Gabby

I would think that 2 home games against County should cover the spread.

It may have been extended in terms of it's meaning but I feel more and more these days that clubs are all about getting as much money from TV deals etc. rather than getting fans through the door which, ultimately, should be one of the main sources of income for a club. The talk is all about TV deals and not much to do with supporters. As I say, perhaps an exaggerated statement but one that I feel is applicable to the way Scottish football is heading. There is a strong link between good TV contracts and increased attendance at games. There is no serious professional sport that has suffered a reduction in game day attendance because of TV. There is no better indication of the strength of a league/competition/sport than it's ability to attract good braodcast deals.

It's a nice theory but I don't think it would apply in football land. Imagine a situation where the ICT board decided to apply a Div 1 playing budget to their squad. As a result ICT is releagated but because they had applied a SFL1 budget, they actually make a profit of say 100 000 pounds for the year. Are you seriously trying to tell me that fans wouldn't be asking for the board to be sacked because they wouldn't open the purse strings to save the season? There are some fans on this site wondering why their haven't been further signings - even with the whole Rangers thing going on. Every December there are posts speculating signings during the transfer window. At the end of the day the Board need to make budgets based on the best available information to try to get the best results for the least amount of cash.

With respect, that statement is ridiculous. Media contracts are the difference between professional leagues and amateur leagues. It is not just the TV cash that goes without a media contract. league sponsorship, clubs sponsorships are also heavilly affected. It is a matter of finding a balance between the requirements of TV and the best interests of football. The problem is that SPL has sold it as a Rangers/Celtic product instead of an SPL product.

None of the above. There is 1 very simple reason why this is the case. It is very difficult for SPL clubs to make decisions about expenditure because they have to guess the amount of their largest source of income - TV money. There is such a large difference in income depending on where you finish on the table. However you have to make expenditure decisions (player contracts mostly) at the start of the season. This whole thing would be easilly solved if the TV money was distributed evenly. While each SPL club has 1 equal share, this equality disappears when it comes to voting and income splitting. As I keep saying (I think February or March was the last time) the SPL clubs need to address this right now. In my opinion this needs to be addressed before league reconstruction. Why? Because it is a good short term fix whereas League reconstruction is going to take time.

You are right, he did not say that. However, the timing of the statement would suggest it is the case. I have seen the AT blog and I can't for the life of me understand why Kenny made the statement. To me it is saying that he had bought into the information on the email when all the evidence suggested that it wasn't going to happen. They have had almost 6 months to develop contingency plans for this and they haven't. Disappointing.

Everything you say is true. However Kenny had a choice about his statement. I would rather a statement that said "this is what we are going to do" rather than "we are all doomed". And while the situation isn't their fault, they have to take some responsibility for making Plan B and Plan C given they must have known that Rangers going to Div 3 was a possibility. They may not be responsible for the problems, but the board have been caught with their pants down.

I am a bit disaapointed with Mr Cameron's comments in the Daily Record, but it is the Daily Record. However, let's assume for the moment they are correct. Mr Cameron says that they are calling an emergency board meeting to consider the financial implications of Rangers in Div 3. While this in itself is very sensible, my concern is that the meeting should have been called the minute Rangers were excluded from the SPL. It would appear that Mr Cameron expected Rangers to be in Div 1 next season. So while they voted no to Rangers quoting sporting integrity and the will of the fans, he was expecting SFL clubs to not do the same thing? Why didn't Mr Cameron make a statement once Rangers were excluded from the SPL outlining how ICT was going to adjust to the new world? Very disappointed.

This whole "we have the highest per capita attendance in the world" ismeaningless. If anything it shows there is a reduced capacity for growth. It is like saying that Jamaca win the olympics because they win the most medals per capita

I will answer them in order: Yes, however the audience will be reduced by at least 40% so the broadcast contract will be reduced by at least that amount. Yes, but unlikely at the same level. The League Cup is currently searching for a sponsor I believe. Yes, but they are starting from a very low base. This will probably be a redistribution of TV money already in the game. ie. SPL offering to provide SFL with a million pounds to broadcast rangers games. Yes, at first. But it won't last. Attendence at ibrox will be a small fraction of historical attendences once the they realise their 8 players aren't competive even at Div 3. (With current players they would struggle to win promotion from Div 1) How quickly will crowds decline once this become obvious? Probably, but this will be offset by extra policing costs and the cost of stadium repairs (A cheap shot, sorry) If sporting integrity and the rules are the things that matter, then it isn't necessary to justify the financial reasons to counter somebody else's poor argument. Whether the Div 3 clubs are finacially better off or not with Rangers is Div 3 simply does not matter. Anyone who makes this argument is no better than Regan and Doncaster

Probably tells us that Rangers Fans don't like driving to the Highlands. However it is worth noting that the audience drops by 62% for the ICT/Celtic game. And the audience for the Hibs/Motherwell game is less than half of the ICT/Celtic game. In reality, the numbers are tiny, even by subscription TV standard.

In my blog, this is why I argued that the Sky contract is worth a pittance without Rangers. the audience drops off by more than 60% for games that do not involve the Old firm (excluding Edinburgh derby) Source: http://www.kilmarnockfc.co.uk/staticFiles/71/72/0,,10291~160369,00.pdf

This is the document the SFL has sent to all clubs as to why Rangers should be in Div 1. Self interest and money motive is alive and well in the SFL. http://sport.stv.tv/football/clubs/rangers/108463-in-full-document-sent-to-sfl-clubs-to-put-rangers-into-the-first-division/

I have been messaged by a couple of folk on here and one suggestion mooted was that some of us who are overseas or otherwise not at the TCS on a regular basis could possibly club together and buy 'some' season tickets (quantity obviously depends on level of interest and how much was pledged). These tickets could then then be used by others (perhaps on payment of a portion of the equivalent match fee directly to ICT (?)) or maybe given out for charity or something like that ..... Like the person who suggested it to me I havent thought through the specifics yet, but we will be happy to try and drive any fundraising ideas, or to publicise and push those ideas towards the Supporters Trust if the management of them is more appropriate that way. If the site members feel it is warranted, perhaps - in this new spirit of unity - we might want a small sub-forum for fundraising ideas and such like ? Definitely a thread of its own though rather than getting lost in here ! Of course, for our own part, CTO will now go ahead and try to get names of site members who want to re-subscribe to or rejoin our player sponsor group so we can also contribute to the club this way and we will likely make our own contribution on top of that. If ever there was a time for all of us to dip into our pockets and help the club that time is now. We can all do our part, no matter how large or small that assistance is. Let me know, i will be happy to contribute. Mrs Gabby is in Inverness for the next couple of weeks, she has a shopping list for me for the club shop. I think I will give her a call and add a few extra things to the list.

The main league sponsor, Clydesdale Bank, has one more season to run. They are not pulling out early. Sky TV have a deal in place. They have publicly said they wont be pulling out. They may renegotiate but they wont pull out. Motherwells figures are based on neither of those two puting the cash up. They are over dramatising because the Grand Master says they should. Sky don't have a deal in place, what they have said is they won't walk away. My word Sky will re-negotiate, and while they won't walk away, the deal will be worth a small fraction of the original terms. It would be commercially irresponsble for Sky to continue with the original terms, they simply will not get the same return on their investment without Rangers. If I had to guess I would say that Rangers' supporters would represent 40% of their viewers. 40% would be Celtic and 20% would be all other clubs combined. I don't believe that Motherwell are overstating their financial situation. If anything, they are planning on a worst case scenario which is the only finacially responsible thing to do at the moment. The difference is that Motherwell are being up front about it. Let's be clear, every Chairman in the SPL is doing the exact same thing.

Good luck with the jump Julie!

It is because the SPL share cannot be sold as an asset without the approval of the SPL. So oldco has the players and the SPL share but no ground to play at and newco has a ground to play at with no membership to a league or players. It is also important to remember that Rangers aren't liquidated yet - this is still a few weeks away - technically they are still in administration so therefore the SPL share is theirs and they get to vote on admitting newco despite the massive conflict of interest.

I understand what you are saying however Green is trying to play a clever game here. He is trying to claim Rangers history/trophies when talking to fans, but says it is a different club for the purpose of punishment and re-introduction to SPL. Below is an article worth reading suggesting there is still come confusion around the transfer of history/trophies of rangers to newco (even if they are in Div 3) http://scotslawthoughts.wordpress.com/2012/06/18/why-rangers-can-vote-on-4th-july-and-how-the-spl-and-rangers-are-in-error/

See previous post

Tough on this. I think they should be stripped of titles (if found guilty after due process) for 2 reasons: 1. It acts as a deterent in the future. 2. It is part of the healing process. Justice is seen to be done and everyone can move forward from there. We had a similar situation in Aust a few years ago where a team was found to be cheating the salary cap by asking sponsors and other third parties to make payments to players outside of their contracts. They were operating dual contacts offering extra paymentd not outlined to the governing body (NRL) They were stripped of the titles they won during the period. From a player and club point of view this is a severe penalty. As a result I see no reason why the SFA/SPL can't investiage transgressions of the past while planning for the future.

I actually thought it was a very sensible idea. However, I will be more interested to see the draw when it comes out to see if 12th Team has a home game on the same weekend as Celtic or Dundee Utd.

I have made the assumption of no TV deal or a heavily reduced TV deal for the following reason: All media broadcasters place a value on a sporting product based on the number of additional subscribers they can attract. in other words, the revenue they get must exceed the amount they pay. With the SPL product, 90% of the viewers want to see Celtic and Rangers games. I am not making this up - if this wan't the case why do games involving Celtic and Rangers make up over 90% of the games they show. Without Rangers, at least 40% of their audience is lost. Therefore the value of the product is drastically reduced. As a result Sky/ESPN need to make a commercial decision to determine whether they can get a return from the SPL. One of the other strange arguments is that no TV coverage means more stadium attendance. This is not true for at least 2 reasons: 1. the other 10 clubs have limited HOME games on Sky. For the remaining home games, TV has no effect on attendance. Tat is to say there are fans watching the game on TV instead of attending. It is therefore reasonable to say that there will be additional income from attendance due to no TV. 2. Subscribers will watch other leagues (especially EPL) instead of attending games. This is the single biggest barrier to getting people to attend games. Why attend a game when you can watch a superior product from the comfort of your own home or local pub. I agree with your comments re where Scottish football is at. I can never compete with EPL, La Liga etc. I think a switch to summer football where there is less competition for the consumer is an idea worth considering

No they don't. Yes they do. See, I can play this game as well. Rules attached.....H5 is the one you need. RULES EFFECTIVE 14 MAY 2012.pdf H5 says: H5 If any Club in the League ceases to operate or to be member of the League for any reason, its playing record in the League may be expunged and the number of relegation places from the League shall be reduced accordingly. H5 only applies during the season, and since Rangers survived to the end of the season, Dunfermline has been relegated. Once Rangers reached the end of the season, H5 no longer applied. The Gretna situation is a more appropriate example of the application of H5. Must try harder. So with the liquidation of Rangers the discussion changes from who will get releated to who will be accepted into the SPL. May I be the first to suggest some type of X Factor type format.

No they don't. Yes they do. See, I can play this game as well.

The news isbad for dunfermline. the spl rules say that once relegation is confirmed, any subsequent place is filled by the team that finished 2nd in Div 1