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CLUB STATEMENT : AGM & Annual Report : 23/11/17


ICTFC

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Savage and the McGilvrays are looking like a bunch of raving lunatics.

The question now is, which group of lunatics will be controlling the asylum after the AGM?

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Personally, I think the MacGillvrays, Alan Savage, David Sutherland should hang their heads in shame over this situation. This is all arising from their personal dislike of each other and should have no place in the running and future of ICT. The club is not their plaything for them to boost their egos by getting one over on each other.

My understanding is that the owner of Tullochs now were unaware of the situation with the stands and do genuinely want to offload them to the club but why they are then insisting on the conditions they now are is beyond me. Perhaps they have an allegiance to the three musketeers mentioned above. The current board and chairman have a real poisoned chalice on this one as this situation was certainly not of their making. I do genuinely believe we are starting to get a board in place who can drive the club forward after the mismanagement of past boards and hope this does not deter them.

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48 minutes ago, Huisdean said:

This is all arising from their personal dislike of each other and should have no place in the running and future of ICT.

You are spot on there Huisdean. Over the years, the club has had the goodwill of these major Inverness businesses through leading figures within them. It would be hugely beneficial if they could all pull together to the benefit of the club but, unfortunately, the opposite seems to be the case and long running antipathy appears to be a significant motivating factor in the current spat.

One vital consideration in a saga which has now been ongoing for almost 20 years has, however, been largely ignored. In the early 2000s, the club was crippled by a debt somewhere in the range £2.3 - £3M (accounts vary). Without that being "sorted", the club would have gone into administration or even liquidation. The only thing that extricated it from that near-death experience was the intervention of Tullochs, the only game in town, who "disposed" of the debt, provided over £700,000 working capital to ease cash flow and ensured that the North and South stands were built.

Some people may not like this fact, but interventions from Tullochs, valued at £5.3 - £6M (again accounts vary) ensured, in five years, a transition from a massively indebted financial basket case destined for the knacker's yard to a debt free club playing SPL football in an SPL compliant stadium in Inverness. The ICT piper has been paid pretty handsomely and I would suggest that he who has done so could have called a much more demanding tune, remembering also Tullochs' donation of 730,000 shares to the ICT Trust and offer of the stadium fabric to the club. 

I suppose the bottom line question has to be - what would people have preferred? Administration/liquidation in 2000/01 or, 16 overwhelmingly successful seasons later, a question over the car parks, Tullochs' response to which has included a commitment not to leave the club without infrastructure?

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10 minutes ago, Sir C the 3rd said:

Unfortunately this is what football in general has now become. It’s just business now. The game has been hijacked by already rich business people to make more money. Forget about the fans. They don’t matter anymore.

I'm not sure I can agree with all of that. Certainly it is very much business now, one major reason being that football's economics of the madhouse has led to clubs attempting to live outwith their means. This has in turn led to the need for business to become involved, simply to bail out clubs from their excessive spending - in which they are under huge pressure to indulge from the artificial market causing players to be paid well above their realistic value.

It's a bit like Marks and Spencer expecting Bill Gates or the Duke of Westminster to make large cash donations to cover Marks' losses resulting from them paying their shop floor staff £25 an hour.

It pains me to admit this, but what football fans pay for their product doesn't scratch the surface of the excessive amount that product costs to produce - hence the need from donations from "business".

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1 hour ago, Charles Bannerman said:

I'm not sure I can agree with all of that. Certainly it is very much business now, one major reason being that football's economics of the madhouse has led to clubs attempting to live outwith their means. This has in turn led to the need for business to become involved, simply to bail out clubs from their excessive spending - in which they are under huge pressure to indulge from the artificial market causing players to be paid well above their realistic value.

It's a bit like Marks and Spencer expecting Bill Gates or the Duke of Westminster to make large cash donations to cover Marks' losses resulting from them paying their shop floor staff £25 an hour.

It pains me to admit this, but what football fans pay for their product doesn't scratch the surface of the excessive amount that product costs to produce - hence the need from donations from "business".

Yes Charles you have identified the problem and shared it with us on numerous occasions but how can it be sorted?

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3 hours ago, caleyboy said:

Yes Charles you have identified the problem and shared it with us on numerous occasions but how can it be sorted?

"Sorting" the problem is in the hands of the game itself and would require serious reductions in what players are paid at all levels. However I just can't see that happening and fear that football has painted itself into a corner from which there is no escape.

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14 minutes ago, Charles Bannerman said:

"Sorting" the problem is in the hands of the game itself and would require serious reductions in what players are paid at all levels. However I just can't see that happening and fear that football has painted itself into a corner from which there is no escape.

so we just have to accept that if we are to continue to play at a full-time level we need serious investment...... like it or not.

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14 hours ago, caleyboy said:

so we just have to accept that if we are to continue to play at a full-time level we need serious investment...... like it or not.

The term "investment" implies a reasonable expectation of financial return for the investor. Like it not, and I don't particularly, the realistic term is "subsidy".

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23 hours ago, MorayJaggie said:

I think everyone should just park at Tullochs headquarters on match ay and get a supporter bus arranged to ferry us to the games. Tulloch don' care about the club it's obvious and their refusal to deny the removal of the car parks speaks volumes 

If it wasn't for the Tulloch connection we might not have a club by now. We certainly wouldn't have a full time team who had spent  the vast majority of the last decade and a half in the top tier and won the country's premier knock out tournament.

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5 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

If it wasn't for the Tulloch connection we might not have a club by now. We certainly wouldn't have a full time team who had spent  the vast majority of the last decade and a half in the top tier and won the country's premier knock out tournament.

Well said Kingsmills. That's the way I feel too. Tullochs seem to to get a bad press with certain sections of our support, who , presumably, don't appreciate the debt the club owes them.  That doesn't mean, of course, that our present board should not negotiate hard with them to ensure that the current seemingly loose arrangements are properly and legally sorted out to ICT's advantage .

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2 hours ago, Charles Bannerman said:

The term "investment" implies a reasonable expectation of financial return for the investor. Like it not, and I don't particularly, the realistic term is "subsidy".

call it what you want but this poorly run club needs it.

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4 hours ago, Caley Mad In Berks said:

Well said Kingsmills. That's the way I feel too. Tullochs seem to to get a bad press with certain sections of our support, who , presumably, don't appreciate the debt the club owes them.  That doesn't mean, of course, that our present board should not negotiate hard with them to ensure that the current seemingly loose arrangements are properly and legally sorted out to ICT's advantage .

If Tullochs have secured the leasehold from their dealings with ICT, I would suggest they've already done extremely well out of them. How can the board negotiate hard when they have nothing to bargain with?

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1 hour ago, Charles Bannerman said:

What it needs even more is a greatly increased and sustainable turnover.

agreed but how do we do that? The Inverness public have unfortunately made their feelings perfectly clear. Board after board have failed so is the current one going to make a difference? 

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5 hours ago, caleyboy said:

Believe it or not Tulloch / Sutherland do nought for nothing. They are waiting patiently to make an absolute fortune 

Someone has been drinking too much festive sherry.  Without Sutherland and Tulloch we would not have a club to talk about..   

 

 

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Just because Tulloch have helped the club in the past does not mean they will always do so in the future.  I have no doubt that they are genuine in wanting the club to prosper and are willing to play a part in that, however, their priority will always be the success and security of their business.  If the interests of the club conflict with the interests of the business then you can be sure which interest they will prioritise.

I'm afraid I can't make the AGM but I will be very interested to hear what transpires.

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11 hours ago, Kind of Blue said:

Someone has been drinking too much festive sherry.  Without Sutherland and Tulloch we would not have a club to talk about..   

 

 

you believe what you want you are entitled to your opinion as well as I am.

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On ‎16‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 7:02 PM, caleyboy said:

agreed but how do we do that? The Inverness public have unfortunately made their feelings perfectly clear. Board after board have failed so is the current one going to make a difference? 

At least this board appears to be trying to clear up the mess that they have inherited from the previous regimes and I do have some faith that at last we have a board who better understands the needs of the business that is ICT. Various boards have squandered commercial opportunities in the past (after our cup final win for example) and more focus needs to go on commercial opportunities than perhaps the football side to help the club's finances. As to why the Inverness public don't turn out, some of that is due to the incessant moaning from some of our own supporters which does turn certain people away. For some reason, there just does not seem to be the affinity their should be between city and club. 

 

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1 hour ago, Huisdean said:

At least this board appears to be trying to clear up the mess that they have inherited from the previous regimes and I do have some faith that at last we have a board who better understands the needs of the business that is ICT. Various boards have squandered commercial opportunities in the past (after our cup final win for example) and more focus needs to go on commercial opportunities than perhaps the football side to help the club's finances. As to why the Inverness public don't turn out, some of that is due to the incessant moaning from some of our own supporters which does turn certain people away. For some reason, there just does not seem to be the affinity their should be between city and club. 

 

in the main Huisdean I agree but i cannot accept that moaning on here keeps people away from matches. Income from commercial activities is so very difficult when the club doesn't have the city behind it, just look at how poorly hospitality is supported.

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