The General Ross County Chat Thread

[Forfinn]

Tickets are now on sale for the Killie and Aberdeen games and we appear to be charging all fans £28.

The Jailend used to be cheaper than the East and West stands on account of the godawful view. Now it's the same across the board.

And £28 is scandalous for a big game never mind a run-of-the-mill game like Killie.

I makes it even less likely I'll bother going to a game when I'm back home visiting.

Have we worked out the vast majority of our home fans are season ticket holders so this allows us to fleece away fans for all they're worth?

[forkboy]

12 hours ago, Forfinn said:

Tickets are now on sale for the Killie and Aberdeen games and we appear to be charging all fans £28.

The Jailend used to be cheaper than the East and West stands on account of the godawful view. Now it's the same across the board.

And £28 is scandalous for a big game never mind a run-of-the-mill game like Killie.

I makes it even less likely I'll bother going to a game when I'm back home visiting.

Have we worked out the vast majority of our home fans are season ticket holders so this allows us to fleece away fans for all they're worth?

Yeah, not into that. £28, plus the costs of getting to Dingwall which is about £8 on Stagecoach, not overly keen on spending a weeks shop on one afternoon's entertainment these days.

Honestly seems like a shockingly out of touch decision considering what the hell is going on in the world with rising prices of essentials & the absolutely eye-watering energy price rise incoming imminently. 

[All Or Nothing]

On 03/08/2022 at 18:15, Loki said:

Did anyone else attempt to buy tickets for the game on Saturday and have them cancelled?

I got a two sentence email from the club saying they were cancelled and you will get refunded in 5-10 days.  No reply from my email asking for an explanation.

I’m assuming they think I twilight as a Sellick fan.

 

This happened to literally hundreds of people with local addresses.

Ross County are lucky from the point of view the media still aren’t really interested in what is going on out with the central belt as what happened regarding tickets was a massive own goal for the ‘community’ club. 

After all these years does Roy not understand that a lot of locals aren’t fanatical County fans and when Celtic and Rangers come to visit, a hell of a lot of locals just want to go for the experience of watching their local team play in what they perceive as the bigger games. 

Also it’s hardly shocking to know that many Ross County season tickets holders and the rest of their support, will likely follow another team. That’s just the way it is with the Highland clubs, when I was at school, it was mostly Aberdeen tops kids were wearing. That probably seems utterly bizarre to many reading this, but it’s pretty common place up here.

Of course you end up getting away fans, mostly local supporters of Celtic or Rangers, sitting in with home fans, but most do behave and are there just to watch the football. Of course you get a fair few clowns too,  there’s no denying that, but it really is just a handful of twats in pockets of the ground,

But such was the shambles around the ticketing for the Celtic game and the subsequent complaints the club has received, County have now gone from one extreme to the other and gave Celtic the whole of the East Stand for the cup game.

https://www.rosscountyfootballclub.co.uk/news-items/premier-sports-cup-ross-county-v-celtic

Edited August 9, 2022 by All Or Nothing

[Pete the Jakey]

On 03/08/2022 at 18:15, Loki said:

Did anyone else attempt to buy tickets for the game on Saturday and have them cancelled?

I got a two sentence email from the club saying they were cancelled and you will get refunded in 5-10 days.  No reply from my email asking for an explanation.

I’m assuming they think I twilight as a Sellick fan.

 

Did you ever get an explanation from the club?

[All Or Nothing]

27 minutes ago, Pete the Jakey said:

Did you ever get an explanation from the club?

The explanation is that they had to do it to stop Celtic fans buying tickets for the home sections. County claim it was only people that registered for the first time that were rejected for tickets,

[Loki]

32 minutes ago, Pete the Jakey said:

Did you ever get an explanation from the club?

I never got a direct reply from them from my email after the cancellation.

I heard from someone else that when they phoned the club, they were making judgement calls on whether they were regularly buying tickets as they didn’t want Celtic fans in the home end. They were a season ticket holder last year.  
 

And now they are just happy to sell tickets to Celtic fans in the “home end” now

 

[Loki]

11 minutes ago, All Or Nothing said:

The explanation is that they had to do it to stop Celtic fans buying tickets for the home sections. County claim it was only people that registered for the first time that were rejected for tickets,

That’s false as my account was registered two years ago for the PPV buys during Covid, so that can’t be the reason they cancelled mine.

Edited August 9, 2022 by Loki

[Staggie52]

Who would have thought it? We’ll make it harder for people to get tickets, oops attendance has fallen.

[Comrie]

The club appear determined to alienate as many fans as possible in as short a time as possible. This is the least interested I've ever been in going to games.

Edited August 10, 2022 by Comrie

[Comrie]

3 hours ago, All Or Nothing said:

I’ll end up getting over my gurn with County and go back,  I always do. Roy puts so much money into the football side of business, but has always seemed to skimp on the general running of the club. Staff have always been pushed to their limits covering umpteen different roles and then mistakes happen.

Eventually, very likely.

Loyal to the end, many fans.

 

Also, Derek Adams knocking big time Harry Clarke out the Carabao Cup. Pleasing.

[Staggie52]

3 hours ago, All Or Nothing said:

I’ll end up getting over my gurn with County and go back,  I always do. Roy puts so much money into the football side of business, but has always seemed to skimp on the general running of the club. Staff have always been pushed to their limits covering umpteen different roles and then mistakes happen.

The problem here though isn’t about  underpaid overworked staff. This is a club decision. I don’t know the club protocols for this kind of decision, but it couldn’t be made by anyone less than the CEO and its unlikely to have been made without some or all the Board members having a say. It also came very quickly after Saturday’s game. Almost as if it was discussed previously.

[Rcfc fan]

I don’t see the big issue considering it’s a cup game , would’ve been poor craic if they were chucking folk out there season ticket seats for a league game , but to be quite honest there was far too many empty seats in the east stand on Saturday for such a big game, by doing it this way they ensure county fans are all together (rather than being in amongst Celtic supporters in the home end) and that all Celtic fans are together , what’s the big issue?

[Staggie52]

25 minutes ago, Rcfc fan said:

I don’t see the big issue considering it’s a cup game , would’ve been poor craic if they were chucking folk out there season ticket seats for a league game , but to be quite honest there was far too many empty seats in the east stand on Saturday for such a big game, by doing it this way they ensure county fans are all together (rather than being in amongst Celtic supporters in the home end) and that all Celtic fans are together , what’s the big issue?

There are a few problems. It’s a trial. Why is it a trial? Because there weren’t enough home fans on Saturday. Partly, that was their own fault, many(some) home fans couldn’t get tickets. In any case, what happens if it’s a success. Other teams that run this type of scheme move fans from their own seat for league games as well, will County? You can’t answer that because they haven’t said what happens if they deem it a success.

if you’re a jailend or west stand season ticket holder, can you retain your usual seat? We don’t know, but if it’s anything like the Dunfermline game the season ticket holders refused to move even though you had a ticket for their seat. It wasn’t too much of a problem then, but it would be if it’s busy.

Maybe with more information it might be that much of a problem, but that’s another problem, they haven’t explained what they’re trying to do in future, no consultation as usual.

Of course what sticks in my craw, is that the problem is not of the East stand season ticket holders making, it became an issue because of the lack of stewarding in the ground. Celtic and Rangers fans caused problems and there were no stewards there to deal with it. 
So if there had been consultation, if they had said that it would only be for cup games, if they had said what happened to season ticket holders in the West stand an Jail End, you might be right, it’s not a big problem, but there wasn’t consultation and no proper explanation of the arrangements has been given.

Here ends my rant.

[Comrie]

2 hours ago, All Or Nothing said:

There was online speculation/gossip about why such a large police presence was needed and that the ex policeman employed by County was heavily involved in decisions around last weekends game.

Maybe naively I think there might have been a glitch somewhere though, as rejecting people with local addresses and who were previously registered surely can’t have been deliberate?  We’ll find out soon enough probably, someone will blab who works there.

I know some ex-coppers who had heard from their contacts it was rumoured that two Celtic fans groups were at loggerheads and may go for each other. Didn't happen but both said the atmosphere at times in the away end was nasty.

[Pete the Jakey]

Don’t ya just love the Old Firm. 

[Forfinn]

On 09/08/2022 at 19:57, All Or Nothing said:

Ross County are lucky from the point of view the media still aren’t really interested in what is going on out with the central belt as what happened regarding tickets was a massive own goal for the ‘community’ club. 

The Highlands-based sports journalists do a great job reporting news from the club, but there isn't enough scrutiny along with it. Whether that's because they (understandably) need to protect their symbiotic relationship, lack of capacity, or a perceived lack of interest, I don't know.

If County were a bigger club there would definitely be interest in the club arbitrarily cancelling tickets of legit fans.

I've no major issue with the decision to give Celtic the whole East Stand for the League Cup tie in itself. It's midweek, it's on TV and it's a cup game so STs don't apply. The language around it is poor though. It's clearly a stalking horse for moving ST holders and giving Celtic and Rangers more (if not all) the East Stand for future league games. If it wasn't they wouldn't have needed to refer to it as a trial or make a pointed reference to the "low uptake" of home tickets.

The latter point was also pretty tone deaf given they were cancelling legit County fan tickets, and while their efforts to restrict away infiltration of the home end appear to have worked, this was after years of inaction. You can't blame fans for not having responded before seeing the outcome.

It's a vicious circle as well. You simply will not get more home fans attending games if you increase away allocations. It has an impact on the atmosphere and the resultant increase in police (and horses!) presence is unlikely to make people feel more welcome.

It's a legitimate business decision, but whether the short term cash grab pays off long term, we'll have to wait and see.

[All Or Nothing]

3 hours ago, Forfinn said:

The Highlands-based sports journalists do a great job reporting news from the club, but there isn't enough scrutiny along with it. Whether that's because they (understandably) need to protect their symbiotic relationship, lack of capacity, or a perceived lack of interest, I don't know.

If County were a bigger club there would definitely be interest in the club arbitrarily cancelling tickets of legit fans.

I've no major issue with the decision to give Celtic the whole East Stand for the League Cup tie in itself. It's midweek, it's on TV and it's a cup game so STs don't apply. The language around it is poor though. It's clearly a stalking horse for moving ST holders and giving Celtic and Rangers more (if not all) the East Stand for future league games. If it wasn't they wouldn't have needed to refer to it as a trial or make a pointed reference to the "low uptake" of home tickets.

The latter point was also pretty tone deaf given they were cancelling legit County fan tickets, and while their efforts to restrict away infiltration of the home end appear to have worked, this was after years of inaction. You can't blame fans for not having responded before seeing the outcome.

It's a vicious circle as well. You simply will not get more home fans attending games if you increase away allocations. It has an impact on the atmosphere and the resultant increase in police (and horses!) presence is unlikely to make people feel more welcome.

It's a legitimate business decision, but whether the short term cash grab pays off long term, we'll have to wait and see.

You’ve summed that up perfectly, I agree with every word.

 

[Matty-RCFC]

It's clearly a stalking horse for moving ST holders and giving Celtic and Rangers more (if not all) the East Stand for future league games. If it wasn't they wouldn't have needed to refer to it as a trial or make a pointed reference to the "low uptake" of home tickets.

This is the point that worries me the most. It’s clearly the clubs long-term plan to utilise home games versus the OF as cash cows more than is currently the case. What does it say for loyal season ticket holders that have had a season ticket in the East Stand for as long as they can remember. It says that the club are more interested in a quick cash grab than their own punters who have stuck by them for a long time. Eventually, County fans will slowly start to patch these games and ticket sales will end up being at a similar level than they were previously. The day that the full East Stand is given to OF fans in league games will be the day I personally walk away from those specific matches, and certainly the day the club can halt the use of the “community club” shouts.

[yoda]

Read a tweet yesterday about Mackay's record as County manager. I've not fact checked it but it said that he has the second lowest PPG and Win % of County's permanent managers since 2011/12. Only Coyle was worse (obviously there's Championship stat padding for Kettlewell / Ferguson).

So I went and had a wee look at the results over the past 12 months. 1 win in the last 11 league games at the moment (to go with the 1 win in the first 11 league games of last season).

[Sammy]

John Huges won 8 league games in his short time in charge (20 games)

Malky has only won 10 league games with more than double the number of games (41)

Edited August 15, 2022 by Sammy