Makes interesting reading. First time I have seen the actual number of season tickets (1453) made public, not a particularly impressive figure but hardly surprising. Statement is well written and contains a number of commitments, some of which we have heard before but hopefully will be followed through this time.

Same Pissshhhh different day. So according to that we have money in the budget to hold on to players. Well lets get that useless **** between the sticks out and put OFW in, and use Raven some more. Let's be honest Ridgers is not too convincing, Chalmers is absolute pissshhhh. Robbo should use Bell more beause Baird has to be pointed in the right direction of goal and then can only score from 5" out - if he were a horse I would have shot him by now.

I have some questions about the statement

- Was the appointment of Finlayson ever supposed to be temporary or short term? I can't recall it being described as such.

- Who made the £500,000 investment mentioned in the statement?

- The statement says that we didn't budget for selling Draper yet Robertson said in the press that he won't receive any of that money for players. What is it being used for?

- I'm pretty sure we had statements promising better communication earlier in the summer and that the communication got worse following that, what specific changes and actions have been taken to improve things?

- How much money was the club paying Tullochs for the stands every month and how do we intend to use that money?

What does Graham Rae do and more to the point, who is he ?

Potand Brush-- My point is your point and Question  :-

i.e  Can someone please list the current Board Members and advise what their day job or position is in each case. Then we outlying  persons can keep into touch with all the bewildering changes going on just now.? Thanks.

I think it is a pretty fair statement. Reading between the lines, it is obvious they realise the mistakes and lack of communication has cost them a lot of trust and goodwill. It is easy to be cynical, as some will be, but as a statement of intent it is a big improvement on the past, and I think you have to give them a chance to follow it up and deliver what they say. 

I also have to say, I have no idea where this money is coming from, but surely a very welcome development at a time when we really need it. If it is put to good use, then happy to give them credit for getting that in.

As for the questions, hopefully people will be able to ask that at the promised Q & A session.

Graham Rae is a former Inverness Royal Academy pupil, an invernessian who was in the oil business, and is now retired, I believe, so will have the time to devote to the club. Good luck to him.

1 hour ago, Jockdoonsouth said:

 Robbo should use Bell more beause Baird has to be pointed in the right direction of goal and then can only score from 5" out - if he were a horse I would have shot him by now.

On Saturday, Baird was one of only two of our players who looked like he knew what to do on a football pitch. I would like to see Bell given a chance, but instead of Oakley or Zscusschen rather than Baird. 

1 hour ago, ictchris said:

- The statement says that we didn't budget for selling Draper yet Robertson said in the press that he won't receive any of that money for players. What is it being used for?

- How much money was the club paying Tullochs for the stands every month and how do we intend to use that money?

Going by the use of the £500,000, I think we can conclude that these sums will just go towards our wage bill, covering ongoing weekly losses and stopping us going bust this season.

Graham Rae Former RA student..............isn't that a negative for a start lol.

The statement is a start and nothing more. If the board deliver on what is said in the statement, then that will be a big improvement on the past so will be a welcome step.

As for the new investment mentioned, as someone has already posted, it will help cover operating costs and keep us in the black(hopefully) as we struggle to balance the books in the SPFL anyway

 

surely depends on who the investors are? I hope it's not sutherland or any of his cronies ?. I  know beggars can't be choosers. 

34 minutes ago, caleyboy said:

surely depends on who the investors are? I hope it's not sutherland or any of his cronies ?. I  know beggars can't be choosers. 

Exactly

4 hours ago, Howdenender said:

Makes interesting reading. First time I have seen the actual number of season tickets (1453) made public, not a particularly impressive figure but hardly surprising. Statement is well written and contains a number of commitments, some of which we have heard before but hopefully will be followed through this time.

I wonder if 1453 includes or excludes under-12 season tickets that are free of charge with an accompanying adult season ticket-holder. Disappointingly low either way I suppose.

Reading the statement we can see how much debt our club had by clearly paying players and managers huge wages which were well beyond our means.  To get an investment of half a million pounds to cover past and current financial shortfalls is excellent at this time.  We are very lucky to also be gifted the stands from Tullochs and them writing off our rent arrears!  With under 1500 season tickets sold there will not be funds to get any big signings this season, lets hope this is the start of getting our house in order to move the club forward.

Although our fan base is low I did notice in the highlights of Ross County v Aberdeen there was still a vast amount of empty seats even with greatly reduced prices!

10 minutes ago, IBM said:

Reading the statement we can see how much debt our club had by clearly paying players and managers huge wages which were well beyond our means.

How much debt did the club have? It should be made clear in previous financial statements. From memory, the level of debt was pretty much zero. We made a profit in the majority of the last few seasons.

5 minutes ago, ictchris said:

How much debt did the club have? It should be made clear in previous financial statements. From memory, the level of debt was pretty much zero. We made a profit in the majority of the last few seasons.

I don't know chris but the club is getting half a million to cover the shortfalls so hopefully by the end of the financial year we will be ok.

Just now, IBM said:

I don't know chris but the club is getting half a million to cover the shortfalls so hopefully by the end of the financial year we will be ok.

Suspect our level of expenditure was ok whilst sitting mid table in premiership. Even with the parachute payment the championship means a bit reduction in income. This appears to be the board attempting to close that financial gap. 

Sensible statement outlining the business case - realistically who would want to run a football club? We can be grateful that some of those who have made money are still prepared to subsidise full time professional football in the Highland capital. The statement has the ability not only to get the ducks in order with spectators etc but the players. We need to find hunger to win games against 9 teams who currently appear somewhat hungrier and more competent than us. Morton will be highly motivated this Saturday so the pressure to perform must switch from the Board to the team with SUPPORT.

My concern would be - is this £500k a 'soft loan' of the kind (albeit much smaller than) those with which the new Rangers club are papering over their cracks? Hope not. What kind of 'investment' is it then?

To be fair, that's a pretty good statement.  It says a lot of sensible things and gives some commitments which the Board need to keep.  As they say themselves, now that they have talked the talk they need to walk the walk. There's quite a lot in the statement so apologies in advance for a longish post.

Firstly, whilst I seem to recall someone saying Finlayson was just a fill in Chairman, the Board's statement regarding his appointment did not say so.  Graham Rae was appointed to the Board after Cameron stood down so I wonder whether he was brought in with the intention of taking over after a period of familiarisation or whether the change of Chairman now is a result of Boardroom politics and/or related to the announced £500,000 investment.

Regardless of that, the statement says that the whole of the investment will be "fully utilised towards addressing post and current financial shortfalls."  Note that it says "towards".  It is a good chunk of money but evidently not enough to fully address those shortfalls.  It really does beg the question of what those shortfalls are and how they came about.  What is heartening to read though, is the emphasis placed on prudent financial management going forward and not spending more than our income.  It all smacks to me of an admission that there has been a period of overspending coupled with a recognition now of the need to return to the kind of sound financial management which was the keystone of our steady upwards progress in the past.

Whilst the statement also talks about the goal of the Board being to return to the Premiership and compete for honours, it is interesting that it also states their desire to "restore the club to its rightful position at the heart of the Inverness community and delivering entertaining football ..."  It specifically does not suggest that the club's rightful place is in the top flight.  That may suggest a lack of ambition to some, but I think that is also a sensible and realistic position to take.  We have no right to be in the top flight, but if we return, let it be because we have earned it and not because we have jeopardised the future of the club by spending beyond our means.

What this means in practice is a significant period of rebuilding, and that might mean things getting worse on the playing side before they can get better.  We are in a far worse position than when we were relegated before and we won't simply bounce back like last time for 2 reasons.  Firstly we have lost so many of the players that allowed us to hold our own in the top flight, and secondly because much of our reduced income is already committed as a result of the financial mismanagement of the last 2 or 3 years.  This season is all about survival both financially and on the park.

For us as fans, it means facing up to the harsh realities of where we are and not having unrealistic expectations of the team.  Our goal should simply be to not get relegated.  If the Board can get back to balancing the books and the manager can keep us away from the drop, then next season we will have greater financial stability and a more settled team.  We should then be able to start building again.  The Board need to deliver on their statement and we need to hold them to account.  In return, we need to give positive support to the team at this difficult time even though the standards and the results may not be what we would like and have come to expect.   That doesn't mean we shouldn't criticise where criticism is justified, but it does mean that we give our active support to the team through thick and thin.

What Doofers has just written. Makes perfect sense and  a fairly in depth review.

Steady the Buffs and all. Get the financial house really in order , stop spending money on items and deals that offer little or no return on the investment and cut the cloth accordingly. Prudent thoughts in action

Sunny here again  in B.C. today--i.e. about half a day's rain yesterday was after three months of constant, broiling sun. Going to sleep at 87 degrees is no fun.Good job  no matter what the lawn grass looks like it will all come back in October when the annual monsoon starts up.

5 hours ago, bughtmaster said:

Graham Rae Former RA student..............isn't that a negative for a start lol.

Well this isn't something you could leave to rough boys from the Tecky

I get that with relegation we'll have costs to cover and I applaud the board for acting swiftly to secure the finances to cover this.

I do wonder however what happened to all the Christie cash. 500k is not an amount we get regularly so has it been put towards previous shortfalls or reinvested badly in playing staff? 

Robbo also previously stated that once a high earner or 2 left he'd be able to bring others in. Now one had left for a 6 figure sum (not anticipated) will he be able to move to bring players in now? 

As to the talk of 1400 season tickets. Does this figure not seem about right considering our home gate averages maybe only up to 1000 more than that? It's probably more than half our home attendance week to week. 

Does the board more importantly consider this a good figure in terms of sustainability in the longer term. 

At last, a coherent, mature statement of intent really attempting to address all the speculation within the confines of some commercial things which are not meant to be out there for public consumption. I've go a boardroom bounce from that, now back to the footy supporting, survival and ICTFC walking the talk. Well done board.

16 hours ago, Potandbrush said:

What does Graham Rae do and more to the point, who is he ?

He has potentially relevant stuff on his CV.  Hope he can apply it all to a football club.

https://www.nonexecutivedirectors.com/bio.php?transID=3192

How much is the parachute payment or is that where the £500,000 investment comes from ? Answers on a postcard.