Fraz

Having a pop-up restaurant franchise may or may not work. Look at something like Tiger on The Wall which started during covid and became very successful. Doing takeaway initially then sit in later when allowed. The Caley Club also have a similar setup where the restaurant pays X amount a month (presumably under some kind of rolling contract) to use the kitchen and serve food within certain times. The kitchen facilities at the club are at best used once a fortnight during the season, or at the moment not at all. So it seems reasonable to use that space to generate some income. No different than if we had a 4G surface as a pitch and let it out when not required. So long as there's no risk financially or reputationally to the club and it doesn't take up huge amounts of staff time to manage I don't see the harm in exploring it. The main issue with the Concert Company and BESS was that the board seemed to bank on these for the financial future of the club before it was guaranteed that they would be successful, causing a huge crisis when they have failed. I very much doubt that'll be an issue with renting out a kitchen space.

While I'm delighted that non football staff have been kept on, we really need to up our game quickly in the commercial dept. It's been awful in terms of promotion or offering for ages. Any kind of revenue streams need to be looked at and local promotion of the club and associated activities addressed. Need to be more professional and proactive. I was speaking to someone from a business recently who has advertising boards at the club and dispite contacting the club several times, hasn't received an invoice to pay them for over a year. Madness. I know and see far more about the activities of the ICT Community Trust than I do about the club itself.

Was starting to get irritated by the lack of info about the 12 noon press conference. Then I remembered I'm 2 hours ahead 🤣

Thanks for the input. Many fans from Dundee/Hearts warned us of Gardiner's 'abilities'. However we had two successive chairman/boards who seemed to be quite happy to sit back and literally give him 100% latitude with zero KPIs, targets or accountability. To this day the previous chairman says he's been vilified 🤣. Despite the evidence being that he's not done ONE THING that's improved or furthered the club in over half a decade. We've been failed by Gardiner due to his arrogance, narcissism and hubris but we've been failed by the board too with their inaction and utter gullibility. Some fans saw this coming ages ago but were dismissed as trolls etc. What did they know eh?

Thanks, eventually got it to work. Seems to me he's under the impression that there was a 12 month 'budget' that would be in place if we went to Kelty. My take is that he thinks it's crazy we (fans/board) didn't back the Kelty plan. This is similar to what Gardiner has said in the press that there was a 'recovery plan' that would have saved the club. Of course any sensible person could see with little scrutiny that this was doomed to failure. Just like the Gardiner backed Mr Phygital. Like most things over the past few years the club's saving grace was always just round the corner - Concerts, BESS scheme, freeport, park & ride, Kelty, Makwana etc. All of which failed spectacularly or were plainly ridiculous. However I get that Ferguson is probably just looking at the small part he's been promised on face value. Which as most fans realise is worthless with the Gardiner/Morrison cabal.

I can't get the video to work, Internet is a bit hit and miss here in Turkey. However just going by the quotes he (Ferguson) seems to be under the impression that going to Kelty would have solved all our issues, cleared the slate, given him a budget for presumably 6 central belters who could/would not come up here. But the board (via fan pressure) went against Morrison and 'decided for admin' so, he then took his ball and went off. It's nowhere near as simplistic as he's making out. Other factors push us towards where we are, not least of course him being the manager who got us relegated worsening our already fragile situation but he's hardly going to highlight that. I've some sympathy for him in the sense that he was most likely sold some story when headhunted for the job (I still think it was a huge ego massage signing for SG) about all of the SG/RM schemes working out and he'd get a huge transfer budget, his 3k a week, gold plated training cones and the like. And why would he doubt these local titans of business and football club management?

Much of what he says does indeed, deserve to laughed at. Doesn't it? The fairytale that Morrison was going to bankroll one more year of huge losses, only if we move to Kelty, with Gardiner at Ferguson at the helm is hilarious (and monumentally daft). Then all would be wonderful. Just like all the other hair brain schemes what worked out. Didn't they?

Best of luck to Motty in his new role. Like Scott Young, probably not one he was expecting or planning for but a good local lad wish him the best and hope the fans get behind him.

Always good to see a new moderator join up. Or isn't backseat moderating against the rules? 🤷‍♂️

Agreed, someone working at 26 as a teacher at £40k+ isn't likely going to pack that in, go FT in the 3rd/4th tier, to get paid much the same or less until they're 30ish and have to retire and then go back to that profession anyway. However I don't think the assertion is that they give up their day jobs. I think it's more a hybrid model where we have full time pros, Academy grads and PT players. Training would have to be adapted to suit of course. Could easily switch to a couple of evening training sessions a week or something similar, if they can find training venues.

The Brora maneuver.

New TWS podcast dropped from Moff and the gang inc interview with Scott Young- I'm listening to The Wyness Shuffle | The A Team on Podbean, check it out! https://www.podbean.com/ea/pb-jvm28-1716c21

To be fair, those things have been happening from a fans perspective for several years anyway.

It was clear to me from the Pixalot farce that Gardiner wasn't capable of being the CEO and was either negligent or just incompetent. His comments that 'it wasn't that bad' just reeked of ignorance or narcissism. I won't reel through his long list of failure (I've done that previously). What I found astounding was when I asked Morrison at a fans Q&A at the Caley Club about Gardiner's performance and horrendous attitude to fans and The Supporters Trust he seemed shocked that I even could suggest such a thing. This was compounded by his comments on the TWS before he resigned and he said just last week incredibly that Gardiner his been 'villified'. 🤣 I can only surmise that either Gardiner has the most silver tounge in the land, Morrison and Gardiner have a relationship much deeper than simply professional or that Morrison is one of the most willfully ignorant or gullible people on the planet. There still need to be answers as to why there was ZERO accountability or oversight for years. What CEO gets to write their own contract!? The whole situation is frankly incredible. I wouldn't trust Gardiner to run a kids birthday party.

TBH the SLO shouldn't be a board member at all. They should be independent in that regard, most clubs don't operate that way. I've no clue if he was a dissenting voice the past year or not. It would be very interesting to see the minutes of the board meetings these past years but I wouldn't be surprised if they're never properly recorded as we don't seem to operate in a professional manner. I will say that he's stepped up at the most challenging time in the club history when other 'more experienced businessesmen' have slithered away. That says a lot to me.

I agree with you regarding the board with the exception of Scott Young. He's only been on the board a year or so and has been the only one making the effort to try and be transparent and speak with fans starting with the fans meetings at the Innes Bar. He's been the only one who hasn't hidden away and he's probably the least 'business man' in the group. Dissapointed with Grassa as I'd thought he'd have more sense than to let things get away like this and Fyfe is, with all due respect an empty chair and contributes zero. I won't articulate my thoughts on the members who have slinked away before facing any scrutiny. They are contemptible.

I doubt the stadium would have ever been in a 'great' position. Even if ICT was offered somewhere like the bught planners would likely never allow it anyway due to traffic management etc. Even the new community hub has been held up and revisited due to traffic concerns from some locals so a full blown stadium would be magnitudes worse.

The relationship that the club has with the city has been discussed many times. There are a multitude of factors working against the club that they cannot control and can do little about. These include the location of the stadium, the quality of the stadium (financially there's little we can afford to change), people supporting other teams and of course, after 30 years refusniks who are still greeting. There are things they have some control over like the catering, ticket prices, quality of performance on the pitch etc There are some things they can control more fully such as the way they treat the community, way they engage with businesses/sponsors, how they treat loyal fans, how they responsibly use money for the good of the club. Aside from the work of the Community Trust and I'd also say the Women’s team/Academy (who in the interests of transparency I'm on the committee of and coach for) which are both separate entities from the club, the club itself has done the grand total of fk all to try and reach out to the city in at least the last 5-6 years. There's been nothing in terms of even the simplest kid's fun days, Christmas parties, bowling nights, school visits, fan events, regular hospitality or even proper sponsor evenings. The club has to make an effort and with Scot Gardiner (and Yvonne Crook) at the helm the last half decade or so has undone much of the good work that others took years to try and develop. It won't be quickly turned around, particularly if the fayre on the pitch is woeful.

Good win today for the ladies.

That's what I don't get. What petrol and living costs is he covering that the club normally would? Does the club pay for all players fuel as soon as they step out the door? Seems ridiculous to me. Especially for a L1 club. In my job for example I get milage from my 'Base' outward but not from my house (now mainly WFH). When I worked in Aviemore I could claim miles from my office there to say Kingussie or Grantown but I couldn't claim from my house in Inverness to Aviemore. Maybe footballer contacts include all travel from their front door but that would seem a ridiculous expense for us to cover as a club. Their travel from the stadium to training and away fixtures is obviously covered. I wonder if what DF is really referring to is expenses for his son? 🤷‍♂️

A good day out and a good result can be very different things. These days as a home supporter only there's been little of either. Only thing that's made the last year or so bearable has been the craic with the friends I go with.

1-0 win. Fantastic stuff, well done to the players for focusing on the job at hand. Gutted I missed it.

Maybe you misunderstood my point. Why would the club be paying for players petrol anyway? They get a minibus to training from the stadium and a coach to away games so where does the fuel costs come in? All staff are still being paid are they not? Or is it standard for clubs to pay for all players fuel?

https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/sport/ict-administration-could-last-three-months-364172/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

Already mentioned in the Next manager thread. Why is he paying petrol costs anyway? Makes little sense.