Walking Down The Halbeath Road

[Salvo Montalbano]

Most rules brought into force in Scottish football are to benefit two clubs.
Our TV deal is worth £20-£30 less than the Polish league because those in charge sell it like only 4 games matter all season. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that when you treat your own “product” as sub-par, that’s the perception people will have.
Even the names of our leagues - just copying those in England - absolutely screams inferiority complex.

Well that and every game in the Polish top flight is shown live. I'm not sure I'd like it if every game in the Scottish Premiership was shown live tbh. Having every English Premier League game live during the first lockdown got pretty dull pretty quickly, especially with the weird kick off times.

[Cardle is Magic]

21 minutes ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

7 hours ago, Cardle is Magic said:

Most rules brought into force in Scottish football are to benefit two clubs.
Our TV deal is worth £20-£30 less than the Polish league because those in charge sell it like only 4 games matter all season. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that when you treat your own “product” as sub-par, that’s the perception people will have.
Even the names of our leagues - just copying those in England - absolutely screams inferiority complex.

Well that and every game in the Polish top flight is shown live. I'm not sure I'd like it if every game in the Scottish Premiership was shown live tbh. Having every English Premier League game live during the first lockdown got pretty dull pretty quickly, especially with the weird kick off times.

Other than the Sunday evening game, which of the PL matches had a weird kick-off time?

[parsforlife]

I don’t want a system like what happens in some country’s  where you have no idea when you’re likely to play most weeks.

[Stellaboz]

I don’t want a system like what happens in some country’s  where you have no idea when you’re likely to play most weeks.

Agreed. The Bundesliga is amazing but not knowing what say you're playing or when until a couple of months before is a fucking joke.

[Stoo61]

I like East End. 

[Cardle is Magic]

1 hour ago, parsforlife said:

I don’t want a system like what happens in some country’s  where you have no idea when you’re likely to play most weeks.

32 minutes ago, Stellaboz said:

1 hour ago, parsforlife said:

I don’t want a system like what happens in some country’s  where you have no idea when you’re likely to play most weeks.

Agreed. The Bundesliga is amazing but not knowing what say you're playing or when until a couple of months before is a fucking joke.

I’d happily take some fixture disruption for the £1.4 billion TV deal tbh.

[Cardle is Magic]

Just now, Stoo61 said:

I like East End. 

So do I.

It’s still too big for our purposes, other than very rare occasions.

[Stoo61]

1 minute ago, Cardle is Magic said:

So do I.

It’s still too big for our purposes, other than very rare occasions.

Tell you one thing though, a pet peeve of mine, is the photo of Norrie they used for the side of the stand....

Big, strappin' handsome adonis of a man and they chose not only a fairly poor photo of him but messy with stuff in the background n that....so many great photos to choose from, even action shots. 

Right away, 2 seconds of searching pulled up a belter. 

[Cardle is Magic]

11 minutes ago, Stoo61 said:

Tell you one thing though, a pet peeve of mine, is the photo of Norrie they used for the side of the stand....

Big, strappin' handsome adonis of a man and they chose not only a fairly poor photo of him but messy with stuff in the background n that....so many great photos to choose from, even action shots. 

Right away, 2 seconds of searching pulled up a belter. 

People talk about his leadership but they leave out that he was a rugged, sexy man.

I remember as a kid I used to pray to Norrie to help us when we were losing

Edited July 30, 2021 by Cardle is Magic

[Stoo61]

Jeezo, some boy! 

Anyway aye, get that photo changed! 

[parsforlife]

54 minutes ago, Stoo61 said:

I like East End. 

Aye. I do kinda agree it’s a bit big, but I’m not entirely sure if we’d benefit that much from it a bit smaller.  Is st mirren park that good? Are there any c8000 grounds we’re that envious of?   I’d like a standing area( though that need has been reduced since admin, with their being a bit more casual approach ) and there’s bits that could be slightly improved in terms of toilets/food , but it kinda works on principle.

 

[Cardle is Magic]

3 hours ago, parsforlife said:

Aye. I do kinda agree it’s a bit big, but I’m not entirely sure if we’d benefit that much from it a bit smaller.  Is st mirren park that good? Are there any c8000 grounds we’re that envious of?   I’d like a standing area( though that need has been reduced since admin, with their being a bit more casual approach ) and there’s bits that could be slightly improved in terms of toilets/food , but it kinda works on principle.

 

The toothpaste is out of the tube now and there’s nothing we can do about it but in hindsight we’d definitely have had a similar capacity to St Mirren.

It’s a brilliant stadium though and hopefully the new investors will give us the finance necessary to modernise and improve it.

[TheScarf]

14 hours ago, Rob1885 said:

Got our timings way off to f**k silly money at it. Or probably shouldn't have done it at all

Yep, you have to time it well. For example having County, United then Hearts in the league the last 3 seasons won’t have helped any other club. 17/18 was the last time you could go into a season with someone not already having won the league before a ball was kicked.

[Salvo Montalbano]

Other than the Sunday evening game, which of the PL matches had a weird kick-off time?

Monday (and midweek games) starting at 6.00 pm? Then games after that not kicking off til 8.05 or later. And Saturday and Sunday 7.45 kick offs. So a decent chunk. If every game in our Premiership was shown live, they wouldn't be able to play at 3pm on Saturday so we'd have to go Fri night(?), Sat lunchtime, Sat night(?), Sun lunchtime, Sun afternoon, Sun night(?), Mon night(?) but with Champions League on Tuesday/Wednesday and Europa League and Conference League on Thursdays it becomes harder again to schedule games.

[Cardle is Magic]

52 minutes ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

On 30/07/2021 at 22:38, Cardle is Magic said:

Other than the Sunday evening game, which of the PL matches had a weird kick-off time?

Monday (and midweek games) starting at 6.00 pm? Then games after that not kicking off til 8.05 or later. And Saturday and Sunday 7.45 kick offs. So a decent chunk. If every game in our Premiership was shown live, they wouldn't be able to play at 3pm on Saturday so we'd have to go Fri night(?), Sat lunchtime, Sat night(?), Sun lunchtime, Sun afternoon, Sun night(?), Mon night(?) but with Champions League on Tuesday/Wednesday and Europa League and Conference League on Thursdays it becomes harder again to schedule games.

Yeah, I’d have zero problem with that if we had a TV deal to justify it.

[parsforlife]

26 minutes ago, Cardle is Magic said:

Yeah, I’d have zero problem with that if we had a TV deal to justify it.

I’d hate it.

I know it might make the quality on the pitch a bit better. But that’s not worth it.  The things I love about scottish football would definitely be impacted by the removal of 3pm Saturday being standard.

 

 

[Cardle is Magic]

17 minutes ago, parsforlife said:

I’d hate it.

I know it might make the quality on the pitch a bit better. But that’s not worth it.  The things I love about scottish football would definitely be impacted by the removal of 3pm Saturday being standard.

Lower leagues would still be 3pm on a Saturday, so it’s not like we’d have to worry about it…

[DA Baracus]

Not been posting recently and won't be for a while (still read the forum occasionally), but wanted to comment on a couple of things.

Firstly, yesterday's performance was really poor and really concerning. Peter Grant was talking about challenging for the league. Not with those sort of performances we won't be. A very disappointing and disheartening start to the league season. We had an almost full squad and a decent bench. There are no excuses for turning in that sort of utter dross. Grant talks a good game, but he needs to back that up. 

Secondly, and more importantly, questions need to be asked of the club regarding finances. Last season will surely have seen a big loss due to income not being close to matching outgoings, for obvious reasons. Add to this the bad news about having to replace the floodlights, and it needs to be asked how the club are affording things like 2 year deals for Dorrans, especially when the club have said they are running behind on the season ticket budget. Perhaps the German investors have 'plugged the gap', but that's information we need to know. The club should not be in a position again where they are paying out more than they are getting in, and being behind on season ticket budget strongly implies that they are. I'm also concerned that they are surprised at the season ticket sales. To me, and others, it seemed pretty obvious that sales would be way down, due to the COVID situation and due to the appointment of Grant. Those who made the decision to appoint Grant should have been prepared for the consequences, and that they aren't suggests an alarming disconnect between them and the fanbase. Season ticket sales had been steadily falling before COVID anyway, and history shows that it is very hard to get those fans back; usually you don't.

I think the club need to answer questions about the finances, as there are glaring issues from the outside. That they had to rely on director loans very recently was alarming and, frankly, not acceptable. How is the club being funded now? How are they meeting the running costs and player and staff wages now? How is this floodlight replacement being funded? How is the gap from being behind on season ticket sales being funded? Without answers, there is only speculation.

I'm surprised that there haven't been more questions about this. Hopefully fans aren't getting complacent. 

 

A lighter end; this article was an absolutely lovely and moving read: https://dafc.co.uk/story.php?t=A_Once_A_Year_Love_with_Dunfermline_Athletic_Football_Club&ID=13252

[Rob1885]

Not been posting recently and won't be for a while (still read the forum occasionally), but wanted to comment on a couple of things.
Firstly, yesterday's performance was really poor and really concerning. Peter Grant was talking about challenging for the league. Not with those sort of performances we won't be. A very disappointing and disheartening start to the league season. We had an almost full squad and a decent bench. There are no excuses for turning in that sort of utter dross. Grant talks a good game, but he needs to back that up. 
Secondly, and more importantly, questions need to be asked of the club regarding finances. Last season will surely have seen a big loss due to income not being close to matching outgoings, for obvious reasons. Add to this the bad news about having to replace the floodlights, and it needs to be asked how the club are affording things like 2 year deals for Dorrans, especially when the club have said they are running behind on the season ticket budget. Perhaps the German investors have 'plugged the gap', but that's information we need to know. The club should not be in a position again where they are paying out more than they are getting in, and being behind on season ticket budget strongly implies that they are. I'm also concerned that they are surprised at the season ticket sales. To me, and others, it seemed pretty obvious that sales would be way down, due to the COVID situation and due to the appointment of Grant. Those who made the decision to appoint Grant should have been prepared for the consequences, and that they aren't suggests an alarming disconnect between them and the fanbase. Season ticket sales had been steadily falling before COVID anyway, and history shows that it is very hard to get those fans back; usually you don't.
I think the club need to answer questions about the finances, as there are glaring issues from the outside. That they had to rely on director loans very recently was alarming and, frankly, not acceptable. How is the club being funded now? How are they meeting the running costs and player and staff wages now? How is this floodlight replacement being funded? How is the gap from being behind on season ticket sales being funded? Without answers, there is only speculation.
I'm surprised that there haven't been more questions about this. Hopefully fans aren't getting complacent. 
 
A lighter end; this article was an absolutely lovely and moving read: https://dafc.co.uk/story.php?t=A_Once_A_Year_Love_with_Dunfermline_Athletic_Football_Club&ID=13252

Never watched it yesterday so can't comment on the performance. I'm not going to jump the gun based on one result though and a notoriously difficult place for us to go.

Regarding your 2nd point, you've every right to raise those concerns. I'll never agree with the club in terms of the way they spend their money ever again I dont think.

[parsforlife]

46 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

Not been posting recently and won't be for a while (still read the forum occasionally), but wanted to comment on a couple of things.

Firstly, yesterday's performance was really poor and really concerning. Peter Grant was talking about challenging for the league. Not with those sort of performances we won't be. A very disappointing and disheartening start to the league season. We had an almost full squad and a decent bench. There are no excuses for turning in that sort of utter dross. Grant talks a good game, but he needs to back that up. 

Secondly, and more importantly, questions need to be asked of the club regarding finances. Last season will surely have seen a big loss due to income not being close to matching outgoings, for obvious reasons. Add to this the bad news about having to replace the floodlights, and it needs to be asked how the club are affording things like 2 year deals for Dorrans, especially when the club have said they are running behind on the season ticket budget. Perhaps the German investors have 'plugged the gap', but that's information we need to know. The club should not be in a position again where they are paying out more than they are getting in, and being behind on season ticket budget strongly implies that they are. I'm also concerned that they are surprised at the season ticket sales. To me, and others, it seemed pretty obvious that sales would be way down, due to the COVID situation and due to the appointment of Grant. Those who made the decision to appoint Grant should have been prepared for the consequences, and that they aren't suggests an alarming disconnect between them and the fanbase. Season ticket sales had been steadily falling before COVID anyway, and history shows that it is very hard to get those fans back; usually you don't.

I think the club need to answer questions about the finances, as there are glaring issues from the outside. That they had to rely on director loans very recently was alarming and, frankly, not acceptable. How is the club being funded now? How are they meeting the running costs and player and staff wages now? How is this floodlight replacement being funded? How is the gap from being behind on season ticket sales being funded? Without answers, there is only speculation.

I'm surprised that there haven't been more questions about this. Hopefully fans aren't getting complacent. 

 

A lighter end; this article was an absolutely lovely and moving read: https://dafc.co.uk/story.php?t=A_Once_A_Year_Love_with_Dunfermline_Athletic_Football_Club&ID=13252

Credit to you for being ever vigilant, it’s something we need to do as fans. 

I’m not sure on how our summer has gone, tho clearly the money needs to come from somewhere.  We did get some money towards the floodlights last year but I think that was for the initial work and not the underlying issues that have been uncovered. I do wonder if some of the expected rangers cash has been used to get the dorrans deal over the line.

I’m not that convinced last season would have been that bad for us TBH.  We had decent season ticket sales and prize money, etc wasn’t likely to take much of a drop.  The grant money received was rather generous and with other sources of money coming in that we wouldn’t normally get(James Anderson cash, furlough...) and some costs not occurring (stewards etc)

It’s going to be a bit difficult to track things over the next while,  losses are to be expected under the new ownership and it’s not going to be that easy to see how much they put in to cover them, and when you start to stray into dangerous territory.