Brockers61

To me it looks like the Club wanted the Panels up before the final home game (as it turned out) of the season, understandable in a way to please the sponsors. But to put up the panels knowing that they had yet to secure a sponsor for one of the players Is embarrassing. As someone mentioned would have been far better to leave it until the start of next season when all sponsors were in place and to announce the players with a bit of fanfare, a bare minimum would have been a bit of background to each player, their time at the club, their achievements etc.

I think he will still be here next season, mainly due to finances. The 400k earned from our cup run will be spent on the new pitch (150k), paying back those who loaned the club money last season to enable the accounts to be signed off (150k) and the upgrading of the flood lights (25/40k?). Not a lot left to buy out the 12 months left on McGlynn and Smiths contracts (80k?). As we are starting each season with a 400k deficit according to the Board there would be no massive pot of money to entice a new manager to the club. Think he will be given the first quarter of the season to see how his team is shaping up and if we are still faffing around in 3rd or 4th place then the BOD will need to face up to the fact that the appointment unfortunately didn’t work.

After reaching the 26% shareholding level (or whatever the target is) I’d be happy to keep my monthly payments going to contribute to another project/target. Say a new fourth stand, raise a 100k a year and within 5 years you would have half a million in the bank. Enough to cover legal, planning, architects costs etc and hopefully the club can The finance the balance through loans. Obviously dependent on us being back in, and established in, the SPL. Any legal issues with this from a FSS perspective or would a new organisation need to be set up to take future fundraising forward?

Was in club shop today and they are hoping to receive them by the end of the week and on sale next week.

I recall he was part time as he had a good job as an accountant (?), I'm sure one season he had to go over to USA with work and that was why he missed a good part of that season.

The Directors have previously stated they are working to a 4 year plan, in the hope of getting us back into the SPL by our 150th anniversary season i.e. season 2026/27. I reckon they would need 5 years in the SPL to allow the profitable 'model' they illustrated at the recent AGM to generate a big enough funding stream to allow them to dust off plans for a fourth stand. Say, a further three years to submit plans, have these signed off by the Planning Dept, issue tender for the construction of the Stand and then have the Stand built? That takes us up to season 2034/35 at the earliest. Depressing I know but can't see any other route to a new stand.

The original post from the Club re the North Stand wasn't worded particularly well i.e. when they mentioned 'interior' of the stand they actually meant exterior, or the interior of the exterior to be more precise. As far as I can piece together each of the six seating blocks in the North Stand will be named after a 'legend'. The club have signed up six local firms so that each section of the seating comes with a sponsor. Player details and advertising material for the sponsors will be place on the back wall of the stand behind the top row of seats. Not sure what material etc will be used for the display and advertising but presumably strong enough to withstand any vandalism when away fans come visiting.

Bugger, just read that he has signed an extension at St Johnstone through to the summer of 2025

Any chance we could buy him if we get promoted this season?

Looks like the Q&A tab may now have been deactivated.

Out of interest I've just checked how many followers the Clubs official Facebook page has - amazingly it's over 21,000 which perhaps indicates how many people follow the team without ever having set foot inside the Stadium.

I really don't know and if there was an obvious solution I'm sure it would have been raised by now. One of the issues seems to be that we are continually targeting fundraising at the same group of fans. As was suggested last night perhaps an appeal to the Falkirk diaspora would be worth trying. 5 million living in Scotland but another 25 million of Scottish descent living elsewhere so if we apply that factor of 5 to the 4000 who turned up last Saturday then we are looking at potentially 20,000 people around the world with a Falkirk connection of some sort. Create a 'Bairns Abroad' club or some such grouping where they can join and receive updates on the club etc and membership guarantees them a free match ticket when they come home from Australia or wherever to visit Falkirk. Whatever the solution is we need to start thinking creatively about it as continually asking the same set of fans to regularly dig deeper into their pockets isn't going to work in the long term.

I got the impression at the meeting that it was more than a suggestion and plans were already in place to launch the scheme. A few issues were raised and a few dissenting voices from the floor so perhaps they will take heed of the feedback and quietly bin the idea.

They mentioned last night that fans would need to sign up for an, as yet unspecified, monthly amount to be paid by direct debit for 12 months starting from 1st June 2023 through to 1st May 2024. I'm assuming the minimum amount will be set at £10 a month or similar. Like a few others have mentioned I'd be inclined to give this initiative a body swerve and simply increase my FSS donation by £10 a month. Can't really see any great benefit from having the two fundraising options running in parallel.