Sneck Courier Today

[CELTIC1CALEY3]

Ymip, ICT were on high alert for cash sales :

DODGY SAINTS FANS RED-CARDED OVER FAKE CASH SCAMJan 9 2007

 

'SHIFTY St Mirren ‘supporters’ have been shown the red card for using fake bank notes to con other SPL clubs out of cash.

The crooked football fans have been handing over the dodgy money to get in to away matches and buy food and drink at catering kiosks.

Now loyal Buddies have slammed the con artists and told them they are in danger of damaging the Love Street club’s good name.

St Mirren chiefs had already warned supporters that their staff would be on the lookout for any forgeries after fake £20 notes were handed over during last month’s SPL visit to Kilmarnock.

But the Saints-turned-sinners were at it again during the Buddies’ SPL match at Inverness Caledonian Thistle on New Year’s Day.

One disgusted member of the travelling support has told how she could hardly believe her eyes as she watched a fellow fan try to con a worker at one of Caley’s food kiosks.

Carol Parker was queuing for a coffee when the young supporter in front of her accused the kiosk worker of giving him a fake £5 note in his change.

The 25-year-old, from Johnstone, said: “This young guy, who was about 18, tried to get the man at the catering stall to swap a dodgy fiver. It was printed like a £5 note on one side but was completely blank on the other.

“He claimed he had got it as change earlier in the first half but the stall worker was having none of it. In fact, the stall worker said another fan had tried the same trick earlier.

“What made it worse was that the person who had tried it earlier with a fake £10 note was standing right next to the guy who had the dodgy fiver.

“The man in the kiosk said to the two of them ‘I might have fallen for it if your pal there hadn’t tried the same thing with a fake £10 about five minutes ago.’

“I think it’s appalling that so-called St Mirren fans are trying to do another struggling SPL club out of money.”

Another Saints fan who overheard a supporter boasting about being able to pass on one of the fake notes added: “I went looking for a steward so I could point this guy out but, by the time I came back, he had moved somewhere else.

“These idiots are not true St Mirren supporters. If they were, they wouldn’t be willing to put the club’s good name at risk for the sake of a fiver.

“The vast majority of Saints fans would have nothing to do with a scam like this and I would ask anyone who knows who is responsible to contact either the club or the police.”

St Mirren have confirmed they will encourage the police to take action against anyone who is caught trying to pass on forged notes

[Ronaldo]

I want to agree word for word with what caleyd says at the top of the page.

When I read the article if I was CC I would have asked the Chairman what plans he has to deal with this situation about crowds!!

I'ts about time they did something comericially imaginative, I am always trying to encourage others to come to the football but I see no evidence whatsoever of the club doing this...... 

[reefinweedallday]

Why would any new fans want to come to the stadium when all our manager ever does is slag of the people who do support our club

Every radio interview or press interview he is having a dig at the lack of people turning up,not making enough noise or fans having a dig at him,it's time someone took the chip of his shoulder and told him how a manager should act!!!

[L_G]

Good post Scotty  :021: :021:  Fair comments indeed.

[caleyboy]

Some good ideas re price structures and I would totally agree that the club should be making it a lot easier to purchase tickets etc. and become more customer friendly. A start could be to have a "Mobile Ticket Office" (incl merchandise) which could be sited at various town centre points at specific times thro the week and even visit places such as Nairn, Forres, Beauly, Black Isle etc. No need for premises and the associated costs, just a converted "ice cream van". The "Office" could also visit secondary schools. May or may not work but why not try?

[Harry Chibber]

Why would any new fans want to come to the stadium when all our manager ever does is slag of the people who do support our club

Every radio interview or press interview he is having a dig at the lack of people turning up,not making enough noise or fans having a dig at him,it's time someone took the chip of his shoulder and told him how a manager should act!!!

I have only ever heard him once mention the crowd size at TCS and he has a point with the amount of fans that manage to magically appear when we play the OF... Unfortunately we aren't in the position to cut corners and discount ticket prices, although I agree that they are currently too high.  If we are going to make enough money to compete with the rest of the division, promote the club and sort out our merchandising we need to keep prices high so we can invest into these ideas.  Every club is in the same situation and Savage knows how we feel about the prices from the "Ask the chairman" piece from this site so I gather that they are trying to do something about it but unfortunatley these things will take some time

[EWS]

I don't know if they still do it, but Motherwell used to give free tickets away to schools and organise a day out for those who went.  Basically, if there was a game that was not going to sell out, Motherwell would go to a local school and give the school X number of free tickets, a tour of the stadium etc.. etc.. in the hope that the kids would start wanting to come to games themselves, and so they would have a connection within the school to give cheaper prices for certain games.  Like I said, I don't know if they still do it, but they used to.

[RiG]

Personally I think Hearts have it spot on with their pricing

*Hearts Clicky*

I tend to agree - maybe not the higher amounts, but the structure, which is pretty much exactly what I suggested above - didnt realise Hearts priced themselves this way  :022:

For one game a season or two ago Hearts reduced the tickets when they played us to £10 and £5. A fantastic gesture.

I don't know if they still do it, but Motherwell used to give free tickets away to schools and organise a day out for those who went.  Basically, if there was a game that was not going to sell out, Motherwell would go to a local school and give the school X number of free tickets, a tour of the stadium etc.. etc.. in the hope that the kids would start wanting to come to games themselves, and so they would have a connection within the school to give cheaper prices for certain games.  Like I said, I don't know if they still do it, but they used to.

Motherwell also reduced the prices against Falkirk with all proceeds going to charity. I think an extra 3,000 people turned up that day. Perhaps something could be done with ICT except be Scrooges and keep the money and thus hopefully attract more folk back in the future?

[Scotty]

I have only ever heard him once mention the crowd size at TCS and he has a point with the amount of fans that manage to magically appear when we play the OF...

My bug bear, listening to online coverage every week is that the words "a club of our size ...." or something similar seems to be added onto most interviews. I agree that our expectations need to be brought back down to earth at times, but it is becoming repetitive and de-motivating to hear our club talked down week after week after week after week by the very people who should be talking it up.

Yes we need more fans, yes its frustrating when the stadium is only full for games against the OF but if you want to increase the popularity of something you dont try to 'guilt' people into it, you promote your product, show some customer care and try to give people the impression that they are getting value for their hard earned money.

A lot of fans do try to bring along 'extras' or go to as many games as they can but the realistic answer is that the pricing structure amongst other things means most people have to pick and choose which games they go to, and casual fans are more likely to choose to come to a big game than a small one.

[Harry Chibber]

I have only ever heard him once mention the crowd size at TCS and he has a point with the amount of fans that manage to magically appear when we play the OF...

My bug bear, listening to online coverage every week is that the words "a club of our size ...." or something similar seems to be added onto most interviews. I agree that our expectations need to be brought back down to earth at times, but it is becoming repetitive and de-motivating to hear our club talked down week after week after week after week by the very people who should be talking it up.

Yes we need more fans, yes its frustrating when the stadium is only full for games against the OF but if you want to increase the popularity of something you dont try to 'guilt' people into it, you promote your product, show some customer care and try to give people the impression that they are getting value for their hard earned money.

A lot of fans do try to bring along 'extras' or go to as many games as they can but the realistic answer is that the pricing structure amongst other things means most people have to pick and choose which games they go to, and casual fans are more likely to choose to come to a big game than a small one.

He is not moaning that we aren't getting enough supporters that is a different thing all together...  he is just stating the fact that we are a small club!

Maybe Charlie knows that the team plays better as a whole when we have the underdog mentality and that is why he talks down the club's potential???

[tm4tj]

The fact is we are a club of this size. If Charlie said nothing some geeks would still find fault with him. I am sick to the back teeth of all the moaning going around. Wait till we really do something poorly then we can all moan properly.

People don't want to come and see us play for various reasons, CC talking in the Courier will be bottom of the reasons. Wise up to the real truths, Rangers, Celtic, Aberdeen, anti merger twats,  pricing, affordability, can't be arsedness, something else to do, doing my hair, it's too cold, the songs that get sung, or not, the list is endless, but CC making an off the cuff comment is not the real reason, thats just an excuse.  Bobby Mann got slagged for stating similar stuff just after beating Celtic in the cup, he also wondered where they all went, but nutters on here who obviously all have degrees in the workings of the human mind managed to spin it round to being Bobbies fault.

You lot are unbelievable, or just like the sound of your own typing.

[918loyal]

Why would any new fans want to come to the stadium when all our manager ever does is slag of the people who do support our club

Every radio interview or press interview he is having a dig at the lack of people turning up,not making enough noise or fans having a dig at him,it's time someone took the chip of his shoulder and told him how a manager should act!!!

Completely agree.  I have lost count of the amount of interviews I have heard Charlie slgaiing off the fans about having unrealistic expectations, or not turning up, or not singing.

Good way to get fans behind u charlie...

[caleyboy]

The club used to issue free tickets to all the primary schools in Inverness. We did it in 1996,97,98,99,2000 and then we got too big for our boots. The sooner we get back to the grass roots the better!

[beachcomber]

whoever said we should try attracting more fans from outwith inverness has the right idea, seen as folk in sneck dont seem to care enough.  if we had organised supporters clubs in nairn, ross-shire, forres etc then not only would travel to games be garunteed and cheap but it would also raise our profile in the wider north area, which may have an influence on the people of inverness.

I doubt you'd get many takers from my generation in Nairn - very few football fans I know would give ICT the time of day, as attested by the "We hate Caley more than you" banner at the recent Nairn v Ross County cup final. Howden Enders and Jaggies might be all loved up now, but many native Nairnacs still hate feckin Caley. I've tried asking people if they fancy coming through with me but the usually reply is something along the lines of

"Caley, f*****g Caley, I wouldn't give those c***s the steam off my s***e, let alone go and support the f*****s" 

What a ******* dilemna I've got

You might have more luck with the white settlers and kids right enough

As for YMIP's problem with the tickets,  it's not good to hear,  but I can honestly say I've never had a problem paying at the gate, but then I stick to the Bridge End, it's cheaper, warmer & drier if you don't mind slumming it with the riff-raff. :006:

[CaleyD]

After talk not so long ago about the Courier using quotes from this site in the Fans Letters section I had to have a wee chuckle to myself last night.

Sat down to fully read all the ICT news in the paper, got to the Fans Letter section and saw that I had been quoted - started cursing and blinding that they had used some journalistic license on what I had said which twisted the whole point I was getting at (1 more sentence would have made my point clear).

I then had to stop and have a wee laugh after realising that I was getting worked up over something I had told people not to get upset over only a couple of weeks back  :015:

Also good to see this site getting a positive mention together with the large section on the questions/answers session that had been done with Alan Savage - So I guess it's swings and roundabouts.

[Scotty]

Also good to see this site getting a positive mention together with the large section on the questions/answers session that had been done with Alan Savage

dont think thats in the online version ... anyone care to enlighten me ?

[CaleyD]

No  :002:

[Alex MacLeod]

Firstly I  dont think CC has ever slagged of the supporters of the club. These are the 3500 or so that do make the effort, maybe not every week for one reason or another, to get to a fair few home games. I think there are a number of issues that disappoint. Firstly, ask yourselves, if we get to a cup final how many will attend. If we play Rangers, Celtic or Aberdeen how many attend. How many buses full of football fans leave the area every saturday to attend the twins of evil matches. Realistically I would have thought that if we could frequently get gates of 3000+ for lower league games then being in the top league would have boosted it by a lot more than it has. I dont know the answers but I would have expected that after three seasons in SPL we would have managed to increase our gates by at least 500 or so. Alas it hasn,t happened. Some blame our pricing but the fact is our prices aren't much different to the other SPL teams. Some blame the carparks but the problems in the carparks are caused as much by selfish motorists as by the club or the stewards. Some blame other means of getting to the stadium, i.e buses from town. A number of pubs ran buses to the stadium, indeed some still do, but they were underused and so discontinued.

Instead of everyone coming on here and slagging of the club, or fans, or carparks or other posters, why not come on and make sensible suggestions that would help the situation.

[CaleyD]

I think people have made sensible suggestions, and have been making them for a long while now.  The frustration (certainly from my point of view and experience) is that suggestions seem to be totally ignored.

As for CC not having a go at the fans who do turn up, again I have to disagree and it's not only CC.  We've all seen the articles about wanting more noise from the crowd, wanting people to get behind the team more etc etc.  We've also all seen the articles where the constant answer to crowd sizes is that fans should bring a friend.

First off, it is the actions of the clubs (or more sspecifically their emplyees) which are killing much of the atmosphere - the sit down shut up approach taken by stewards leaves many people looking over their shoulder when they do decide to get a bit vocal, or stand (even for a few seconds) to cheer on the team.  They feed us stories about the SPL/Safety rules not allowing it blah blah blah, yet they continue to allow it in the away end and when you look around just about any other all seated stadia in the country you see fans standing and cheering without so much as a sideways glance from stewards or mention of many of the problems we seem to have had in this regard.

Secondly, many people DO try and encourage people to come along each week, but they are farting against thunder due to pricing/conditions/lack of pre-match & half time entertainment/delays getting away from the stadium/insufficient serveries etc....they all might be small things in themselves, but taken as part of the package then it is more than enough to give people the excuse not to go.

I don't think anyone is expecting them to do it all and come up with all the answers - but we are just as powerless to bring about change on our own as the club is on their own.  The club needs to be doing more to help us help them.  Between us we need to remove all (or as many as possible) excuses for people not to attend - Football is a team sport, both on the park and off it, and we all have a part to play.  The guys on the park can't perform at their best if half the team stands around pointing the finger at the other, and the same goes with the club and the fans.

[RiG]

Also good to see this site getting a positive mention together with the large section on the questions/answers session that had been done with Alan Savage

dont think thats in the online version ... anyone care to enlighten me ?

I don't think they used all of them but a lot of the questions that some folk asked Savage appeared in the Courier.