FairWeatherFan

The 145 game being against Annan Atheltic on the 29th December. A team that they would of been playing in the Southern Division. 2018-19 season isn't he best for Albion Rovers. Going into the season they were tipped for relegation after hiring a lower league manager from the Juniors and were apparently signing players that wouldn't make a West Premiership side. Highlighted by how they spent the first 29 rounds: It's not the atmosphere of drawing out decent crowds. Remove Luncarty you have 9-8. East Craigie was the team I believe filed the appeal over the null and void decision as they wanted promoted. Those are probably some of the factors why a 17 with a split is being considered. But they may well be considering other options. The 17 with a split was the one mentioned. Which is also why I used the shorthand of Tayside and Lothian as it was what was used to originate the discussion since North/South is rather generic. While Tayport are from Fife they played in the old Tayside leagues so are considered a Tayside club not Fife.

I've seen a few arranged with September dates. Don't know how much of it is being overly prepared or overly optimistic.

I imagine there's a certain leeway within the rules. I know that the Lowland League had a specific rule that clubs would have a nominated ground with floodlights. And I remember that in the EoSFL last season LTHV had a game at Livingston's Almondvale but that was due to weather. That's really the key difference. You'll probably find an example across the leagues of clubs using different grounds but usually for games that have been postponed repeatedly or some other factor. Changing grounds out of emergency is a bit different to organising a fixture list around the idea.

There's the potential for other leagues to do something similar. The Highland League (17 teams, 32 games, 34 dates to complete due to idle club), Lowland League (17 teams, 32 games, 34 dates to complete due to idle club), EoS Premier (18 teams, 34 games). The advantage they have is that they are all largely licenced so have floodlights in place to help slot in midweeks. The WoS Premier with 20 teams and 38 games with less than have half the teams having floodlights is one of the more problematic for fixture congestion.

In this instance its because they probably can't fit in the 32 game season they would otherwise have to play. Don't know exactly how they would split it with 17 clubs but say its a top 8 and bottom 9. That's 16+7 = 23 games. Champion also contests two legged final against the Lothian league winners for overall East Region champion. And 16+8 = 24 games for the bottom section. Lothian League is only 13 teams so would be a 24 game season. Which makes it easier to arrange for the two legged Championship playoff and to arrange the Region cup competitions.

If there had still been a West Region league of some kind I wouldn't have been shocked to see some Western equivalents of Linlithgow Rose CFC, Bo'ness United Juniors, and Sauchie Community. There's a lot of WoSFL that seem to have links to amateur sides if even just in name and with the u20s eventually aging out it would perhaps provide a better pathway for continued development than what the Amateur leagues can provide.

113 was the number quoted by Felix McKenna in his tweet the other day. I know but if it has been said by more than one source that there's 53 West clubs and no one has heard any withdrawals from North & East. Then the best guess without further news is that 113 was a typo. Which is possible since Mark Stanton is misspelled in the same tweet.

Then the 113 number must be wrong? 53+30+33 = 116 50+30+33 = 113

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53077082 As for why the Scottish Cup is so important. Here's the pie chart of the SFA's turnover from the 2019 annual review.

Then looked under the sofa cushions to cover the financial cost of the brokent TV and sponsorship deals. While possibly having to deal with the same repercussions in 2020-21 due to the amended tournament.

£5k to those not selected. In 2019-20 the prize money for each round was PR1 = £3k, PR2 = £3k, R1 = £4k, R2 = £5k which is accumulates each round. So PR1-R2 knock out would have meant £15k in prize money. Basically if you expect to get knocked out in one round its a pretty good offer, but if you win just one game you'd make more money.

I think its meant to be just 50 in the West as Rothie Rovers bumps the North up by 1.

The 50 former West Juniors are all under the same leadership as the other 13. All the SJFA does from a West point of view now is pull some balls out of a bowl every other month or so, and pad a couple of people's pensions.

They tried to get the majority on board. The first proper proposals started in 2011 and were rejigged along the way. Probably the main thing that got the then SFL on board was that the SFA would cover parachute payments of £40k year one and £20k if there was a year two. At a time when the SFL First Division champion was getting something like £60+k. They were gearing up for a 2013-14 start date before the SPFL was confirmed as definitely happening. If the groundwork hadn't already been layed, its possible the SPFL financial redistribution model would of killed off the idea. The SJFA's response along the way was no mandatory promotion. Delay entry until at least 2014-15. That the SJFA rules and constitution would remain unchanged. The vast majority of its members couldn't afford or meet licencing standards anyway. As for Eduport/Braves they did take advantage but at least they did it in kinda the right way. They applied to the Lowland League in 2014 and were rejected, so they joined the SoSFL to enter the pyramid. Applied to the Lowland League in 2015 and 2016 where they were rejected again. Ultimately winning promotion by winning the 2016-17 SoSFL.Plenty of others would of called it at day and moved on after so many rejections.

That's the point. Not only that Stenhousemuir would of been their closest opponent after Queen's Park and the Stenhousemuir game is their lowest attendance. You've also got two games against Cove, Brechin, and Elgin in their top ten. So that's distance and repitition that's meant to lower crowds, not really doing that in practice.

Albion Rovers 2019-20 home league attendances. All on Saturdays 04/01/20 Stirling Albion 484 31/08/19 Stirling Albion 355 10/08/19 Cove Rangers 347 24/08/19 Brechin City 323 01/02/20 Cove Rangers 292 29/02/20 Elgin City 283 08/02/20 Brechin City 282 21/09/19 Edinburgh City 276 05/10/19 Elgin City 275 07/12/19 Queens Park 273 21/12/19 Annan Athletic 210 09/11/19 Stenhousemuir 209

It's not permanent. There seems to be two factors behind the proposal. Covid obviously causing the late start and sponsorship commitments not allowing for overlapping tournaments. 2019-20 is the last William Hill Scottish Cup and 2020-21 is the start of something new. The £5k each payment, to what would be 64 clubs, on paper makes about half of them "happy". As that's about as many that would only get one game before being knocked out. X factor is of course you don't know if gate receipts would surpass 5k or if you would get a 2nd game meaning at least £6k in prize money.

Except with seen with the remaining East Region leagues it hasn't seen a bump in attendances despite the local games. Derbies become pretty meaningless when clubs see each other twice a year plus cups and local doesn't make it a derby as the quality can differ greatly. Queen's Park in 2018-19. All games on a Saturday. Two local teams in Clyde and Albion Rovers. But once you go past that its some of the outliers that actually bring the better support. Clyde 1076 Clyde 977 Peterhead 964 Berwick Rangers 679 Stirling Albion 661 Albion Rovers 642 Albion Rovers 620 Elgin City 543 Cowdenbeath 534 Edinburgh City 526 Annan Athletic 523 Stirling Albion 496 Annan Athletic 495 Edinburgh City 487 Peterhead 475 Elgin City 455 Berwick Rangers 444 Cowdenbeath 404

Attendances don't reflect travel though. Going to guess due to poor travel links North-South in Wales that the national Cymru Premier has a surprisingly high travel commitment to it.

This article always stuck with me and deals with the issue. https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/1505319/peterhead-greg-fleming-willie-gibson/ Its about Greg Fleming and Willie Gibson living down in Annan/D&G and playing for Peterhead.

Call it the "Liechtenstein solution". Liechtenstein could have their own league recognised by UEFA. Yet they choose to play in Switzerland and have their cup to keep things local. I'm guessing because the standard is better and allows for more variety. The point is kind of proven for why Argyll & Bute are the way they are. Same league and different divisions. Aren't most of the main amateur leagues no more than 12 team leagues? Its 11 weeks of the year they're on the road with possible cup games on top of that. Its not exactly a hardship. Elgin City were capable of winning the Highland League in the past when it was stronger than it is now. They'll manage to do alright once again. Same with a Brechin City or Montrose that feared it would be their end. Its just an adjustment from the way they currently operate. No different than what we've seen from East Stirlingshire and more recently Berwick Rangers.

SRU income is probably higher on account of rugby internationals having higher gates compared to football. SRU might get a cut of Edinburgh Rugby gates as well on account of SRU owning Murrayfield & iirc the SRU have stake in the two professional Pro14 teams. I was going to say, doesn't SRU own the professional sides. So they get income from national & club rugby in a different ways than what the SFA can.

Now it makes sense why the don't want the overlap. The change in sponsorship.

Ok, I mis-counted by two. But my point stands. It was just the numbers. The point would stand on any normal season as there's often a withdrawal, typically a North side. This year might well make it more likely because its not likely to be a nice sunny September first round exit for most, but the beginning of winter and miserable weather where games might be getting postponed. Then some of the statements around those that renewed to finish 2019-20, makes me wonder if they will skip 2020-21.

144? 17 = Lowland League 48 = EoSFL minus Stirling University EoS 67 = WoSFL 12 = SoSFL minus Stranraer SoS & Caledonian Braves SoS