Elgin will never be good.

The clach ground must be worth a fortune given that it's virtually in the city centre.

Merkinch is hardly the classiest of areas.

Plus if its common good land, there might be an issue with using it for something other than recreational activities.

as the years go by the council house tenants will gradually be squeezed out of the area-the place is a gold mine although only in the long term

If the council is desperate to get the money out of Clach now, chances are they aren't too interested in the long term.

With doom seemingly inevitable at Gretna, I'm throwing my weight behind Clach to take their place in senior football.

Youre going to have to be one hell of a fat b*stard to force that one through.

I'm getting there Waspie. Come on, you know it's the right move.

The Ferry is a hole. Full of schemies. Hate going there almost as much as I hate going to Lossie.

Well spotted. BTW how often do Aberdeen play Clach and Lossie?

I also support a Highland League club.

Deveronvale by any chance?

No. A club that is actually in the Highlands

Brora?

not clach i assume

It's Brora. Says so on the Cove Rangers topic.

A Rangers and Aberdeen fan, that's cute.

The first meeting of the Clach Supporters Trust is on Tuesday night (26th February) at 7.30pm at the Merkinch Community Centre.

I take it that's an anyone can go thing?

Yeah i think so - They need all the help they can get. I'm thinking i'll probably go along out of curiosity. The courier says membership will cost £1 per year (??)

I think I'll be able to help out then.

Clicky

Clach chairman David Dowling is to step down. Should be quite interesting this meeting tonight.

Not long back from the meeting and it seemed to go pretty well all things considered. There was about 40 folk there altogether and it was generally agreed that a Supporters' Trust of some sort would need to be formed pretty quickly in order to go to the Council and show that they are a viable cause.

I was wondering if other folks had suggestions or ideas for getting more people through the turnstiles at Grant Street. Personally i think Clach could advertise their games more effectively than they are at present without splashing cash that isn't there. Flyers posted around Inverness would be an idea, as would creating an informative and up-to-date website as the site they currently have is neither. Also, an advert in Friday's Courier before every home game surely wouldn't be too much trouble?

IMO Clach should be marketing themselves as a cheaper alternative to ICT for all Invernessians (not just Merkinchers) and the many people who've recently moved to the area, including those who've come from Eastern Europe, as well as trying to encourage those who used to go to games to return. £6 to watch a game of football is a pretty good deal - granted the quality isn't high but i've seen dreadful games at ICT for £20. I've only recently started going to games along with about 4 or 5 mates and we all enjoy it and plan to keep on going so i think others could certainly follow suit.

I would've thought all of the above is pretty obvious stuff but more ideas would be welcome.

Its usually the obvious stuff that doesn't get done. And its no coincidence the best supported teams in the league (Buckie, Vale, Locos) are the three whose posters you'll find in pubs and shop windows on the weekend of games, whereas you wont see any in Lossie.

I suspect AIDS is probably bigger in the Ferry than Clach, and I suppose a lot of that is down to awareness, or lack of.

As Jimmy Shaker mentions about posters in pubs. You'll see one in the Phoenix constantly for the next Caley Thistle home game, and I expect it's the same in a lot of other proper pubs around Inverness. Wee things like that don't hurt the pocket but require the bodies to go around and do it, and make sure it's done immediately and not the day before a game or whatever. Getting kids in over the gate doesn't hurt if you can attract an adult to pay their own way in. I think there's real untapped potential in the town for getting bodies in but it's getting the message out there that Clach are a very affordable option to go and watch football in the town... There'll be an awful lot of the population who are barely even aware of Clach's existance.

That sort of stuff isn't an immediate cash injection of course but Christ they need to find some supporters. Has a hardcore Clach supporter ever even posted on this website? It's more a bunch of guys with a soft spot for them than anything else.

Clearing out the jaggy bushes from the back of the shed doesn't cost either, or doing something about that rickety wee hut beside it. Just aesthetics but it looks like a club in total neglect to be honest.

I shouldn't really laugh but still.....

Aids and Ear Cataracts are rife down Merkinch way.

As for hardcore Clach fans on here, judging by the average age of those in attendance at the meeting, PC's and laptops are from an entirely different era.

Any more word on the supporters trust idea?.

There's supposed to be another meeting this week. Everybody at the meeting last week left contact details but i haven't heard anything as yet. Everyone was in agreement that the supporters trust should be created but nothing concrete so far.

Dont Clach do this anyway? Certainly if they dont then its a recent thing, there always used to be a wee advert for the Clach game next to the one for ICT. Completely agree about Clach needing to do more to market themselves, there must be peope in Inverness who would be willing to pay a few quid to watch a local side playing in such a competitive league. Its just getting these people down to the club in the first place.

By the time Clach play at home to Buckie on the 29th March it'll have been 1 and a half months since the last home game. Not great news for the bank balance.

i wonder if the idea i almost put forward a couple of pages back could seriously be looked at.

with joint funding from those who invested in the facilities at victoria park (ict, county, highland council etc) could the playing facilities be upgraded to the standard required for reserve spl games?

how much would the cost of an astroturf pitch, new changing rooms, some admin facilities, and maybe one member of staff from the highland academy in dingwall/council or ict employee cost alltogether? once the initial investment was out of the way the pitch and spl reserve tickets would be enough to fund the rental of the park and put a bit into clach/ict youth annually.

if the weathers alright you can typically find 150 people at an ict reserve game, against the old firm a few more. im sure with a £3 entry fee youd find a few people locally heading down on a tuesday afternoon who wouldnt normally go all the way down the longman. the pitch would generate about £50 a day profit being conservative, it could easily be hired out in the same way the bucht pitches are via a council administrator in the town house.

if i were involved with the trust then the first people they should be looking for would be those who put cash into the dingwall facility and then locals who have invested in inverness football in the past, bringing them a clear plan of where their money would be going and the good it'll be doing (using the stenhousmuir, alloa and montrose models).

to me it seems the only sensible plan, if they dont invest what little money they will raise in a long term project then they dont deserve to survive

They could make a lot more than that out of it. Stenny and Alloa have these parks and the annual income is said to be around £80k, possibly more. The initial cost is obviously pretty hefty, I belive its about £150,000 to lay the surface and you can add the preparation to that (think the whole cost us about £350,000) but run properly it can pay itself off.

I didnt realise until reading this weeks Courier that the Common Good Fund only own the pitch at Grant Street. The terraces and stand etc all belong to Clach. Would make it a bit harder for them to sell of the area for development.

That changes Clach's position significantly and makes the £14k per year rent for just grass even more ridiculous!

Indeed. The situation seems pretty bizarre to me, look at this extract from the Courier article on Clach giving up their lease. "Maintenance costs of up to £225 per week for the pitch will be incurred by the Common Good Fund as a result. It will also have to pay for public liability insurance.". So if thats true Clach were paying £14,000 a year rent and also paying for the upkeep of the park on top of that. Some deal. Why they needed to pay up to £225 a week on maintenance is also unclear

I cant find wherever I read that about Clach owning the rest of the ground, will try and track it down.

Groundsmans wages?

Best paid groundsman in the Highland League if thats the case!

the figure i pulled up was the amount of cash the sports center astroturf pitch used to make.



the whole situation sounds too complicated for me pre-3pm brain

To answer my own question I asked a local expert who said Clach definately own the car park and social club and a few other bits. The Common Good Fund own the park and the 'immediate environs', possibly meaning the wine shed apparently .

Anyway the point is that the Common Good Fund couldnt really develop the land without buying the bits that Clach own.

Corbett is to blame. It's all going to come out in the wash.

Guys

I am a southern follower of Clach. Yeah, I was a tourist in Inverness several years ago , had the whole merger thing explained to me (by an old Thistle Fan) and went along to see the Clach the next day, I go when ever I am up there.
Anyway I see there is a Clach trust being formed, is there anyway I can join from a distance ? and is there a "fighting fund" ?

My local team has been through fairly tough times and was on the brink of administration a few years ago but we have pulled through rather well, and I would hate to see my other team go through the same.

A mate toldme today that there is a story going round of a merger with ICT, I can't find any info on it anywhere, tell me its not true, please

It could be a merger with Inverness City mate not ICT

Forgive me for sounding thick, but is there an Inverness City ?, I thought ICT wanted to change there name to Inverness City back in 2001 (when the town got City status)

There is an Inverness City mate they play in the North Caledonian League went into it couple of seasons back?

Rumour is they will join up with Clach and pull resources

cheers

However my "mate" who told me about it has just told me to look at my calendar.
The Bastid got me hook line and sinker.

Is the NC league of a lower standard than the Highland ?

I am back up there in September, I was hoping to catch at least one Clach game ....

Yup. Golspie are their regular posterboys and even they got skelped off Lossie this season.

Blimey that is low

Looks like this story is taking another twist

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