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The season ahead


tm4tj

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1 hour ago, Scotty said:

Agree. For ICT it should be relatively easy to ensure social distancing in the ground - we have practiced it for years with the average crowd being 20% of capacity, although that crowd is typically congregated in specific areas and might need to spread outside of their normal seated areas.  That would hopefully be a small price to pay for allowing some fans back into the ground. It may also be unpopular to say this but it would likely only be allowed (or be sensible) to allow season ticket holders in. No away fans and no pay at the gate walk-ups. This would ensure they have contact tracing details for everyone present without much more overhead.

The bigger problem becomes all the stuff we might not think about. The choke points in the ground like turnstiles & toilets. The pie queue (I presume we just would not have food available), even the car park. Not to mention ensuring that everything is cleaned thoroughly after the game which would likely be more expensive than the perfunctory clean-up that happens now. I hope they figure this out but at the end of the day the health and safety of players and fans alike is most important so getting our thinking caps on and figuring out alternative revenue streams is another area they need to focus on. 

 

For comparison - Over this side of the pond we are resigned to not seeing anything in-person until at least March 2021 and probably later. The Canada/USA border is still pretty much closed down (since March) unless you have a dispensation to cross, so although they have resumed play in MLS its a lot different. Canada's 3 MLS teams just played each other 3 times in the league with only Montreal allowing anyone inside the stadium (250 fans spread out). Now they have all migrated to the USA for the rest of the campaign, quarantined for the required time, and will play 10-12 games between now and first week of November in temporary home locations. This is all in front of zero fans - or in some cases a handful of fans where local bylaws allow it.  Everything is broadcast on normal telly, not premium channels (in Canada at least) and to be fair, they do not try and pipe in crowd noise like I have seen in other leagues, instead they put better ground mics in place and also with the officials so it was fun to watch and hear the players and managers going loopy-s*** about things and actually hearing it!  However I wonder how they will do things in 2021 ... Toronto have about 95-98% of their ground sold out to season ticket holders so unless we are throwing an extra tier on it, how will they social distance in 2021 as I am sure that will still be a requirement. I will leave them to figure that out and bitch and moan about it later .... 

I agree entirely that away fans should not be permitted for as long as the virus remains an issue. Apart from the issue of contact tracing, there is the risk of them travelling from parts of the country with significantly higher rates of infection which, in the case of the Highlands, is virtually everywhere else on the mainland.

However, should there be spare capacity once season ticket holders have been accommodated, I would see no difficulty with home fans purchasing individual match day tickets provided they are bought in advance with contact details being left with the ticket office.

It would help too if fans could download the Protect Scotland App and have their bluetooth on.

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Don't disagree with the above TBH however as an ICT fan living away from Inverness it is highly likely I won't get to any games at all next season if we go forward with no away fans and only letting fans in from the local area :sad:

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It's been said many times it's the public transport and pubs pre/post game that are more the issue. (Pubs have their own enforcement which they are managing well in the inverness area). Using an Inverness specific plan if you ban away supporters you limit the issue with transport, I appreciate ICT fans come from north, East, South and West but not in particularly high risk numbers. Caley club bus etc would need to stop and people should be encouraged to walk, cycle, drive or get lifts/taxis to the the ground.

No food in ground is one of the stipulation I'm sure. Toilets would be easily manage by stewards I would think. Exit would be easy enough if guided by a steward. Section by section for example. The cleaning thing. I believe the virus only lives on surfaces for 72 hours so seats wouldn't be an issue. Presume toilets etc are cleaned after games anyway.

I definitely think in our case it is achievable to complete safely, as county could. However when we are rolled in with the whole country/league and the transport issues when teams are much closer together and using same transport links then it's more difficult to argue a case. 

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51 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

However, should there be spare capacity once season ticket holders have been accommodated, I would see no difficulty with home fans purchasing individual match day tickets provided they are bought in advance with contact details being left with the ticket office.

 

39 minutes ago, RiG said:

Don't disagree with the above TBH however as an ICT fan living away from Inverness it is highly likely I won't get to any games at all next season if we go forward with no away fans and only letting fans in from the local area :sad:

 

36 minutes ago, Naelifts said:

You have to be careful with this. What do you class as "away" fans. Many ICT fans travel to support their team at home.

That's why I said my comment might be unpopular ! I know we have a good away contingent of home fans .... but if the rules in place will allow people to travel from outside the highlands to the game then maybe some fans can pre-register and pick up tickets on the day? 

 

32 minutes ago, Stirling Observer said:

No food in ground is one of the stipulation I'm sure. Toilets would be easily manage by stewards I would think. Exit would be easy enough if guided by a steward. Section by section for example. The cleaning thing. I believe the virus only lives on surfaces for 72 hours so seats wouldn't be an issue. Presume toilets etc are cleaned after games anyway.

Depending on who you believe the virus goes from not surviving on surfaces (which I believe to be incorrect) to surviving for weeks ... the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle but no-one seems to know for sure. With all due respect to our current stewards, I think they would be hard pushed to organise an orderly exit from ground, car park or anywhere else and as for stopping someone from entering the toilet because its at capacity, also difficult.  

 

32 minutes ago, Stirling Observer said:

I definitely think in our case it is achievable to complete safely, as county could. However when we are rolled in with the whole country/league and the transport issues when teams are much closer together and using same transport links then it's more difficult to argue a case. 

Fans want to get back to football in person, but also want to be safe so its very much a hard question to answer .... if you limit numbers how do you tell 1400 season ticket holders which 500 are allowed to come in? Its a case of damned if you do and damned if you dont really. 

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2 hours ago, Naelifts said:

You have to be careful with this. What do you class as "away" fans. Many ICT fans travel to support their team at home.

It aint happening any time soon anyhoo

Away fans - fans of of the team playing away from home.

Hopefully the club will have some kind of streaming setup on the go as I can't see us getting into a ground this season.

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17 hours ago, RiG said:

Don't disagree with the above TBH however as an ICT fan living away from Inverness it is highly likely I won't get to any games at all next season if we go forward with no away fans and only letting fans in from the local area :sad:

Yes...my trip to Edinburgh in November booked optimistically in late July, looks like a forlorn hope now, even the options of some of the City main attractions look risky to pre-book.

I think the abilility for Championship and below clubs to admit some home fans looks viable, until the costs of doing so (logistically) come into play, more stewards for marshalling, and costs of pre/post match cleaning. I think that ICT could easily handle 1500 or so supporters spread around the ground.

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We need to save every penny we can this season so surely, once the clocks go back, there is no need to start games at 3pm for as long as there are no fans in attendance.

A 1.30pm kick off means that games could be played out in natural light over the Winter and we could save a few thousand pounds over the piece by not having to power up the floodlights.

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That's the kind of forward thinking we need Kingsmills. 

I like the 3pm personally and would like it to return after fans can return but absolutely no reason why we can't move the times earlier to save all clubs money like you say. Leaving the premiership clubs to play at 3pm means a full day of football aswell if people watch to watch/listen to Ross county get humped

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59 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

We need to save every penny we can this season so surely, once the clocks go back, there is no need to start games at 3pm for as long as there are no fans in attendance.

A 1.30pm kick off means that games could be played out in natural light over the Winter and we could save a few thousand pounds over the piece by not having to power up the floodlights.

That's good thinking Kingsmills must be living in Aberdeen-shire that helped you there 😂

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As far as getting fans back into grounds is concerned, I wonder if there could be scope for following the more nuanced and regionalised approach that seems to be proving successful in Germany.

As far as I understand it. Clubs are permitted to have fans in grounds up to 20% of capacity as long as the local region has an infection rate of less than 35 per 100,000 and the fans give an address, for contact tracing purposes,within the local region.

If that was applied to Scotland right now, every club in the Highlands  Moray, Aberdeenshire and in the south such as Stranraer, Queen of the South and Berwick would be permitted to have fans as well as St Johnstone and all four of the Angus clubs.

That way, we could at least get things underway, set a template for the rest of the country and areas with relatively low rates of infection would not be penalised due to the high rates currently being seen in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Lanarkshire, Ayrshire and Fife.

As things stand, it would also permit every Highland League club and quite a few Lowland league clubs to have some fans in and thus generate some income.

Something to consider maybe ?

Edited by Kingsmills
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On the one hand it’s very sensible, Some crowds better than no crowds, but there’s also the consideration that the ‘provincial’ teams would arguably get a competitive advantage for non-footballing reasons.

Being made to play behind closed doors is used by football authorities as a punishment, but in the current circumstances  the teams affected would have done nothing wrong.  I like the idea because it suits us but I know how I’d feel if ICT had that imposed when central belt teams were allowed fans back. 

Edited by Yngwie
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1 hour ago, Yngwie said:

On the one hand it’s very sensible, Some crowds better than no crowds, but there’s also the consideration that the ‘provincial’ teams would arguably get a competitive advantage for non-footballing reasons.

Being made to play behind closed doors is used by football authorities as a punishment, but in the current circumstances  the teams affected would have done nothing wrong.  I like the idea because it suits us but I know how I’d feel if ICT had that imposed when central belt teams were allowed fans back. 

Agree with this. 100% spot on.

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20 hours ago, Yngwie said:

On the one hand it’s very sensible, Some crowds better than no crowds, but there’s also the consideration that the ‘provincial’ teams would arguably get a competitive advantage for non-footballing reasons.

Being made to play behind closed doors is used by football authorities as a punishment, but in the current circumstances  the teams affected would have done nothing wrong.  I like the idea because it suits us but I know how I’d feel if ICT had that imposed when central belt teams were allowed fans back. 

I agree that there would be something of an advantage to home teams playing in front of fans.

However, even in normal times, the Scottish football authorities were prepared to sanction us playing Scottish Cup semi final against Celtic at a 'neutral venue' in their home city with 90% of the fans backing them and two successive League Cup semi finals against Hearts at a 'neutral venue' in their home city once again with 90% of the fans backing them.

They were happy to give those clubs theoretical sporting advantage, even if 2 times out of 3 it didn't work out that way! 

So, now in these difficult times the possibility of getting some fans in some grounds where it is safe to do so  in my view, far outweighs any perceived or actual advantage there might be.

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4 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

I wonder if any studies have been done yet on closed doors matches since football restarted to see if there has been any change in the split of home/away wins? 

I'd be interested to hear what the uptake has been for the streaming services the Premiership sides have been offering to fans.

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