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The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread


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1 hour ago, an86 said:

Has the enclosure under the stand been open for away fans this season? Saying “seating only” in the ticketing blurb for us. Remember it not being open a few years ago and they eventually did it when folk wouldn’t sit down.

Yeah I think the enclosure would be open.  Would imagine it was the same for ICT on Saturday.

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3 hours ago, WATTOO said:

The McGinty discussion is rather strange considering most knew that Kirk was carrying an injury and has been for the past few weeks, over and above this McGinty didn't do anything wrong and the fact that we failed to convert any of 20 corners or missed 2 open goals and a couple of other very good chances has absolutely no reflection on McGinty or his perceived "terrible distribution" at all, especially when I can only actually recall him hitting the ball forward twice in the entire match on Saturday.

The bottom line remains that we have a good strong squad but just failed to take our chances and were beaten by a sucker punch from another good side with a very well organised and hard working defence.

Anyone who thinks this squad of players will be in a "relegation scrap this year" have obviously not been to any of our matches, that's all I'll say on this......

Agree with this. After the league cup home games I was fearful,  but the league games at Somerset have been impressive. Saturday was a sucker punch, but I think we will be mid table all season 

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2 hours ago, an86 said:

Has the enclosure under the stand been open for away fans this season? Saying “seating only” in the ticketing blurb for us. Remember it not being open a few years ago and they eventually did it when folk wouldn’t sit down.

Yip, I remember seeing Hamilton fans in it earlier in the season 

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I'm totally in favour of the time switch despite it meaning I'll probably not go and it's unlikely I'd get a stream if St Pauli are at 12:30 on the Saturday as I just prefer to watch them now.  It's important that the club doesn't get itself into any financial hardship off the back of greed and unnecessary protection of profit for the energy industry (at the expense of all other business and people).  

What does need to be explained is how postponements would work, is this just a suck up the cost event or will they want them played at 18:00 in April so they can be played to a finish without the lights? What if there are more than 4 postponements for a club if so?

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Given the circumstances I can completely get behind the initiative if they need to kick off games early. 3pm is the preferred time for the most part but it won't make too much of a difference to me.

More than likely i'll still go to games. Even with away games I tend to try get to whatever town it is by 1 ish anyway, so travelling an hour or so earlier wouldn't matter too much. Also, gives much more time after the game in whatever place it happens to be. Home games it gives me more time after the game to do whatever else I need to do with my Saturday.

I can appreciate it's not ideal for everyone though and particularly a lot of people's weekend is maybe structured around a 3pm kick off with Kids activities etc in the morning.

The priority has to be making sure clubs at our level don't start to really struggle financially. If the club feel the need to save the energy costs outweighs any potential lost matchday revenue then I'm right behind it.

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I would be happy with a 12.30 kick off if it saved the club money.  Think it may be a problem for teams like Inverness who have  to travel 4+ hours to get to Ayr but also allow need more time for traffic delays , meal breaks, warm-ups, etc.  Ayr would face the same problem travelling up to Inverness in winter.

I played rugby up in Inverness for a few years and in December we had lunch time kick-offs as few teams had floodlights then.  At that time the Highland team rugby had a great home record but a poor away record.  I always felt that the main reason for this was having to play after been sat on a bus for hours.  Think in recent years Ayr had stayed up in Inverness on the Friday night but that must be as expensive as having the floodlights on.

The Inverness chairman was on "Off the ball" last weekend talking about this subject.

Still wish they would sort out allowing clubs to show their matches live - even if this was only available to Season Ticket holders.  Ayr has gone from having commentary only to being allowed to show games (during Covid) and now back to neither option.

 

 

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3 hours ago, Thereisalight.. said:

Agree with this. After the league cup home games I was fearful,  but the league games at Somerset have been impressive. Saturday was a sucker punch, but I think we will be mid table all season 

I haven't seen Thistle apart from TV and although we beat Dundee fair and square you'd always think that they have the squad and resources to "top up" if need be in January, however, having watched every other team I honestly can't see any reason why we shouldn't be realistically aiming for top 4 as a minimum with this squad of players that we have, including the pretty decent back ups in almost every position.

If we're not going to be top 4, then who is, and what have they shown so far to justify that ahead of ourselves ?

The one potentially problematic position would be creativity in the middle of the park but the fact we've got so many quality wide men would hopefully negate that risk and one would expect the likes of Mullin, Chalmers and even Ashford to contribute with a few goals each over the course of the season and same can be said for JML and O'Connor if playing regularly.

I'm sure it will be a tight league again but I'd be looking forward with confidence this season rather than dreading matches as has been the case in the past few seasons.......

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3 hours ago, WATTOO said:

I haven't seen Thistle apart from TV and although we beat Dundee fair and square you'd always think that they have the squad and resources to "top up" if need be in January, however, having watched every other team I honestly can't see any reason why we shouldn't be realistically aiming for top 4 as a minimum with this squad of players that we have, including the pretty decent back ups in almost every position.

If we're not going to be top 4, then who is, and what have they shown so far to justify that ahead of ourselves ?

The one potentially problematic position would be creativity in the middle of the park but the fact we've got so many quality wide men would hopefully negate that risk and one would expect the likes of Mullin, Chalmers and even Ashford to contribute with a few goals each over the course of the season and same can be said for JML and O'Connor if playing regularly.

I'm sure it will be a tight league again but I'd be looking forward with confidence this season rather than dreading matches as has been the case in the past few seasons.......

I do not think we will win the league, but a promotion play-off place is a realistic and sensible ambition with this squad. I do hope we can mount a title challenge though, mostly because I do not think my heart will be able to take the promotion playoffs!

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9 hours ago, an86 said:

Has the enclosure under the stand been open for away fans this season? Saying “seating only” in the ticketing blurb for us. Remember it not being open a few years ago and they eventually did it when folk wouldn’t sit down.

You buy seat in West Stand but can then go downstairs to the enclosure below the West Stand 

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7 hours ago, stevep56 said:

I would be happy with a 12.30 kick off if it saved the club money.  Think it may be a problem for teams like Inverness who have  to travel 4+ hours to get to Ayr but also allow need more time for traffic delays , meal breaks, warm-ups, etc.  Ayr would face the same problem travelling up to Inverness in winter.

I played rugby up in Inverness for a few years and in December we had lunch time kick-offs as few teams had floodlights then.  At that time the Highland team rugby had a great home record but a poor away record.  I always felt that the main reason for this was having to play after been sat on a bus for hours.  Think in recent years Ayr had stayed up in Inverness on the Friday night but that must be as expensive as having the floodlights on.

The Inverness chairman was on "Off the ball" last weekend talking about this subject.

Still wish they would sort out allowing clubs to show their matches live - even if this was only available to Season Ticket holders.  Ayr has gone from having commentary only to being allowed to show games (during Covid) and now back to neither option.

 

 

Dunno what the ICT chairman is complaining about. They stayed at the Park Hotel on Fri night. It's the fans that would be affected but theyd be used to that when they were in the Prem and their home games would have been early kos when the old firm rolled up. Short memories 

Edited by Thereisalight..
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On 02/10/2022 at 21:26, AllySloan said:
On 02/10/2022 at 21:07, Oceanlineayr said:
Not surprised this has come up, sign of the times I suppose.  There is something about football at 3pm on a Saturday that just feels right. But for clubs at this level and below the financial situation means every option to save money needs to be considered.
I'd prefer the 3pm kickoff time was retained but if earlier kick off times meant Ayr had a healthier budget to ensure the club's health going forward or invest in improving the club and its community programmes I'd be willing to accept it.

Agree with you. Should we be discussing "summer football" again in the long term?

Might be something that comes up, it seems unlikely prices will ever fall significantly enough for the costs not to be a growing cost issue for clubs.

 

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Does anyone know how much it costs to run the floodlights for the duration of a match? Is it £200, £500 or maybe even £1000 or more? If we lose just a 100 fans at £20 a head that’s £2000. Never mind reduced takings at the hub and hospitality. Streaming is unlikely at the earlier time as Sky do show Saturday lunchtime games so, I believe, streaming would be blocked. Current streaming rules remain vague for clubs in our league. Not sure if the club know exactly what they can or can’t do. One thing we can be sure about is that any deal agreed by the SPFL won’t do us any favours.

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56 minutes ago, .buzzy01 said:

Does anyone know how much it costs to run the floodlights for the duration of a match? Is it £200, £500 or maybe even £1000 or more? If we lose just a 100 fans at £20 a head that’s £2000. Never mind reduced takings at the hub and hospitality. Streaming is unlikely at the earlier time as Sky do show Saturday lunchtime games so, I believe, streaming would be blocked. Current streaming rules remain vague for clubs in our league. Not sure if the club know exactly what they can or can’t do. One thing we can be sure about is that any deal agreed by the SPFL won’t do us any favours.

Sky have nothing to do with the SPFL Championship.  

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59 minutes ago, itzdrk said:

Sky have nothing to do with the SPFL Championship.  

I am surprised by this in that a recent email from the club stated that “ these rules have been reinforced by the Sky deal”. If you know the rules re the streaming of our games, can you steer me in the right direction where I can have a look for myself. Although I have a season ticket, I live in Kent, so the streaming rules are important to me. Thanks.

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33 minutes ago, .buzzy01 said:

I am surprised by this in that a recent email from the club stated that “ these rules have been reinforced by the Sky deal”. If you know the rules re the streaming of our games, can you steer me in the right direction where I can have a look for myself. Although I have a season ticket, I live in Kent, so the streaming rules are important to me. Thanks.

SPFL Rules

I Commercial, Broadcast and Sponsorship

22 onwards

 

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43 minutes ago, itzdrk said:

SPFL Rules

I Commercial, Broadcast and Sponsorship

22 onwards

 

Thanks will have a look but I suspect that there will be little comfort for me in the content and we will be stuck with what we have for a few seasons yet. Thanks again.

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16 hours ago, diegomarahenry said:

Anyone know when the BBC will announce the next round of televised games? I think the last of the current batch is on Friday night. 

Will there also be a black-out during the world cup of league games ?

Two more announced at the end of the month but don't include us. Obviously saving us for the big Championship finale..

cinch Championship fixture changes | SPFL

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Like how with the whole talk of the moving to earlier kick offs on Saturday's to save energy costs on floodlights then comes along the BBC who are still going to steamroll on with Friday night games which will be beamed under floodlights on dark winter nights...

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12 hours ago, .buzzy01 said:

Does anyone know how much it costs to run the floodlights for the duration of a match? Is it £200, £500 or maybe even £1000 or more? If we lose just a 100 fans at £20 a head that’s £2000. Never mind reduced takings at the hub and hospitality. 

I asked the same question but since nobody replied I did some research. This was the best page I found - How Much Does it Cost to Run Football Flood lights - TACHYON Light. Obviously it does depend on the type of bulb used and the price per kwh that the club pays (given that the price cap doesn't apply to businesses we cannot assume the domestic cap of 34p per kWh). Basically using the type of bulb in that link (which I gather is a more efficient LED type rather than metal halide) it would be about 18 quid an hour to produce the required lux. Let's say ours are super inefficient or we pay a lot more - make that 40 quid an hour. 5 hours (?) on a matchday would be 200 quid worst case and possibly a lot less.

I sanity checked this by looking at other posts (all from before the energy crisis) which all seemed to indicate the energy usage of floodlights wasn't really too bad in the grand scheme of things.

Happy to be corrected by people who actually know what they are talking about though!

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