CaleyD

Any chance of a topic pin, please?

Yogi said post-match that he played Marley up front to utilise his pace when trying to hit Celtic on the counter (he also has a bit more height for winning balls played up the park). IMO, it worked pretty well as it forced Celtic to keep a man on him and (at least) one man behind him at all times...and that helped reduce their threat going forwards.

Not the case at all. Whilst we were set up more to hit on the counter, that didn't mean we sat in and there was plenty of attacking intent from the off.

This is pretty much how I viewed it.

The club appreciate all feedback and I know that they are looking at a series of different incentives over the next couple of months. From there they will look at those which have worked (for both fans and club) and look to make adjustment where necessary....not just in terms of offers, but potentially at ticket policy in general going forward. The "Friends for a Fiver" offer realised the targets set for it by the club...and whilst I wouldn't expect it to be one of those things that becomes a permanent deal, it's entirely feasible that it will be repeated and I have suggested that it's maybe something that can be added to season ticket books next season.....a couple of vouchers in the book that can be used to bring a friend for £5 to any match type thing. As fans, we have our part to play in this by spreading the word and making sure offers/incentives etc are used responsibly. If you're on Facebook/Twitter (and we're working on video ads for YouTube) then taking 2 seconds to share the info can go a long way towards helping....liking is great, but a share is infinitely more valuable when it comes to getting the info in front of as many people as possible. We're also going to be making all future match posters available (sooner) and to download, so if you are in a position to print one and stick it up at work, school, college, social club, local shop, pub or whatever, then that would also be a great help.

Or maybe a few parents will think....I normally don't go as I can't afford a ticket for me and my son/daughter and I wouldn't go without them, but this offer removes that obstacle? Ok, so it's only one game and I wouldn't disagree that it would be great if U16's got free football all the time....although you also have to look at the risks of an increased number of unaccompanied minors in the stadium....but it's initiatives like this which, if well supported, will encourage the club to look at making it a more permanent arrangement.

Anyone willing/able to print and put up copies of the poster in their place of work, school, college, community centre or wherever can download it from - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1355083/141108_hamilton.pdf

See Website for Full Details : http://ictfc.com/news/team-news/1389-ticket-info-octobernovember-2014 Anyone willing/able to print and put up copies of the poster in their place of work, school, college, community centre or wherever can download it from - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1355083/141108_hamilton.pdf

Reminder that tickets for the Celtic game on Saturday MUST be purchased from ICTFC in advance. NO ticket sales available on the day.

If the SPFL can't sell the League or League Cup to football fans, what hope have they of selling it to sponsors? After all, it's exposure that sponsors want in return for their money.

At the end of the day, it falls to the Season Ticket holders. If they allow the offer to be abused, then it could well come back to bite them in the butt as the easiest place to recoup the lost income is to stick it on the price of the Season Tickets somewhere down the road. A simple case of cause and effect.

We had a bit of fun putting some "FIVE" questions to the David Raven, James Vincent & Yogi ahead of this weekends "Bring a Friend for a Fiver" match.....see how they got on in the video below...!

Close call? Player is on way down and he's still at least a yard from the box. It's where foul takes place, not where player lands!! Didn't see a red card being given..or a yellow..in fairness I was bouncing around raging at that point though...lol.

Rangers player already on way down, so foul has been committed by that point...linesman perfectly placed to see (and looking straight at) incident.

As we are both without any doubt about what we are saying, then we'll just have to agree to disagree.

Season Ticket holders can bring a friend to this weekends match v Dundee Utd for just £5. Tickets must be purchased in advance.....for more info go to http://ictfc.com/news/club-news/1388-friends-for-a-fiver

Income from the League Cup and compo for Butcher would have been nowhere near £500k. If income from the League Cup got anywhere near 6 figures I would be surprised given the lack of sponsor and increased costs from not having use of the National Stadium for the finals. Factor in the lack of any league sponsor income for the season as well and, all in all, I think it's a miracle that the club managed to keep things in the black. I too am worried that we only turned a profit of £28,000 in such a successful year and agree with the OP that that would have been a loss approaching half a million pounds in a less successful season.. To suggest that income from the league cup was nowhere near a hundred thousand pounds is frankly ridiculous given that gate receipts alone for the semi and the final were in the region of a million pounds of which we would have received more than a third. Taking into account earlier rounds, TV income and other benefits I would be astonished if we earned short of £400,000 from that cup run which will not be replicated this year. It's far from ridiculous.....I can assure you of that. Just take a look at the clubs turnover on the last two sets of accounts....it's only up by something like £170k. If income had gone up by £400k....where's the other £230k? Clubs get paid income from the League Cup after all expenses. Last season the cup had no sponsor, so no sponsor money. Add in that the sponsors normally cover the bulk of the cost of marketing (via own PR companies/initiatives) and that marketing costs increased (although not sure on what) and that's another chunk of money off the total. You then have rental/costs of stadiums for both Semi's and the Final as Hampden wasn't available (and normally only requires payment of costs)....a fairly considerable chunk of the total. Not much left after all that...!!! I'd wager that the clubs who hosted the Semi's and Final probably made more than those partaking in them. You could argue that the pitiful income from getting to the league cup final barely compensated us for the undoubted effect it had on our league campaign....and whilst I want ICTFC to do well in every competition they play in, if being out of the league cup allows us to focus on the league and attain a couple of additional places, then we'll be better off financially.

I don't think people are becoming disinterested in football....you just have to look at how much of it is on TV to appreciate that the interest is there. In Scotland, I think that people have become bored with the way the product is delivered....i.e. League and Cup structures which mean clubs can easily end up playing each other 4/5/6 times a season. Missing a game against Celtic is no big deal because you know another will be along in a few weeks, or having already seen your team play against Motherwell means you may not be that bothered about missing one later in the season. The biggest argument against increasing the size of the league in the past was having to divide the pot up further. As the SPFL is a single organisation now, then that is no longer a factor. You can keep the financial structure and move the league cut off points to adjust the size quite easily. Get rid of the Challenge Cup and League Cup in their current form and replace it with a single cup that has regional qualifiers that then splits into two separate cup tournaments....one cup for those who finish top half of qualifiers and one for those who finish in the bottom half. By doing that you counter any reduction in games from having larger leagues AND you get a lot more "Derby" type matches where fan travel is reduced and you get a larger variety of opposition. Yes, there's other factors...and you need to look at them all. When dealing with situations like this I believe the way to tackle them is to (where practical/possible) seek to remove the obstacles....and where you can't remove them, try and take best advantage of them. TV....it's probably the one "obstacle" we're not going to get rid of, so let's fully embrace it make it work as much as possible in our favour. Look at what sports like Super League Rugby and Darts are doing in this country where they are getting more TV coverage than ever before and still packing out arenas. Study it, learn from it and emulate it. While we're at it....tell the broadcasters they need to pay fair compensation for the rights to move games, especially to the more ridiculous times.....then use that additional income to reduce ticket prices to encourage people to still come along to these matches. Weather? I'm not fussed one way or the other by Summer or Winter football....but I see nothing wrong in giving it a go, so why not? If nothing else it removes this ridiculous scenario we have at present where clubs have most games in the worst month for weather (we have 7 games in January)....and lets not forget, this is the month of the year when people are also likely to have the least amount of disposable income. In World Cup/Euro seasons you simply add a week or two to each end of the season and take a summer break.....we already have to adjust things with a winter timetable, so I don't see the difference. Ticket pricing? As I've said already, I don't believe this is the main contributing factor and ICTFC's situation would certainly back that up. What I do know is that the only way clubs will ever be able to reduce prices is if they reduce spending or increase income. If you need to increase income to allow you to reduce prices then the only thing you can do is increase numbers attending. We all know that ticket discounting doesn't result in enough of an increase in crowds to cover the cost of doing it. That means you have to do other stuff to make the whole product more appealing and accessible. IMO, the clubs (individually) are all doing what they can. The product on the park is pretty decent, IMO, there's just a lot of repetition and stuff that pisses people off...like late moving of games to illogical times and unnecessary crowd regulations which stifle atmosphere. It therefore falls to the SPFL to stop fannying around with short term, self serving, self preservation ideals and actually start doing the things that the customer (present and future) have some interest in. In addition to the above, I also agree with Davie's point about the main stream media constantly pitching the game in a negative light. Speaking to journalists after our match v Aberdeen they were raving about how great a game it had been. When I asked why they would make the couple of mistakes made in the game the main talking point when they held that view (and that's exactly what they did do) instead of concentrating on it being a great game, the answer was "that's not what sells papers". The BBC "Price of Football" survey is the best (worst?) example of that and serves no useful purpose. Two reasons why I say that....firstly, it provides no context to the information it provides....secondly, it puts emphasis on an issue which is (certainly, IMO) is a minor factor whilst pointing the finger of blame at individual clubs who ARE actually trying hard and fighting not only to encourage people to games, but for their mere existence as costs increase and income decreases due to factors that are beyond their control.

Income from the League Cup and compo for Butcher would have been nowhere near £500k. If income from the League Cup got anywhere near 6 figures I would be surprised given the lack of sponsor and increased costs from not having use of the National Stadium for the finals. Factor in the lack of any league sponsor income for the season as well and, all in all, I think it's a miracle that the club managed to keep things in the black.

You can't pin the problem purely on cost. ICTFC have not increased prices in the past 4 seasons, and have actually made it cheaper for many over that time...yet numbers have dropped!!

Reminder for anyone interested in signing up that there's £300 up for grabs at the Dundee Utd game : http://ictfc.com/shoot-for-the-boot

Mckay (small k)