1320Lichtie Posted August 18, 2022 Share Posted August 18, 2022 9 minutes ago, TheScarf said: A 2 year deal is a huge gamble for a guy with health issues but a great one if it pays off. Watched this earlier today Good listen for Arbroath fans now to understand what the guys gone through. Sounds like a heart condition that a small number of professional athletes deal with. Scott says thankfully it is very mild and the main symptoms he got were dizzy spells. After seeing a specialist he knows how to manage it and says it shouldn’t be a problem. He has also had it for his entire career without knowing. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derry Alli Posted August 18, 2022 Share Posted August 18, 2022 I can't see him sticking around for two years but, genuinely, savour every fucking second. The laddie is/was a step ahead of most in the top flight. It was embarrassing watching him pick the perfect pass and having gormless strikers try run the opposite way into congestion. The floppy haired magician. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludo*1 Posted August 18, 2022 Share Posted August 18, 2022 Adam Rooney feeding off Nicky Low and Scott Allan would lead to an absolute barrel load of goals. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellichtie Posted August 18, 2022 Share Posted August 18, 2022 On 17/08/2022 at 19:54, timlichtie said: Holmes was pretty big Holmes was an absolute baller. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farflung lichtie Posted August 19, 2022 Share Posted August 19, 2022 On 18/08/2022 at 07:43, 1320Lichtie said: I’ve been going blue in the face trying to tell everyone how good the club are doing off the park for years. Effectively a mid tier championship level club in terms of infrastructure but only having to pay a PT playing budget An amazing transformation has taken place - with the community and business sides being maximised to match the upturn on the playing side. Admirable but I sometimes wonder how sustainable. I have been amazed at how much revenue the club can squeeze out of a not-very-large and relatively deprived town/population on an ongoing basis (selling 3 replica strips every year etc. ..gobsmacked at the recent Captains hospitality package) since the brand must have only limited export capacity to markets farther afield (eg Dundee, Montrose). How much are the two other streams linked to relative success on the pitch? And success on the pitch will be an annual struggle with management and playing squad in the mature phase and ever-ambitious competition (from larger clubs/catchments or sugar-daddy sponsored outfits). The impressive aspect is that the club is building/exploiting its potential (and the latent support) and building this in a fairly businesslike and even creative way, hence apparently sound but nothing is bulletproof. The downside is how sustainable and resilient. I also note some trivial mutter that there is inevitably more focus on nurturing the customers as opposed to football stuff so getting the balance right can be tricky (having said that, I can also see some yet untapped commercial opportunities remaining). As usual, the mantra is - enjoy it while it lasts. After decades in the wilderness, we deserve this…. and I’m looking forward to us consolidating our place in this league with 8th place being the primary aim. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tattie36 Posted August 19, 2022 Share Posted August 19, 2022 29 minutes ago, farflung lichtie said: An amazing transformation has taken place - with the community and business sides being maximised to match the upturn on the playing side. Admirable but I sometimes wonder how sustainable. I have been amazed at how much revenue the club can squeeze out of a not-very-large and relatively deprived town/population on an ongoing basis (selling 3 replica strips every year etc. ..gobsmacked at the recent Captains hospitality package) since the brand must have only limited export capacity to markets farther afield (eg Dundee, Montrose). How much are the two other streams linked to relative success on the pitch? And success on the pitch will be an annual struggle with management and playing squad in the mature phase and ever-ambitious competition (from larger clubs/catchments or sugar-daddy sponsored outfits). The impressive aspect is that the club is building/exploiting its potential (and the latent support) and building this in a fairly businesslike and even creative way, hence apparently sound but nothing is bulletproof. The downside is how sustainable and resilient. I also note some trivial mutter that there is inevitably more focus on nurturing the customers as opposed to football stuff so getting the balance right can be tricky (having said that, I can also see some yet untapped commercial opportunities remaining). As usual, the mantra is - enjoy it while it lasts. After decades in the wilderness, we deserve this…. and I’m looking forward to us consolidating our place in this league with 8th place being the primary aim. Bang on. Anyone who has supported Arbroath for any length of time realises we’re in a golden era for the club. IMO It started back with our first league title in 2011 which got that monkey of our back. Obviously there have been downs since then but the general trend has been extremely positive. I still have to pinch myself at times to convince myself that this is really happening. If someone had told me, even 5 short years ago, that we would sell around 1400 season tickets and be looking at crowds of 2000 for run of the mill league games, I would have laughed at them. I am realistic enough (I’m sure most of us are) to understand that this is unlikely to last but the initiatives that the club have put in place - on and off the pitch - should ensure that we have a healthy future. Getting kids hooked early is the key, they literally are the future of the club. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tattie36 Posted August 19, 2022 Share Posted August 19, 2022 Wow, club just announced OVER 1400 season tickets now sold. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveTheLichtie Posted August 19, 2022 Share Posted August 19, 2022 10 minutes ago, Tattie36 said: Wow, club just announced OVER 1400 season tickets now sold. Pretty crazy. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1320Lichtie Posted August 19, 2022 Share Posted August 19, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, farflung lichtie said: An amazing transformation has taken place - with the community and business sides being maximised to match the upturn on the playing side. Admirable but I sometimes wonder how sustainable. I have been amazed at how much revenue the club can squeeze out of a not-very-large and relatively deprived town/population on an ongoing basis (selling 3 replica strips every year etc. ..gobsmacked at the recent Captains hospitality package) since the brand must have only limited export capacity to markets farther afield (eg Dundee, Montrose). How much are the two other streams linked to relative success on the pitch? And success on the pitch will be an annual struggle with management and playing squad in the mature phase and ever-ambitious competition (from larger clubs/catchments or sugar-daddy sponsored outfits). The impressive aspect is that the club is building/exploiting its potential (and the latent support) and building this in a fairly businesslike and even creative way, hence apparently sound but nothing is bulletproof. The downside is how sustainable and resilient. I also note some trivial mutter that there is inevitably more focus on nurturing the customers as opposed to football stuff so getting the balance right can be tricky (having said that, I can also see some yet untapped commercial opportunities remaining). As usual, the mantra is - enjoy it while it lasts. After decades in the wilderness, we deserve this…. and I’m looking forward to us consolidating our place in this league with 8th place being the primary aim. Aye but again you can also over analyse it which I think you are maybe doing here, for example Arbroath is probably overall a reasonably well off Scottish town, think deprived is a bit much I think we are very much run of the mill and standard for Scotland. Population thing not really a problem either for me all sorts of factors play into that and it has been discussed to death but when you look at the bigger population areas and towns they are basically all in and around Glasgow and the central belt who have a whole lot more OF fans than we do. East Kilbride, Stirling, Coatbridge, Hamilton, Airdrie etc there’s so many places like that. Somewhere like Glenrothes probably the massive outlier in being a very big place away from the Greater Glasgow area with no football team. Arbroath is a reasonable sized place Enjoy where we are now 100 percent but also what’s happened recently should really bring a sustained period of being in a really good place (in Arbroath terms) and relative success going forward (staying in this division mainly) will prolong that too Edited August 19, 2022 by 1320Lichtie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smokerson Posted August 19, 2022 Share Posted August 19, 2022 I don't really like the whole "enjoy it whilst it lasts" mindset. I would think there would be succession planning with the playing squad as players like Linn/Thomson inevitably come to an end, the rest are fine. Would think most clubs will have a couple of players in their mid 30s so not any different. With the age of the manager you'd imagine the chairman/board would be thinking about that also. The benefit of 1400 season ticket holders is we are then in a position to then do what no other part time club (or very few) can do and that is sign a player the calibre of a Scott Allan. I suppose the major question is how long can we continue to keep that amount of people engaged enough to buy a season ticket, hospitality day, strips etc etc. I would say as long as the team is performing in the top half of the league then its achievable. There is no doubt, that the town have really backed the club and we have also benefitted from the fact that full time football outside of the top flight in Scotland is now not as attractive as it once was hence some top players choosing to either go down south or go part time and seek another career. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superbigal Posted August 19, 2022 Share Posted August 19, 2022 2 hours ago, farflung lichtie said: An amazing transformation has taken place - with the community and business sides being maximised to match the upturn on the playing side. Admirable but I sometimes wonder how sustainable. I have been amazed at how much revenue the club can squeeze out of a not-very-large and relatively deprived town/population on an ongoing basis (selling 3 replica strips every year etc. ..gobsmacked at the recent Captains hospitality package) since the brand must have only limited export capacity to markets farther afield (eg Dundee, Montrose). How much are the two other streams linked to relative success on the pitch? And success on the pitch will be an annual struggle with management and playing squad in the mature phase and ever-ambitious competition (from larger clubs/catchments or sugar-daddy sponsored outfits). The impressive aspect is that the club is building/exploiting its potential (and the latent support) and building this in a fairly businesslike and even creative way, hence apparently sound but nothing is bulletproof. The downside is how sustainable and resilient. I also note some trivial mutter that there is inevitably more focus on nurturing the customers as opposed to football stuff so getting the balance right can be tricky (having said that, I can also see some yet untapped commercial opportunities remaining). As usual, the mantra is - enjoy it while it lasts. After decades in the wilderness, we deserve this…. and I’m looking forward to us consolidating our place in this league with 8th place being the primary aim. As an outsider (Old man is a Season ticket holder so I make the odd game), I assume this is mainly down to Paul Reid. That seems like one of your best ever signings for me. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledLichtie Posted August 19, 2022 Share Posted August 19, 2022 1 hour ago, Tattie36 said: Bang on. Anyone who has supported Arbroath for any length of time realises we’re in a golden era for the club. IMO It started back with our first league title in 2011 which got that monkey of our back. Obviously there have been downs since then but the general trend has been extremely positive. I still have to pinch myself at times to convince myself that this is really happening. If someone had told me, even 5 short years ago, that we would sell around 1400 season tickets and be looking at crowds of 2000 for run of the mill league games, I would have laughed at them. I am realistic enough (I’m sure most of us are) to understand that this is unlikely to last but the initiatives that the club have put in place - on and off the pitch - should ensure that we have a healthy future. Getting kids hooked early is the key, they literally are the future of the club. That is the key thing. The money we are making now is money that we can bank some of. The stadium repairs and improvements we are making are sustainable and mean further savings in the future, not that we arent even saying repairs any more. They are upgrades! Also, we never had that much of a "casual" fanbase. When we won our first league title against Montrose, we had a bit over 1100 there, if I recall rightly. All those people that have been to their first match in the last year or two might well not stick around, bit because they have been before and they know what a game is like, in future big games, they are more likely to come along. So we've grown the glory hunters, as well as hooking kids at a young age. Also, lets not forget the hipsters. We all know the type, the people who have subscriptions to the athletic and spend altogether too much time discussing the merits of the Mexican second tier. We're in the hipster consciousness now. Somewhere there will be some German with overly groomed facial hair and a wall full of Arbroath merch, telling his friends to forget Bayern, the Scottish second tier is where its really at. Basically, even if the revenue dried up tomorrow, we're a bigger club than we were, and we will feel the benefit for decades! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tattie36 Posted August 19, 2022 Share Posted August 19, 2022 10 minutes ago, ExiledLichtie said: … Also, we never had that much of a "casual" fanbase. When we won our first league title against Montrose, we had a bit over 1100 there, if I recall rightly… For some reason the attendance at that game was misreported in some places. The actual “official” attendance was something like 2300 although it felt like a good bit more. If you watch videos, it’s rammed behind the goals. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledLichtie Posted August 19, 2022 Share Posted August 19, 2022 11 minutes ago, Tattie36 said: For some reason the attendance at that game was misreported in some places. The actual “official” attendance was something like 2300 although it felt like a good bit more. If you watch videos, it’s rammed behind the goals. That's true. I was there too, and although there was plenty of space in the stadium, it did feel like more than the reported crowd. But if there was a league decider match against Montrose now, you would barely be able to move in Gayfield. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1320Lichtie Posted August 19, 2022 Share Posted August 19, 2022 54 minutes ago, Smokerson said: I don't really like the whole "enjoy it whilst it lasts" mindset. I would think there would be succession planning with the playing squad as players like Linn/Thomson inevitably come to an end, the rest are fine. Would think most clubs will have a couple of players in their mid 30s so not any different. With the age of the manager you'd imagine the chairman/board would be thinking about that also. The benefit of 1400 season ticket holders is we are then in a position to then do what no other part time club (or very few) can do and that is sign a player the calibre of a Scott Allan. I suppose the major question is how long can we continue to keep that amount of people engaged enough to buy a season ticket, hospitality day, strips etc etc. I would say as long as the team is performing in the top half of the league then its achievable. There is no doubt, that the town have really backed the club and we have also benefitted from the fact that full time football outside of the top flight in Scotland is now not as attractive as it once was hence some top players choosing to either go down south or go part time and seek another career. 100 percent Farflung makes a lot of good posts but I feel like you’re maybe always just a bit tooo pessimistic @farflung lichtie Even if it gets worse from here worse would probably still more than likely be 1000 plus season tickets Jim Spence and the guys on the courier podcast made some great points it’s worth listening too, the last 12 minutes of it, they described it as tapping into not a sleeping giant but a medium sized one. It’s all well and good banging on about certain things but the reality is myself and many others thought Championship football was and should’ve been achievable ages ago. When the big games came around we’d get 1800 home fans for a Montrose game and there’d be average crowds of nearly 800 even when not going great in L2 etc. I am happy if the club continue to do their best, no matter what happens on the park. It’s all you can ask. I don’t feel like we were doing our best under the previous chairman and that’s not a dig at him I feel like clubs all over the country were the same when the leagues were a closed shop 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1320Lichtie Posted August 19, 2022 Share Posted August 19, 2022 22 minutes ago, Tattie36 said: For some reason the attendance at that game was misreported in some places. The actual “official” attendance was something like 2300 although it felt like a good bit more. If you watch videos, it’s rammed behind the goals. Yeah it was 2413 not 1243 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1320Lichtie Posted August 19, 2022 Share Posted August 19, 2022 https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/football/3607204/arbroath-new-signing-dick-campbell-possible-departures/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social still wanting two strikers and also players will be leaving Scott Allan also mentioned that he wanted to transition into part time football on the open goal podcast so hopefully all going well he will be here as long as DC is here 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tattie36 Posted August 19, 2022 Share Posted August 19, 2022 26 minutes ago, 1320Lichtie said: https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/football/3607204/arbroath-new-signing-dick-campbell-possible-departures/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social still wanting two strikers and also players will be leaving Scott Allan also mentioned that he wanted to transition into part time football on the open goal podcast so hopefully all going well he will be here as long as DC is here I wonder who could be potentially leaving? The only obvious ones would be Donnelly and Hilson although we know they’re rated by Dick Campbell. Can also see Paterson going out on loan again although I would like to keep him as he’s definitely got great potential. Don’t think there’s anyone else that I would be happy with leaving. How are the current contracts? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1320Lichtie Posted August 19, 2022 Share Posted August 19, 2022 1 minute ago, Tattie36 said: I wonder who could be potentially leaving? The only obvious ones would be Donnelly and Hilson although we know they’re rated by Dick Campbell. Can also see Paterson going out on loan again although I would like to keep him as he’s definitely got great potential. Don’t think there’s anyone else that I would be happy with leaving. How are the current contracts? Paterson 100 percent be on loan Then I am thinking LD or Hilson too cause he mentioned that there’ll be guys knowing they’re not going to play. And they 2 are probably the only ones One of the strikers will not be Adam Rooney he has signed for some made up team down south 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clashcityrocker Posted August 19, 2022 Share Posted August 19, 2022 Lets hope Nicky Low is not leaving, as he is without doubt one of our key players. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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