Scotty

Just now, Kingsmills said:

Great to see these youngsters support their local team with such passion and enthusiasm.

Pleased to see the club engaging positively with them.

I realise that money is tight but surely one positive step would be to improve their facilities with the West Stand getting a bit of a tidy up and preferably a roof which would both keep them dry and and channel more of the atmosphere they create onto the pitch rather than disappearing into the sky.

I know that I have been critical of the actions of one or two individuals but the vast majority of our young crew have been a great credit both to the club and themselves.

It would be good also if efforts could be made to make more girls and young women feel more welcome to join the crew.

These are are our future long after us sweetie rustlers have departed the scene.

Agree it is good to see the club engage with them. From experience at Toronto FC I can say that this works for both parties when both sides are engaged. If one side disengages then that's when problems begin. There will always be numpties (on both sides) but provided the requests from both sides are sensible and rules are understood and followed, and any problems are discussed rationally, then it can work really well. 

The question about the roof was addressed in the interview with CEO. With the concerts going on at the stadium over the summer, and the stage being in that area, the cost to add, remove and add back were prohibitive. Would be nice to see it happen though once concert season is over and whether or not the design of the roof or indeed the placement of the stage could take account of occasional concerts. 

and yet there is the opposite side of the coin with an article about Section 94 that gives some hope to the club working with fans and fostering this whole 'together...NESS' cliche ... seems like a bit of a disconnect somewhere in the mix between these two areas. 

22 hours ago, CaleyCanary said:

Totally agree with the dangerous aspect of the flares but the effects of the smoke are the same from both - hard to see how nominating a certain area can help with this as you're at the mercy of the prevailing wind. Just can't see the fascination with them, many hundreds of twirly scarfs are more my thing.

Cant speak as someone with Asthma or any other respiratory condition but from personal experience, the "official" smoke used at Toronto FC nowadays is absolutely not as acrid as the smoke from flares or smoke bombs when it was unsanctioned and it also seems to dissipate faster in the air. I am assuming there were specific conditions or H&S considerations for the official smoke.  Having said that, it does still hit the lungs if you are in amongst it so for an asthmatic it may not matter whether the smoke is sanctioned or unsanctioned.   

22 hours ago, Fraz said:

Flares burn hot enough to melt steel and have an exposed flame, they are intentionally difficult to put out as designed for marine use. Smoke bombs do burn a bit but internally at much lower temperature. They are very different. 

Those flares are brutal. Marine or road flares burn at an insane temperature and as you said, they are designed to still burn in water or on a rainy road so the only real way to put them out is to dump then in a bucket of sand. Most people who smuggle them in don't bring a bucket of sand so throw them to the touchline when they get too hot. I have experienced one flying over my head at an early TFC game and I was lucky .. these things drip like candle wax and if it gets on your skin you are pretty much guaranteed 3rd degree burns. I did not get any on me, but a woman closer to the pitch did and she got burned on the leg. It was a big story over here when combined with the $40K cost to replace a section of the pitch and directly led to more stringent security at TFC games (and an alcohol ban in our section for several years!)

The carer by the look of it :  According to this page with single game tickets : https://ictfc.com/prices and also this page that shows half-season tickets : https://ictfc.com/2021-22-half-season-tickets-on-sale-now

New season ticket prices due to be released shortly according to the CEO so you may want to wait a week or two to see what's publicised for 2022/23 season. 

17 minutes ago, hislopsoffsideagain said:

Hardy isn't mentioned as having left - I wonder whether that means he may be joining permanently.

"a run which saw us not win a match in 3 months, following some horrible circumstances that quite honestly, no decent person should have to deal with"...if that's referring to what I think it's referring to, that's certainly an interesting way of putting it...

 

Hardy back to parent club. 

Quote

 

The club can also confirm Joe Hardy will return to his parent club. We’d like to thank Joe for his efforts while at the club.

 

Think this also answers a few questions about standing by those who were injured. While it may cost us a few quid, standing by your players as they rehab from injury is not only morally the right thing to do, but also good for our reputation with players considering a move to the club. You want to work for an employer who knows how to treat you right!  

Quote

 

Shane Sutherland sadly suffered a serious knee injury during the Arbroath semi-final and even though he will be out for a number of months, we will be offering Shane a new contract and making sure he is very well looked after.  

Tom Walsh, who went through a big knee operation on Wednesday, will also be fully supported so that we can make sure both boys come back stronger and ready to boost the squad sometime next season.  Roddy MacGregor who suffered a broken jaw in the last regular game of the season, will also be rehabbed with the utmost care.  

We can also confirm that we have either offered contracts or are currently in negotiation with several new players. 

Physio Dougal Sim leaves us to enjoy a very happy and well-deserved retirement with his family and we will be making an exciting announcement re the Medical Dept in the next few days. 

 

16 hours ago, Fraz said:

Streaming a game and tv coverage aren't really the same though. I don't think that streaming a game for say £14-£16 really has that many negatives in any (as opposed to tv which results in fixture changes to stupid times etc) and I'd be interested to see what the financial income is for it. I agree that having it as an 'add on' for season ticket holders and as a stand alone per game charge for away fans is a great idea.

There are two issues in streaming a game and I don't know all the current facts so comments below are based on my knowledge of how it used to be (pre-pandemic). 

1. Cost : There are obviously costs for ICT-TV but much of the capital expenditure and infrastructure is already in place so I am assuming the main costs are for bandwidth, internet speed/capacity, care/maintenance of equipment and whatever payments we are giving to the commentary team. If that all exceeds what we are bringing in from direct revenue and any sponsorship then maybe it does need to have budget reduced and go into a care and maintenance basis so we can ramp up again when needed and not have to start from scratch.   It would be a shame but understandable. At worst it should be self-financing, at best it should bring in revenue. 
   
   My experience: Personally we might have Terabytes of storage or a Microsoft 365 account where you get a ton of OneDrive space for a cheap yearly fee, but when you scale that to a business and need a lot of reliable bandwidth and storage the costs can quickly become astronomical. I know what I pay for this site for the year. Its a cloud based VPS server not a dedicated server so a few steps up from cheap hosting but still with modest processing power and storage but even that is more than 10X more expensive than the average cost of shared hosting. We manage to pay for that via Google ads based on our page view level and click throughs, but the club will need far more bandwidth than I pay for on here so unless there are a few hundred subscribers it would be a big ask I think. 
    
2. Media Rights : This is and always has been a minefield. Clubs own the non-exclusive rights to their own footage. It is this kind of thing that allows the old firm to stream all their games outside the UK regardless of day or time. However, where the minefield comes in is with UEFA blackouts and other arrangements. The SPFL/SFA do (or did, pre-pandemic) request a UEFA blackout for the traditional 3PM Saturday timeslot and I believe the English premiership do/did as well hence the reason so many matches get moved to weirder times for TV. Not sure about the rest of Europe, but the info is available on the UEFA website if you go hunting. This is largely what prevents clubs from streaming their games within the UK on a regular 3pm timeslot even though they have their own media rights. A statement that streaming is ending tin the UK sounds like the SFA and FA may be requesting the blackout periods again, which i am assuming were dropped during COVID to allow streaming. In that instance, the club can do very little unless they want to face off with not just the SPFL or SFA but also UEFA !  The SPFL/SFA also segment their rights by country and media type so its different arrangements in different countries for the premiership, championship, Scottish Cup and of course no radio coverage outside the UK as the BBC have UK rights but nobody has them outside the UK.
   
   My Experience : The SFA/SPL/SPFL (or whatever acronym you want to quote) have always seemed short-sighted about media rights. On any given Saturday (and many other days) I can watch football from Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Mexico, Argentina and many other countries - including live coverage of all MLS and Toronto FC games whether at home or away - on some combination of basic or standard subscription cable channels. At one point the SPL was available but it was on a premium subscription channel that required a subscription to that one channel on top of the main sports subscription package with a monthly charge of about the same as Netflix! It showed sports from around the world including up to 2 SPL games a week, usually at least one, if not both of which featured the OF matches from the Saturday or Sunday.
   
   Nowadays it has nothing and the only SPFL games in North America seem to be on Paramount+ who picked up the rights when ESPN dropped them and they have not exercised those rights in Canada. I would have been able to view the playoff games last week in the USA on a free trial of P+ but when I loaded it up in Canada it wasn't available. Yes I could use a VPN, but it also would not take a Canadian Credit Card for billing info for after the free trial. Neither the SPFL or Paramount+ responded to a (polite) tweet asking where I could legally watch the match in Canada!  (oh well, at least my wee guy will be able to watch Sonic2 before the free trial of P+ expires tomorrow!). As for being able to listen to Radio Scotland on a Saturday afternoon for Open All Mics, I really dont see why this has to be blocked. They are not selling the rights elsewhere and the rights sold to the BBC are non-exclusive so they could enforce this if they wanted to or someone actually wanted to stream this outside the UK ... come on SPFL, throw us ex-pats a bone! I will even listen to Jim Traynor if I have to. 
   
   Personally, if I am going to go to a Toronto FC match or any match then I am going to go, the fact that it is on TV has no bearing on my decision, and even if it did, as a season ticket holder at TFC, the club already got my cash ... However, MLS are definitely trying to grow their brand by not enforcing any blackout periods. Will be keeping an eye on newcomers Fubo TV and OneSoccer, both are streaming channels that seem to be scooping up some of those leagues that up to now were free to me on cable including EPL, Liga MX and I believe now Champions League for next year so even our landscape might change ... but it all starts with the leagues themselves and negotiating deals to promote rather than restrict their brands! 

3 hours ago, bdu98196 said:

, the gulf between the bottom of the Premiership and upper Championship is growing faster than ever fully driven by the disparity in money.

Robbo was quoted on the coverage as saying that the payments that come from the league in September would be £65,000 for the championship side and £650,000 for the premiership sides ! That is a large gulf. He then went on to compare crowds noting that we only had around 4500 away fans over the course of the season compared to 45,000 in the premiership. The crowd figures are perhaps an unfair comparison given COVID affected the numbers but it is clear there is indeed a large gulf and it will only get wider if thats the numbers we are talking about ...  10X more funding before a ball is even kicked and for sure higher levels of away support and although costs are higher i doubt they are 10X higher. 

8 hours ago, lizi said:

I know of quite a few who, disappointed in the Club, are considering not sponsoring again.   

I am also aware of the same. I know of one family who have sponsored at least one player each year for nigh on 20 years but they are not sure whether they will continue for the same reasons noted. These are not businesses who are simply writing this off as a taxable donation or deduction, these are hardworking fans, who in addition to buying season tickets, shares, and merchandise also stump up to sponsor a player to 'do their bit' for the club. To be honest, I dont think they are even that bothered with the sponsors' evening or any 'free' lunch/dinner - they just want the club to engage with the fans and at least acknowledge things outside of times where they are sending an invoice or request for cash! 

From our perspective - we will continue our sponsorship for as long as people on the site want to do it. If we struggle to reach the target or people are no longer interested we would review. I had a chance to speak to Keith at the club recently and put a face to the name. He seemed reasonable enough, but I guess our requirements in going to any event such as a sponsors' evening (no-one ever seems to want to) or individual outlay (per person) is not such that it really comes on our radar as something that sticks in the throat in the same way as it would for someone shelling out £420+ on their own.

5 hours ago, Fraz said:

I don't sponsor a player

    Technically you do really - as a member of our player sponsor group

9 hours ago, RiG said:

This will be the last season for match day streaming to UK residents I believe as COVID starts to fade away so what will happen to ICTTV and will we see more supporters down the stadium on a typical Saturday instead of watching it on a laptop / TV / phone on the toilet?

I think this is the wrong decision for UK viewers and beyond. If COVID has taught us anything it is that the virtual space can be a revenue generator when used correctly. Whether that's a centralised service from the SPFL or clubs on their own, the monies obviously spent in upgrading infrastructure for live streaming should not go to waste. I am sure there are many people who might consider a virtual season ticket, one-off games, or even a season pass for all games (if it were centralised with revenue splits for all clubs).  Also think that season ticket holders should still get this perk (either natively or as an optional add-in for £1 or £2 per game surcharge) as they already have a ticket whether they use it or not … in fact, it may be a selling point or a decision maker on whether to buy that season book or not for out of town fans who think they may only get to games every so often but know they could view online.

The one caveat would be the cost to the club - if it can be self-financing or sponsored so its not a drain on resources then that's fine, but if the bandwidth and other costs are higher than the revenue then it is understandable to wind it down a bit or only do it where it might make sense.

7 hours ago, STFU said:

Create the space to allow it in a manner which poses no risk to others and let them get on with it; after all, it's not like our stadiums are so rammed we can't accommodate it.  I think it was Scotty I've seen talking about his happening in Canada?

Yup. Toronto FC faced the same problems in the early years ... our support was young and rambunctious and flares were often smuggled into the stadium. These were road flares so not safe at all, burning at some ridiculous temperature and then having to be thrown onto the pitch (a plastic one in our first season, replaced by grass in season 2 thankfully) when they literally got too hot to handle. Lots of reports of people getting scalding residue on them as they flew through the air (the flares not the fans) and on one occasion it burned a hole in a small section of the plastic pitch that cost about $40K to replace. It was also very acrid and horrible in your lungs and I do recall having to go for a few glasses of medicinal whisky on one particular occasion. 

Took a few years, but in the end the club actually got regular communication going with all supporters groups in our 'south end' and established a lot of common sense stuff including the use of flags, smoke, drums, etc. There are signs around now that note its a supporters section so if you are offended by standing or flags or other things that might affect your viewing, then its too bad! The club also paid for nominated people to go on H&S course so they could safely let off controlled smoke (looks like flares but not burning at such a high temperature or carbonising your lungs). Safety protocols are in place, sand is present for extinguishing etc and the 'flares' are approved for use in this environment.  

Kenny Cameron did try to get the stewards to ease up on the younger fans a few years ago, but I think there is a real chance of sustaining that if we encourage the club to work with the section 94 guys to enhance the atmosphere ... but its a two-way street. As one specific supporters group at TFC found out, if you take a mile when offered an inch then you face consequences. They broke the agreed rules a fair bit and got a lot of repercussions that somewhat filtered to the other groups but overall amongst the club and most groups its a pretty healthy relationship. They even let the groups manage the season ticket relocations in our sections, ensuring that the ticket holders are genuine members of each supporters group before approving the request ...   

One of the better media types, that's for sure. Some of the pundits and 'analysts' on Sportsound have been right wallopers, but as you say RG always seems fair to all. Him and Jim Spence always seemed ok to me. As for Traynor, best asy nothing there, dont want to ban myself  

Jake Mulraney has moved from Atlanta United to Orlando City in MLS. The trade was $200,000 in 'allocation money'* which is quite high for MLS as it forms part of your wage budget and what you can spend on overall contracts in a year ... it may increase to $275,000 based on him hitting performance benchmarks. Didnt realise he had moved until I saw him come on as a sub against Toronto last weekend! 

2 hours ago, Yngwie said:

Not sure if anyone mentioned it yet but our first goal should not have stood. Played should’ve stopped for a head knock and also Samuels was offside (not 2 yards offside like Callum Davidson says, but a wee bit offside).

I could see it stopping for the head knock, but don't think Samuels was offside, not when the ball was played. 

2 hours ago, Yngwie said:

About time we got a wee bit of good fortune from the match officials.

The ref not blowing for the head knock was definitely good fortune. Probably because our guy got up ... but you got to play the whistle and McAlear did just that

... and with Devine and Duffy available for the next leg, therefore strengthening our defence, signs are positive that we can get this done ! 

1 hour ago, standbydave said:

Need a massive team talk at half-time. 3-5-2 is not us

Think the team talk was a good one !

I didnt get to see first half as the source I got was showing PGA Golf ... but found another feed and have been able to watch second half. Sounds like first half was bad but we are definitely not outclassed during this 45. Great build-up play for the first goal and nice finish from McAlear but holy **** what a sublime free-kick for his second. That was in the proverbial postage stamp. World class placement if he meant it. 

6 minutes ago, snorbens_caleyman said:

https://protonvpn.com/

The free version includes a connection via the US.

Thanks - but in this case it wont help. My work VPN actually shows us as in California so when I turn it off I can login in Canada from my home connection, login to paramount+ and see basically just on demand stuff available in Canada, no live streaming. When I turn the VPN on, it wont let me logon. Appears that Paramount+ Canada and USA have different login systems even though the URL is exactly the same. Also cant use a USA address and a Canadian Credit Card to signup for USA trial ... and as I am supposed to be working, cant devote too much time to it  

Apparently my only option today is to watch Real Madrid play Real Betis ! 

38 minutes ago, Scotty said:

Apparently we can get this in Canada through the Paramount+ channel or app ... $5.99 a month but a 7 day free trial when you sign up ... not sure why they would have sport when its ostensibly a movie channel but lets hope for a good thriller, few comedy moments, and of course a happy ending in this one and in the sequel next week

or not   USA only it would appear. 

logged in on my Canadian IP address and trial account and going to the page they show in their FAQ

going back to the same page not logged in but using work VPN which is US based ... I see it advertised but 

Apparently we can get this in Canada through the Paramount+ channel or app ... $5.99 a month but a 7 day free trial when you sign up ... not sure why they would have sport when its ostensibly a movie channel but lets hope for a good thriller, few comedy moments, and of course a happy ending in this one and in the sequel next week

I have no problem with the last paragraph frankly. How many times have clubs - not just our club - had ridiculous decisions imposed on them or reasonable appeals rejected unless you have one of the larger support bases ! It may not be right, but there are too many examples to say it is not true. 

Willie Collum has been an incompetent and notorious whistler for years as have many of his colleagues but there is ZERO accountability within referee circles ... FFS even at amateur level you cant question referee decisions. I sat on the committee of the Inverness Amateur association for years and the instruction we got from Glasgow was that the referee report is sacrosanct. It is unquestionable, regardless of what others, multiple others, might say (even when that report is known to be fabricated) and that pervades right to today all the way up the chain to the top. It is one reason why, on the whole, we still have such bad referees. Good referees get jaded or lost in the mix with all the dross, and of course the headlines all go to wallopers like Collum who revel in it and have no repercussions for their self-serving narcissistic tendencies .. and because he is a headliner, then he must be our top guy in organisers eyes .. no he is not the top guy, he is an embarrassment to Scottish football and to the referees association. 

Same with the suits at whatever acronym association you want to quote. Like referees there may a few good ones that come into the association as club reps or as workers over the years but once again, they get jaded or lost in the mix and its the self preservation society and the wallopers that rise to the top. We have played around at changing the names or acronyms every few years but until there is root and branch change - which will NEVER happen - its just shuffling deckchairs on the Titanic. 

So come Friday, yes Danny is out, so lets get on with it. We have turned outrage into motivation before, we can do it again. Lets not get mad, lets get even! The best medicine for these incompetents is for Caley Thistle to do what they do best and upset the applecart when the odds are against us. Anecdotally, Stevie Paterson put the newspaper with the 18-1 odds on his whiteboard in his team talk on Feb 8th 2000 and used that to fire up the team ... a picture of Collum or the letter from the appeals committee might just do the trick on Friday (hopefully).

and yet we still have the likes of Idrissa Gueye who has missed the same game two years in a row because he would have to wear a shirt with rainbow colours on it in an effort to raise awareness of and support anti-homophobia initiatives. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/16/sports/soccer/psg-idrissa-gana-gueye.html

Despite Collum's best efforts we got there ... wow, talk about squeaky *** time! That was really hard watching the scores via an app on my phone in the office  

An area recognised as being for memorialising those no longer with us would be a great idea. Sadly I can think of many people who would be on that memorial wall, both from club and fanbase. 

Thanks all - all luck, no science! Thanks @MrCaleyjag for doing this this year. it was fun. 

Scotty

HT: 0-0

FT: 0-1

1st ICT: Sutherland

1st PT: Bannigan

Crowd: 3879

Yellow Card: Holt

CDN Girl

HT: 1-0

FT: 1-1

1st ICT: Billy Mckay

1st PT:  Jakubiak

Crowd: 3000

Yellow Card: broadfoot

SOS

HT: 0-1

FT: 1-2

1st ICT: Walsh

1st PT: Tiffiney

Crowd: 3105

Yellow Card: Devine

2 hours ago, tm4tj said:

Standing room only today, a testament in itself to the Big Man's character who touched so many.

RIP Big Stew, I'll have a dram or two for you and let's see if we can beat Partick tonight for you.

Missed you :( 

beautiful service, and a testament to the big man’s character that so many attended.