Kevin James Left Knee

Well there have been no opportunities since to announce. The cup run will bring in c. 600 - 800 by the end and potentially over a million if we make the final. I think the 400K playing staff cut is off the table now for next season. And there are big efforts behind the scenes to raise money - the hospitality/commercial guys have been playing a blinder for instance.

ARE YOU ME? I was born more or less 9 months after the cup final. I think we all know how my father celebrated that night now. I'd like to see us win something significant before I die. Running it bit close now god (if there by some miracle there is one who wears blue).

Oh dear, thankfully dolly bird days have gone.

I think we have to accept that the "keeping the OF apart" is a myth. They have met in the semis far more often recently and after all out own Kenny Jamieson did the cup draw a decade ago and there were no hot or cold balls. Perhaps in the 80s and before but not in the last decade or so.

51,000 capacity minus any they give away plus left empty for segregation. So say £1.9 million income from OF alone. Obviously there will be significant costs but a quarter of that would be decent. And I get the desire to all of us to be in the West Stand but the view from behind the goals at Hampden is bloody awful. Sorry but North Stand for me.

All the gates are pooled and we get one quarter of the income minus costs. We get the one quarter of the Old Firm money minus one quarter of our gate. The OF will be 50,000 and we (guess) will have 10,000 so the total income from gate alone is equivalent to 15,000 tickets minus the costs.

Cemetery - it's the dead centre of town.

If we get through we want to avoid the bigots as we get the same money no matter who we play. The two Semi gates are combined and then a quarter goes to each side minus expenses. We get c. £20K tv money as well (based on last year's figures).

So let's say 1.5million out of £5million - pretty much one third of your assets. Now I have no idea who you are but let's say you own a house worth £100,00. Will you give the club £30,000 as a donation from your relative worth?

PERSONAL VIEW - I wonder how many people would hand over an asset work say 1/5th of all their assets for free? Say their new car? I do think people are ungrateful at times for the soft loan that is the MK stand. It is easy to spend someone else's money.

It might actually hurt FSS if people left FSS to give money direct - although why they would is beyond me when there is no additional benefit and no say in the club.

Last post - a small spurt of new FSS members since the AGM. Now 651 members. Over £7,900 a month.

We last leafleted 4 games in a row just over a month ago - a thousand leaflets at each game - we will no doubt do that again but after the 4th leafleting people were a bit fed up getting more paper. We decided to wait for a while before doing it again. There is a monthly electronic newsletter and we have people next to stand up banners at every home game trying to get sign ups. We are active on social media and we have a good tie in relationship with Falkirk Daft that has a monthly draw for the prizes we offer to members. We are looking at other benefits but we have to be very careful about attracting VAT on any benefits - we recently did some research on this and it can be a minefield if we get it wrong. We have put leaflets out at all hospitality events when we can. There is a page in every programme written by FSS. The club website has a direct link to the FSS sign up page on the ticket pages. You can sign up directly on teh FSS site (which is reasonably maintained) or download a standing order if paypal is not your thing. Here it is: https://falkirksupporters.org/subscribe/ There were 3 "sign up" videos by McGlynn, Jamie, and Paul Watson produced and shared on social media at the beginning of the season. There you go - we've done eveything you suggest in your post and continue to do them.

We cannot keep the prices at this level forever - the Club AGM more of less said as much. The level of increase is, of course, the issue but asking for extra money for nothing isn't going to work. I think the vast majority of season ticket holders will re-sign up next year if the price increases are reasonable.

Another personal view: There are 640 members in FSS some of whom are donating more than £10 a month. That is NOT A FAILURE. In fact the mention of Motherwell at the AGM was a mistake - their membership has a lot of young people paying next to nothing and a large number of £5 a month subscriptions. If you look at the other supporters schemes they pretty much max out at 50% of their season ticket holders. FSS has been a huge success from a standing start and I get annoyed when it is hinted at that it has failed. There has been a steady stream of new members to join FSS over the last month. Around a further 50 will have signed up in the last 6 weeks and it keeps on slowly growing. I expect we will have around 700 by the end of the season and a boost if we get to the Semi Finaly/promotion. That brings in nearly £8,000 a month - a decent amount to help John and Paul. It is important that FSS is well supported as it is the only voice of the fans - you can come to the AGM on the day after the Ayr game and ask questions, keep everyone accountable and meet the fan directors. That is much more important than simply just raising money for the club - you can have representation as well as helping keeping the team out of the red. Furthermore there is a lot of work being done behind the scenes of FSS which will, we hope, will bring long term benefits to the club. That is another reason to donate to FSS instead of another scheme that gives you nothing really. Time will tell.