The Falkirk FC Thread

[Bigbrbairn]

Need to watch the League Cup final today as when we win the Scottish Cup we will have to beat one or both of these wee teams.

[Shodwall cat]

23 minutes ago, CapitalDiamond said:

Well done on your win yesterday. Falkirk looking like a proper footballing team now compared to the shambles you’ve had to endure in recent seasons.

Was reading through your AGM comments (and trying to ignore the usual tribal nonsense that followed).

I dip in and out of the Falkirk Daft podcast when FSS and the club reps come on (I make an Airdrie podcast so it’s always good to see what you guys are up to).

I’ve got a lot of respect for Falkirk fans. You’ve had a shocking run of it, but as a fan base you have stuck by your team through a rotten spell. 

The one thing which intrigues me most at the moment is that there seems to be a lack of critical thought. Everything seems a bit too cozy. Your club announce a £1.2 million loss and then at the same AGM are calling the response to FSS Luke warm.

I’d be losing it if I was in your position being spoken to like that. You’ve done your bit. Is there any more militant element of the Falkirk support who just want the decks cleared? After Hearts had all the nonsense with Romanov they had to take the hit of an administration and a points deduction to get on a more solid footing from which to build.

I really like the FFS model. For Falkirk I think it’s ideal. But, are the underlying finances of the club holding you back from being able to rebuild? It feels to me like the fans who weren’t the ones who made the terrible decisions which the board have made over the years are now being asked to carry the can for them (whatever the model was which has ended up with you not owning your main stand, making a £1.2 million loss, appointing inexperienced managers, signing Griffiths, evening signing Jordan Allan for cash - I know he scored against Kelty, but I don’t think he has any impact in the Championship if you do go up.)

The downside of FFS in my opinion is they seem to be wholly aligned with the board. On the last appearance on Falkirk Daft they glibly mentioned a short fall and that “soft loans” had to be put in. What is a soft loan? does it have to be paid back? They then call out the Council as being the problem because the rent is too high. The rent may well be high, but historically you entered into a partnership to build what looks a very high spec main stand (ours is all brick and galvanised steel where as the back of yours looks like a spaceship) and the rent is probably the clawing back of the Council’s initial investment/the result of deals done by previous boards down the years.

There are people on here saying that Falkirk don’t have any debt. Is that true after all these loss making years? I’m assuming that you didn’t have £1.2 million in the coffers to cover last year (or the £600k the year before or the £400k for this year) and so someone should be asking how you ensure long term viability rather than a room full of people nodding that the fans need to pay more under Option 4.

Option 5 might be that “Falkirk Forever” is about understanding how bad the financial predicament really is just now? With crowds of 4,000 you should be higher in the pyramid than the likes of Livi, Hamilton, Ross County and Inverness. Can someone explain to the fans how with 4000 fans, a handful of patrons chucking in 5 figures and 600 FSS contributors the club is still making hefty losses? Is there a whole load of debt which needs to be restructured via an administration in order to put you on a footing to properly compete? Is short term pain long term gain a better approach than assuming that the diehards will buy season tickets, sponsor players, join FSS and join Falkirk Forever so that more money is going in?

I’d back the Falkirk fans to do a better job after a clean break. Despite his role in the demise of my club, where is Blair Nimmo these days? He would be the perfect man to go in on behalf on a supporters group an objective view on why it’s such a disaster financially.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So let's see. You want us to get rid of a group of fans who are on our bod who have invested their own money into the club over the last year and have turned the club around both on and off the field.  We had a 1.2 million pound loss which yes was covered with no debt needed. Your not going to turn that around over night. This has been reduced to 400k approx although once the cup money is included will be less than that and that's been covered by more investment from the people mentioned above and a soft loan from one or two of our major shareholders who will get their money back with a small interest payment.  On the field we've gone from finishing 28 points behind yourselves to now being 11 points ahead with a game in hand and are challenging for promotion for the first time in 3 seasons.  But you think we should be getting a group together to oust the people in charge that have helped achieve all this or put the club into administration. Sounds ridiculous to me.

Edited February 26, 2023 by Shodwall cat

[Reggie Perrin]

26 minutes ago, CapitalDiamond said:

Well done on your win yesterday. Falkirk looking like a proper footballing team now compared to the shambles you’ve had to endure in recent seasons.

Was reading through your AGM comments (and trying to ignore the usual tribal nonsense that followed).

I dip in and out of the Falkirk Daft podcast when FSS and the club reps come on (I make an Airdrie podcast so it’s always good to see what you guys are up to).

I’ve got a lot of respect for Falkirk fans. You’ve had a shocking run of it, but as a fan base you have stuck by your team through a rotten spell. 

The one thing which intrigues me most at the moment is that there seems to be a lack of critical thought. Everything seems a bit too cozy. Your club announce a £1.2 million loss and then at the same AGM are calling the response to FSS Luke warm.

I’d be losing it if I was in your position being spoken to like that. You’ve done your bit. Is there any more militant element of the Falkirk support who just want the decks cleared? After Hearts had all the nonsense with Romanov they had to take the hit of an administration and a points deduction to get on a more solid footing from which to build.

I really like the FFS model. For Falkirk I think it’s ideal. But, are the underlying finances of the club holding you back from being able to rebuild? It feels to me like the fans who weren’t the ones who made the terrible decisions which the board have made over the years are now being asked to carry the can for them (whatever the model was which has ended up with you not owning your main stand, making a £1.2 million loss, appointing inexperienced managers, signing Griffiths, evening signing Jordan Allan for cash - I know he scored against Kelty, but I don’t think he has any impact in the Championship if you do go up.)

The downside of FFS in my opinion is they seem to be wholly aligned with the board. On the last appearance on Falkirk Daft they glibly mentioned a short fall and that “soft loans” had to be put in. What is a soft loan? does it have to be paid back? They then call out the Council as being the problem because the rent is too high. The rent may well be high, but historically you entered into a partnership to build what looks a very high spec main stand (ours is all brick and galvanised steel where as the back of yours looks like a spaceship) and the rent is probably the clawing back of the Council’s initial investment/the result of deals done by previous boards down the years.

There are people on here saying that Falkirk don’t have any debt. Is that true after all these loss making years? I’m assuming that you didn’t have £1.2 million in the coffers to cover last year (or the £600k the year before or the £400k for this year) and so someone should be asking how you ensure long term viability rather than a room full of people nodding that the fans need to pay more under Option 4.

Option 5 might be that “Falkirk Forever” is about understanding how bad the financial predicament really is just now? With crowds of 4,000 you should be higher in the pyramid than the likes of Livi, Hamilton, Ross County and Inverness. Can someone explain to the fans how with 4000 fans, a handful of patrons chucking in 5 figures and 600 FSS contributors the club is still making hefty losses? Is there a whole load of debt which needs to be restructured via an administration in order to put you on a footing to properly compete? Is short term pain long term gain a better approach than assuming that the diehards will buy season tickets, sponsor players, join FSS and join Falkirk Forever so that more money is going in?

I’d back the Falkirk fans to do a better job after a clean break. Despite his role in the demise of my club, where is Blair Nimmo these days? He would be the perfect man to go in on behalf on a supporters group an objective view on why it’s such a disaster financially.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t think you appreciate the difference between our current BoD and the incompetent arseholes who oversaw our plummet down to mid table third tier side in recent seasons.

Our financial issues should be laid squarely at the feet of those fools.

[BountyBairn]

14 minutes ago, Diamonds are Forever said:

The overall quality of Falkirk TV is superb, probably the best in the lower leagues.

Got to say though the commentator always comes across as ridiculous. He resembles how I watched football when I was 12 years old, seems to think everything is against his team and complains about it during the commentatory. In a 9 minute highlights package he whines about Airdrie's goal being offside on 3 separate occasions, despite it being almost impossible to tell from the replay.

Absolutely no issue with club commentators being biased, as ours is, but there's a way of doing it. It's the only unprofessional part of an otherwise excellent service. Although I appreciate 95% of viewers aren't really going to care!

They had access to the football analysts feed which had a better angle and was clearly offside (according to what was said live) would be a nice improvement to add the shot to highlights but not sure what’s permitted etc around that stuff - SFA probably don’t want to see evidence of how bad officials at this level are (for all teams).

[BountyBairn]

Kai Kennedy - what McGlynn said about him staying in January and how he reacted yesterday to scoring made me think he actually a solid wee guy with a decent head. Fair play. 

[Guest]

32 minutes ago, CapitalDiamond said:

Well done on your win yesterday. Falkirk looking like a proper footballing team now compared to the shambles you’ve had to endure in recent seasons.

Was reading through your AGM comments (and trying to ignore the usual tribal nonsense that followed).

I dip in and out of the Falkirk Daft podcast when FSS and the club reps come on (I make an Airdrie podcast so it’s always good to see what you guys are up to).

I’ve got a lot of respect for Falkirk fans. You’ve had a shocking run of it, but as a fan base you have stuck by your team through a rotten spell. 

The one thing which intrigues me most at the moment is that there seems to be a lack of critical thought. Everything seems a bit too cozy. Your club announce a £1.2 million loss and then at the same AGM are calling the response to FSS Luke warm.

I’d be losing it if I was in your position being spoken to like that. You’ve done your bit. Is there any more militant element of the Falkirk support who just want the decks cleared? After Hearts had all the nonsense with Romanov they had to take the hit of an administration and a points deduction to get on a more solid footing from which to build.

I really like the FFS model. For Falkirk I think it’s ideal. But, are the underlying finances of the club holding you back from being able to rebuild? It feels to me like the fans who weren’t the ones who made the terrible decisions which the board have made over the years are now being asked to carry the can for them (whatever the model was which has ended up with you not owning your main stand, making a £1.2 million loss, appointing inexperienced managers, signing Griffiths, evening signing Jordan Allan for cash - I know he scored against Kelty, but I don’t think he has any impact in the Championship if you do go up.)

The downside of FFS in my opinion is they seem to be wholly aligned with the board. On the last appearance on Falkirk Daft they glibly mentioned a short fall and that “soft loans” had to be put in. What is a soft loan? does it have to be paid back? They then call out the Council as being the problem because the rent is too high. The rent may well be high, but historically you entered into a partnership to build what looks a very high spec main stand (ours is all brick and galvanised steel where as the back of yours looks like a spaceship) and the rent is probably the clawing back of the Council’s initial investment/the result of deals done by previous boards down the years.

There are people on here saying that Falkirk don’t have any debt. Is that true after all these loss making years? I’m assuming that you didn’t have £1.2 million in the coffers to cover last year (or the £600k the year before or the £400k for this year) and so someone should be asking how you ensure long term viability rather than a room full of people nodding that the fans need to pay more under Option 4.

Option 5 might be that “Falkirk Forever” is about understanding how bad the financial predicament really is just now? With crowds of 4,000 you should be higher in the pyramid than the likes of Livi, Hamilton, Ross County and Inverness. Can someone explain to the fans how with 4000 fans, a handful of patrons chucking in 5 figures and 600 FSS contributors the club is still making hefty losses? Is there a whole load of debt which needs to be restructured via an administration in order to put you on a footing to properly compete? Is short term pain long term gain a better approach than assuming that the diehards will buy season tickets, sponsor players, join FSS and join Falkirk Forever so that more money is going in?

I’d back the Falkirk fans to do a better job after a clean break. Despite his role in the demise of my club, where is Blair Nimmo these days? He would be the perfect man to go in on behalf on a supporters group an objective view on why it’s such a disaster financially.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With all respect you really only know part of the story. I will give you that benefit of the doubt. If you did know the whole story you would think differently - I promise you 

[AL-FFC]

36 minutes ago, Shodwall cat said:

Can you get much further down the pecking order than second of two?

Just puts him to number 2 to Kinnear, listened to mcGlynn interview after yesterday saying his (PJ)confidence is/was a bit shaky, I thought it was coming back but going to Airdrie where he got injured might have dunted it a bit, same time I wonder if the scoreline would have been any different if PJ was in.

[Springfield]

25 minutes ago, CapitalDiamond said:

Well done on your win yesterday. Falkirk looking like a proper footballing team now compared to the shambles you’ve had to endure in recent seasons.

Was reading through your AGM comments (and trying to ignore the usual tribal nonsense that followed).

I dip in and out of the Falkirk Daft podcast when FSS and the club reps come on (I make an Airdrie podcast so it’s always good to see what you guys are up to).

I’ve got a lot of respect for Falkirk fans. You’ve had a shocking run of it, but as a fan base you have stuck by your team through a rotten spell. 

The one thing which intrigues me most at the moment is that there seems to be a lack of critical thought. Everything seems a bit too cozy. Your club announce a £1.2 million loss and then at the same AGM are calling the response to FSS Luke warm.

I’d be losing it if I was in your position being spoken to like that. You’ve done your bit. Is there any more militant element of the Falkirk support who just want the decks cleared? After Hearts had all the nonsense with Romanov they had to take the hit of an administration and a points deduction to get on a more solid footing from which to build.

I really like the FFS model. For Falkirk I think it’s ideal. But, are the underlying finances of the club holding you back from being able to rebuild? It feels to me like the fans who weren’t the ones who made the terrible decisions which the board have made over the years are now being asked to carry the can for them (whatever the model was which has ended up with you not owning your main stand, making a £1.2 million loss, appointing inexperienced managers, signing Griffiths, evening signing Jordan Allan for cash - I know he scored against Kelty, but I don’t think he has any impact in the Championship if you do go up.)

The downside of FFS in my opinion is they seem to be wholly aligned with the board. On the last appearance on Falkirk Daft they glibly mentioned a short fall and that “soft loans” had to be put in. What is a soft loan? does it have to be paid back? They then call out the Council as being the problem because the rent is too high. The rent may well be high, but historically you entered into a partnership to build what looks a very high spec main stand (ours is all brick and galvanised steel where as the back of yours looks like a spaceship) and the rent is probably the clawing back of the Council’s initial investment/the result of deals done by previous boards down the years.

There are people on here saying that Falkirk don’t have any debt. Is that true after all these loss making years? I’m assuming that you didn’t have £1.2 million in the coffers to cover last year (or the £600k the year before or the £400k for this year) and so someone should be asking how you ensure long term viability rather than a room full of people nodding that the fans need to pay more under Option 4.

Option 5 might be that “Falkirk Forever” is about understanding how bad the financial predicament really is just now? With crowds of 4,000 you should be higher in the pyramid than the likes of Livi, Hamilton, Ross County and Inverness. Can someone explain to the fans how with 4000 fans, a handful of patrons chucking in 5 figures and 600 FSS contributors the club is still making hefty losses? Is there a whole load of debt which needs to be restructured via an administration in order to put you on a footing to properly compete? Is short term pain long term gain a better approach than assuming that the diehards will buy season tickets, sponsor players, join FSS and join Falkirk Forever so that more money is going in?

I’d back the Falkirk fans to do a better job after a clean break. Despite his role in the demise of my club, where is Blair Nimmo these days? He would be the perfect man to go in on behalf on a supporters group an objective view on why it’s such a disaster financially.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very decent post, and don’t disagree with the mainstream financial issues that continue to haunt the club. The current BOD have been in place for a year and deserve a chance. I don’t know these guys personally but believe they are all supporters of the club, and working desperately hard to reshape the club from the existing loss making to affordable model going forward, to be hopefully challenging for promotion to the SPFL in a few seasons.

In addition to these guys we have a number of Patrons who have backed the club with additional funds, which we are all very grateful for.

Add to the commercial activities a die hard support who have continued to back the club with really good STs & PATG receipts and general commercials. The club’s hospitality is very busy with most home games near full or sold out.

Sponsors- Some previous decisions by the old bods has seen loss of sponsors, which we believe is now healthy and growing.

You’ll get many of the support asking why the cost base is at -0.4/5M before we kick a ball, but from what I can grasp this has been for the past decade(maybe I’ve misunderstood some of the discussions at the recent AGM) 

So it’s left to players sales, cup runs etc to make up this shortfall. 
In reality it’s been former directors and associates and now Patrons  that have dug deep, securing the doors are kept open. 
Like many of our support a bit of bewilderment when hearing the club is launching another “support” funding scheme…………..

[CapitalDiamond]

10 minutes ago, Back Post Misses said:

With all respect you really only know part of the story. I will give you that benefit of the doubt. If you did know the whole story you would think differently - I promise you 

If the baddies have already been ousted then my apologies for missing that point. Is it relevant that they are Falkirk fans though? It was Airdrie fans who were running the show at our place….. unfortunately they didn’t have the skills required to manage a £6million stadium build and we all payed the price.

I just can’t fathom how there was a loss on £1.2 million last year and a £400k loss predicted for this year unless there’s some sort of horrible servicing of debt having to take place. I can’t see that your football operation looks outrageous compared to other league 1 teams.

If you are all happy then who am I to challenge. I just find the preference for option 4 (get more money from fans) rather than the cut out cloth option a bit of a concern but I wish every provincial club well.

 

 

 

 

[Guest Brockvillenomore]

20 minutes ago, Shodwall cat said:

So let's see. You want us to get rid of a group of fans who are on our bod who have invested their own money into the club over the last year and have turned the club around both on and off the field.  We had a 1.2 million pound loss which yes was covered with no debt needed. Your not going to turn that around over night. This has been reduced to 400k approx although once the cup money is included will be less than that and that's been covered by more investment from the people mentioned above and a soft loan from one or two of our major shareholders who will get their money back with a small interest payment.  On the field we've gone from finishing 28 points behind yourselves to now being 11 points ahead with a game in hand and are challenging for promotion for the first time in 3 seasons.  But you think we should be getting a group together to oust the people in charge that have helped achieve all this or put the club into administration. Sounds ridiculous to me.

Spot on, small clarification - the loans are from six or seven shareholders (can't remember the exact number), interest free over three years. The loss was mainly covered by cash at the start of the season (Rawlins Investment, Will Vaulks sell on fee) and in January by patrons, FSS and BFL investment. 

The previous board seem to have forecast most of this loss, but the poor performances, resultant low commercial income and pay-offs pushed it up over £1M. 

The current loss £400k loss was to be covered by selling around 1M shares and bringing in £0.50M.

They board told us all this at open meetings in May last year and communicated all along how it was progressing.

Commercial is up nearly £600k and a lot of work being done behind the scenes to improve how the club works. 

You have to take any comments in context, can't remember if it was tepid or luke warm tbf, but either side of whatever was actually said, the BoD praised the fans for stepping forward, questioned perhaps it was because there was no appetite for fan ownership which needed thousands joining (and a different model was what the majority of fans really wanted) along with a commitment that money raised from the FSS and the new scheme would go straight into the football budget, youth development etc.

If you can't be honest to shareholders, who own the club, who can you be honest to? In fact I think that's one of their duties as a director.

From where I'm sitting, there is much work to do, mistakes and missteps have been made, but not worth bothering about when compared with what went before, we have our football team back and as every games passes my faith and belief in the manager grows.

To be fair to @CapitalDiamond I understand why you posted what you did, but to fully understands it you need to be connected from around February last year when things started.

FSS have two Directors, when they are entitled to none - can't comment on how close or not the relationship to the club and the FSS is, but we've been fighting against boards for years and look what that got us. League 1 and a board that took us to the brink of receivership.

As a fan base, we need to work together, accept our differences and back the manager and his team with whatever we can afford. 

 

 

 

[LatapyBairn.]

1 hour ago, CapitalDiamond said:

Well done on your win yesterday. Falkirk looking like a proper footballing team now compared to the shambles you’ve had to endure in recent seasons.

Was reading through your AGM comments (and trying to ignore the usual tribal nonsense that followed).

I dip in and out of the Falkirk Daft podcast when FSS and the club reps come on (I make an Airdrie podcast so it’s always good to see what you guys are up to).

I’ve got a lot of respect for Falkirk fans. You’ve had a shocking run of it, but as a fan base you have stuck by your team through a rotten spell. 

The one thing which intrigues me most at the moment is that there seems to be a lack of critical thought. Everything seems a bit too cozy. Your club announce a £1.2 million loss and then at the same AGM are calling the response to FSS Luke warm.

I’d be losing it if I was in your position being spoken to like that. You’ve done your bit. Is there any more militant element of the Falkirk support who just want the decks cleared? After Hearts had all the nonsense with Romanov they had to take the hit of an administration and a points deduction to get on a more solid footing from which to build.

I really like the FFS model. For Falkirk I think it’s ideal. But, are the underlying finances of the club holding you back from being able to rebuild? It feels to me like the fans who weren’t the ones who made the terrible decisions which the board have made over the years are now being asked to carry the can for them (whatever the model was which has ended up with you not owning your main stand, making a £1.2 million loss, appointing inexperienced managers, signing Griffiths, evening signing Jordan Allan for cash - I know he scored against Kelty, but I don’t think he has any impact in the Championship if you do go up.)

The downside of FFS in my opinion is they seem to be wholly aligned with the board. On the last appearance on Falkirk Daft they glibly mentioned a short fall and that “soft loans” had to be put in. What is a soft loan? does it have to be paid back? They then call out the Council as being the problem because the rent is too high. The rent may well be high, but historically you entered into a partnership to build what looks a very high spec main stand (ours is all brick and galvanised steel where as the back of yours looks like a spaceship) and the rent is probably the clawing back of the Council’s initial investment/the result of deals done by previous boards down the years.

There are people on here saying that Falkirk don’t have any debt. Is that true after all these loss making years? I’m assuming that you didn’t have £1.2 million in the coffers to cover last year (or the £600k the year before or the £400k for this year) and so someone should be asking how you ensure long term viability rather than a room full of people nodding that the fans need to pay more under Option 4.

Option 5 might be that “Falkirk Forever” is about understanding how bad the financial predicament really is just now? With crowds of 4,000 you should be higher in the pyramid than the likes of Livi, Hamilton, Ross County and Inverness. Can someone explain to the fans how with 4000 fans, a handful of patrons chucking in 5 figures and 600 FSS contributors the club is still making hefty losses? Is there a whole load of debt which needs to be restructured via an administration in order to put you on a footing to properly compete? Is short term pain long term gain a better approach than assuming that the diehards will buy season tickets, sponsor players, join FSS and join Falkirk Forever so that more money is going in?

I’d back the Falkirk fans to do a better job after a clean break. Despite his role in the demise of my club, where is Blair Nimmo these days? He would be the perfect man to go in on behalf on a supporters group an objective view on why it’s such a disaster financially.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not sure if you’ve done it on purpose or not but you have completely misunderstood and misrepresented almost every single issue you’ve mentioned here. We have already had the clear out at board room level with the two fans groups (the patrons and the FSS) both becoming the biggest shareholder in the club and electing two directors each from a BOD of 5, you asked if the club had cash reserves to cover the loss in the previous financial year and the answer to that is yes (approximately 800k) which was obviously then squandered covering said loss aided by the Covid grant then share purchases from the patrons group and FSS. The loss in this years accounts under the new fan elected regime was forecast to be 400k and a drive was made seeking fresh investment to fund that, this money was then raised via further share purchases from fans groups giving the two groups an ever growing shareholding and also a soft loan of 145k from excising shareholders however as has already been pointed out our recent cup run and vastly improved commercial performance highlighted at the AGM in this year might we’ll actually see us turn a profit. The message from the AGM was about finding ways the club can sustain ambitious levels of spending while remaining liquid and eventually get back to the premier league, now being fan owned the onus is on us as fans to try do that, the alternative was also explained which was simply cut cut cut, this would obviously have a negative impact on the playing budget and current efforts to grow the academy but thankfully a show of hands in the room showed every fan there had the appetite to continue supporting our club in the short term to achieve a longer term sustainability, not doing this we could easily end up in the obscurity Airdrie type clubs find themselves in. Getting out of this league is massive but to give us a competitive advantage and not just simply survive growing the numbers in the FSS is crucial, other fan owned clubs of similar size or smaller were used as examples and all of them have been able to achieve far larger participation from they’re fan base than we currently have which shows there is massive scope for growth for us and that’s not to decry the FSS as it is currently , the society already ploughs nearly 100k a year into the club. Doubling or tripling those numbers (which is entirely achievable based or numbers at clubs like, Morton, St Mirren or Motherwell) would give the club an extremely solid footing long term, that’s the project the club has embarked on and with time and effort I’m sure it’ll happen.  If you are still curious here’s a link to the FSS website. https://falkirksupporters.org/

Edited February 26, 2023 by LatapyBairn.

[MrDust]

3 hours ago, FFC 1876 said:

Said it on the match thread but Wright's build up play when he came on yesterday was very good, I'm just hoping it's a case of him notching his first goal then taking off from there. 

One hopes it's similar to our Andrew Nelson loan, who did everything bar score then it started to click.

Burrell would've scored or at least hit the target with the two chances Wright has had in the last two weeks

[Blame Me]

16 minutes ago, LatapyBairn. said:

... now being fan owned the onus is on us as fans to try do that ...

Umm. When did that happen?

[LatapyBairn.]

9 minutes ago, Blame Me said:

Umm. When did that happen?

The fans are now the largest shareholders in the club, between the patrons and FSS I think it’s about a 37% shareholding now which will obviously continue to grow as the FSS accrues the shares allocated, the patrons group also has allocated shareholding that still hasn’t been taken up so that group should grow further as well provided we can find a few more generous souls prepared to part with 10k. How quickly it grows obviously depends on the society’s membership numbers and/or new patrons being found. The figures were put up in front of everyone at the AGM. 

Edited February 26, 2023 by LatapyBairn.

[CapitalDiamond]

27 minutes ago, LatapyBairn. said:

Not sure if you’ve done it on purpose or not but you have completely misunderstood and misrepresented almost every single issue you’ve mentioned here. We have already had the clear out at board room level with the two fans groups (the patrons and the FSS) both becoming the biggest shareholder in the club and electing two directors each from a BOD of 5, you asked if the club had cash reserves to cover the loss in the previous financial year and the answer to that is yes (approximately 800k) which was obviously then squandered covering said loss aided by the Covid grant then share purchases from the patrons group and FSS. The loss in this years accounts under the new fan elected regime was forecast to be 400k and a drive was made seeking fresh investment to fund that, this money was then raised via further share purchases from fans groups giving the two groups an ever growing shareholding and also a soft loan of 145k from excising shareholders however as has already been pointed out our recent cup run and vastly improved commercial performance highlighted at the AGM in this year might we’ll actually see us turn a profit. The message from the AGM was about finding ways the club can sustain ambitious levels of spending while remaining liquid and eventually get back to the premier league, now being fan owned the onus is on us as fans to try do that, the alternative was also explained which was simply cut cut cut, this would obviously have a negative impact on the playing budget and current efforts to grow the academy but thankfully a show of hands in the room showed every fan there had the appetite to continue supporting our club in the short term to achieve a longer term sustainability, not doing this we could easily end up in the obscurity Airdrie type clubs find themselves in. Getting out of this league is massive but to give us a competitive advantage and not just simply survive growing the numbers in the FSS is crucial, other fan owned clubs of similar size or smaller were used as examples and all of them have been able to achieve far larger participation from they’re fan base than we currently have which shows there is massive scope for growth for us and that’s not to decry the FSS as it is currently , the society already ploughs nearly 100k a year into the club. Doubling or tripling those numbers (which is entirely achievable based or numbers at clubs like, Morton, St Mirren or Motherwell) would give the club an extremely solid footing long term, that’s the project the club has embarked on and with time and effort I’m sure it’ll happen. 

2 of you have mentioned Airdrie when responding to my OP when this was intended to stay away from the tribal nonsense which went before.

OK if the previous board burned through £800k cash reserves then that is criminal. Why did no one at Falkirk look at the likes of Montrose or ourselves last year and see what could be done even under a “cut cut cut” approach. 
 

With your attendances that should have been (and should still be) easy to do on a bigger scale (e.g. by appointing Ian Murray 2 years ago).

If you are all comfortable that all is fine even if you don’t go up this year then who am I to comment?

[LatapyBairn.]

14 minutes ago, CapitalDiamond said:

2 of you have mentioned Airdrie when responding to my OP when this was intended to stay away from the tribal nonsense which went before.

OK if the previous board burned through £800k cash reserves then that is criminal. Why did no one at Falkirk look at the likes of Montrose or ourselves last year and see what could be done even under a “cut cut cut” approach. 
 

With your attendances that should have been (and should still be) easy to do on a bigger scale (e.g. by appointing Ian Murray 2 years ago).

If you are all comfortable that all is fine even if you don’t go up this year then who am I to comment?

What has happened in the past has happened, what’s the point of continuing to drag it up? (It’s already been analysed and done to death) We are now on a programme of fan ownership with fan elected people at the helm who have a long term plan in place. The previous regime are gone and we should be looking forward.  (Incidentally nobody thinks everything is now “fine”, we can recognise the progress made in the last year while still realising there is a lot of work to be done) 

Edited February 26, 2023 by LatapyBairn.

[Hughsie]

3 minutes ago, CapitalDiamond said:

If you are all comfortable that all is fine even if you don’t go up this year then who am I to comment?

No issue with any of your posts on this which contain some valid points but this is just made up, isn’t it?

I don’t know any Falkirk fans who think that everything in fine, regardless of whether we go up or not. If we don’t go up this season then our recovery as a club gets even more difficult.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Hughsie said:

No issue with any of your posts on this which contain some valid points but this is just made up, isn’t it?

I don’t know any Falkirk fans who think that everything in fine, regardless of whether we go up or not. If we don’t go up this season then our recovery as a club gets even more difficult.

Beating Ayr would buy everyone plenty of time especially as on the semis the OF will not be drawn against each other - as per

[Bairnardo]

4 minutes ago, Back Post Misses said:

Beating Ayr would buy everyone plenty of time especially as on the semis the OF will not be drawn against each other - as per

The same final in both cups would be as depressingly tin pot as it would be predictable. 

[PedroMoutinho]

Fantastic result and performance yesterday, which really demonstrates the improvement McGlynn has brought about. A comfortable win against a side like Airdrie just wouldn’t have happened under previous managers. 

I think the activity in the January window could prove to be huge over the rest of the season too. Rowe looks to have solved a position that’s been an issue since Kieran Duffie left the club. We have great options on the bench now too.

I do think Burrell will be understandably aggrieved to have ended up fourth choice striker but I’m sure there will be a role for him over the coming months.