Scotty

10 hours ago, STFU said:

Same reason we should be bringing more of our own youngsters through sooner.  Who knows, maybe if we show willing to give a chance at first team football a bit sooner, then they may sign their contracts and not disappear out the door for virtually nothing when they turn 16 

We can bring them through, but you have to be careful. There is the adage that if you are good enough, you are old enough, and i loosely agree with that, but its been shown time and again that the vast majority of academy graduates or youth players are neither physically or mentally ready to play every game. Their minutes have to be managed and there needs to be a balance. Otherwise you run the risk of wrecking a career before its even begun.  

I see the same thing week in and week out at Toronto these days ... There are 11 academy graduates (and several other u-22 players who came from elsewhere) in the 30 man first team squad (currently 27/30 in the squad) and in some games we have seen 6 or more of them start as Bob Bradley rebuilds from the clusterf*** of having Chris Armas as our manager in 2020/21 (the same guy labelled Ted Lasso at Man Utd this year). Players like Ralph Priso, Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty, Jayden Nelson, Kosi Thompson, and Deandre Kerr have all seen significant game time this year and are all under 19. All of them are exciting talents with (just turned 18yo) Jahkeele deemed most likely to perhaps emulate Alphonso Davies who went from Vancouver to Bayern Munich and lit up the Bundesliga. These are players who I would definitely label as "good enough". The others I counted are all under 22 and have also seen a lot of game time simply because of how MLS works ... Bradley cut-out the deadwood late last year and signed some players to replace them, but MLS player and squad rules being what they are you cant do it in one fell swoop regardless of how much money you have (and Toronto are wealthy). Until July 7th Bradley can sign no more players as that's when the transfer window opens in MLS. Lorenzo Insigne has already arrived from Napoli and lots of rumours about other players but the 5 I mentioned above are still likely to see a lot of time on the park. 

What I have noticed from all of the youngsters, including the 5 teenagers, is that they certainly have the skill, and the athleticism of youth, but in some cases they just cannot physically match up to bigger and older players as they simply haven't fully developed physically yet. They also don't have the guile or experience to draw or get away with fouls or to see a plan or a run from other players in the same way that an older player can and that can lead to needless errors and ultimately heads going down. They will get there, but when the club was going through last season and the first third of this season, and losing a lot of games, the errors got worse and the players form dipped. Last year, you could see it with one particular player who was played a lot and this year he has had to go out on loan to rebuild confidence as it was shattered ... but at least the manager does see potential in him rather than cutting him loose like would and does happen at some clubs ...

How long until we see @IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER wearing it and singing Oh-2-be !!

For some reason I am getting caught up on the use of the word 'bespoke'. Its not bespoke, its off-the-rack, which is the complete opposite. How many people throw that word around to make things sound pretentious and don't bother realising that, when referring to clothes, it means custom tailored, hand made, or at the far end of the definition ...made-to-measure even if those measurements are then entered into a machine to cut the fabric . Cant see anyone tailoring the shirts on the rack for each buyer so its just a shirt! 

Ok, rant over - as for the shirt itself, kinda like it, even as a Dalneigh boy who went to Telford Street. 

We were the self-titled Barcelona of the North with the red/blue one, now we are also AC Milan .. so Lionel Messi and Zlatan Ibrahimovich in the next mashup photos of the kit please. Could sell thousands of them online.  

Now to hope they fixed the wording on the production version of the new home top ...

Crosspost from the Nathan Shaw thread : 

We will see how he does ... Over the years we have had equal measure of turning jobbers into decent players for us - who then return to being jobbers when they move elsewhere - but we have also signed some out and out duds who never live up to whatever potential someone saw in them. There is a key phrase in that article for me and it is 3 simple words - "reignite his career" . The lad was playing for Celtic as a youngster and had played for Scotland youth before having to drop a couple of leagues after Hamilton so he's clearly not a bad player. However, that fall from the top level has got to hurt a little and of course the head can go down. The article talks about how he wants full time football ...  if he wants it enough, then perhaps he is motivated to work hard and achieve it. Give the lad a chance and hopefully it works out for us (and him).    

We will see ... Over the years we have had equal measure of turning jobbers into decent players for us - who then return to being jobbers when they move elsewhere - but we have also signed some out and out duds who never live up to whatever potential someone saw in them. There is a key phrase in that article for me and it is 3 simple words - "reignite his career" . The lad was playing for Celtic as a youngster and had played for Scotland youth before having to drop a couple of leagues after Hamilton so he's clearly not a bad player. However, that fall from the top level has got to hurt a little and of course the head can go down. The article talks about how he wants full time football ...  if he wants it enough, then perhaps he is motivated to work hard and achieve it. Give the lad a chance and hopefully it works out for us (and him).    

last communication 9th July 2021 from Mavor and Keith with the invoice for Cammy Harper's home shirt and Lewis Hyde's home shirt (for younger players it was cheaper so just noted we would get a 'gift' as thanks not a shirt). No word on 2022/23 season or on the pickup/availability of 2021/22 items although we did get a thank you email when we paid the invoice   

Canada thought they would be the team who had the longest wait to get back in ... 1986 was their one and only appearance. 

2022 is shaping up to be controversial though ... First the CSA (Canadian FA) scheduled a game against Iran for last weekend, without realising there are still some pretty raw and emotional diplomatic issues around the downing of Ukrainian Flight 752 in 2020, given that 55 of the 176 killed were Canadian citizens and a further 30 were Canadian residents. Then after they hastily rescheduled the opponent to be Panama, the team promptly went on strike due to issues over how the association plan to distribute the qualification monies from the world cup. The association - who could rival the SFA for parochialism -  have offered a mere 10% of the millions in unexpected windfall payments to the squad and there is also disparity in how they treat the men's and women's teams as well as views on development monies. The teams are asking to be treated equally and for the prize fund to players to be set to 40% (in line with other top 50 nations apparently), and for the CSA to ensure that for Qatar the team's families do not have to pay their own way to the tournament (also standard for other nations). What should be a triumph for Canada in getting to the world cup, and then in potentially hosting about a quarter of the games for the next world cup in 2026 is rapidly descending into a farce that Ernie Walker would be proud of. 

https://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/article/canada-mens-national-soccer-team-game-vs-panama-cancelled-amid-wage-dispute/

21 hours ago, DoofersDad said:

According to booking.com, a couple of nights (Friday to Sunday) in a basic Holiday Inn Express room will knock you back £582 whilst the Glen Mhor is charging £1,040 with breakfast extra!

Agree - and its not just at concert time. When we are planning a trip, which most recent visit excepted, is typically 6 or more months in advance,  I could typically rent a house for a month for less than the cost of booking an average hotel room for a week. As a family we do prefer to do the whole AirBnB or VRBO thing and have some go-to rentals in Inverness that we check first ... but we also take a look at hotel offers and the costs are insane so they are quickly discarded. 

9 hours ago, Robert said:

Maybe but if they turn things round and make us strong financially it will turn out to have been well worth it.

The deal mentioned in the P&J article sounds significant.

Players have been getting tied up quicker and our young talent and key players are under contract so we will get a fee if they move. Hopefully we bring our new signings in early and they enhance the squad.

The hospitality offering is very good now.

We no longer have gaps in the advertising boards at the ground.

We seem to have great team spirit.

We still need much improved communication though to build on the success of Section 94 and the positivity around the club and the increased fan numbers.

I’d anticipate turnstiles being back in use next season following the pandemic, staffed by volunteers or youth players as they were before.

For me, the Board seem to be moving us forward and hopefully that continues.

I’m happy to give them the benefit of the doubt at this time and trust them that their approach is working. 

Does seem a bit top heavy on the face of things but all good points you raise. Provided the outlay is generating growing income and improving services then so be it ... we have never operated at a profit, always relying on a cup run or wealthy directors putting in a few pennies here and there. If we can use sponsorship, advertising board sales, and other non-football or non-matchday revenue generators then the outlay for staff to bring those deals in and make our offerings more professional may be worthwhile as that in itself may help get us closer to balancing the books.

I am not going to crucify anyone on reducing an expected deficit in the middle of a pandemic when all of these things are challenging even in normal times but we do need to be mindful of it. Its a bit of a broken record, but if there is one area we are still lacking it is communication at some levels and there is no excuse for that. The club have their own website and social media to get things out there, they also have many other fan-based organisations or outlets that the as well.

Good luck to Ukraine against Wales. By far the better team for large spells of this match. Thought Scotland were poor in the first half and - not because he is former ICT - I thought it was only when Christie came on and the midfield got more of a grip of the ball that our performance got better. Almost a grandstand finish, which would have been just like Scotland to do things the hard way, but unfortunately (like ICT in the STJ game) when you commit so many forward, you run the risk of conceding that late killer goal. 

Hope they do the business against the Welsh (no offence to Wales) and then light up the tournament at the end of the year. If they get there I think they will be a lot of people's sentimental choice and seem solid enough to do well. Oh well, at least Canada qualified so I have that to look forward to, and hopefully for Scotland to get to the 2026 world cup and maybe be based in Toronto!  

3 hours ago, gingerjaggy said:

I believe that the Football League (who the blackout really protects) is being looked at as to whether it really serves any purpose. I think the blackout is to protect those in League 1 and League 2 because of the lack of TV revenue. I am now a ST holder at Ipswich Town and since their relegation from the Championship I believe the TV revenue dropped from 7m to 700k for being in League 1 so the bottom two leagues relies very heavily on fans through the gates to make an income and the blackout is to protect them encase I guess many decide to watch 3pm Prem matches on TV instead of attending. The fact they are going to discuss it suggests that eventually it will be removed. Having watched games during Covid on a screen it was a bleak fare and having the EFL IFollow down here where with VPN I can watch away games at 3pm it still doesn't have the same feeling even with fans back. The real joy of football comes from attending live but all the social interaction pre and post match. I think clubs will be able to stream to make another revenue income but the joy of still attending live will still be a greater pull than watching on a screen. 

I think you nailed it from a fan perspective. (For me) it is all about the day out with the actual match being just a part of that. If you are going to go to the football then you are going to go whether its on TV or not in most cases. You might choose not to on a wet and windy night in January, but that decision might have been the same whether its on telly or not.  If there is an ICT game on a Saturday afternoon but Celtic -V- anyone is live on TV then I am still going to the ICT game

As I said in earlier posts, I could/would argue that removing the blackout could actually be better for some clubs. You may miss out on one or two folk in the local area who watch on telly, but you also broaden your potential viewership to a wider audience, in our case of users from the central belt and beyond as well as those outside the country who wouldn't go to the game anyway. If you can reach a critical mass so that it pays for itself then anything on top of that is just gravy      

@No Shin Guards - if you have an issue with how the site is managed, lets discuss this in another thread or via message system. As noted, by a couple of our mods, you are closing your own topics according to the site logs so no-one is shutting you down. However, your methodology and phraseology are familiar to me so lets not pretend here! As mentioned, you do bring some interesting points to the discussions, so lets focus on that, and not the misguided attempt to manufacture censorship that is not in existence.   

3 hours ago, old caley girl said:

Out of interest Scotty how did it improve and did some rules change? 

The 'leadership' of each supporters group at TFC have regular meetings (all groups at once) with the club to talk about things that are planned, or things that have arisen that need discussing. On the club side they get the "south end" filled for every game with flag waving supporters, banners, noise and smoke, all of which the players like and which is great for the marketing folks to use when advertising the club. They also get to tell us what "suggestions" or edicts have come down from MLS to the clubs. It was MLS who banned the streamers at corners for example, not the club. It was also the league who keep changing the bag policy which is now see-through bags only, no backpacks and a few other restrictions. They will also discuss any incidents that might occur which need resolved and where possible give the supporters group the ability to self-police to an extent. 

On the supporters side the club have done many things. Over and above making the sections all standing, where flags, banners and drums are encouraged, that have also assisted with the technical aspects of hanging TIFOs (which the supporters groups make), they have trained people up on the safe use of the smoke, they have allowed supporters groups to somewhat manage their own sections right down to season ticket level. For example, in an effort to stop touts getting tickets, all season ticket sales in the 'supporters section' are passed through the supporters groups to verify membership in the group before being processed by the club. This year, as they seek to get fans back in the ground post-pandemic, they have also created a supporters pub in a section of the stadium. Again, this requires membership of one of the supporters groups and the beers are $6 instead of $14 which is standard stadium price! 

Its not perfect and there are moments - on both sides - but for the most part it does work well. 

All of this reminds me of TFC early years

L-R : The burned pitch I mentioned earlier. Unofficial Flares. 3 pics of corner kick madness in the first season (not allowed to do that anymore)

4 hours ago, snorbens_caleyman said:

Very disappointing.  I note that the announcement says "we are not allowed to show our home games". The implication being that it was not the club's decision, although there is no clue as to whether the club agrees or disagrees with the decision. Would be interesting to know what, if any, consultation with the clubs took place before any decisions were taken.

The club have non-exclusive rights to broadcast their own games worldwide, subject to any local rules regarding UEFA (or other regional FIFA affiliated organizations) blackouts.  The SFA have always requested that 3PM-5PM blackout period on a Saturday, hence why anything on telly then was before or after that time. This means that while the club could theoretically broadcast to Ireland, Europe, North America, Australia, they simply cannot do it within Scotland thanks to that SFA request and within England thanks to the FA request. While I would love them to broadcast to Canada on a Saturday, the cost to provide that service would far outweigh the potential revenue so there would be no benefit to them unfortunately.  

3 hours ago, RiG said:

Whether the club agrees with it or not the fact remains that the livestreaming of live games at 3pm on a Saturday was only ever going to be a temporary measure during COVID times. As soon as (the worst of) COVID was over then things would revert to "normal" and we would see a return to the blackout implemented by the Scottish and English FA's per UEFA regulations. At least for 2021/22 we got an extra years "grace" compared to England but I appreciate that will be small crumbs of comfort to those who came to reply on the streams.

spot on. 

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