Put this here as nobody bothers with the Scotland forum. Hopefully the Stasi will not remove it.

Anyway, for all Charlie Nicholas is an embarassment to the English speaking world, he has been and is spot on in his vociferous criticism of Safeway.
I went to my local Safeway today to buy a ticket for the Slovenia game. Safeway, the company who sponsor and care about Scottish football. Except my local Safeway used to be Broomfield.

Putting rivalries aside, we would all admit that it was a good stadium to watch a game in and had plenty of character and atmosphere. We all know what happened to Airdrieonians (George Peat, Monklands District Council, North Lanarkshire Council, the people of Glenmavis - but not necessarily in that order) and that Broomfield has been replaced by New Broomfield/Shyberry Excelsior - a souless breeze block 'entertainment complex'.

This story has been repeated ad infinitum throughout Scotland with community football pitches as well as football stadiums, and if its not Safeway, its the Kingfisher Group, Sainsbury's, Tesco's, Asda or private sector residential development concerns. When did football clubs become slaves to the value of the property they own?

As more and more clubs move out of the town centre, their relevance to the local communities they represent will dwindle as the years pass. Out of town stadiums such as New Broomfield and Westfield lack the local pubs, the narrow streets to hide from the polis prematch and get pished and all the things that help provide a context for the fight our club carries on the pitch.
Albion Rovers face this dilemna right now. The land the company owns is worth anywhere between 2.5 and 3.5 million pounds, therfore, we must sell. We must. We must?

In thirty years times our kids will have no local football club but will be able to buy Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, Celtic and Rangers shirts from any of the 5 or so 'local' American owned supermarkets who will by then own whole towncentres the length and breadth of Britain. But that's progress.

Berti Vogts is the least of our problems

NB The people of Glenmavis fought tooth and nail against the proposed new Airdrie stadium and their 'save Glenmavis' movement was one of the greatest reasons Airdrionians were refused planning permission by the the council and eventually went to the wall. 7/8 years later, a huge, and i mean huge, potato distribution warehouse was built on the proposed stadium site with the help of European grant aid.
SERVES THE FCUKERS RIGHT

Good post! I don't know what became of old bayview. I think it is a whole load of houses!! I haven't been up to look! really should!

Did you get your tickets?

Where's all the fannies that were moaning about not being able to get tickets for the Holland game now?

A bit off-topic i know.

Yep I said that to someone the other day joozy! I struggled to get tickets so joined the travel club to make sure it didnt happen again!
Funny how we could have filled hampden 3 times for the holland game but we get beat by hungary and now we can't even half fill it! I blame one person, and yes, he is german!

Just like being a falkirk fan then

Yeah, i got my tickets. I reckon that they were holding a book of about 50 tickets and I could only get the east stand - £15. They'd sold about 10 max i reckon and they wee old wifie had no idea when i asked for, "a brief for the World Cup Qualifier".

A brief what?

edited to add:

Has anyone got any idea how many tickets have bene sold?

Old Bayview is flats or houses i think. A real shame that the ground connected with your teams of the 40's and 50's no longer exists.

Yep, and I doubt the land was worth that much being in downtown methil! It's a sad state of affairs thatwe now play in the soulless new bayview! You don't appreciate things untill they are gone! I only had 2 and a bit seasons at old bayview!

At least when Morrisons built their supermarket on Brockville they included some pieces of Falkirk history in the design. Smoked glass windows with old Falkirk teams and Brockville, pictures of our most famous players. I know this in no way compensates for the loss of Brockville. Given the choice I would still prefer to watch a game at Brockville than our new stand. But at least Morrisons tried to keep a link of some sort there. I guess you can't do that if your old ground is now a block of flats or a housing scheme.

I don't think applications are closed. They said that they were going to close applications until they cleared the backlog but there was such an outcry that they decided to leave them open and hire a temp to help get through all the outstanding applications.

One lady called Marjorie Nimmo i think, did it all herself for about 10 years and it was run superbly well. I think she left and it suffered a bit. Open to correction.

Have to say safeways were excellent for Peterhead. They built us the stadium we use now, and replaced our old stadium which needed work with their supermarket. This made the town look much better, and gave us a great ground which got us into the SFL, about 1 mile up the road from where we were.


Thanks safeways

Bugger, I didnt' realise that and only joined after at the start of the year!

I always thought you got 2 years whenever you joined, oh well i musta been lucky then

Re-newals for existing STC members due in January.Anyone wishing to join should wait till then.

Anyone know how many tickets have been sold for the Slovenia game?