2018/19 Challenge Cup

[Bohemian]

Just now, RedLichtie86 said:

1 minute ago, Bohemian said:

For this reason I hope we get a home tie, cause we are skint, probably get Ross County away:thumbsdown How much do the winners get?

A crate of Irn Bru and a signed picture of Cockwomble doing his best Burt Reynolds by the fireplace pose.

Nae c**t drinks Irn Bru in Dublin, we couldn't give it away, but a signed picture of Cockwombe, priceless....

[bendan]

24 minutes ago, Hedgecutter said:

Even with the £3k given from the SPFL, the Pars supposedly made a loss of £8k today due to transport/accommodation etc etc and even had the early KO organised to avoid a second night. If any team from your suggested areas had that same draw as today then it would most probably kill them. 

So Dunfermline spent 11k to play a match in London? How?

 

[Hedgecutter]

14 minutes ago, bendan said:

So Dunfermline spent 11k to play a match in London? How?

 

Even at the most basic (Megabus booked on the day of the draw aside) you'd struggle to get to London with an overnight stay for less than £250.  20 people at that is £5k alone, so you're making a loss already. 

[Bully Wee Villa]

1 hour ago, Marten said:

Agreed. I'd quite like this to become a UK/Ireland semi pro competition (ok, there are full time sides in the Scottish Championship & English National League, but still). Say take the 30 lower division SPFL sides + HL/LL + Wales + ROI + NI + National League = 124 teams. Either give out 4 byes or add some teams like representatives from Isle of Man, Orkney, Shetland & Western Isles to make it 128. Could be a very interesting tournament.

I'd go similar but not so many teams. My choice would be a straight 64 team knockout. 30 Scottish League clubs, top four Highland, top four Lowland, top dozen English Conference, top four Ireland, top four Northern Ireland, top four Wales, champions of Gibraltar and winner of a playoff between fifth placed teams in Highland and Lowland. 

And fix the draw so Clyde are at Solihull Moors, pretty please. 

Edited September 8, 2018 by Bully Wee Villa

[bendan]

5 minutes ago, Hedgecutter said:

Even at the most basic (Megabus booked on the day of the draw aside) you'd struggle to get to London with an overnight stay for less than £250.  20 people at that is £5k alone, so you're making a loss already. 

Players share rooms, and you don't need to stay in central London, or London at all. I also thought the SPFL were giving more than 3k for cross border trips. Spending 11k + implies quite a luxurious trip.

[Nowhereman]

I'd go similar but not so many teams. My choice would be a straight 64 team knockout. 30 Scottish League clubs, top four Highland, top four Lowland, top dozen English Conference, top four Ireland, top four Northern Ireland, top four Wales, champions of Gibraltar and winner of a playoff between fifth placed teams in Highland and Lowland. 
And fix the draw so Clyde are at Solihull Moors, pretty please. 

I wouldn't have so many teams either. In fact none would be my preference

[Skyline Drifter]

33 minutes ago, bendan said:

So Dunfermline spent 11k to play a match in London? How?

They flew. Which is pretty needless but up to them. 

3 minutes ago, bendan said:

Players share rooms, and you don't need to stay in central London, or London at all. I also thought the SPFL were giving more than 3k for cross border trips. Spending 11k + implies quite a luxurious trip.

£3,500 to go to London this season (it was £5k for all foreign trips last season).

It would be difficult to do a trip to London from Central Scotland for that. Probably £2k for a decent bus (its nearly that for us to get one to Dingwall). For a squad of say 25 including coaches and kitmen which is probably about as tight as you could be on numbers its probably another £2,500 in rooms and meals and thats presuming you stay somewhere like a Premier Inn and well north of London. Add in a London premium if you want to stay close. Its going to cost £5k at the very least. 

[bendan]

8 hours ago, Skyline Drifter said:

They flew. Which is pretty needless but up to them. 

£3,500 to go to London this season (it was £5k for all foreign trips last season).

It would be difficult to do a trip to London from Central Scotland for that. Probably £2k for a decent bus (its nearly that for us to get one to Dingwall). For a squad of say 25 including coaches and kitmen which is probably about as tight as you could be on numbers its probably another £2,500 in rooms and meals and thats presuming you stay somewhere like a Premier Inn and well north of London. Add in a London premium if you want to stay close. Its going to cost £5k at the very least. 

Yes, I'd have thought it would be 5 to 6k, maybe 7-8k to add a bit of comfort. That would mean a 'loss' of 1.5 to 4.5k assuming absolutely zero sponsorship/support was generated. If it's 8k, there's been little effort to restrict spending.

[Salvo Montalbano]

We did fly but booked far enough in advance you can get to London for under £100 return per person (I know a few who had to book on the day because their original flight was cancelled and they managed to get an EasyJet to Gatwick for about £60 per person). So it's not that more expensive than hiring a coach for 2 or 3 days I wouldn't have thought. There is also gate money to consider - crowd was maybe 1,200 at an average of £15 (£18 adults, think it was about £10 for concessions) and while VAT and expenses come off that, there's another good few thousand brought in there. Add in the prize money and I can't see us making as big a loss as was reported at the time although we may still have lost something. Same could be said had we drawn Buckie again or whomever in one of the national cups and decided to do an overnight stay.

[Bring Your Own Socks]

10 hours ago, Marten said:

Agreed. I'd quite like this to become a UK/Ireland semi pro competition (ok, there are full time sides in the Scottish Championship & English National League, but still). Say take the 30 lower division SPFL sides + HL/LL + Wales + ROI + NI + National League = 124 teams. Either give out 4 byes or add some teams like representatives from Isle of Man, Orkney, Shetland & Western Isles to make it 128. Could be a very interesting tournament.

Guaranteed rise in alcoholism. 

[Bring Your Own Socks]

10 hours ago, Bohemian said:

For this reason I hope we get a home tie, cause we are skint, probably get Ross County or Montrose away How much do the winners get?

Ask TNS fans.

[Bishop Briggs]

9 hours ago, Hedgecutter said:

Even at the most basic (Megabus booked on the day of the draw aside) you'd struggle to get to London with an overnight stay for less than £250.  20 people at that is £5k alone, so you're making a loss already. 

Not a problem if you fly with Easyjet and stay in a Travelodge. There are plenty of Travelodges in and around London.

The Pars could have flown to Luton and stayed in Hertfordshire, e.g. Borehamwood, Hemel Hempstead or Watford. Accommodation plus flight is around £170 to £180 at weekends. 

Edited September 9, 2018 by Bishop Briggs

[Skyline Drifter]

5 minutes ago, Bishop Briggs said:

Not a problem if you fly with Easyjet and stay in a Travelodge. There are plenty of Travelodges in and around London.

The Pars could have flown to Luton and stayed in Hertfordshire, e.g. Borehamwood, Hemel Hempstead or Watford. Accommodation plus flight is around £170 to £180 at weekends. 

Its not necessarily easy to find one with circa 13 rooms free on 3 or 4 weeks notice though.

[Bring Your Own Socks]

13 hours ago, steve55 said:

Pars take 500 down to London...

 

 

Fantastic support. Cracking job lads, on and off the park. 

[HoBNob]

Pretty positive it was 600 or so, was a decent travelling support who had a great time. Think it's our biggest ever travelling support in the challenge cup tbh. 

The English, Wales and Northern Ireland teams have been great additions, big fan. 

[Bring Your Own Socks]

1 hour ago, ali_91 said:

Union Jack in the crowd and scraping past some village team on penalties. Not sure if serious. 

I see the Saltire v Butcher’s Apron (modified) ratio entirely consistent with life in modern Scotland. Borehamwood has 31000 people and a full-time professional league team at tier 6 in England. About the same as SPFL Championship, sadly. Very good result for The Pars.

[Turkmenbashi]

17 minutes ago, Grant228 said:

Pretty positive it was 600 or so, was a decent travelling support who had a great time. Think it's our biggest ever travelling support in the challenge cup tbh. 

The English, Wales and Northern Ireland teams have been great additions, big fan. 

I'm sure you brought around 1000 to St Mirren the season you were hammering all the diddies in League One and we were bottom of the table. We won 4-0.

[Bohemian]

38 minutes ago, Grant228 said:

Pretty positive it was 600 or so, was a decent travelling support who had a great time. Think it's our biggest ever travelling support in the challenge cup tbh. 

The English, Wales and Northern Ireland teams have been great additions, big fan. 

Here, what about the paddies?

[Amber SUFC]

1 hour ago, Grant228 said:

Pretty positive it was 600 or so, was a decent travelling support who had a great time. Think it's our biggest ever travelling support in the challenge cup tbh. 

The English, Wales and Northern Ireland teams have been great additions, big fan. 

What did you think of BW?  They seem to be limited go forward?

[HoBNob]

4 minutes ago, Amber SUFC said:

What did you think of BW?  They seem to be limited go forward?

Everyone was 6ft plus and very athletic, they don't go around kicking lumps out of you but they're very good at just giving constant pressure, they did though seem pretty limited going forward, didn't have any players who seemed to post much of a threat creatively or in an attacking sense. 

Certainly not a bad team, you can see why they don't lost many games.