The Falkirk FC Thread

[Andy Dufresne]

 

[Onthegoalline1876]

2 hours ago, superandy_07 said:

Anyone at the AGM tonight?

Yes was there.   Was an interesting one and John McGlynn is actually very funny (humerous !)

[Braes_Bairn]

1 hour ago, superandy_07 said:

Anyone at the AGM tonight?

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.

 

 

[Guest Brockvillenomore]

15 minutes ago, Braes_Bairn said:

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.

 

 

If fan ownership doesn’t work the plan was clearly sell the club, or cut our coat according to our cloth.  

Edited February 23, 2023 by Brockvillenomore

[Reggie Perrin]

With the best will in the world I cannot see fan ownership ever happening at our club.

[Latapy is god]

1 hour ago, Braes_Bairn said:

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.

 

 

Certainly think that if the FSS shares were in a person's own name however  FSS got the proxy then they would gain more sign ups.  I understand patrons shares are in their own name.

[Bainsfordbairn]

45 minutes ago, Brockvillenomore said:

If fan ownership doesn’t work the plan was clearly sell the club, or cut our coat according to our cloth.  

It wasn't presented as a plan in my eyes. Rather one of four options. 

The first option was to go back to where we were under the MSG. Figures were given which showed that we made an average loss of 450K during each of the nine seasons we spent in the championship. Those losses were offset by players sales, cup runs and soft loans in the bad years. As neither player sales nor cup runs could be guaranteed this model was seen as too risky to be a viable business plan, so it appears to have been abandoned. Albeit we gambled this season and needed 145K in soft loans from six individuals to get the accounts signed off. Though the cup run may have negated that now; I wasn't quite sure on that point. 

Second option is to cut our cloth, budget cautiously and plan to breakeven every season. Which if we'd done that this season wouldn't have given us enough money to pay the 14 players still under contract, never mind recruit more.  

Third option is to seek external investment. Nobody mentioned them, so I will. George Fulston & Hamish Deans spring to mind. 

Fourth option is for the owners of the club - the fans - to put in more money than they're doing at present via FSS, Partrons, sponsorship or any new commercial initiatives the club comes up with. 

Those present in the room were asked for a show of hands and the fourth option was the only one that got votes. 

At least that was my take on proceedings. If anyone disagrees feel free to chip in. 

 

[Reggie Perrin]

2 minutes ago, Bainsfordbairn said:

It wasn't presented as a plan in my eyes. Rather one of four options. 

The first option was to go back to where we were under the MSG. Figures were given which showed that we made an average loss of 450K during each of the nine seasons we spent in the championship. Those losses were offset by players sales, cup runs and soft loans in the bad years. As neither player sales nor cup runs could be guaranteed this model was seen as too risky to be a viable business plan, so it appears to have been abandoned. Albeit we gambled this season and needed 145K in soft loans from six individuals to get the accounts signed off. Though the cup run may have negated that now; I wasn't quite sure on that point. 

Second option is to cut our cloth, budget cautiously and plan to breakeven every season. Which if we'd done that this season wouldn't have given us enough money to pay the 14 players still under contract, never mind recruit more.  

Third option is to seek external investment. Nobody mentioned them, so I will. George Fulston & Hamish Deans spring to mind. 

Fourth option is for the owners of the club - the fans - to put in more money than they're doing at present via FSS, Partrons, sponsorship or any new commercial initiatives the club comes up with. 

Those present in the room were asked for a show of hands and the fourth option was the only one that got votes. 

At least that was my take on proceedings. If anyone disagrees feel free to chip in. 

 

Sponsorship / commercial activities seem to be going fairly well, how much more room for growth realistically is there?

Do the Patrons have the personal wealth to invest heavily and would they want to anyway?

[bairn88]

Fan ownership will never work at our club? Don’t agree with that at all. These schemes take years and years to get to desired membership. It’s barely been a year? And the memberhsip is currently (slowishly) increasing? Would be a mental time to give it up. 

[Roboccop]

33 minutes ago, bairn88 said:

Fan ownership will never work at our club? Don’t agree with that at all. These schemes take years and years to get to desired membership. It’s barely been a year? And the memberhsip is currently (slowishly) increasing? Would be a mental time to give it up. 

A year ago FSS started with just over 300 members. Today it is 640 members with a good number paying more than the minimum £10. That gives the club £7800 a month on average. Frankly I think that’s a success. The numbers will slowly increase over time and success on the pitch seems to be the best indicator of growth. 
 

For that you get a communal say in how the club is run. I think that’s a decent offer rather than just giving money to the club without anything substantial in return. 

[Hank von Hell]

19 hours ago, Bairney The Dinosaur said:

Anyone got a link through the paywall for the Graham Spiers podcast so I don't have to give that dumpling any of my hard earned?

Hard earned? it's literally pennies , or dollars in my case, to join and this is the 3rd or 4th excellent pod he's done dedicated to Falkirk.

[Hank von Hell]

2 hours ago, bairn88 said:

Fan ownership will never work at our club? Don’t agree with that at all. These schemes take years and years to get to desired membership. It’s barely been a year? And the memberhsip is currently (slowishly) increasing? Would be a mental time to give it up. 

So with fan ownership what happens if we have a bad year in the Championship (or League One gulp!) - no player sales (very very likely) and no cup runs to prop up the shortfall. Who do the fans turn to for money to run the club - it has to be soft loans or external investment as it won't be coming from the fans. 

[Guest]

There is a little negativity regarding what the FSS is achieving. There is no doubt there’s the potential for growth and hopefully tonight’s message by the board will help facilitate this. 

It’s easy to look at Motherwell and say because they have 3500 members of the Well Society, FSS is failing with its 640 membership. 

That’s not the case. 

Of the membership Motherwell have 700 kids paying £25/£20 per year. They also have a £5 subscription option so their average payment is around £3.7/member whereas Falkirk’s is currently about £12/member. That’s not to forget that FSS is just over a year old.

In short, Well society’s average contributions/month are £13,000 and at present, the FSS are just under £7,800 so 425 more members paying an average £12 and they’ll be where WS are.

That isn’t quite as unachievable as has been interpreted. 

I’m not sure this will fill the financial gap but it will definitely make a huge help and make the FSS, the biggest contributing organisation outside of the top 6 clubs.

The FSS have gained 25 members since the turn of the year. That’s a decent growth but we need it to be faster to help the club succeed. This will require everyone’s help to get more members on board.

Edited February 24, 2023 by Guest

[Bairn in Exile]

30 minutes ago, Van_damage said:

The FSS have gained 25 members since the turn of the year. That’s a decent growth but we need it to be faster to help the club succeed. This will require everyone’s help to get more members on board.

Is it legal / allowable / do-able for FSS to top and tail the Falkirk TV videos on YouTube with an appeal for members? The highlights videos get somewhere between 2.7k and 4.5k views and assuming that 1/3 of those aren't Falkirk fans that still means 1.5k - 2.5k potential new members for the FSS.

[bothkennarbairn]

 

Fourth option is for the owners of the club - the fans - to put in more money than they're doing at present via FSS, Partrons, sponsorship or any new commercial initiatives the club comes up with. 

Those present in the room were asked for a show of hands and the fourthoption was the only one that got votes. 

Of course fan ownership is the preferred option but unless the fans put in more money than they are doing at present, the reality is that we will need external investment if we are to achieve our objective of a return to the SPL by 2026.

[Springfield]

Said a few months back that there was/is a succession of circumstances that have hampered supporters backing the FSS. The bottom line is that many people who would probably back the FSS simply don’t have the spare cash. I also think that although we’ve made great strides with M&S, five years of abhorrent shite still sticks with many people and probably a core loss of around 1000 fans since dropping down, has impacted people joining. I think we would see a healthy progression of numbers if we can succeed with promotion this year. 

[Scott]

On 22/02/2023 at 22:59, Andy Dufresne said:

 

Check the state of the pitch in the 2nd half 

Me and my mate were the mascots that day

[Bairney The Dinosaur]

3 hours ago, Hank von Hell said:

Hard earned? it's literally pennies , or dollars in my case, to join and this is the 3rd or 4th excellent pod he's done dedicated to Falkirk.

f**k up

[Albertobotswana]

11 hours ago, Donathan said:

Can anyone remember a home league game against Hamilton Accies in the SPL (must have been in 2008-09 or 2009-10) where they gifted us a 1-0 lead with an absolutely comical own goal?

 

Cant find any footage of it online but the Sporting Lisbon goal reminded me of it. 

Was that when the defender played a back pass to the keeper without looking?

[101]

9 hours ago, Braes_Bairn said:

what is needed to take us to a double promotion. 

That seems incredibly presumptive