the necessity or the relevance of their role or make any support of them undeserving but it is their choice to put themselves there.

Whats somebodies job got to do with how appropriate or not taking a Union Jack into a football ground is? I could not agree more with that Clacher. I'm going to keep my opinions on the armed forces, war campaigns and British identity to myself as, to me, a football forum is not the place to do it. The negative association from a purely Scottish football perspective regarding the Union Jack is well known and accepted though. Having said that, we live in a democracy and there is no reason why it can't or shouldn't be taken to a game. Personally, I'd prefer that ICT were not linked in any way whatsoever to any element associated with Rangers. For me, there is nothing at all positive which can come from that link. However, I have never understood why choosing to make your career in the armed forces appears, to many, to elevate those who make that choice above anyone else and given a status which is certainly not afforded to many others in careers which can provide just as many intense challenges. To be clear, I am not dismissing the job the forces personnel undertake. It is more the, perhaps media driven, notion that by pursuing a forces career someone automatically becomes a 'hero'.

Is that Ross Draper celebrating with the second scorer? 2.20 approx

1. Charlie Christie - Has done everything at ICT. Probably played well below the level he was capable of 2. Jimmy Calder - We'll never see another like him! 3. Iain Stewart - Perhaps the most naturally gifted striker we've ever seen, denied a better career by injury 4. Barry Wilson - Genuine class and another who was capable at a much higher level 5. Mike Noble - Captain of first league winning side and still seen often on matchdays. Player, Captain and fan!

Do tickets need to be bought in advance or is pay at the gate an option?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21471225 I think he makes a fair point and is probably justifiably feeling frustrated that attendances are not going up in argurably one of our best seasons ever. However... Personally, like the league system, I don't think the odd tweak in pricing or scheduling would make much difference. What would, IMO, is the introduction of summer football. The SPL would be pretty much the only (football) show in town over the summer months (the 2/3 weeks of World Cups and European Championships aside), SKY would almost certainly be keen to show live UK football (think Rugby Super League for a case in point), supporters would be more encouraged to come out on a summers evening rather than a cold winters night, travelling becomes easier for fans not having to worry about treacherous journeys, being snowed in or just general discomfort of a long journey in poor weather, players would be plying their trade in good conditions rather than frozen fields and sodden pitches. The traditionalists will no doubt argue against it but the truth is that Scottish football will never again be able to compete with the English or European competitons for fans - people will just watch on TV now. Surely there has to be some realistic thought given to it and to perhaps think a little bit outside the box? The international calendar issue is nonsense - the Scandinavians have been playing in the summer months for years. Is summer football a no-brainer or a non starter?

Did Davide Xausa ever score for Canada whilst playing with us? I don't know the answer but surely one of the stattos will!