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The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread


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Hi All,

Im a bit remote over here in Ukraine but I run a Podcast with Shoot the Defence,

https://audioboom.com/channel/shoot-the-defence

 

We are running a Welcome to Scotland series at the moment where we discuss life at the clubs around the Scottish leagues. It would be great to get Ayr involved.  We would love to talk with a few fans about the club and how the relationship with the fans. 

 

It would be great to discuss the famous Somerset Park as well. 

 

If anyone is interested, give us a shout out here or email ukrfut24@gmail.com

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Reading this stuff about Championship clubs running out of money is pretty galling. The Record report specifically says that some clubs who have players on high wages are struggling. Maybe try signing cheaper players if you can't afford good ones? Or are the taxpayers supposed to underwrite whatever unrealistic ambitions clubs decide to adopt?

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26 minutes ago, Iain said:

Reading this stuff about Championship clubs running out of money is pretty galling. The Record report specifically says that some clubs who have players on high wages are struggling. Maybe try signing cheaper players if you can't afford good ones? Or are the taxpayers supposed to underwrite whatever unrealistic ambitions clubs decide to adopt?

I'm still not entirely comfortable that we aren't one of them to be honest. 

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47 minutes ago, Iain said:

Reading this stuff about Championship clubs running out of money is pretty galling. The Record report specifically says that some clubs who have players on high wages are struggling. Maybe try signing cheaper players if you can't afford good ones? Or are the taxpayers supposed to underwrite whatever unrealistic ambitions clubs decide to adopt?

A Championship chairman would have made themselves known, would have been asking for fans to step up again and clubs would be pushing half season tickets and strips for Christmas trying to get money in. More likely it is a usual suspect playing politics again. 

Morton have difficulty just now and it looks to be similar to Barr leaving, There seems to be a lot of politics involved rather than cashflow. I would expect Dundee will be under real pressure but have a decent size fan base and I don't see them going bust this week/year. Inverness were struggling a few months ago and they have some fans back now, their chairman was on Sportsound on Saturday and didn't say anything about an impending crisis. 

I don't doubt clubs are struggling but I do doubt that any clubs are almost at the point of going to the wall......and if they were, wanted to remain anonymous. 

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31 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said:

A Championship chairman would have made themselves known, would have been asking for fans to step up again and clubs would be pushing half season tickets and strips for Christmas trying to get money in. More likely it is a usual suspect playing politics again. 

Morton have difficulty just now and it looks to be similar to Barr leaving, There seems to be a lot of politics involved rather than cashflow. I would expect Dundee will be under real pressure but have a decent size fan base and I don't see them going bust this week/year. Inverness were struggling a few months ago and they have some fans back now, their chairman was on Sportsound on Saturday and didn't say anything about an impending crisis. 

I don't doubt clubs are struggling but I do doubt that any clubs are almost at the point of going to the wall......and if they were, wanted to remain anonymous. 

The fans Inverness have are season ticket holders so they've paid already.  That's a cost rather than income.  

Morton are definitely at the edge, David Hopkin was paying (some) players wages and meals, he's gone.  

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10 hours ago, Iain said:

Reading this stuff about Championship clubs running out of money is pretty galling. The Record report specifically says that some clubs who have players on high wages are struggling. Maybe try signing cheaper players if you can't afford good ones? Or are the taxpayers supposed to underwrite whatever unrealistic ambitions clubs decide to adopt?

Taxpayers are underwriting lots of companies at the minute. Whether its through furlough, rates relief, grants, loans underwritten by the government. Its a global pandemic, football isn't immune to it. As an example, Spurs received a government backed loan of £175m. 

Your point around clubs not cutting their cloth is a good one. However, any support from the SG will not be a blank cheque. Clubs will need to demonstrate their shortfall in income relative to a normal year and expenditure will be expected to have reduced. I also doubt the government will cover it all in any case and I'd imagine they'll be pretty unsympathetic to any club whose expenditure has increased. All the clubs knew this season was going to be impacted if they have been financially feckless shooting for the stars they should be allowed to fail imo.

Edited by Trogdor
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Worth remembering that when he was on the half time show David Smith said the club had budgeted for fans being back in by now and that recently himself and Tracy had to redo the budget. 

You actually have to question what advice clubs received from the SPFL, SFA, Joint Response Group and the SFA’s Chief Medical Consultant and if it was suggested that fans would be back by now and if so why they thought that would the case.

Clubs won't be full of medical experts so if they've budgeted based on advice from the governing bodies then you can't exactly blame them. However if no guarantees were given and clubs have gambled on predicting when the pandemic would be over themselves then that's on them. 

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1 hour ago, GaryMc93 said:

Worth remembering that when he was on the half time show David Smith said the club had budgeted for fans being back in by now and that recently himself and Tracy had to redo the budget. 

You actually have to question what advice clubs received from the SPFL, SFA, Joint Response Group and the SFA’s Chief Medical Consultant and if it was suggested that fans would be back by now and if so why they thought that would the case.

Clubs won't be full of medical experts so if they've budgeted based on advice from the governing bodies then you can't exactly blame them. However if no guarantees were given and clubs have gambled on predicting when the pandemic would be over themselves then that's on them. 

That sounds like madness tbh. I think most of us would have hedged our bets on fans not being back - at least not anything like normal - by now.

Even if there was a limited number allowed back by now it wouldn’t have seen a big jump revenue. It would be season ticket holders only and then you’d have extra stewarding costs on top of that.

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I don’t think we are one of the clubs being talked about in article. There is no doubt COVID19 will be having an impact on all clubs including Ayr United  however we were chucking about two year deals in the summer so I’d say we are financially sound at the moment. All clubs really should have been budgeting with worst case scenario in mind. 

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11 hours ago, diegomarahenry said:

A Championship chairman would have made themselves known, would have been asking for fans to step up again and clubs would be pushing half season tickets and strips for Christmas trying to get money in. More likely it is a usual suspect playing politics again. 

Morton have difficulty just now and it looks to be similar to Barr leaving, There seems to be a lot of politics involved rather than cashflow. I would expect Dundee will be under real pressure but have a decent size fan base and I don't see them going bust this week/year. Inverness were struggling a few months ago and they have some fans back now, their chairman was on Sportsound on Saturday and didn't say anything about an impending crisis. 

I don't doubt clubs are struggling but I do doubt that any clubs are almost at the point of going to the wall......and if they were, wanted to remain anonymous. 

Why? We might be struggling at present but are expecting our insurance payment next month. We're also owned by one of the richest people involved in Scottish football - That doesn't mean we're not struggling financially, but other than reasoning of, 'Because it's Dundee' everything suggests we're in one of the safer financial positions in the Championship right now. (Although definitely not secure)

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I don’t think we are one of the clubs being talked about in article. There is no doubt COVID19 will be having an impact on all clubs including Ayr United  however we were chucking about two year deals in the summer so I’d say we are financially sound at the moment. All clubs really should have been budgeting with worst case scenario in mind. 
Paid a fee for Chalmers too. If we're not one of the clubs being talked about now we soon will be
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47 minutes ago, ayrunitedfw said:

I don’t think we are one of the clubs being talked about in article. There is no doubt COVID19 will be having an impact on all clubs including Ayr United  however we were chucking about two year deals in the summer so I’d say we are financially sound at the moment. All clubs really should have been budgeting with worst case scenario in mind. 

We have cut budgets accordingly, outwith playing staff we have only around 6 people on the payroll , furlough still being used , we certainly are not one of the clubs who are paying big salaries to get to Premiership as mentioned in the article , we certainly live within our financial capabilities, not a club who waste money unnecessarily 

Edited by Robbo63
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