Braes_Bairn

Anyone else noticed the poor quality of the clubs website/social media posts recently - 4 mistakes in the last week alone. May seem petty to pick up on this but this has been going on for months now and suggests a lack of pride/effort in the media teams work.

Highlights are not produced by a volunteer, they are produced by one of our paid media officers. I believe the highlights are so poor as they take the lazy option and edit from a copy of the stream so the repays are already made for them. Other clubs such as Edinburgh and Alloa produce a far higher quality product as they take their footage straight from the camera for highlights and take a bit of pride in it. Goes without saying rubbish in = rubbish out.

Thought the excuse last time was that we are not allowed to use shovels on the pitch?

Something that should surely have been announced on all club media not the CEOs personal twitter account?

The club has the ability to run within its means yet at the same time talking of the possibility of part time football. Surely two sentences contradict each other? Because I don’t believe fan ownership is a viable option I am suddenly part of Gary Deans regime.

“2000 fans would only have to contribute an average of £3.85 extra per week” Asking fans to contribute an extra £3.85 a week would be the equivalent of putting pay at the gate prices up to £31 or season tickets up by £200 - is this good value for money for league 1 football? I’m getting sick fed up of the begging bowl coming out and the ordinary fan getting the blame for the issues. By buying a season ticket (and possibly merchandise or hospitality too) ordinary fans are doing more than enough. If the club can’t balance the books with our level of support it is the board's job to find investment elsewhere. “Our club is currently in a good place, both on and off the pitch” If this was the case we would have had 2 begging letters in the last week. It feels very much like deflecting the blame to the fans so that directors can walk away and claim it is not their fault when financial difficulties arise in the near future.

The AGM update confirms no progress has been made since the last one, still a £400k gap unfilled. When will we accept that fan ownership can’t deliver this and start seeking external investment?

My all time favourite Falkirk kits (and season).

I don’t think it is unreasonable to expect to be provided with the same level of service as we have for the last 10+ years, after all it was the club who chose to change supplier. Jamie Swinney promised on the club podcast the same level of service if not better. We are not seeing that at the moment. Also don’t forget we’ve had a price increase for this lesser service. Yesterday’s issues can only be described as amateur - laptop installing updates at kick off? Anyone with some IT knowledge would know to check for updates in advance or turn off automatic updates. Additionally, watch the highlights from yesterday, the scoreboard reads Edi - Fal, All - Fal and All City Fal. That is basics to be getting wrong. The new team have been in place for almost 2 months now but still getting problems at almost every away game. Have the club underestimated the skill involved in broadcasting from such grounds? The supplier is experienced at running another clubs TV service so should not be having issues - however many of the issues we are seeing tie into the stories that Alloa TV gave on this thread when the announcement was made on why they ditched this provider. No-one is criticising volunteers, however we are expecting the service we pay for to be delivered - and delivered to the standard we are used to.

For how long though are the board going to use not having any experience as an excuse? You’d think they could have picked up the phone to the SFA, other clubs with recent semi-final experience or even the previous regime for a rough idea of what to expect? The finances are concerning. What happens if the team don’t perform and crowds drop? What if the commercial department doesn’t meet its targets? Or, what if we get to September and we need to pay off the management team? Then we are in real bother.

This will be updated on our own website in about 6 weeks time.

https://dafc.net/forum/read.php?f=1&i=1897928&t=1897928 Here’s a thread posted by Brian who is now hosting Falkirk TV, just to give you an idea of level of service to expect. A quick scroll of their forum show almost weekly posts complaining about the Pards TV streams. Why we binned a very good setup I’ve no idea.

Moving to be provided by Pars TV.

The Board must absolutely take the blame if we are not promoted. Whether the fans were happy with him or not, the Board picked the manager, chose to stick with him and set the budget. They are responsible for all aspects of the club - football included. I also wouldn’t read much into season ticket figures for support of McGlynn. We have a core support of 2,500 season ticket holders who have stuck with the club through thick and thin. Choice of manager isn’t going to change that. It’s not that long ago that BPM and others were chanting “Sack the Board” after relegation. How is this season any different to then? Only difference now if that we don’t have a Chairman because no-one wants to be in the firing line.

Time for my annual club website moan. Went on to check when the home league cup games are and they are no where to be seen. No news article with the fixtures, and the fixtures and results page hasn’t been updated since the 18th April. When we employ to media officers why can’t we get the basics right?

2 key questions: - Given the loan is to FSS not the club what is it secured against? What do they do if subscriptions drop? - This will take many many years for FSS to repay - when people wouldn’t sign up to FSS to give the manager more budget, who is going to sign up when the income is all going on repaying a loan? Finally is this best use of our taxes when other public services are struggling and struggling for cash? As great as income is for the club, I’m not convinced this is a good move for the Scottish Government. The precedent has now been set and all clubs will be looking for the same loan.

What would your reaction have been a couple of years ago when your mates weren’t running the show?

Got what we deserved today. Very similar to the Dunfermline games, we had a lot of the play but Inverness took there chances. Shows how far we have fallen that we can’t compete with Inverness in a semi final. Big few weeks ahead.

Gordon Wright?

Inverness use Ticketmaster who we binned for a “much improved” unheard of Total Tickets platform. Crazy that in 2023 we can’t provide an online sale. Just another way to chase away potential fans. Should be making it as easy as possible for people to get tickets.

First the positives - John McGlynn spoke very well. Open with his answers, explained team selections etc and what is needed to take us to a double promotion. However ‘the way forward’ was very concerning. Essentially to plug the £400k gap need to get up to about 3,000 FSS members which with the best will in the world is never going to happen - that would be every season ticket holder and more. The response to the Boards last plea for help was described as lukewarm so fail to understand how it will be any different this time. As an alternative they plan to launch a Forever Falkirk scheme allowing you to make a monthly donation to the club for nothing in return (ie no shares for you or FSS) apart from offering you chance to pay season ticket monthly. Struggling to see who will sign up to this. Fan ownership all sounds great but I just can’t see it as a financially viable option. No real plan for if signups fail to materialise.

Exactly my point. I’m sure a share save scheme where supporters actually get shares in their own name would be popular.

Personally I think the FSS model is all wrong, why would I sign up to pay £10 a month when I get nothing in return? I’d be much more likely to sign up to a share shave scheme where you actually get shares in your name.

What a poor statement from Kenny Jamieson, yet again. Did he not learn any lessons from last time? Last time attack the fans this time criticise the opposition. Sour grapes and a lot of waffle. Still a big financial black hole. Of course income is 85% of last season. Season tickets, sponsorship and hospitality are all sold at the start of the season. No details on what the funding package will be - suggests this is not in place. Presumably the accounts still haven’t been signed off and this is the reason we are having to delay the AGM. I can’t remember the last time the AGM wasn’t before Christmas? The Board have been in power for almost a year now but still none of them have actually been formally appointed by shareholders.

Quite concerning that we’ve still not heard a date for the AGM or received the accounts. If the AGM is to happen on the rumoured December date you’d think we’ve have heard by now?