The Falkirk FC Thread

[Jackie Myles]

1 minute ago, latapythelegend said:

It is. I've played on it multiiple times and it is all done via WLC.

So surely that's where the money goes and not Livingston.

[RC55 FFC]

2 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

It's incredible that Falkirk fans still think crowd size is relevant to finances.

A whole host of clubs above you make a fortune from other means. We earn more through our suites alone than you earn in season ticket money. Livingston I believe make a fortune hiring out their pitch.

Ross County are the outliers but are you expecting them to drop any further than ICT? Who still look well set for top flight football regularly.

This idea that clubs will "find their level" based on crowd size is nothing more than dreaming. Below the top 5 clubs in the country, crowd size becomes irrelevant if you can bring in money elsewhere. An extra 1000 fans is nothing.

I’d love to see the accounts for St J that show they bring in more than £500k through their suites yearly than we do in a summer through STs. Bold statement but fair play to them if they do.

Not to mention we do sell hospitality & events too inc the concerts. Are we meant to be impressed that St J put on 5 funerals and the odd party every week? 

[RC55 FFC]

6 minutes ago, Jackie Myles said:

So surely that's where the money goes and not Livingston.

Correct. They will have paid for it too if wager. Or the bulk of it. 

[Jackie Myles]

If I was a council tax payer in wlc I'd be asking serious questions regarding the whole set up with livi down there anyway. In the past they've had 300k in owed rent paid off. Stadium rent reduced from 150k a year to 20k a year then 50k a year whilst they were out of the top flight.  That's a lot of cash lost for a club noone in wlc is really gives a feck about. Surely they don't get cash from pitch hire aswell.  Would be interesting to know who gets the cash from the macaroni deal.

[Believe The Hype]

1 hour ago, RandomGuy. said:

1000 extra season tickets is under £300k worth of income.

My point is that's a small financial gap these days so becomes almost irrelevant. If Livingston charge the same as we used to (~£80 half pitch/~£160 full pitch, for an hour), and are selling as many games as I know we did (~12 half pitch matches 4/5 nights a week and a full pitch match) that's £4000 a week. Rule out the winter and you're pushing close to £200k from pitch hire alone.

Unless you have a substantially higher fanbase (5k+) than teams like us, County, ICT etc., then you're batting in the wrong field if you're expecting any financial advantage in higher tiers.

Queens Park could survive on small crowds if they get the off field stuff right, that's the way the game is now.

 An extra 1000 season tickets is £320k on top of whatever we get from pitch hires etc. 4k a week even for 52 weeks a year is 208k which falls substantially behind what an extra 1000 STs is. Stop talking shite. 

[FFC 1876]

13 hours ago, Andy Dufresne said:

Not been told but it from the same guy that told me about Gary Oliver and Sean Mackie.

Hopefully a striker and a young energetic centre midfielder.

[Kevin James Left Knee]

3 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

This idea that clubs will "find their level" based on crowd size is nothing more than dreaming. Below the top 5 clubs in the country, crowd size becomes irrelevant if you can bring in money elsewhere. An extra 1000 fans is nothing.

The only stat in football that is overwhelmingly true is the total salary spend on players by clubs. The correlation between that and success is incredible and is true in EVERY league. You might find outliers but that will always return to the true.

[Jackie Myles]

5 minutes ago, Kevin James Left Knee said:

The only stat in football that is overwhelmingly true is the total salary spend on players by clubs. The correlation between that and success is incredible and is true in EVERY league. You might find outliers but that will always return to the true.

Man United are certainly one of them.

[HoBNob]

22 minutes ago, Believe The Hype said:

 An extra 1000 season tickets is £320k on top of whatever we get from pitch hires etc. 4k a week even for 52 weeks a year is 208k which falls substantially behind what an extra 1000 STs is. Stop talking shite. 

The pitch hire also isn't a straight up 208k, a portion of that should be getting put away for the replacement of the pitch, another portion will be for the maintenance, the salary of someone to book people on the pitch etc. 

 

The cost of a season ticket deduction is the bit of plastic. 

[Kevin James Left Knee]

2 hours ago, HopeStreetWalker said:

Nothing is going to change in the short or medium term. Possibly the must damaging policy decision by the directors of FFC in its history was leaving Brockville. It could and should have been redeveloped.

How could they do that - the railway line was a huge issue and the cost of buying land around the stadium was prohibitive. One idea to turn the pitch by 30 degrees and build around it was costed and it was astonishing. Never mind where was the money coming from - our only major source of funding was selling the place. 

I loved it and I miss it but redevelopment was never an option and we were also facing the corruption that was the Goldies (and others - a certain Lord Provost threatened me with evicting my parents from their council house if I kept being a thorn in the side of the council - luckily my folks had bought it only months before so his threats meant nothing but what shame a Labour man threatening that.

I have been and still am Labour through and through ( Ieven worked for them for 15 years full time) but the Falkirk Labour group at that time was rancid and I am pleased I was able to f**k them over in the by-elections by placing certain stories in the press and helping Dennis Canavan when he stood against them (I didn't even agree with his politics completely but a decent moral man).

Edited June 11, 2022 by Kevin James Left Knee

[Grangemouth Bairn]

1 hour ago, RandomGuy. said:

1000 extra season tickets is under £300k worth of income.

My point is that's a small financial gap these days so becomes almost irrelevant. If Livingston charge the same as we used to (~£80 half pitch/~£160 full pitch, for an hour), and are selling as many games as I know we did (~12 half pitch matches 4/5 nights a week and a full pitch match) that's £4000 a week. Rule out the winter and you're pushing close to £200k from pitch hire alone.

Unless you have a substantially higher fanbase (5k+) than teams like us, County, ICT etc., then you're batting in the wrong field if you're expecting any financial advantage in higher tiers.

Queens Park could survive on small crowds if they get the off field stuff right, that's the way the game is now.

So £200k is a ‘fortune’ and £300k isn’t - gotcha.

[Kevin James Left Knee]

1 hour ago, Jackie Myles said:

If I was a council tax payer in wlc I'd be asking serious questions regarding the whole set up with livi down there anyway. In the past they've had 300k in owed rent paid off. Stadium rent reduced from 150k a year to 20k a year then 50k a year whilst they were out of the top flight.  That's a lot of cash lost for a club noone in wlc is really gives a feck about. Surely they don't get cash from pitch hire aswell.  Would be interesting to know who gets the cash from the macaroni deal.

For a long time one of the Directors was a (turncoat) SNP councillor - he padded his own nest well (I hated him with a vengence, I have rarely seen a more self-interested politician) and after coming off the council remained on the Board despite no longer being a council nominee. Such links are priceless when it comes to favours and income.

[Jackie Myles]

9 minutes ago, Kevin James Left Knee said:

How could they do that - the railway line was a huge issue and the cost of buying land around the stadium was prohibitive. One idea to turn the pitch by 30 degrees and build around it was costed and it was astonishing. Never mind where was the money coming from - our only major source of funding was selling the place. 

I loved it and I miss it but redevelopment was never an option and we were also facing the corruption that was the Goldies (and others - a certain Lord Provost threatened me with evicting my parents from their council house if I kept being a thorn in the side of the council - luckily my folks had bought it only months before so his threats meant nothing but what shame a Labour man threatening that.

I have been and still am Labour through and through ( Ieven worked for them for 15 years full time) but the Falkirk Labour group at that time was rancid and I am pleased I was able to f**k them over in the by-elections by placing certain stories in the press and helping Dennis Canavan when he stood against them (I didn't even agree with his politics completely but a decent moral man).

It was certainly never an option due to the ridiculous 10k seat rule in place at the time. I'm sure if it was today or even when the 6k rule was brought in to allow ICT in then staying at Brockville may have been achievable. Who knows. 

Edited June 11, 2022 by Jackie Myles

[Otis Blue]

14 hours ago, Grangemouth Bairn said:

Even though Glasgow is our biggest city I don’t think there is scope for them to increase their support to anywhere near what you quoted.

Agreed, and that was my point. We all know that there are very few "neutrals" in Glasgow, so the best QP could hope for realistically is a fan base similar to Thistle's, but on the south side. Can't see that happening and being sustained though.

14 hours ago, Hugh Hillshaveyes said:

Another Scottish football implosion waiting to happen...QP could give season tickets away for nothing & not get more than 1000 at home...when it does go to ratshit the begging bowl will be out not to let one of Scotland's most historic clubs die....when we all know they are an a artificially elevated position due to one man's ego trip...not a penny from me

Believe me I don't want QP to collapse; they're very much part of our heritage up here. That's why I'm concerned for them.

14 hours ago, Grangemouth Bairn said:

 

Oooops, miss-quote here, can't fix via my mobile, too thick!

9 hours ago, Duncan Freemason said:

It’s totally far fetched. The greater Glasgow dividing lines are fully drawn. Rangers Celtic Partick Thistle fans won’t go near QP as it will only exist above L1 provided a Haughey type life support machine is in place. They will not “organically grow”. The minute a sugar daddy exits, down they will go. Ross County populate a similar orbit. Uncle Roy steps away, and down they go too.

^^^ Absolutely.

Although Dempster etc will be selling the line that by the time the sugar-daddy cash disappears, QP will already be safely in the promised land of the top league and will be benefitting from the extra revenue streams that come with it - eg large visiting supports including 4 x OF sell-out visits, higher league placing payouts, and better sponsorship opportunities being available through being in the top league. Hence, she will argue (no doubt on slide 42 of her PowerPoint pack) that the level of core home support isn't crucial to the strategy. Hope for QP's sake that she's right.

Edited June 11, 2022 by Otis Blue

[HopeStreetWalker]

26 minutes ago, Kevin James Left Knee said:

How could they do that - the railway line was a huge issue and the cost of buying land around the stadium was prohibitive. One idea to turn the pitch by 30 degrees and build around it was costed and it was astonishing. Never mind where was the money coming from - our only major source of funding was selling the place. 

I loved it and I miss it but redevelopment was never an option and we were also facing the corruption that was the Goldies (and others - a certain Lord Provost threatened me with evicting my parents from their council house if I kept being a thorn in the side of the council - luckily my folks had bought it only months before so his threats meant nothing but what shame a Labour man threatening that.

I have been and still am Labour through and through ( Ieven worked for them for 15 years full time) but the Falkirk Labour group at that time was rancid and I am pleased I was able to f**k them over in the by-elections by placing certain stories in the press and helping Dennis Canavan when he stood against them (I didn't even agree with his politics completely but a decent moral man).

Its an academic discussion of what could have been done with a bit of imagination.

At the time did we want or need fancy stands for the seats to be located. Think the fans would have been happy with refurbished terracing with seats. New entrances exits and roofs. The only big expense would have been a new grandstand.

Could that be an option to fill in the missing stand at the white elephant ?

Would the fans live with it I could.

[Jackie Myles]

4 minutes ago, HopeStreetWalker said:

Its an academic discussion of what could have been done with a bit of imagination.

At the time did we want or need fancy stands for the seats to be located. Think the fans would have been happy with refurbished terracing with seats. New entrances exits and roofs. The only big expense would have been a new grandstand.

Could that be an option to fill in the missing stand at the white elephant ?

Would the fans live with it I could.

You were never going to get 10k covered seats in there without demolishing the place and moving the pitch .

[Reggie Perrin]

2 hours ago, HopeStreetWalker said:

That's it in a nutshell. Zero leverage in the agreement and very much a minor player at the stadium as a leaseholder. Made worse by a council that has no goodwill towards the club.

Nothing is going to change in the short or medium term. Possibly the must damaging policy decision by the directors of FFC in its history was leaving Brockville. It could and should have been redeveloped.

That's history now and it should be a long term objective of the club to own the stadium and surrounding facilities outright.

Anybody got an idea of the value on the market ?

 

 

Revisionist pish.

Brockville was beyond redevelopment.

[Springfield]

Like most fans leaving our home was extremely painful, and for me heartbreaking. However the move was inevitable and regardless of where we ended up, it would never be the same. Just wished we’d put more thought into what stadium was required, and not someone’s vanity on a mini Hampden main stand look alike.

[falkirkthebigclub]

If the fermers' off-field activities are so lucrative, why did they need to spend last summer flogging their most successful team in history for fucking peanuts? 

[Springfield]

15 minutes ago, badgerthewitness said:

If the fermers' off-field activities are so lucrative, why did they need to spend last summer flogging their most successful team in history for fucking peanuts? 

Open two new hospitality boxes I would imagine….