The Falkirk FC Thread

[BigSpow]

It's predicta-text and on "our" thread it's Fuddies. You're welcome.

[roman_bairn]

Interesting message from our new Chief Exec:


A Message From Craig Campbell

When I first joined Falkirk 18 months ago, as Chief Executive of the Falkirk Foundation, I quickly became aware how much this football club meant to the people in this town and and how much involvement they had in various guises with their hometown club. Earlier that year, in May 2015, the club had narrowly missed out on Scottish Cup glory at Hampden with 19,000 fans giving their full backing to the club, but ultimately leaving heartbroken.

Season 2015/16 saw the club finish 2nd in the Championship behind Rangers but ahead of Hibs. The tough play off scheduling again saw the club going so close but finishing just short with Kilmarnock retaining their Premiership status. The season just finished again ended cruelly for the club with Dundee Utd winning the semi final play off after Falkirk finished league runners up for the second successive season.

We are determined to go one better this coming season.

On 1st June 2017, I took up the joint Chief Executive role of the Club and the Foundation. We have made significant and positive progress in the Foundation over the past 18 months and this is now in a strong and stable position to develop further in the years ahead. It is now time to drive the football club forward with the same energy and ambition as we have delivered in the Foundation.

For me, a football club is all about its supporters. Staff members, like me, are only custodians of roles as are members of the Board. The people who were here before I arrived, and will be here many years from now, are the supporters. They ARE the club. I read a good description yesterday of what a club is….”A club is a collective of people with good will trying to achieve something together”. In the coming weeks and months you will hear more about broadening the club “membership” to enable supporters to get more actively involved with the club. I met with the existing major shareholders group two weeks ago, and again last week, and there is a strong desire to enable more supporters to buy shares. Whilst they see their principal role as offering stewardship of the club to ensure that it never again gets into financial difficulties as it did in the recent past, there is a strong commitment to encouraging and stimulating increased fan/community ownership. I would love to see greater community ownership at Falkirk and my background will hopefully help in advancing this.

We are in a relatively strong position financially as it stands. The club has no debt. However, budgeting in Scottish Football, particularly in the Championship, is a mix of guesswork and faith. One of the key things you can help us on is buying your season tickets early. We have a target of 3,000 season ticket holders for the coming season and as of today we are 33% towards our target with just over 1,000 sold. To put this into context, Dundee Utd, one of our main challengers in the league, have sold 2,500. That extra 1,500 tickets at an average of £200 is £300,000 of cash in the bank which is an enormous help in setting budgets for the year ahead.

Thank you to all who have already renewed or bought a new season ticket for 2017/18. Your support is absolutely vital. I know there will be various reasons why many of you might not be able to buy right now. I know individual circumstances can and do change. But if you are able to, and are holding off for whatever reason, then I would urge you to renew this week if that is possible. It helps give Peter Houston and me some certainty around financial planning for the season ahead. Remember we do offer an interest free payment plan option (just a simple direct debit with no third parties involved) if that helps.

Peter and I have met several times about playing squad for the season ahead. We currently have a recognised first team squad of 18 and we hope to start adding to that tomorrow. Whilst last season ended in play off disappointment, we did see the potential of new signings James Craigen, Luca Gasparotto, Joe McKee and Nathan Austin as well as the welcome return from injury of Peter Grant. Our well regarded Academy also saw the emergence of young talent in the form of Scott Shepherd, Kevin O’Hara and Tony Gallacher. The squad is a year older and despite the average age being just 24 (22 if we exclude the “more experienced” Mark Kerr and Lee Miller) Peter feels the experience and maturity from last year will hold us in good stead for the season ahead.

We do however want to add to the squad. We have already signed David Mitchell from Dundee and this will continue tomorrow. The re-signing of Lee Miller will be an enormous help around the club particularly for our younger, talented squad members.

Many of you will already know Kieran Koszary, Connor Park and Alison Turnbull at the club. These familiar faces, together with myself, acting Chair Margaret Lang, the Board, Peter Houston and the rest of the staff at the Stadium are all working very hard behind the scenes to give us the best opportunity of winning the league this coming season. We need to do things better internally, develop new sources of income and reduce unnecessary costs. The key driver must and will be maximising income into the first team playing squad budget and this will be our absolute focus. Everything else is secondary as far as I am concerned.

This is not my club or the Board’s club. It is your club. You have my word that we will always act in the best interests of the club at all times.

Some of you will know me from the Foundation over the past 18 months. If you don’t then please be assured that I will work everyday to enable Peter and his coaching team to have the best chance of delivering success on the football pitch for this club. Communication will dramatically improve and even if you don’t like what some of it says I will always be open and honest with you. I have already met some of the “well kent” supporters but want to meet as many as possible to hear your ideas. We can only deliver success for this football club by working closely together.

A word on Budapest. I realise that many of you have booked flights and days off work to spend some time in Hungary. What should have been a memorable trip for you has turned into what can only be described as a farce. I am so apologetic to those that are still waiting on information about any games. To not have this information two or so weeks before departure is simply not good enough. The pre-season training camp was organised through an agency and we are still awaiting news on friendly opposition. We hope to have some information on this tomorrow or Tuesday and will communicate this at that time. Please accept my sincere apologies. Rest assured this type of dis-organisation will not happen again whilst I remain involved with the football club.

Thank you all for your unstinting support of the club. We have been so close over the past three years and hopefully this season will be “Our Time”. Be part of it now and renew your ticket seat for the season ahead. COYB.

Craig

[Senor Bairn]

Probably the best post on the website from someone at the club. No fucking about unlike that daft Henderson.

As one of the people going to Budapest I've been getting panicked about the games for a couple weeks now but I somehow feel the club will pull something out the bag. Hopefully this weeks a decent one in terms of the club actually doing stuff lol.

[Shadwell Dog]

Their obviously getting a bit worried over the lack of season ticket sales so far. I'm sure people will buy but we need to improve the feel about the place. Whatever u think of st mirren theres a buzz about their place at the moment. We need to show we mean business by making a couple of major signings and then season ticket sales will begin to flow.

Edited June 18, 2017 by Shadwell Dog

[roman_bairn]

Probably the best post on the website from someone at the club. No fucking about unlike that daft Henderson.

As one of the people going to Budapest I've been getting panicked about the games for a couple weeks now but I somehow feel the club will pull something out the bag. Hopefully this weeks a decent one in terms of the club actually doing stuff lol.

Agreed. Much more impressive and open that I have seen from our board in a while.

The one thing that does irritate me is the number of very negative supporters we have continually moaning about a lack new signings but unwilling to renew just now when they can, thereby putting the club in a tricky and uncertain financial situation.

If you have bought a ST I think you are entitled to have a bit of a moan just now, but if you haven't how about playing your part in helping us to make the sort of signings you want to see?

[roman_bairn]

Their obviously getting a bit worried over the lack of season ticket sales so far. I'm sure people will buy but we need to improve the feel about the place. Whatever u think of st mirren theres a buzz about their place at the moment. We need to show we mean business by making a couple of major signings and then season ticket sales will begin to flow.

 

Be interesting to know what ST sales are at St Mirren and what they sold last season?

[spratte]

40 minutes ago, roman_bairn said:

Interesting message from our new Chief Exec:


A Message From Craig Campbell

When I first joined Falkirk 18 months ago, as Chief Executive of the Falkirk Foundation, I quickly became aware how much this football club meant to the people in this town and and how much involvement they had in various guises with their hometown club. Earlier that year, in May 2015, the club had narrowly missed out on Scottish Cup glory at Hampden with 19,000 fans giving their full backing to the club, but ultimately leaving heartbroken.

Season 2015/16 saw the club finish 2nd in the Championship behind Rangers but ahead of Hibs. The tough play off scheduling again saw the club going so close but finishing just short with Kilmarnock retaining their Premiership status. The season just finished again ended cruelly for the club with Dundee Utd winning the semi final play off after Falkirk finished league runners up for the second successive season.

We are determined to go one better this coming season.

On 1st June 2017, I took up the joint Chief Executive role of the Club and the Foundation. We have made significant and positive progress in the Foundation over the past 18 months and this is now in a strong and stable position to develop further in the years ahead. It is now time to drive the football club forward with the same energy and ambition as we have delivered in the Foundation.

For me, a football club is all about its supporters. Staff members, like me, are only custodians of roles as are members of the Board. The people who were here before I arrived, and will be here many years from now, are the supporters. They ARE the club. I read a good description yesterday of what a club is….”A club is a collective of people with good will trying to achieve something together”. In the coming weeks and months you will hear more about broadening the club “membership” to enable supporters to get more actively involved with the club. I met with the existing major shareholders group two weeks ago, and again last week, and there is a strong desire to enable more supporters to buy shares. Whilst they see their principal role as offering stewardship of the club to ensure that it never again gets into financial difficulties as it did in the recent past, there is a strong commitment to encouraging and stimulating increased fan/community ownership. I would love to see greater community ownership at Falkirk and my background will hopefully help in advancing this.

We are in a relatively strong position financially as it stands. The club has no debt. However, budgeting in Scottish Football, particularly in the Championship, is a mix of guesswork and faith. One of the key things you can help us on is buying your season tickets early. We have a target of 3,000 season ticket holders for the coming season and as of today we are 33% towards our target with just over 1,000 sold. To put this into context, Dundee Utd, one of our main challengers in the league, have sold 2,500. That extra 1,500 tickets at an average of £200 is £300,000 of cash in the bank which is an enormous help in setting budgets for the year ahead.

Thank you to all who have already renewed or bought a new season ticket for 2017/18. Your support is absolutely vital. I know there will be various reasons why many of you might not be able to buy right now. I know individual circumstances can and do change. But if you are able to, and are holding off for whatever reason, then I would urge you to renew this week if that is possible. It helps give Peter Houston and me some certainty around financial planning for the season ahead. Remember we do offer an interest free payment plan option (just a simple direct debit with no third parties involved) if that helps.

Peter and I have met several times about playing squad for the season ahead. We currently have a recognised first team squad of 18 and we hope to start adding to that tomorrow. Whilst last season ended in play off disappointment, we did see the potential of new signings James Craigen, Luca Gasparotto, Joe McKee and Nathan Austin as well as the welcome return from injury of Peter Grant. Our well regarded Academy also saw the emergence of young talent in the form of Scott Shepherd, Kevin O’Hara and Tony Gallacher. The squad is a year older and despite the average age being just 24 (22 if we exclude the “more experienced” Mark Kerr and Lee Miller) Peter feels the experience and maturity from last year will hold us in good stead for the season ahead.

We do however want to add to the squad. We have already signed David Mitchell from Dundee and this will continue tomorrow. The re-signing of Lee Miller will be an enormous help around the club particularly for our younger, talented squad members.

Many of you will already know Kieran Koszary, Connor Park and Alison Turnbull at the club. These familiar faces, together with myself, acting Chair Margaret Lang, the Board, Peter Houston and the rest of the staff at the Stadium are all working very hard behind the scenes to give us the best opportunity of winning the league this coming season. We need to do things better internally, develop new sources of income and reduce unnecessary costs. The key driver must and will be maximising income into the first team playing squad budget and this will be our absolute focus. Everything else is secondary as far as I am concerned.

This is not my club or the Board’s club. It is your club. You have my word that we will always act in the best interests of the club at all times.

Some of you will know me from the Foundation over the past 18 months. If you don’t then please be assured that I will work everyday to enable Peter and his coaching team to have the best chance of delivering success on the football pitch for this club. Communication will dramatically improve and even if you don’t like what some of it says I will always be open and honest with you. I have already met some of the “well kent” supporters but want to meet as many as possible to hear your ideas. We can only deliver success for this football club by working closely together.

A word on Budapest. I realise that many of you have booked flights and days off work to spend some time in Hungary. What should have been a memorable trip for you has turned into what can only be described as a farce. I am so apologetic to those that are still waiting on information about any games. To not have this information two or so weeks before departure is simply not good enough. The pre-season training camp was organised through an agency and we are still awaiting news on friendly opposition. We hope to have some information on this tomorrow or Tuesday and will communicate this at that time. Please accept my sincere apologies. Rest assured this type of dis-organisation will not happen again whilst I remain involved with the football club.

Thank you all for your unstinting support of the club. We have been so close over the past three years and hopefully this season will be “Our Time”. Be part of it now and renew your ticket seat for the season ahead. COYB.

Craig

the haters aint gonna like this.

[Shadwell Dog]

I wonder if last year's experience has also put a few folk off. Selling vaulks immediately after the early bird sales period must've pissed a few folk off.

[Gaz FFC]

If you didn't know Vaulks and Alston were away as you left Killie then you're not a Falkirk fan

[djchapsticks]

24 minutes ago, roman_bairn said:

 

Be interesting to know what ST sales are at St Mirren and what they sold last season?

West Stand currently sitting at 663, so I'd imagine roughly the same, maybe a wee bit less in the main stand and about 300-400 in the family stand.

So maybe about 1,400 at this point. Hopefully if the rumours from the Dundee FC chat Twitter account are true and Rory Loy is coming back permanently, it'll give sales another wee shot in the arm.

I don't know how it compares now but the club reported that season ticket uptake after a fortnight was a 110% increase on the first two weeks they were on sale last season, so very healthy indeed.

Edited June 18, 2017 by djchapsticks

[roman_bairn]

West Stand currently sitting at 663, so I'd imagine roughly the same, maybe a wee bit less in the main stand and about 300-400 in the family stand.
So maybe about 1,400 at this point.
I don't know how it compares now but the club reported that season ticket uptake after a fortnight was a 110% increase on the first two weeks they were on sale last season, so very healthy indeed.

Thanks for this, just posted on the St Mirren thread as you posted this.

Not surprised sales are up given the buzz there just now and it sounds like they are currently running ahead of Falkirk who I think sold around 3k last season.

Be interesting to see how many you sell by the start of the season.

Is there an early bird offer at your club?

[djchapsticks]

Just now, roman_bairn said:

 

Thanks for this, just posted on the St Mirren thread as you posted this.

Not surprised sales are up given the buzz there just now and it sounds like they are currently running ahead of Falkirk who I think sold around 3k last season.

Be interesting to see how many you sell by the start of the season.

Is there an early bird offer at your club?

 

Yeah, it runs until July 2nd and is a saving of about £35. There's also a push for West stand ST sales, so if the club can sell 1,000 tickets for the West Stand, it'll be exclusively for the home fans all season rather than 1/3rd being cordoned off for away fans. Not that big a deal you'd think but it would double our useable facilities. The crowds for the toilets and stalls are a frigging nightmare then the away supporters are housed in beside us.

I'd be delighted if we reached the 3k mark to be fair.

[roman_bairn]

Yeah, it runs until July 2nd and is a saving of about £35. There's also a push for West stand ST sales, so if the club can sell 1,000 tickets for the West Stand, it'll be exclusively for the home fans all season rather than 1/3rd being cordoned off for away fans. Not that big a deal you'd think but it would double our useable facilities. The crowds for the toilets and stalls are a frigging nightmare then the away supporters are housed in beside us.

I'd be delighted if we reached the 3k mark to be fair.

 

Hmm, ours runs till 30th June but generally the saving is £25. The concern really is that if there's not a serious pick up in the next couple of weeks interest in renewing could wane once the early bird option is not available.

 

If the rumours are true that you lot are signing Loy this week it's not going to help TBH.

[bridge of allan bairn]

If you didn't know Vaulks and Alston were away as you left Killie then you're not a Falkirk fan

Vaulks was at the stirling Albion game and played against elgin

[Anthony Fitzgerald]

Vaulks was at the stirling Albion game and played against elgin

That doesn't mean a player is going to stay. Last year of his contract and many suitors, it was a no brainer. If that's the reason people are not renewing their season ticket then it's petty.

[Poet of the Macabre]

Slight sense of panic in that statement. Best get buying those STs quick.

[Marshmallo]

Slight sense of panic in that statement. Best get buying those STs quick.

Suppose you would know the signs eh.

[bridge of allan bairn]

That doesn't mean a player is going to stay. Last year of his contract and many suitors, it was a no brainer. If that's the reason people are not renewing their season ticket then it's petty.

I bought my season tickets last season and will this. My main point earlier was that it's all well and good selling our best and my favourite players in vaulks Alston Leahy and probably sibbald in just over 12 months but we've had not one signing as good as them in that time imo. Would be good to get at least one very good signing

[Anthony Fitzgerald]

I bought my season tickets last season and will this. My main point earlier was that it's all well and good selling our best and my favourite players in vaulks Alston Leahy and probably sibbald in just over 12 months but we've had not one signing as good as them in that time imo. Would be good to get at least one very good signing

Yeah not disputing that. The club have a lot to answer for when it comes to recruitment. We, like the majority of football clubs across the globe, are a selling club. One of our main focus, or perhaps the main focus, should be scouting and recruitment, to limit the damage of a key player leaving by doing everything we can (within our financial constraints) to find an equal or better player, something which under Housty's tenure hasn't been good enough for me.

[Poet of the Macabre]

10 minutes ago, Marshmallo said:

 

Suppose you would know the signs eh.

 

Um, yes? That's literally the exact point I was making.