ICT or not ICT?

[dougal]

Ok i'm not an Invernessian but i consider Inverness my home being here for the last ten years or so

I know this is a touchy subject to some on here but i feel its a question that needs asked

Should we continue to use ICT as our clubs name or change it completely to something else?

I ask because the lack of support by Inverness football fans, i think anyone who was there yesterday realises that the attendance was very dissapointing it certainly wasn't 4882 which was reported or no where near it

Why are Invernessians not following there local team in numbers?

A city of the size of Inverness should attract 5000+ at the very least every home game in my opinion

Yes i realise there are busses that leave town on saturday mornings for Ibrox, Parkhead and Pittodrie but i'm not sure how many but i doubt that leads to that many fans?

I know from personal experience whilst out drinking that i've experienced unpleasantness and contempt from pre-merger fans when it comes to ICT, ive even been verbally abused on numerous occassions by them and also Clach supporters just because of the team i chose to follow

My plan is a radical one but i personally would buy out Clach and Inverness City and continue both sides in their respective leagues but use both of them for our reserves and fringe players

I feel the time is right to change the name in an attempt to get the whole of Inverness behind the team so ive started a poll with some ideas(ive still included our current title for fans that don't want change)

Dougal

Edited to say i voted Inverness FC

Edited October 17, 2010 by dougal

[Tichy_Blacks_Back]

Unfortunately changing the team's name won't increase the attendances and if anything the attendances do appear to be pretty healthy so far this season IMO....

[dougal]

Unfortunately changing the team's name won't increase the attendances and if anything the attendances do appear to be pretty healthy so far this season IMO....

Why not?

Inverness has a population of 70k + yet we average about 3500-5000?? i think the attendances are poor and at times not very accurately reported

[Scotty]

Inverness Utd and Inverness City would not be options as both are registered with the SFA already. Highland FC sounds ridiculous (IMHO) and of the choices Inverness FC is probably theonly one I would vote for .... Having said that, as most people call us Inverness, ICT or Caley Thistle anyway, I dont think a change of name will achieve anything.

[dougal]

Inverness Utd and Inverness City would not be options as both are registered with the SFA already. Highland FC sounds ridiculous (IMHO)

Who and what are Inverness Utd??

You say Highland FC is ridiculous but it aint have as ridiculous as the far too long winded and cumbersome Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club

By calling ourselves Highland FC we might attract fans to home games from throughout the Highlands not just Inverness

For some reason i find highlanders very negative at times and they certainly dont like change:irritated:

[tm4tj]

Aye, right eenuff mun.

[MissICT]

Whats wrong with our name?

I wouldn't change it!

[robbylad]

don't really have a problem with our name as it is. having said that, if we had to change it, Inverness CiTy always seemed the logical one to me as it keeps the initials of the two clubs in the name.

on the subject of poor attendences, personally, i've never understood the animosity some caley and thistle fans still feel toward the merger. to hear some of them talk, you would think they had merged the old firm! the ones who refuse to go to the games leave me baffled and with the smell of burning martyr in my nostrils!!! still, their loss. top flight football in my home town is a dream come true and all invernessians should get right behind the club.

as for highland fc. a bit insulting to every other club in the north?

anyway,being from inverness, i'll support them no matter what the name is. unless they change it to ross county of course.

[Hearach]

Inverness Caledonian Thistle for me. Let us not forget that 2 teams had to merge just to get into Scottish League. If Caley and Thistle had been based in Glasgow or Edinburgh they would both have got in no problem. The fact that we are in the Premier League sticks in the throats of central belters. Long may we annoy them.

[caleyjags]

Change Inverness to Caledonia Capital of the Highlands

[lukemackay]

people that didnt support the merger were just silly in my opinion. their club wasnt take off them it was expanded.

i would support the idea as inverness utd using clach as a reserve team in the highland league

inverness city could stadium share but that would be it. they are in to low a league to be used for fringe players

your plans a good one but a farfetched one youd have to take it to the dragons

[Charles Bannerman]

I know from personal experience whilst out drinking that i've experienced unpleasantness and contempt from pre-merger fans when it comes to ICT, ive even been verbally abused on numerous occassions by them

Unfortunate, but as long as these old dinosaurs didn't manage to persuade you that their view was ever a significant problem after the legalities got sorted out in 1995, no harm will have been done, so just continue to enjoy supporting SPL football in Inverness.

(And hopefully we can avoid yet another round of discussion here on the old myth which keeps resurfacing on this forum.)

[CaleyD]

I'm with those who say that a change of name would do little, if anything, to improve attendances.

We were forced to include "Inverness" in the name not long after the club came into existence and the fans have been polled by the club since then on a further change...which they did not want.

The "pre-merger stay aways" argument rears it's head every now and again, and it's always interesting to see what figures people will claim ICT are "missing out on" because of the name, the badge and any other number of reasons.

Whatever set of figures you buy in to, the reality is that it is a number which will have been in decline since 1994 and you would be lucky if a change of name would encourage a handful of additional people through the gate on a regular basis and any increase (if their was one) wouldn't even cover the administrative costs of the change....in fact it is more likely to cost us money (even in the long term) than it would be to make us money.

Our average gates have, for the most part, shown an increase year on year since the clubs inception and the club seem to be starting to get things right in terms of pricing and incentives to get new young fans through the gates. These are the fans which are the future income generators for the club, the ones where you can justifiably take a hit on costs because you have 50/60/70 (or more) years of potential support to look ahead too.

Other than pricing, and the levels are pretty much a necessary evil of the modern game and the way it functions, there's no one thing which is going to magically increase the gates any faster than we are witnessing, IMO. The club just need to keep working on improving the value for money aspect of a visit to the TCS to ensure they keep the adult fans and carry on plugging away at encouraging each new generation to try and stem the flow of those who go off to follow one of the OF or whoever.

All in all, when you look at the bigger picture the refusenik stay aways are pretty much an insignificant factor. With regards to dropping the word "Inverness" to attract a wider audience...well, let's just say that I very much doubt one Manchester United's marketing guys would get much mileage from going to the Board and suggesting they drop the Manchester to increase the level of support!!!

[ymip]

In the name of sweet jeezus someone please delete this ridiculous thread. This subject was boring ten years ago and is utterly irrelevant today. How exactly will a change of name attract either gloryhunting old farm feckwits or refuseniks. Next......

[MissICT]

It's never gonna chance and why should it?

[Pedz4king]

keep the same name as it keeps us original - longest name in the uk - and highland fc is ridiculous because IMO it would be a name if we merged with county (i never want that to happen for the record).

[PaderbornCaley]

Invernes Caledonian Thistle is a great name! In our short history this name is in the history books as winners of Div 3, Div 1 (twice), 8th Feb 2000 night, and SPL seasons. We shouldnt change it to appease folk that don't even support the club. I also like how we have kept the identities of Caley and Thistle and that is very much part of our history. I was 8 when the club formed and i'll never forget going wth my dad to the games at Telford Street aged 7+ ............ lets be positive about our past... forget about the stay aways.... their no longer fans!

[SMEE]

Having said that, as most people call us Inverness, ICT or Caley Thistle

I can assure you scotty.....ICT are OFTEN referred to as plain old Caley a lot of the time by media...pundits, managers etc. I have often felt like bringing it up on here...to see how the ex Jaggies element feel about it, but thought it might get too heated

As for the name. I had the foresight BEFORE the merger to see that including the names Caley and Thistle would divide the support. And it does to this day. I voted back in 1993-94 for Inverness Fc

[Yngwie]

I had the foresight BEFORE the merger to see that including the names Caley and Thistle would divide the support. And it does to this day. I voted back in 1993-94 for Inverness Fc

But did you have the foresight to see that the merger would never have been approved by members if the club names were killed off?

[SMEE]

I had the foresight BEFORE the merger to see that including the names Caley and Thistle would divide the support. And it does to this day. I voted back in 1993-94 for Inverness Fc

But did you have the foresight to see that the merger would never have been approved by members if the club names were killed off?

Hey...i didnt decide on what options were offered...i merely voted on the name!

[12th Man]

You have a point there, I was chatting to about 9000 people in the pub the other night and they all said if the name changed they would be chomping at the bit to watch Inverness Highland Scotland UK united play football.

Regarding all the so called stay aways from the merger, what was the average highland league attendance at the 2 clubs and what would be a realistic percentage of people staying away 5% ?

IMO the majority of so called abstainers are people who didn't actually go to any matches, have no interest in football but instead have invented a reason to talk about why they don't go to watch footy.

[buckett]

Perhaps if the club had a different name at the very beginning, e.g Highland, it may have attracted a wider support - who knows? Changing it now certainly would not improve the support - it may even be detrimental if the new name is silly enough.

Having said that though, I'd be quite keen on changing the name to Inverness Caledonian!

[The Fly]

I can't see any convincing reason why changing the club's name would increase support in any significant way. We had this discussion in around 2002 - I remember shouting 'Come on City' as a topical joke at The Recs one Saturday afternoon and it didn't exactly cause a spontaneous round of rejoicing!

[Stevie]

A change of name would be an utter disaster Dougal !

This club has become established as one of Scotlands finest and now biggest clubs. We are thought of as established, why would anyone want to change the name ?

The status quo is so important to us, building a history, name change would merely complicate matters.

Can you honestly see any one person deciding to come support the club because of it's new name ?

Besides that all things considered, I don't think, that in this day and age, attendances are that bad.

[Scarlet Pimple]

If the original poster (Dougal) is suggesting that the name be changed to placate the girners from the past then just forget it. Inverness Caledonian Thistle sounds great and it will be shortened anyway by almost everybody so what's the fuss?

For those who have such a negative and unproductive attitude towards the present team and club and the present name, they do not deserve any consideration. Either they get with the programme or they can lag behind it in the wilderness of Scottish Football. And if they are still harbouring grudges and whatever from the merger period then what hope of them ever wising up enough to put their shoulder behind the Caley Thistle wheel? Probably it will be negligible so why waste time worrying about what they think.

We should look for a practical solution first e.g. reduce the prices by five pounds a ticket and ensure that the product on the park is of a continually high standard and encourage the team to attack first and formost. Customers want entertainment and thrills and spills not negative, defensive football. ICT have the players now to attack so we should encourage their drive, enthusiasm, energy and flair. Adopting Craig Levein's tactic of putting up the fortress walls will never succeed in attracting anyone. It's an open and shut case almost. Why pay good money to be bored?

At least it is worth a try is it not?