Got an idea.....................

[dead_ball_specialist]

Did anybody here go to see Mauro Picotto at 'Party in the Park'? What a fiasco that was  :rolleyes02:

If Clach can't hack it then Inverness City are waiting in the wings to take their place. I'd love to see them in the Highland league.

[SMEE]

Ad hate to see Invss Utd or any other team for that matter gain entry to the HL at the expense of Clach

[Alex MacLeod]

Did anybody here go to see Mauro Picotto at 'Party in the Park'? What a fiasco that was  :rolleyes02:

If Clach can't hack it then Inverness City are waiting in the wings to take their place. I'd love to see them in the Highland league.

I think that if any other Inverness team wanted / could sustain entry into HL they wouldn't have too much problem gaining entry. There's an odd number of teams in it as it is.

[Caley]

Looking at the figures, Clach seem to get around the 250 mark for home games. At an average ticket price of ?5 multiplied by 14 home games a season that makes gate receipts of around ?17500. Once the rent of ?14000 is paid that doesn't leave a **** of a lot to go round.

I would be tempted to say the CGF should reduce the rent to help make Clach viable, but if they haven't paid any rent for 2-3 years then there's no point as they obviously can't afford to pay any rent.

[Alex MacLeod]

Theres a lot more than just gate reciepts. Advertising, cup runs, sponsorship. I believe they also recieve some funding from the Clach club. It all adds up. As for the rent, is it not based on recouping the money the club was baled out by in the past.

Yngwie, Fort William appear to manage on gates of around 100 and also pay rent for Claggan park.

SMEE, I dont think the debt was spirited away. The stadium trust took over the stadium and its debt. The rental ICT pay to the trust, I believe, covers the costs of the stadium and the loan payments. What the trust hold is a stadium as collateral against the debt. Also I think David Sutherland is guarantor so if the payments aren't made he becomes liable.

I agree with CD that Clach are an important part of the city and wouldn't like to see them go to the wall but public money cannot be thrown at them willy nilly. We, as football fans, may not mind quite so much but the majority of local taxpayers wouldn't agree, especially when they see the services that are closer to their hearts affected by cutback.

[SMEE]

Last year, I did some volunteer work for a charity based in Inverness which went round doing jobs around the house for those unfortunate enuff to be unable to do it for themselves. This same charity looks like it is going to fold as nobody will fund it any longer.

To me.....that is a far bigger travesty than a sports team that is struggling. I know which one I would bail out first!

Point being, there are far more deserving causes within Sneck that deserve a rescue package before Clach

[Heilandee]

I guess it depends on the will of the hard core Clach support and how much they want to see their team survive.It's obvious from comments most local folk seem to have a soft spot for Clach but they are not going to be part of the financial salvation of the club,many however (myself included) would probably contribute if fundraising on a larger scale was organised from within the club to ensure it's survival.

[Govan Jaggie]

There has been so many fundraisers for Clach over the years.  There is a point were people do say enough is enough and I think this is it. :sillywave:

[Charles Bannerman]

SMEE... the ?900K was most definitely a grant, not a loan but arguably it was one of the wisest investments ever made by the CGF. As you say, it had the secondary effect of opening up the whole East Longman area in addition to the massive stimulus Inverness has as the base of an SPL club. If you add other money in such as Objective 1 and INE funding, it comes to something around ?1.8M of grants from public sources to Caley Thistle.

?900,000 from the CGF to create a transport artery beneath the Kessock Bridge... or ?250,000 for a 12 minute fireworks display above it. Difficult one to call, that, in terms of relative value!  :015:

Clach's problem is the club's fundamental non viability in an area of town where economic conditions have changed dramatically over the last 20 years. The proposals for an all weather pitch which will begin to emerge this week are designed to create a new income stream.

Heilandee has hit the nail on the head. There is a huge sentimental support for Clach within Inverness but there are precious few who will actively do anything to improve the club's situation... such as go through the turnstiles on a Saturday.

[Guest Calum-Red-an-Blue]

the youth set up at Clach is small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. It not going to count for anything should things not improve on the rent front

that may be, but many of the yt are coming into the first team now, so the wage structure should surely be less than in previous years.

Clach are a part of inverness and people may agrue, but inverness city will never be able to live up to Clach, Clach need to be saved because a 120 odd years of history will be erased.They are effectivly the only club with a history in footbal in inveness know as ict are still a relativly new club. Clach's heritage is going down the drain like the history of caley and thistle did.

[SMEE]

Calum........sentiment counts for very little these days. Clach (like everyone else) has to be able to susutain itself or it will go down the pan. It has Happened in the not so distant past to Meadowbank Thistle, Airdre and Clydebank and am sure they were equally "part of the community".......so it can happen to clach too.

[Kingsmills]

Did Clach not recently receive, in common with all other full members of the SFA a payment of ?10,000 which, as I understand it, was unexpected and would not have formed part of their budget ?

That could surely have gone some way to clearing the arrears.

[+HawkeyeTheGnu]

Calum........sentiment counts for very little these days. Clach (like everyone else) has to be able to susutain itself or it will go down the pan. It has Happened in the not so distant past to Meadowbank Thistle, Airdre and Clydebank and am sure they were equally "part of the community".......so it can happen to clach too.

Actually, Meadowbank Thistle didn't go bust. They were bought over by Bill 'Blobby' Hunter and relocated to Livingston. Perhaps the first example of the franchise system in Scottish Football.

[SMEE]

Meadowbank ceased to be a team.... thats my point! Am sure those that were Meadowbank fans felt aggrieved by the change.

[+HawkeyeTheGnu]

Meadowbank ceased to be a team.... thats my point! Am sure those that were Meadowbank fans felt aggrieved by the change.

All 39 of them.

[dead_ball_specialist]

Clach are a part of inverness and people may agrue, but inverness city will never be able to live up to Clach

Why not?

They're a well organized outfit with smart, motivated guys at the helm and a growing, enthusiastic fan base.

Just compare their websites

http://www.spanglefish.com/invernesscity/

http://www.freewebs.com/clachnacuddinfc/

Which is more professional? Clach are a joke - their finances tell you everything you need to know. They're going nowhere, in contrast to City who could grow into a force to be reckoned with if given the chance.

[Scarlet Pimple]

Caley and Thistle bit the bullet to merge. They still exist except in a morphed.changed form. Good deal.

Clach apparently have not yet embraced the truism that change is constant.

The lack of flexibility here is palpable.

They should merge with ICT or allow themselves to be taken over . In any other organisation or business if you can't pay you don't go.

Even ICT cannot command a hefty crowd on a Saturday so why do Clach persist in living in the past. They always have seemed to me to be an anomaly since the merger. Once the old timers who DO support them have gone this option may well be inevitable. :rolleyes02:.

[CaleyD]

Can you imagine what this country would look like if you applied that philosophy to everything?

Lets not give grants to preserve old buildings and lets build over all the greenland....these things don't pay for themselves, so screw them, let them disappear.  Look at the millions that are invested into such things.  Over ?50,000+ was spent putting in a path along the back of Dalneigh next to the canel (which already has a path running along it) not so long ago and I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of people I see using it ever week and they're talking about spending the same again (and more) adding lights to it and installing some kind of "fitness" equipment along the route.  Then you have the maintenance costs every year on top of that.

We're not talking about a club that only appeared on the scene a few years ago.  We're talking about the oldest remaining football team in Inverness, a founder member of the North of Scotland FA and the last connection this city has with the Highland League.

Football, in the shape of ICT, has brought a lot of money to Inverness, and it's easy for us to sit in our nice new stadium playing in the top league to say "We survived and grew, Clach had a chance to be part of that and chose not to, so feck em".  How quickly some people forget that things could so easily have gone the same way for Caley and/or Thistle 14 years ago.

I couldn't quote their attendance figures and I don't know how much ICT's success has contributed to any decrease over the years, but you can be sure that it will have had some impact.  In fact, Clach are likely one of the few "businesses" in Inverness to have been effected in a negative manner by the presence of ICT.  We all mump and moan about how the OF fans steal fans away from the smaller teams....are ICT not doing the exact same thing to a certain extent when it comes to the Clach?

Why shouldn't everyone who has benefited from the success of football in the city be expected to give a little something back to the game at the lower level?  Are we all really so greedy and money-grabbing that we won't forego a few quid to make life a little easier for Clach and continue to provide an affordable alternative to supporting ICT, or would we rather these people spent their Saturdays sitting at home watching football on the TV and never giving a second thought to the game in their own city.

I'm no Clach Fan, never have been, but that doesn't mean I want to see them go to the wall.

[CaleyD]

Clach are a part of inverness and people may agrue, but inverness city will never be able to live up to Clach

Why not?

They're a well organized outfit with smart, motivated guys at the helm and a growing, enthusiastic fan base.

Just compare their websites

http://www.spanglefish.com/invernesscity/

http://www.freewebs.com/clachnacuddinfc/

Which is more professional? Clach are a joke - their finances tell you everything you need to know. They're going nowhere, in contrast to City who could grow into a force to be reckoned with if given the chance.

I have nothing against Inverness City and I would love to see a second team from Inverness playing in the Highland League, but you really can't compare them to Clach in any way, shape or form.  If forced to choose between the existence of one or other team then, for me, it would be Clach without having to even think about it.

In fact, I think that your a little out of order to even suggest that Clach should be allowed to die in order to open up a place for Inverness City to move through.  IMO, no honest football fan would wish to see the demise of any team, for any reason.

[SMEE]

I get the feeling you are a bit of a sentimentalist CaleyD. Am off the opinion, should ANYTHING go down the pan, beit a footabll team, a building whatever, draw a line under it and move on! I think the bottom line is there is simply not the level of intrest in Clach thats needed to keep them alive.

[CaleyD]

As someone who admitted earlier in the thread that they do/have done charity work, then I'm guessing you don't really mean "ANYTHING" - otherwise you'd be drawing a line under those less fortunates and moving on.

[SMEE]

I was merely highlighting the fact that even within Inverness.....there are bigger injustices going on than the loss of a football team and so adding perspective to the issue. Did you see me trying to rally support for the cause?.......no....you didnt!

[Guest kingkojak]

would it feasible for ICT to bail them out buy paying the rent arrears and hiring the park themselves for use as a proper training facility?  (lets face it, the prospect of training out at fort george cant be very enticing for potential signings)

the pitch would obviously get trashed for match days but its a lower league and beggars cant be choosers!

apologies if this has already been suggested - didnt have time to read all the posts.

[tm4tj]

bumpity bump for mainstander

[Alex MacLeod]

I wonder..............how many of those who think others should help out Clach would think to go along to a game when ICT are away. That would be supporting would it not.

DBS, if City wanted into the HL they wouldn't need the demise of Clach to get there. Clach need more than money, they need consistency with results every week. They need to be always fighting for the top of HL every season. When they're doing well they get the fans but they've been pretty poor this season. Also I dont think you can make any comparisson between Clach and City. One plays in junior league where players get a payment, one in amatuer where they dont.