Ross County eye Inverness ground share

[Libero]

Ross County will apply to the Scottish Premier League for permission to ground share with Inverness Caley Thistle, if they win promotion.

But the Dingwall club are confident that Victoria Park will meet SPL criteria before the start of next term.

SPL rules state that all stadia must ready for the top flight by 31 March.

And County chairman Roy McGregor told BBC Scotland: "The agreement with Caley Thistle to rent their ground is a safety net."

Full story:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17369173

[CaleyD]

Makes sense to have a Plan B and although (on the surface) it would appear financially beneficial to ICT to force a half season ground share I would hope that if ground share was needed then we would back any proposal to allow them to return home as and when their own ground was ready.

[Libero]

I certainly dont have a problem with them groundsharing with us, will bring us added revenue and i'm all for two north teams playing in the SPL

[Ten4]

I`d stipulate they also need to handover a good young goalie - an experienced defender & a vigurous midfielder

[Scotty]

no problem with them groundsharing ..... we would not have got into the SPL if it wasnt for Aberdeen agreeing to it and we should be amenable to returning the favour to another team .... even County !

I can see the logic behind the March 31st deadline but realistically its a crock of **** . Most seasons, where there is no runaway leader, it can put teams under a lot of pressure to spend money they perhaps dont have to upgrade their stadium on the off-chance that they win the league.

I have always maintained that the team that wins the 1st division should be guaranteed promotion, regardless of their ground facilities. They should be given two options. (1) upgrade their ground before the start of the season as County hope to do and be able to use all parts of it in the SPL, or (2) upgrade by the end of the first SPL season, and only use those parts that meet the all-seated criteria. This would allow teams to use the increased revenue from the SPL to pay for ground improvements and maybe prevent some potentially horrible financial problems.

[Yngwie]

I'd be more concerned about stipulating that the seats must be thoroughly disinfected after each game.

If this back-up plan does need to be invoked, it would be a bit weird if they are the home team in a derby at TCS and our fans only get the South Stand.

[lukemackay]

what would happen for county away would we have to go in the south stand, will they have to or will it be split 50/50?

thats my one and only concern is whether i have to fork out 15 pound or not.

i think we should send a letter of the tcs rules

1. no standing

2. no shouting

3. no sweetie rusling

and so on.

[Jaggie994]

Totally against this! Don't want them Gypo c***s anywhere near my seat. If this goes ahead im sawing off my seat at the last home game

[bigjohn]

Would the condition of the pitch be affected? I remember when Fir Park was being used every week when it was sharing and the pitch ended up in a terrible state because there wasn't enough time for it to recover during the winter time. I know our grounds men are terrific but would they be able to keep it in good and playable condition?

[Renegade]

In regards to the seating, I wouldn't be surprised personally to see the current away end, to be the County home stand and vice versa.

[Yngwie]

Doubt it, for reasons of car parking for away fans.

[Govan Jaggie]

"They" will have our end for their home games, including against us. We wont even sell our the south stand anyway the way things are going!

[caley100]

Our groundsharing at Pittodrie really fecked up their pitch, did it not cost them lots of money to eventually sort it out? same could happen to us.

Anyway as long as we rip the cash from mcgregor i'd be happy.

[PaderbornCaley]

Hmmm. I wonder what Tommy Cumming has to about this.

The only negative is it might churn up the pitch. The Lowland teams might not be happy about this and vote against it (if a vote is still neeed?)

Other than this, great to take McGegors cash. Great to help our neighbours and for Highland football.

I do hope that if they do need to use Caledonian Stadium, they have VP sorted in time for our away trip there. I'm sure we'll get a better atmosphere at VP.

[DJS]

I thought the SPL outlawed such arrangements after the Motherwell / Gretna debacle.

How much rental were Aberdeen charging us per game again?

[old caley girl]

Think the spl would look petty if they didnt allow this tbh. County have all the plans in place for their gaff and it woulld be a short term arrangement unlike the Gretna situation. Only downside is the pitch but if it wasnt for long and the weather was kind them maybe could work. Also the dosh would be most welcome although I doubt we would be charging them as much as we had to pay for pitodrie but then again I could be wrong.

[PaderbornCaley]

How much rental were Aberdeen charging us per game again?

More than the cost of buying Rangers.

[PaderbornCaley]

Think the spl would look petty if they didnt allow this tbh. County have all the plans in place for their gaff and it woulld be a short term arrangement unlike the Gretna situation. Only downside is the pitch but if it wasnt for long and the weather was kind them maybe could work. Also the dosh would be most welcome although I doubt we would be charging them as much as we had to pay for pitodrie but then again I could be wrong.

I can actually see the SPL saying no tbh. They are full of corrupt erseholes and the thought of having two teams 'all the way up there' will make them break out into a cold sweat.

[Yngwie]

Our groundsharing at Pittodrie really fecked up their pitch, did it not cost them lots of money to eventually sort it out? same could happen to us.

Might be wrong but I recall that part of the deal was that if the pitch needed to be relaid, we paid for it.

I also have a recollection that the "rent" was £35,000 per game but I don't know if that included or excluded all the extra costs like stewarding. The rent for us would be more realistically based on whatever County charged us for the cup game we played there.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Jaggie994 has a point - but I have found the ideal pre season bargain to use at home games :

http://www.easycartsecure.com/wunderlinenvironmental/Contamination_Suits.html

[Ten4]

Never mind the VP stadium- what about the access to & fro over the railway bridge - not brilliant for several thousands if mixed support

+ car parking / away buses parking presumably already well planned ?

[PaderbornCaley]

Never mind the VP stadium- what about the access to & fro over the railway bridge - not brilliant for several thousands if mixed support

+ car parking / away buses parking presumably already well planned ?

No different to when we played them in the lower leagues.

[ICTPaisley]

Well the extra money made from ground sharing could go on making new terracing.

[Alex MacLeod]

Cant remember what we paid Aberdire for rental but we did stump up £250k as half cost of relaying their pitch. I would expect any arrangement with County to be similar.

[Scarlet Pimple]

Looks like we spent an awful lot of money , one way or the other, on this promotion to the SPL gig.

Maybe Ross County have more very wealthy backers than us. Wouldn't be surprised if Mr MacGregpor is one of them.

We should scratch their back if we ever want the same treatment in return, at a later date. Apart from that , it is the right thing to do.