The Falkirk FC Thread

[realmadrid]

3 minutes ago, TheScarf said:

Consistently (which big clubs in Scotland do)  none of them have.  Also, none of those clubs are either giants or sleeping giants of Scottish football.

Does 8 out of the last 10 years not count as consistently. 

The galling fact for Falkirk fans is they will now spend more seasons in the 3rd tier than St Johnstone have spent out of the top 6 in the last 10 years. Clearly for a club of the size of Falkirk that has to be unacceptable.

[HopeStreetWalker]

1 minute ago, Numbers_One_To_Eleven said:

I used the phrase ‘sleeping giant’ before. It’s excessive to call us that but I think we can all agree on one word to describe our position.....

 

Underperforming.

Sleeping giant my arse. Just hope for the same success as comparable clubs and support the likes of St Johnstone, Kilmarnock, Motherwell being good examples.

[Gaz]

42 minutes ago, TheScarf said:

Of course it does, but League One isn't the glass ceiling for Falkirk is it? 'Sleeping Giant' implies you could be a top flight (top 6) side consistently.  Falkirk will never be as big as the OF, Aberdeen, Hibs, Hearts or Dundee United.  They're very much not a 'sleeping giant'.  They're a yo-yo club between the top two tiers. Like they have been for probably 98% of all members of this website's lives.

I don't think there's anyone claiming we will ever be as big as those teams you've mentioned.

However there's absolutely nothing* to stop us being as relatively successful as Hamilton, Dundee, St Mirren, St Johnstone, Ross County and Caley Thistle.

*apart from being absolutely hoaching

[Monkey Tennis]

1 hour ago, banditjag said:

Would it be too much to suggest taking a small positive from all of this? Iver 120,000 posts from Falkirk fans on one thread. 

I'm not convinced that they're all the work of Falkirk fans.

[Numbers_One_To_Eleven]

A sleeping giant is like a Leeds or Sunderland who would get 30000+ crowds and be consistently outside the top league. Are Hearts a sleeping giant because they spent a season outside the Prem? More like a mid afternoon nap.

[Bairnardo]

Alexander and Ritchie buggering off for good, never to darken our door again, and taking their assorted boardroom stooges with them, probably would not do much harm

I would, and have before, bought a season ticket knowing I am going to be watching shite football.

I wont when the reason it is going to be shite is because those in charge of making it shite are far to arrogant to recognise they are the cause and to move aside for the good of the club. That and the naked contempt they hold me in as a fan, obviously.

Were I not already decided on #notanotherpenny, the deafening silence from the club in the aftermath of a collapse so monumental that the mainstream sports media in Scotland are dissecting it would do it for me.

[Numbers_One_To_Eleven]

4 minutes ago, Baptiste Bourgeois said:

Motherwell, St Johnstone and Kilmarnock are bigger clubs than Falkirk. Motherwell and Kilmarnock haven't been relegated in over 30 years IIRC, how can you compare your standing to them with a straight face?

None of the rest are established Premiership teams who are pushing for top 6, so I would say it is ludicrous to use them as an example for that. 

Falkirk's level is the Championship with the odd sujourn for a season or two in the top flight before going down again.  

So what are Hamilton?

[Monkey Tennis]

4 hours ago, TheScarf said:

You do realise just because some clubs have more fans that others, it doesn't mean they'll eventually become more successful than them?

 

That usually is how it works actually, unless you really want to go full Wastecoatwilly on us.

That generally true rule, explains why we just got a 9 year old club winning the League. 

 

Right now though, Falkirk are providing an exception, which is why their fans are perfectly entitled to bemoan the mismatch between their gates and their current standing.

Edited May 6, 2021 by Monkey Tennis

[Numbers_One_To_Eleven]

I suppose it is conceivable that Falkirk could be a big town/area with a lowly club/team. I never hear anything about Glenrothes FC.

[joozy]

Clearly the size of a clubs fanbase matters, and is one clear advantage that Falkirk have over many teams currently in the SPL or Championship.  All else being equal, and assuming a £15 ticket price, if you're pulling in between 1-2k extra fans 18 times a season that's an extra £270k-£540k revenue you're generating a season.  Across a first-team squad of 25, that's between £10,800 and £21,600 extra you can pay for each player.  Obviously, that's a crude simplification but i don't think should be disregarded.

Obviously, while Falkirk might have that advantage, they've managed to render it pretty useless in many other ways.  Firstly, the size of the home fanbase is largely pointless as long as we're in Division 1.  The likes of Hamilton may have a paltry home support - but getting 3 visits a season from the Old Firm alongside Hibs/Hearts/Aberdeen fans will swell the total season attendance figures by enough to more than mitigate that.  Also, other teams like St Mirren and St Johnstone are just so much better managed than we have been and  have managed to use their stadiums to generate revenues in a way that we aren't capable of.

The whole sorry/hilarious (delete depending on your perspective) has been one of appalling chronic mismanagement coupled with a tiny bit of bad luck (those few years where Hearts/Hibs/Rangers were in the Championship).   We are where we deserve to be, there's no doubt about that.  I don't think it's unreasonable for Falkirk fans to look at the likes of a Motherwell/Kilmarnock/St Johnstone and ask the questions about why Falkirk shouldn't be able to emulate what they've achieved over the past 20 years.  They're all clubs with similar-ish building blocks to Falkirk.  We've just had a string of Chairmen/board members/management teams who seem to prefer shoving those blocks up their nose.  

 

 

[Numbers_One_To_Eleven]

1 minute ago, Baptiste Bourgeois said:

A team who have been consistently better and achieved more than than Falkirk for about 15 years now. 

So your not willing to describe Hamilton in size the way you did Kilmarnock etc.

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, Numbers_One_To_Eleven said:

I used the phrase ‘sleeping giant’ before. It’s excessive to call us that but I think we can all agree on one word to describe our position.....

 

Underperforming.

Yep. I think it’s fair to say we are fast tracking our way to “sleeping dwarf”

[TheScarf]

9 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said:

That usually is how it works actually, unless you really want to go full Wastecoatwilly on us.

That generally true rule, explains why we just got a 9 year old club winning the League. 

 

Right now though, Falkirk are providing an exception, which is why their fans are perfectly entitled to lament the mismatch between their gates and their current standing.

I agree, however they're still a yo-yo club. They're basically 1 level down from where they should be, club stature-wise.  And clubs like Hamilton and County are 1 level above.

[banditjag]

1 hour ago, TheScarf said:

You appear to be implying that they'll become successful because of the amount of fans they have?

Using your universally acknowledged powers of mind reading and jumping to conclusions. Didn't say that. 

[Bairnardo]

I agree, however they're still a yo-yo club. They're basically 1 level down from where they should be, club stature-wise.  And clubs like Hamilton and County are 1 level above.

1 level down is a bit of a generous way to describe it.

If you consider a yo yo club between tier 1 and tier 2 as our ceiling then sonpeting at the top of tier 2 should be our minumum and we are not just "1 level" away from that. We are a million miles away from that.

[banditjag]

45 minutes ago, Bairnardo said:

Id rather have that than the Rangers fan and the idiot with all the pictures who cant think tbf.

Bash on.

Thank you kind sir.

It seems for some folk on this forum that to show any sympathy or empathy for other clubs is a sign of weakness. 

[TheScarf]

Just now, Bairnardo said:

1 level down is a bit of a generous way to describe it.

If you consider a yo yo club between tier 1 and tier 2 as our ceiling then sonpeting at the top of tier 2 should be our minumum and we are not just "1 level" away from that. We are a million miles away from that.

You get my jist.  Falkirk should never be as low as League One.  I think we can all agree on that. 

[Monkey Tennis]

2 minutes ago, TheScarf said:

I agree, however they're still a yo-yo club. They're basically 1 level down from where they should be, club stature-wise.  And clubs like Hamilton and County are 1 level above.

That's probably not far out.

I don't think many Falkirk fans are arguing too strongly otherwise to be honest.  It explains why they're aggrieved though.

Just to be clear, I'm not lamenting the fact that several clubs are punching at a weight other than their own, by the way.  That's the whole bloody point of sport, and without its capacity to happen, there is literally no spectacle.

[TheScarf]

1 minute ago, banditjag said:

Thank you kind sir.

It seems for some folk on this forum that to show any sympathy or empathy for other clubs is a sign of weakness. 

It wasn't a show of weakness on your part, it was a daft comment about the potential size of a club.

[Bairn in Exile]

1 minute ago, TheScarf said:

It wasn't a show of weakness on your part, it was a daft comment about the potential size of a club.

F*ck off.