CaleyD

Please note the following cut-off times for the purchase of tickets for the Rangers game on 14th October. The club will also be opening late on the Thursday night till 7pm.

Starting to think you might be a County Fan in disguise!!!

From a purely selfish point of view....woohoo....home at a reasonably decent time now.

I prefer a pie....not into this vegetarian/vegan nonsense.

I don't like this "where did the other XXX thousand" people go thing. I'm not a regular movie goer, but when a big blockbuster comes along I'm more likely to go see it....I don't go to the Shinty every week, but will go to a Camanachd Final or the Shinty Hurling International games (if football doesn't get in the way)....I never watch athletics, but will tune in for the Olympics.......don't watch NFL week to week, but rarely miss the Super Bowl.....you'll never see me in church unless it's the wedding or whatever of someone I know. Just showing interest in the "big" events is something we all do in some aspect of our lives....you just have to hope that you hook a few when people make the effort to come to yours.

You are assuming extra numbers are paying when I clearly stated that those extra numbers aren't always paying...and gave an example. Free tickets issued by ICTFC tend to be for kids (and all U12s now go free in the North Stand at all games). As some of these would have previously been paying, then there is an immediate cost to the club with changing their policy as that income is no longer coming in. The hope is that it encourages more U12s/Families to attend....and you then get income from the parents paying....then in the long term those U12s move up to paying categories and help generate additional revenue. As I said before, some clubs have owners (and I'll name no names) who (allegedly) had a policy of dishing out hundreds of free season tickets to staff and then including those numbers in their attendance figures. They have since changed that policy and now (allegedly) just print hundreds of free kids tickets and count them whether they are used or not. There's so many different "initiatives" going on at different clubs who all operate in their own way that, as I said, you really can't garner too much meaningful information from an attendance figure and certainly not an income figure.....aside from all of the above, there's also no breakdown of what category of tickets make up the attendance. Average attendances over a season also have to be looked at with some caution. Having additional home matches against teams who bring larger supports (or not) can swing figures from one season to the next....so you need to keep that in mind when looking at figures year on year as well. So yes....whilst you can make a general statement that increased attendances are good thing, you shouldn't automatically assume that there's any correlating financial benefit....certainly not in the short term. The last time I looked at it, ICTFC's attendances as a percentage of population were a lot better than the majority of others in the league.....so that kinda knocks the "not a football city" argument on the head, along with a few of the other points being made. That's not to say that I don't think attendances could be better and I do believe that there isn't as much of a connect between the city and the club as we might have had if the stadium was set up to be more of a hub which was used more regularly by the community for stuff other than football....it's that kind of activity that makes people feel a part of something and they then tend to take more ownership of, and pride in, it. How you achieve that without any money and without threatening the finely balanced setup we have at present? I don't know. Many people have had many ideas over the years, but I'm yet to see one which could realistically be implemented. I have faith that opportunity will present itself at some point, we just have to be ready to jump on it when it does.

Not always.

Pretty certain I didn't mention CJT.....but thank you for the confirmation that you continue to operate contrary to the organisations own rules.

Maybe this one-dimensional view of your team being better than it actually is explains why teams on the continent are better supported and have larger, more stable, attendances? I get that it would be nice to slap down the opposition with some attendance splits from TCS, especially as we often get a hard time for the numbers we take to games.....but it only serves to encourage this unhealthy obsession (cultural or not). You'd think that points were awarded for crowd sizes the way some people go on about them when, in fact, they mean feck all in terms of what's happening on the pitch. The actual numbers mean very little as well. Some teams have, for years, issued free tickets/season tickets to employees of their businesses purely to boost the numbers....doesn't mean any more bums on seats, or indeed £'s in the bank.

Wouldn't disagree....and not having a go at those who attend away matches or saying they shouldn't. It's the only practical option for a lot of people and some seem more willing to let their hair down and enjoy the day which adds to the enjoyment. All great and I've enjoyed it as much as the next person. That doesn't mean we should be obsessed over how many people travel/attend the away end. It also shouldn't be expected that those who do travel should have their day subsidised to the extent that it takes money away from their own club (a view I know you don't hold).

If it was up to me I'd ban the announcing of crowd figures altogether. We're the only country I know of that is obsessed by them. As for away crowds....other than for big derby games, they're practically non existent beyond our shores. Fans abroad don't like giving opponents money. Here....we have clubs and fans organisations more intent on finding ways to line the pockets of other clubs than they do their own. It's all very bizarre.

The drop off in average crowd figures has more to do with a reduction in the number of visiting fans than anything else.

No TV Fixtures for ICTFC after the Rangers home match on 14th October until after the winter break.

I don't have them to hand at present, but the Judicial Panel Protocols make clear allowance for the Compliance Officer to take retrospective action in scenarios involving (or alleged to have involved) Serious Foul Play. This is regardless of whether or not the referee has taken any action at the time. The incident with Josh did not fall into this as it was not Serious Foul Play or any of the other listed scenarios that can be re-visited.

I've not heard any noises being made about the Rangers match on 24th being changed (yet)....but I'd be careful what you wish for, as you know they'll hit us with a 12 noon kick off on the Saturday or something equally ridiculous for TV. Have had word to say that the TV fixtures up to the winter break are due to be announced soon.

For a moment there I thought you posted a link to the Sun