CaleyD

Lossie game tomorrow night has just been called off due to the rain. Also a reminder that tonights game has also fallen foul of the weather and is also cancelled.

I think you answered your own questions....."Might". The fans who went in e.mails by the hundreds saying they weren't buying season tickets unless the club voted "No" to NewCo haven't followed up on their promise (yet) I believe. Is it fair, or realistic, to expect the club to take a gamble that we are magically going to see 1200 additional home fans suddenly turn up for a Celtic game??? You'll get no argument from me on that....if Irish Football can manage (and thrive) without segregation then it surely must be workable in other countries.

What I would add is that this is in large part down to a fall in attendances in the home end....the exact same scenario as we witness against Celtic. As I said already though....I don't think the numbers support giving up an additional 2400+ seats to Celtic. If we could give them just 1200 or so of the empty seats then we'd be doing well and getting close to max crowds. That doesn't equate to a £50k increase in income, but it would be a substantial sum of money....especially if we could provide them in the Main Stand where we can command an extra £5 per ticket compared to providing additional seats from the North Stand. It's all hypothetical in either case as we don't know if it is something the club would consider looking at...or even if the logistics could be made to work in terms of stewarding and division of facilities. What I do think is important is that we, the fans, are willing to accept that in tough times then we have to be willing to make the odd sacrifice for the financial well being of the club. There has to be a bit of give and take.

We haven't had a sell out crowd against Rangers in 4.5 years

There's little difference between league average attendance for either Rangers or Celtic...in fact Celtic were last to sell out a league game at ICT....so your logic is flawed.

Obviously the club need to try and find ways to eek every penny they can out of the upcoming season and, in theory, moving home fans around a bit to accommodate additional away fans (when the demand is not there form home fans to fill seats) makes sense. Not sure the sums add up for moving people from North Stand to Main Stand, but they might stack up for moving people from the South End of the Main Stand further along in order to free up and additional 1000 or so seats. Under normal circumstances I would probably fall into the "bad idea" camp, but these are not normal circumstances. Playing a bit of Devils Advocate, would those saying "No" be willing to purchase an extra ticket to compensate for the additional income they are denying the club from selling the seats to someone else?

I was using it to demonstrate that, as a nation, we still like our football....regardless of everything that goes on. i.e. it is far from a dead sport and there is the fans to support it if the clubs and association(s) can get their act together.

No, I don't think so. I just think Scottish Football has lost it's way a bit. As a nation we have (had?) one of the highest attendance levels per head of population anywhere in the world and we need to be capitalising on...and growing...that. Scottish football was far more healthy in the days before the big TV contracts and the income that produced....no reason why it couldn't be again if it needed too. In fact, no reasons why it can't have the best of both worlds...all it needs is for Club Boards to invest properly in the Social Values of the game and many of the other things would take care of themselves.

ICT had (some) money in the bank and were able to sell assets and secure investment to allow us to meet the cost of that relegation season....and that was a season where we had prepared for operating on a reduced income. This season we have prepared for an SPL season and that will have been done with some expectation on an income which reflected previous SPL seasons. It would be impossible to slash our costs to the extent we would have done for a relegation season at this stage. We also have no assets left to sell and any additional investment will have been looked at to fill the existing £250k gap in our finances. If you believe for one second that a £500k drop in income "wouldn't be that bad" then you need to be thinking again. ICT cannot afford to lose a single penny this season, so any loss in income MUST be made up for with additional investment. There's no sugar-coating it....if we don't mange to do that, then it's curtains.

Yes he played. Didn't do anything which made him stand out from any of the rest of the Buckie Thistle team, IMO...and was shrugged off the ball as easy as he ever was. In saying that, it wasn't the kind of game that suited him. He was always at his best when he could get a bit of space and run with the ball or running on to balls and those opportunities didn't present themselves for him yesterday.

Hows this progressing. Sorry for the delay in replying. We (Supporters Trust) have a meeting on Tuesday and I hope to get the details signed off for us to put this in place.

Old Caley Girl has kindly offered to assist with collecting contributions from people at matches she is attending. She will be at Grant Street on Tuesday, Elgin on Saturday (hopefully) and she is also attending the Fans match in Glasgow on Sunday. If you want to pay in person and will be at one of those games then please drop her a PM to let her know who you are and you can arrange to meet. Please also let her know your username on here so as we can update your site membership accordingly. Thanks.

I don't think anyone underperformed today. Yeah, it was obvious that these guys were new to each other at times, but we didn't look nearly as green as we did even after a few games under our belt last season and we had some really nice link up play...especially in the second half. The guys who have come in from down south seemed to get a bit of a shock from how little time they were getting on the ball...but that's just part of the learning curve and they seemed to catch on pretty quick. It was also obvious that the plan was to give some of the young and new guys as much time on the ball as possible which lead to passes coming that were perhaps not expected or conducive with what you might want to see in a full competitive game. Buckie are a fairly big/physical team as well, and it's obvious...especially after last years injuries...that we weren't going to get involved in that kinda game, even though we do have a few lads who look more than capable of holding their own in that regard. The only person who did seem like he wanted to dish it out a little was Foran, who might have found himself with a couple of yellows if he'd put in those challenges in an SPL match, but the "enforcer" role seems to be what he does so perhaps, in his capacity as captain, he was just giving the message on behalf of the team. I was happy enough with what was on display today and see no need, or benefit, in looking for reasons to knock anyone. A good day out, great to get a chance to see the new signings and some decent craic despite the crappy weather....bring on Clach!!!

ICT Player Numbers were as follows..... 1. Ryan Esson 2. David Raven 3. Ryan Watson 4. Connor Pepper 5. Gary Warren 6. Josh Meekings 7. Shane Sutherland 8. Richie Foran 9. Billy McKay 10. Andrew Shinnie 11. Aaron Doran 12. Graeme Shinnie 14. Ross Draper 15. Nick Ross 16. Jason Oswell 17. Martin Laing 18. Liam Polworth 19. Antonio Reguero (GK) 20. Mathew Cooper 21. Kevin Buchan 22. Kyle Whyte

Articles such as that look good until you start to drill down into the information. They are also full of a lot of "What Ifs", a lot of which we are a long way from ever realising, even if we were to start bringing about the positive changes needed as from today. IMO, it's the constant "looking elsewhere" and comparing ourselves to others and dreaming of having what they have which causes so many problems. What's needed is for people to sit down and develop a system/set-up which works for us here and now. Looking at the comparison with Belgium....they may get 45 Million Euros a year in TV rights, but that is from a national TV provider who delivers their content via the Internet (cheaper than satellite, cable etc) and who broadcast every league game. That kind of set-up is not an option in Scotland because we do not have a broadband network capable of delivering such a service to enough people to make it viable. You also have to consider the fact that Belgium has twice the population of Scotland...so they're delivering/selling to a larger audience. Using attendances as your driving factor for comparison of TV viewers doesn't work either....because if someone is going to matches then they're not your primary target for selling TV too, which makes those stats practically worthless.

Appears that the ultimate aim is (still) a move South - http://forum.rangersmedia.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=230432

One other thing....does anyone else thing they changed the date of the vote to "Friday 13th" for dramatic effect?

And that seems to be what is happening http://www.bbc.co.uk...otball/18727333 Apparently there is according to the statement on the Clyde website http://www.clydefc.c...012/07/04/4137/ Yup, but the questions still stands as to who is proposing entry to Div 1. I've not checked the SFL rules, but it normally requires X% of members/shareholders or the Board to put forward a proposal. I'm guessing it's not the clubs, which means it must be the Board....they are therefore the ones responsible for creating the "dilemma".

There seems to be a lot of talk about a vote to see which league they will go in to....but surely such a proposal can neither be made, not voted on until they first accept the application!!! From what Green has said, they are applying to join the SFL, and have made no request to go straight into Div1....so who has put forward a proposal for them to go straight into Div 3? The SFL are complaining that they have been handed the problem to deal with by the SPL....surely there is no problem unless they choose to give themselves one? Simple process....Do we accept the application? Yes/No - If Yes, then welcome to Div 3 as there is no process for a team to be submitted directly to any other division.

All being well I shall be at this one.

Surely it could be argued that every SFL club has a vested interest? In fact, of all teams then Dundee (assuming they are the ones going up) have the least interest in the vote!!! I know it's SFL v SPL, but strange that Dundee would be deemed to have a vested interest, but Rangers (Old Co) didn't and had a vote on whether or not to submit their successors.

I guess the next question is...have all those who said they weren't going to buy Season Tickets now done so?

Fixed that for you

Black's search for a new club continues then!!!

As I understand it the vote was "private". I hope (but doubt) that remains the case. What's important is that a decision has been made and we can now move forward. I also hope that the decision has been made without any condition of "threats" on the SFL who should be free to do as they now see fit in regards to any application they might receive.