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Scotty

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Posts posted by Scotty

  1. Clubs have always had the rights to stream/broadcast their own games but for 3PM Saturday games or other specific dates/times can only do so live outside the UK due to blackout arrangements set by UEFA.

    My understanding (from a few years ago now so some details may have changed) is that it is the governing body of each country who submit their blackout requests to UEFA each year so there is no barrier to streaming provided the relevant associations were ok with it. However, I dont think we are just dealing with the SFA here, but also the FA and potentially various European FAs as they would request no live football from within their TV areas on a Saturday afternoon.

    Realistically speaking, they dont care about ICT, but the excuse has always been that they don't want a Celtic - Rangers game, or Man City -V- Man Utd game live on TV at 3pm potentially affecting attendance elsewhere. Its all nonsense really in my mind, because those games would get scheduled for a larger TV audience anyway ... but it is where we are at.  If ever there was a time to change this, then it is now. Maybe lower leagues could be the guinea pigs for allowing live football at 3pm on a Saturday? Does anyone really think that ICT -V- Arbroath on PPV would tempt folk to not go along to Arsenal -V- Spurs? 

    There are so many fans who cant or wont go to games even when allowed for various reasons - travel, immuno-compromised, COVID concerns, not vaccinated, cant get a reduced capacity ticket, etc - but I doubt anything will change. For a club like ICT, its not going to affect our attendances, those who will turn up will turn up anyway as football is better in person, and those who have already paid for a season ticket probably could and should get access to a livestream. Having a PPV livestream available for the casual observer would be good for those who cant or wont go for whatever reason and could add additional revenue to the club. I plan to try and watch at least some games this year on livestream if its available .... but the one caveat is the cost to the club of providing the service. Its not cheap to pay for the bandwidth and technology so if its not financially viable then I would prefer the club to come out and say that and put those funds or resources into the playing side ... get us back into the Premiership where the budget could be bigger and support more initiatives like this.    

    There is one comparable here in Canada I can think of and that's the new CPL (Canadian Premier League). No games on TV whatsoever, just streaming on OneSoccer which is a subscription service. $10 per month or $100 per year gets you access to all CPL games, Canadian international games (men and women) as well as LigaMX. All MLS games are live on cable but I think the CPL is a better comparison given the size and budget of the clubs and the typical attendance levels.  

     

    • Like 1
  2. 2 hours ago, CELTIC1CALEY3 said:

    Sensible signing. The team appears more balanced this season with regard to age and experience. 

    I tend to agree here. You need some veterans in your team to balance out the youth. They may not have the speed or mobility of the youngsters, but they have the match experience and the smarts to grind out results, and both are needed over the course of a season. They can also help mentor those kids on the pitch and in training so they develop their own smarts. 

    I see it all the time over here .... Beckham was 30+ when he played for LA Galaxy and his vision on the pitch was actually pretty amazing. Same with Thierry Henry, Wayne Rooney, Kaka, etc. .... and just look at Ibrahimovic ... he came to MLS, lit it up for a couple of seasons (I was witness to his 500th career goal - which was against Toronto in front of my section) and then went back to Serie A .... He's about 85 now - or seems that way - but still puts some of the young kids to shame - mostly because he doesnt need to run, he just knows where to be after years of experience and game smarts. 

    Now, Gardyne and Broadfoot are not exactly Beckham and Ibrahimovic but the principle still applies in my mind. The old adage is that "if you are good enough, you are old enough" when talking about young players ... I would say that the other side of that coin is that "if you are good enough, you are not too old" ..... but (father) time will tell if that proves correct for us this season .... ever hopeful though. 

     

     

    • Agree 2
  3. ok, as time is of the essence I am going to reply back to the club and note that we will sponsor Harper's home shirt and also Lewis Hyde as he got more votes than all others. Aslo going to close off the sponsorship for this year at our current numbers. 

    • Like 2
  4. 2 hours ago, Kingsmills said:

    I have never really been in the Anyone But England camp but, given what has happened to them this tournament, I will be rooting for Denmark tomorrow.  As far as the final is concerned, if Denmark qualify, I will be rooting for them whoerver the opponent. If England reach the final I would probably support them over Spain but would back Italy if the Azzuri were their opponents.

    For me its not the players, or the fans (well not most of them anyway), its the commentators who do my head in. I was watching them romp home in the last match and should have taken a drink every time 1966 was mentioned .... I'd have been plastered before 15 minutes was up! They were so condescending about the opponent and so full of themselves it was annoying to watch. 

    I am rooting for Denmark tomorrow simply because of all the adversity they have endured through the start of this tournament. it has echoes of 1992 when they last won it .. coming in as a late and unprepared replacement for Yugoslavia when that region descended into civil war. 

    If Denmark win tomorrow then I am Denmark for the final. If England, then I really don't care. I like watching the Italians and the Spanish play - when they play well - but I have no pony in the race for that one .... 

  5. 2 hours ago, old caley girl said:

    Yup last season (19/20) got absolutely nothing not even a letter of thanks. I assume shirt sponsors received their top. 

    I know we did - we did the draw and it was collected a few days later ....

     

    3 hours ago, old caley girl said:

    Beware if going for gift option. Last season we got nothing abd this season we got one unframed 7x5 photo.

    Its been a while since we sponsored anything other than one player's home shirt ... and each year we have received that without issue. I think it was Ross Tokely's boots last time we did more than 1 item .... and although we didn't get the boots i seem to remember we got some ornament of some sort, like a glass football in a presentation case or something like that ... not crystal or anything expensive, but quite nice. There was also the chance for sponsors to get photos taken with their player too .... not last year for obvious reasons.  

    If we got another few sponsorships from a few folk we might make it to an away shirt and that would be a shirt to add to the draw. Other than that, if we stick with the lesser item then its an experiment and we will see what we get ... 

  6. ok, will add a poll here - for those who have contributed .... I have also clarified with the club that only sponsors of the Home/Away shirts of main players get a shirt at end of season. All other sponsors - boots, training tops and home shirts for the youngsters (ie. those items listed at £125+VAT) receive a "gift" from the club.

     

  7. 3 minutes ago, IBM said:

    I would prefer to sponsor another youngster like Harry Hennem or Ethan Cairns. 

    I am open to that too ... we have always tried to sponsor local youngsters through their ICT career ....  its not like you would get the actual boots anyway - just a 'gift' of some sort. Only the main shirt sponsor gets the item sponsored. 

  8. Happy to say we have now reached the target for Cammy's home top (see the line under #28 in the list. Thank You everyone for your continued support. 

    Over an above that, because more people have contributed to this we are now at the threshold to sponsor another player's secondary item .... I have alist from the club, but the standout item appears to be Billy Mackay's boots? What does everyone think? ... or do we double-down and sponsor one of the even younger players? 

     

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    • Like 1
  9. Ok, I think I have tweaked things to be a good blend ......

    For now users should see ads at the top of each screen - one on the left, one on the right. On some pages there may just be one. There should also be an ad on the sidebar and a 'matched content ad on the sidebar. and finally an ad on the footer of each page. This is what we have always had.  Within the topic lists and posts there should also be an ad and again this is what we have always had. 

    I have turned off the 'vignette' ads which were the annoying ones between pages. I have also turned off most of the Auto-Ads that google placed automatically in favoured positions. These were causing multiple ads in forum listings and were also visible to our site sponsor group who don't see ads at all ....

    The only Auto Ads I have left in place are the 'Anchor Ads' - which would be these ones below. They only appear on mobile (for now) and can be minimised by pressing the up arrow below the google logo. According to Google these will appear on wider desktops from 19th July but I would hope/expect they act the same. If it affects the site performance, covers up menus or has any adverse effect, we will remove.  

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    • Agree 1
  10. Its all about getting the balance right for me.

    The site relies on ad revenue to exist as well as one or two members who subscribe to our 'site sponsor' membership (which removes all ads) to pay our yearly costs. Software licensing, VPS hosting, domain names and all those sorts of things suck up pretty much all of our ad revenue ... and we usually manage to just about tick over. That's fine for me as this is not a business and no way anyone involved here is going to get rich doing it or even make a living out of it! Hasn't happened in the last 27 years, not going to now ... However, I have always told my wife that the site will never be a drag on our finances and if it stops being virtually self-financing then I would wind it down. Luckily, we are not at that point but we need to ads to keep that point on the horizon and not in direct view! 

    Having said all that, I do try to keep ads to a minimum because I know what I can tolerate personally and I also hate sites where I get popups in my face all the time or intrusive ads. Right now it seems that any of the free apps/games I download to try on my phone have ads every few minutes and I almost instantly delete them if they are that frequent.  Over 50% of our views now come from mobile or tablet and especially on a phone it can be hard to optimise these. Please keep letting me know about any obtrusive ads but please be aware we do need to have some of them to keep the site running. No Ads = No Site.

    I am currently testing the latest version of the software and will be tweaking things before updating it here. No huge changes but trying to make sure mobile experience is good is one of my primary concerns.  

    • Thank You 2
  11. It was the first thing I noticed when I got the last strip delivered .... Loved the strip, hated the quality and appearance of the badge. We talk about players 'playing for the badge' so to my mind, that should be done to a decent standard! Other than that, no criticism of the design of any of the Puma strips so far. They have all been good IMHO. 

     

    • Like 1
    • Agree 1
  12. My issue - as with all the other Puma strips so far is the crappy badge. The Errea embroidered badges were excellent. Even some of the one-piece badges we had before were decent, but this one looks cheap. Even if embroidered is not practical, could it be tweaked to not have a massive white border - that would surely look better. 

    • Agree 3
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