Sons' sorrow

[FairWeatherFan]

11 minutes ago, PWL said:

Surely there are cheaper Astros available from WoSL sides closer to their geographic 'home' at a much cheaper rate.

Maybe, but not sure how many would meet the licencing standards. They've also not made many friends in the old Junior world with how they left Maryhill. Many already have multiple teams playing there for those known to be licenced Clydebank/Yoker and Benburb/St Cadoc's. Surprised their mates in the Lowland like Braves & East Kilbride have taken them on at some point.

I think Broomhill have targeted SPFL grounds with the idea of protection against increasing licencing standards.

[Francesc Fabregas]

8 minutes ago, FairWeatherFan said:

Maybe, but not sure how many would meet the licencing standards. They've also not made many friends in the old Junior world with how they left Maryhill. Many already have multiple teams playing there for those known to be licenced Clydebank/Yoker and Benburb/St Cadoc's. Surprised their mates in the Lowland like Braves & East Kilbride have taken them on at some point.

I think Broomhill have targeted SPFL grounds with the idea of protection against increasing licencing standards.

I've read this a few times but I'm not sure exactly what happened - what were the circumstances around BSC Glasgow's departure from Maryhill and why did it leave a bad taste?

[FairWeatherFan]

15 minutes ago, Francesc Fabregas said:

I've read this a few times but I'm not sure exactly what happened - what were the circumstances around BSC Glasgow's departure from Maryhill and why did it leave a bad taste?

One of those things that's become legend with the details being lost or never fully known publicly. Below by @Hillonearth might be the best summary of some of the details that happened.

On 14/09/2017 at 19:16, Hillonearth said:

Fair enough then if that's what you really want...I should stress that these are my personal recollections of the sequence of events and as such are Maryhill-centric, although I imagine they'll ring more true to the impartial observer than some of the assertations earlier in the thread.

The first season BSC were model tenants and to be fair we didn't have any problems with them at all...the only criticism would be their initial misrepresentation of exactly how many home games they'd be playing, although that may have been naivete on their part in not realising the amount of cups they were obligated to compete in. Relations were sufficiently cordial that they invited some of our committee members on to theirs - no takers though - you have to have an affinity for a club to want to take on that role.

There was some initial sounding us out of the possibility of an actual merger...we did give it some degree of consideration to be fair, but came down on the side of saying no. Frankly, there wasn't enough in it for us, we have 130+ years of history as an independent club and were unwilling to give that up and we'd also have been left very much junior partners in the enterprise (forgive the pun) with second call on our own ground, which perhaps was the BSC endgame all along...you'd need to answer that one.  Our long term future were this to happen also was far from clear...anyone remember Spartans Juniors?

The first close season was a bit of a comedy of errors...as we freely admit, the pitch required urgent attention which we wanted to address as soon as possible. BSC "knew a guy who could fix it" however, so we waited. And waited. Finally, said guy showed up about two or three weeks prior to the start of the season and proceeded to drive something that apparently looked like an armoured personnel carrier over the park doing more harm than good, leaving us to patch it up as best we could before the start of the season...obviously the lack of work on it over the close season meant it was even worse the following season. As alluded to, postponements piled up for both sides the next season, though being lectured to about the state of your ground by a side that's never owned or had to maintain one is a bit like being criticised for your fashion sense by a pish stained jakey.

At any rate, the second season was where things unravelled. Once we'd made it clear that there was to be no merger (and no first call for them on the ground?), it became progressively more difficult to extract their end of the deal from them, to the point we were ready to lock the gates and flip the lights off an hour prior to one of their midweek games unless they fronted some of it up. 

And then they were gone. Owing.

As I said, it eventually went to SFA arbitration - several meetings actually, as they were cavalier enough not to show up for the first couple. They tried every trick they could think of to get out of the contract they'd signed .including attempting to make out that we were prevented by our terms of occupation of Lochburn from subletting it, and thus they couldn't possibly owe us. False obviously and proven so by a letter from a certain Crown Dependency.

And that comes back to why they're playing in Alloa. Closer to Glasgow, the juniors are really the only game in town if you're looking for a groundshare that isn't prohibitively expensive for the crowds they attract, and it's unlikely in the extreme any side would entertain them as a tenant after our experiences - and also those of Ashfield, who they walked out on without kicking a ball - word's out.

And that's "what it is" - sometimes you should be careful what you wish for.

 

 

 

[PWL]

Cheers @FairWeatherFan

Now who in their right mind would get into bed with a set up like that...... Oh. 

[Silverton End]

1 hour ago, O'Kelly Isley III said:

I honestly think that's at the wilder end of the spectrum, but rather than you, me or anyone else posting stuff on here I think it would benefit DFC if they announced much more detail of what is obviously a pretty significant arrangement extending over five years.

For example, what assurance is there that we won't be repeating the cancellation disasters of this season ?  Is there some sort of joint commitment to an artificial pitch ?  Will DFC U-17 and U-18 players continue their development at Broomhill ?  

There's a lot of aspects and some concerns to this, and the club telling us more would be helpful.

 

44 minutes ago, PWL said:

Afraid my cynical nature tends more towards @Silverton End

For the life of me I cannot see why a tiny LL team with a support numbered in the dozens would pay to leave Glasgow to rent a League ground that has a reputation (deserved) for having probably the worst pitch in the professional leagues.

Surely there are cheaper Astros available from WoSL sides closer to their geographic 'home' at a much cheaper rate. 

At best, we've grabbed at an offer of cold hard cash coming in for 5 years without much thought. I find that doubtful though.

Too much just doesn't add up. And the radio silence you mention doesn't exactly help either. 

I just think that nothing is out of the question, regarding our dodgy owner.

Would be great if this ground share brought us a 4g surface to play on & the chance to earn from hiring it out to the wider community, helping secure our future but.....Mr A Hosie probably doesn't.

 

[Silverton End]

16 minutes ago, FairWeatherFan said:

One of those things that's become legend with the details being lost or never fully known publicly. Below by @Hillonearth might be the best summary of some of the details that happened.

 

Thanks for posting that.

[lorenzo71]

30 minutes ago, Silverton End said:

 

I just think that nothing is out of the question, regarding our dodgy owner.

Would be great if this ground share brought us a 4g surface to play on & the chance to earn from hiring it out to the wider community, helping secure our future but.....Mr A Hosie probably doesn't.

 

Its the one thing that could be done that would make me give this the thumbs up.A 4G pitch would solve a lot of problems but installing it will be very expensive given some of this issues with the ground.

Like you said lets see what happens but im not holding my breath.

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

Well that certainly makes all the conspiracy theories seem a little less unrealistic.

Neil MacKay has to go. He is not fit for purpose. When we are already having to deal with the ownership situation the last thing we need is a clueless chairman who is saft as shite. Someone swan into that boardroom and usurp the c**t before it’s too late.

[microdave]

Seems like Broomhill and Andy Hosie are the perfect match. Which is extremely worrying for us.

[lorenzo71]

19 minutes ago, Bring Back Paddy Flannery said:

Well that certainly makes all the conspiracy theories seem a little less unrealistic.

Neil MacKay has to go. He is not fit for purpose. When we are already having to deal with the ownership situation the last thing we need is a clueless chairman who is saft as shite. Someone swan into that boardroom and usurp the c**t before it’s too late.

Just because something is conspiratorial doesnt mean its unrealistic.It all depends who is involved.With us Its Andrew Hosie and his track record stinks to the heavens.Therefore we should be worried.

As for replacing Mckay I think almost all serious fans would agree about that.But who could replace him and how could it be done?

[Greenmachine]

2 hours ago, PWL said:

Afraid my cynical nature tends more towards @Silverton End

For the life of me I cannot see why a tiny LL team with a support numbered in the dozens would pay to leave Glasgow to rent a League ground that has a reputation (deserved) for having probably the worst pitch in the professional leagues.

Surely there are cheaper Astros available from WoSL sides closer to their geographic 'home' at a much cheaper rate. 

At best, we've grabbed at an offer of cold hard cash coming in for 5 years without much thought. I find that doubtful though.

Too much just doesn't add up. And the radio silence you mention doesn't exactly help either. 

It has to be a licensed ground for Broomhill to be able to play in the LL.

There’s also the fact that they didn’t leave Maryhill on very good terms,the SFA were involved afaik

Edited June 2, 2023 by Greenmachine

[Frank Quitely]

1 hour ago, FairWeatherFan said:

One of those things that's become legend with the details being lost or never fully known publicly. Below by @Hillonearth might be the best summary of some of the details that happened.

 

Wow, that's pretty sober reading.  It looks like whoever runs Broomhill has watched one of these David Attenborough wildlife programmes and has then looked around the lower league herd for a suitably stricken beast.  That seldom ends well for the latter.

[microdave]

1 hour ago, lorenzo71 said:

Just because something is conspiratorial doesnt mean its unrealistic.It all depends who is involved.With us Its Andrew Hosie and his track record stinks to the heavens.Therefore we should be worried.

As for replacing Mckay I think almost all serious fans would agree about that.But who could replace him and how could it be done?

A little less unrealistic is a double negative. Bbpf is saying it's closer to reality now and looks like you both agree on this.

[Dumbarton Rock]

Well I can't see you getting a 4g pitch this year, your summer work was done today so can't see them ripping it up now. Interesting to see Carrick Sports have been binned and Gavin Irons done the work. That's the first time he's been back since I left. 

[Sons fan 1872]

Hopefully some more signing news this week? With I think pre season starting a week on Tuesday 

[The Moonster]

3 hours ago, lorenzo71 said:

Just because something is conspiratorial doesnt mean its unrealistic.It all depends who is involved.With us Its Andrew Hosie and his track record stinks to the heavens.Therefore we should be worried.

As for replacing Mckay I think almost all serious fans would agree about that.But who could replace him and how could it be done?

There's a few people who have walked away from official positions in recent years who would be perfectly fine on the board/as chairman. As for how we remove MacKay? We don't really have any power there. It requires Hosie to get rid of him or MacKay to walk himself. 

[Jordo1872]

5 hours ago, FairWeatherFan said:

One of those things that's become legend with the details being lost or never fully known publicly. Below by @Hillonearth might be the best summary of some of the details that happened.

 

That’s a very sobering read and raises once again the question of due diligence by our board prior to entering into contractual agreements. Given the recent history around the loss of stadium sponsorship I’d be pretty dismayed if we have entered another contract without doing suitable due diligence on the other party. If that has been done, it raises further questions over the decision making at the club given the account given by FWF. If it hasn’t, it’s a worrying in equal measures.

All in all not great at all and some serious cause for concern to add to the overarching ownership issue. WDC planning are due to respond to the recent planning application w/c 12th June. I suggest Sons fans pencil that date in the diary and get prepared for any fireworks that may follow.

[O'Kelly Isley III]

I was willing to give this arrangement the benefit of the doubt but I'll now put hands up and say that based on today's evidence here I have the real fear over it.  And judging by what the Maryhill guys experienced five months might prove a stretch never mind five years.

Broomhill appear to have been consistently unreliable tenants so presumably this could have been known before any negotiations commenced.  And that line about 'we know a guy' in the context of pitch maintenance really has alarm bells ringing.  There's only so many times you can cite the 'referee's decision' for call-offs when your pitch is looking like a midden.

You're tempted to ask why, but I think we all know the answer to that.  Assured income or fool's gold, take your pick.

[Francesc Fabregas]

Was there any bother between BSC Glasgow and Alloa Athletic when they shared Recreation Park?

[the snudge]

4 hours ago, Dumbarton Rock said:

Well I can't see you getting a 4g pitch this year, your summer work was done today so can't see them ripping it up now. Interesting to see Carrick Sports have been binned and Gavin Irons done the work. That's the first time he's been back since I left. 

Need you back in! Pitch had never looked better!