Cyclizine

Try reading the myriad of posts in the West of Scotland League forum. This forum is now essentially historical. The only junior leagues now are the North and the East Regions, you can find them in the North Pyramid forum.

Frikandellen & Bier?

Gate prices are set to bring in the most revenue per punter. You can dish out as many free tickets to schoolkids as you like, offer cheap season tickets, half-price entry. You never increase the gate significantly and it's never sustained. Every club has tried this at some point.

I've not heard anything concrete about a merger either. A colleague is involved with one of the Aberdeen junior clubs (not BODT!) and I remember discussing a possible merger with him when all this started. It never seemed on the cards then and he hasn't mentioned it since. I'll ask him on Monday, but I'd've thought it would've come up in conversation.

St Andrews University have superb sports facilities, Dundee United used to train there, maybe still do. There's no recognisable ground as such though, just sports centre, playing fields, running track and astro pitches, a bit like Edinburgh University before East Peffermill and Garscube currently.

Looking back, Niall was still talking about the Spey being a boundary back in September last year, although he also mentioned nominating a league, so there's obviously some leeway. Perhaps more a boundary for new teams?

It doesn't take that much longer to get to the Dundee area from the Highlands as to get to Aberdeen. You go down the A9 to Dundee, not via Aberdeen.

@NiallFH (NCL fixture secretary and St Duthus chairman) has already said they'd agreed the Spey would be the boundary - clubs to the west will be NCL territory and east NRJFA. This would be for clubs coming down from the HFL, clubs currently west of the Spey in the NRJFA wouldn't be expected to move, but could if they wanted.

Yup. For the Highland League clubs, the Scottish Cup has always been the prestigious national cup competition to aim for, even back in the days of the regional Qualifying Cups (where the South and, now-defunct, North Challenge Cups originated). Now they all get automatic entry to the Scottish Cup, the attraction of a loss-making non-league cup is less. I've chatted to several folk up here, terraces and boardrooms (portakabins), and most think it's a nice idea, but the practicalities (funding, fixture congestion) make it a non-starter currently. Funding will be the limiting factor I think - it will be expensive and I can't imagine the competition would attract enough sponsorship to make it break even. I doubt the SFA would dip into their coffers to subsidise it. No idea what the NCL and NRJFA clubs think.

This is a quality game. Love Scottish football.

Surely not...

Looking good for 91

Yes, but the ground itself is controlled by the community academy (as far as I was aware), I've nothing but admiration for what Clydebank have achieved, a wonderful example of a community club, but I'm just using them as an example: my point is that many clubs don't own their grounds outright, but have long-term leases from e.g. councils, trusts etc. Obviously, this doesn't stop them investing in their grounds. I'm just not sure why leasing a ground that another club owns is any different to leasing from another body.

A trust then, the point still stands.

None of these clubs "own" the ground though. They rent from the council (like many clubs). What's the difference between a club renting from another club that own their ground and renting from the council or trust etc?

Do people think that the clubs whose grounds are being rented by others do it out of the goodness of their own hearts? Of course not, they're charging rent. Rent that they can put toward their own facilities and squads. The clubs renting can't invest this into their own ground. In any case, how many clubs truely own their own ground? Many just have council leases. It makes no sense to me to have football facilities stand idle every other Saturday. Land is expensive. It's unrealistic to expect every club at this level and below to be able to have its own ground and creates another barrier into clubs entering the league. How are they realistically meant to progress? Do I think some clubs take the piss? Yes, absolutely, playing miles outside your traditional area, like BSC. But Drumchapel and St Cadocs are hardly playing miles outside their locale. Ideally it'd be great if every club could have its own ground, but pragmatically this just isn't feasible. So long as clubs have secure leases, then what is the issue? If the pitches are getting cut up then that's a league disciplinary issue. Any host clubs should be taking this into account and considering the impact on their pitches and maybe using some of the rental money to improve their pitch and facilities.

The NCFA is a well run (thanks, @NiallFH et al!) and generally competitive organisation and has a rightful role within the pyramid. It's impossible to subdivide Scotland into equitable regions in terms of geography and population and the depth in the Far North is always going to be shallower than the North East, as the depth in the Highland footprint is shallower than the Lowland.

It think it's "švietimo ir sporto paslaugų centras" which translates to "education and sports services centre". True diddies.

@tamthebam, you made it then

Only Huntly/Turriff, Formartine/Brora and Locos/Keith still standing the now in the 'Shire. Fancy a trip up North to Caithness instead?

Aberdeenshire Council seemingly played a blinder here - Tesco wanted to build a store on Canal Park in Banff, so the council signed a deal with them, so long as they built what is now the Myrus Sports Centre. Tesco decided not to build, but the council held them to their agreement to build the sports centre. So they got the hall and astro pitch, complete with floodlights and a tiny stand*, mostly funded by a supermarket. It's a nice wee facility.

a.k.a. the Inter-Regional Cup

As much as I want to see Johnson gone, I can't help but be a little concerned by the way this is materialising. This stuff about the Christmas parties has obviously been known about since last year. I can't imagine whoever in the shadowy cabal behind the scenes is leaking this has our best interests at heart. The whole Tory party, save a few folk whom I think may still have some principles left are rotten to the core.

"Contractual issue" with the Commonwealth (Emirates) Arena in Glasgow. Supposedly they wouldn't host an event with a gambling company as sponsor. Llandudno was the only venue available at such short notice.

Yeah, I do that as well. I've got a Scottish pyramid that I put together a few years ago that is pretty good, even after a decade or two. I do add a bit of flexibility, e.g. for Tier 6, I allowed a bit of an overlap in regions, so I wasn't too fussed if Ayrshire clubs ended up in SoSFL or Fife clubs in Midlands. Edit: I also put Shetland in the NRJFA region and Orkney in the NCL area. Makes a bit of sense with ferries and flights...