LongTimeLurker

Irrelevant given ICT quickly moved back to Inverness and always had a workable solution in the pipeline unlike the BSC scenario in Alloa. Pathetic the way some people on here get argumentative just for the sake of it.

My point was that, if they can't find a Gartcairn style of solution for what is normally their amateur, womens and youth level home ground then they should be told to adjust their ambitions within the game accordingly, because a groundshare in perpetuity 40 miles away from their homebase is not acceptable. There was no implication that I was suggesting something that they would not have been aware of already.

Cover for 100 is in the entry level regulations for a reason. Having paying spectators is expected to be part of the equation at PGB level. Cover for 100 sets the bar so low that bringing a facility like the floodlit 3G pitch at Scotstoun Leisure Centre into compliance shouldn't be mission impossible and that means ongoing groundshares 40 miles away shouldn't be necessary.

You are far enough away from Rugby Park and Ibrox/Parkhead not to have as big a problem that a club like Camelon have drawing people in locally when Falkirk are also walking distance (not so much now maybe but Brockville definitely was) and Rangers are easy to get to quickly by public transport. Wasn't going to post this but think Camelon was the first junior ground I can very vaguely remember being at around 1970 or so. Would have been around 5 at the time, so don't remember much about it. No idea who they would have been playing and just remember it being a football game like any other rather than something mystically junior.

Methil and Leven have historically been viewed as separate towns and Kirkcaldy YM have managed to putter along in Raith Rovers shadow over the years. Think that is the most likely former junior location to be viable at EoS level.

^^^As usual FairWeatherFan manages to completely misrepresent my argument and wastes my time by creating unnecessary potential confusion. So others don't get misled by this. My argument is that this is BSC's real home ground. It's OK to give them some leeway for a few years to get it up to entry level. If they are not able to get that sorted with Scotstoun Leisure Centre in a reasonable timeframe, then at that point they should lose their licence and step down to either WoS or amateur level depending on what is doable at this location. Having a suitable home ground in your own area should be an integral part of being a licensed club at the PGB level of the game where there is expected to be mass spectator interest.

It's usually sharing with the rugby team in the athletics stadium that gets mentioned on here rather than playing at the floodlit 3G pitch at the leisure centre that they are already using regularly for their amateur and youth teams. If EK, Bonnyton, Drumchapel United and Gartcairn are able to get something sorted as a home ground in their own area in that sort of manner then BSC can reasonably be expected to as well in a fixed timeframe. BSC are instead exploiting a loophole in the SFA's licensing system and are currently aiming for SPFL entry with a stadium tenancy 40 miles from their homebase.

Suggesting that there should be a time limit on how long they can be in Alloa inherently involves giving them a break, while not allowing them to rip the absolute pish out of the licensing system. Would have thought the 3G pitch at Scotstoun Leisure Centre should be the solution to do something close to Broomhill, in a similar sort of way to what the new Drumchapel WoS team are doing.

They are both quite isolated in terms of having a regular walk up crowd, but that's probably not a problem for a youth team type club nowadays. One that I think was recently mentioned on another thread is Leven Juniors old ground. Might take more work than those two though as would Halbeath, Tulliallan Thistle and Clackmannan as it's in an open public park/school playground format from what I remember.

They clearly have SPFL ambitions, so having access to an SPFL ground will no doubt have been a key consideration. You look more big time that way than you do playing at Lochburn Park in Maryhill. They don't appear to depend on gate money to any significant extent financially, so it really doesn't matter if nobody shows up in Alloa to support them against Vale of Leithen beyond friends and family of the players as long as their LL status and Scottish Cup runs are boosting the visibility of their pathway.

More drivel. I am perfectly calm. I am not the one that has been going into a red dot frenzy because somebody disagrees with me on a discussion forum. Act your age not your shoe size.

This is becoming absurd. Exactly how many times does it have to be pointed out to you that I have now repeatedly posted that I have no problem with a temporary groundshare in Dalkeith, Blackburn or even Denny as long as they do have a plan to have their own ground on a reasonable timeframe?

Plenty of other people have complained about "BSC Alloa" on here over the years and some have done so as recently as the last few pages of this thread so that's comically wide of the mark.

If it's all about having a pathway for their youth players and they have a viable funding model in place on that basis, they may not even care all that much about that. The goal could be to find a ground where they can get licensed as tenants, so they can do things like reach the last 16 of the Scottish Cup BSC style without ever having a ground of their own. Given the ongoing proliferation of youth clubs into the senior pyramid, at some point there maybe needs to be some reflection as to what a senior club actually should be all about and whether having your own home ground and attracting a regular home support to it should be viewed as being an integral part of the equation. Given how saturated Edinburgh and Midlothian is with senior clubs now, why would Edinburgh South's pathway not simply be to feed into an existing club like Dalkeith Thistle? The obvious answer is that doing things like having your name on a Scottish Cup entrant that gets mentioned in televised coverage helps attract youth players into the pathway, so it maybe all feeds back into that again rather than being about attracting a regular fanbase.

Plenty of people are to blame for how things unfolded in both grades and national associations involved.

It was the top west clubs (mainly those in Ayrshire by all accounts) that knocked the superduperleague concept on the head over travel time concerns prompting Kelty to defect to the EoS. Now it's probably going to take at least another decade to get to something close to what should have been the starting point for the south tier 5 feeder.

As stated previously I wouldn't be bothered by a temporary Blackburn or Dunipace groundshare as long as they do get their own ground in the part of Edinburgh where they are based in a reasonable timeframe (something like 3 to 5 seasons depending on how much needs to happen). Fernieside as others have stated is the obvious solution and there isn't a vast amount to do to get that park to Hillfield Swifts, Peebles Rovers and Thornton Hibs levels of suitability. That wouldn't be an easy shortcut to entry level though unlike how being at Dalkeith might be.

Don't have an issue on this (as should be abundantly clear from my post) as long as they do ultimately get their own ground in a reasonable timeframe.

All goes back to whether Edinburgh South should be allowed in while playing in Dalkeith. Things have moved on considerably since BSC were allowed in to the senior pyramid as a youth club with no ground of their own to provide some more west content to the LL (no point engaging with a few cranks who want to pretend they got tier 5 status on merit rather than expediency). It's reasonable to question whether there should now be some rules put in place for clubs like Edinburgh South to ensure that they must have their own enclosed ground in their own community within a reasonable time frame in order to be able to retain their membership. Some, as Jambo'ness did, could even reasonably argue now that numbers have reached as high as 50 that having your own ground in your own community that already meets EoS standards should be a requirement for entry.

Progression and automatic pro/rel should start at the level where an enclosed ground is required. Tier 8 seems about right for that. The English system of promotion from the local amateur league sort of level by application is probably the best approach. The SFA doesn't appear to be engaged enough for numbers in the EoS and WoS to ever get capped and regular relegation of bottom placed clubs to an appropriate amateur league to ever be enforced. Suspect trying to introduce that concept would not go down well, but it's what would be needed to remove any overlap in playing standards between the top of amateur football and the lowest fringes of the pyramid structure.

A conference format to accomodate as many clubs as applied could have made things interesting on that and led to a domino effect, but that would not have enhanced the SPFL entry prospects of Spartans and Cove Rangers. Was good to see your club steal Spartans' thunder on league entry. The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley...

BSC and Edusport were allowed into senior football along with EKFC and Cumbernauld Colts because Stewart Regan's pyramid desperately needed clubs from the west to have any level of credibility as being something other than a rebranded EoS Premier. You can argue that the end ultimately justified the means, but circumstances have moved on now, so it's time to move on from some of the intelectual contortions some people did to justify that despite the bizarre optics that were involved. It always should have been the likes of Pollok, Clydebank, Auchinleck Talbot and Irvine Meadow instead and it's unfortunate that it could easily still take another decade before the LL will be a realistic reflection of the strongest clubs available in its catchment.

First the bizarre post on the juniors forum that made it obvious you hadn't even bothered to read the Beith tweet I responded to and now this bizarre non-sequitur. The Lowland League was still struggling for numbers when Stewart Regan twisted the SoS League's arm to let Edusport into the pyramid.

Don't see any problem with the likes of Arthurlie and Royal Albert acknowleging the obvious. They switched from being senior to junior at one or more point in their history like Beith did. Same ground and colours involved, so if it quacks like a duck and waddles like a duck, it's still a duck.