LatapyBairn.

Longer term what is the plan for the FSS once all the allocated shares have been purchased? Will the money raised each month be ring fenced for certain initiatives or will it simply just be handed over to the club as a donation similar to the foundation of Hearts? Would quite like the members to be canvased on this, perhaps the FSS could be used as a vehicle to fund the academy as it continues to grow or maybe funds could be ring fenced to supplement the playing budget like an upscaled version of Bairn for Life. Agree it would be a good idea to have that discussion with the members and try to outline a longer term blue print for the society, a clear long term plan might help attract some new sign ups as well.

Exactly this, surely the word “option” indicates that option then lies with either the player or the club (I’m guessing the club) If both parties had an option on the extension then there is no option! It’s just a player running out of contract the same as in an any other instance of a contract expiring.

Think the club have got this about right, I actually expected prices to be increased more than they have considering not only the current inflation levels but the fact prices have been frozen for 4 years now and inevitably would needed to have went up eventually regardless of the abnormally high inflationary pressures the club currently face. The ability to pay over 12 months I think is a pretty clever tool as well and will hopefully both entice a few extra members to the FSS / also help soften the burden of the price rises for those that need it. Did not expect both the early bird offer and free under 12’s to be kept on either but obviously quite happy they have found a way to continue these initiatives so all in all I’m quite pleased, hopefully most fans feel the same and we get a good take up in response.

Pitch is at the end of its life and will need done sooner rather than later anyway, the club would be crazy not to take advantage of the SFA grant available this year and do it in the summer. It’s not often you get 150k free money handed over! Can’t imagine that kind of subsidy will come around again any time soon.

Surely you can see the starting position in this year was dreadful, there was no cash in the bank after a club record loss in the previous year hence the scramble to raise finance, that won’t be the case in the next year. The starting position next year will be much healthier with cash reserves that can be built into any budgets thanks to both the cup run and the club being on course to exceed all its commercial targets. Your literally the first person I’ve heard who’s managed to interpret that pod cast in such a negative way, however maybe everybody else is wrong and you are correct

I listened to that pod cast and never heard anybody say the words there’d be a 400k budget cut. I did here them explain we’d have a break even budget supplemented by whatever fans raised via the FSS however quite obviously our cash position at the start of the next year is going to be considerably higher that it was at the beginning of this one so a break even budget does not equate to a 400k budget cut if that 400k reserve is already sitting in the bank from the previous years accounts! Stop trying to twist words and make trouble.

Where have you heard this? The the 400k deficit from this years accounts was reported as being filled way before we knocked Darvel out the cup so presumably should it be a worst case scenario and we are in this division next season the cash raised from the Scottish cup run this year should see us through next year.

This is the first season I can say I’ve actually enjoyed watching us probably since Peter Houston was in charge, not really interested in tit for tat nonsense or folk trying to fling out specific stats just to suit a narrative. I have eyes and in general I am watching a far better coached team playing a more attractive brand of football than I have done for a good few years, on top of that our strike rate with regard to new signings is way way better with less money being wasted on dross. Dunfermline unfortunately have just been particularly good and more importantly far more consistent than us but if we can regain the run of form we’ve just came off I put us as favourites to go through the playoffs, that in itself from where we were both on and off the field come the end of last season is a huge turnaround that surely deserves recognition! Particularly as we could well end up both in a Scottish cup final and the manager gaining promotion at the first time of asking. If you scroll back to the beginning of the season on here hardly any fan was giving us a chance of winning the division anyway, it’s worth noting that some on here now seem to all of a sudden have come to almost expect it, that in itself shows Mcglynn has at the very least raised the bar and expectation level which is no bad thing.

Agree with a lot of that but I was only responding to the point Mcglynn didn’t have better options/alternative option than ourselves, he probably did. Accepting the contract extension that was on the table from Raith would have been one of them.

Mcglynn had the option to stay at Raith Rovers, they are in the championship we are not. Most people would argue they were actually a better option than us at the time.

Good news. Hopefully he’s the first of a few. Burrell, Lawal, Kennedy I hope we are speaking to about staying next year as well. McGuffie, Williamson, Watson I presume will all be punted and I can’t make up my mind on McKay but he may need to go as well in order to free up funds for potential new players.

My seat and those sitting around me (roughly the middle rows of the main stand) don’t seem to have this problem you speak of??

I’m a bit confused as to what you mean? Surely the whole point of fan ownership and a member’s organisation like the FSS is so the club CAN rely on a level of fan investment in the same way we budget for season and match day tickets ect? The fan ownership model already exists and runs successfully at clubs like Morton, Hearts and Motherwell amongst others, I was under the impression this is something we are aiming to replicate so we can indeed rely on that extra income and set budgets accordingly which should in theory give the club a competitive advantage long term. Have you actually listened to the pod cast? The directors clearly said the coming seasons budget will be dictated by not only what division we were in but by the numbers signed up to the FSS at the time, nobody at any point suggested budgeting for another operational deficit so I’m not sure what your getting at in that regard either?

Especially when half of it isn’t fit for purpose! What use is a stand you canny put people in

Agree about having a standing area but would we be able to build an open terrace now or would it have to be that rail seating stuff Celtic have? What’s the actual legislation at the moment?

I asked the question at an AGM once and was told we do yea.

The deal was re-negotiated a few years ago because the stadium company was loosing money. Initially the club owned 51% of “Falkirk Community Stadium Ltd” but that was then carved up with the assets being separated out between the council and the club. Council took on the debt but basically now own all the internal money making facilities in the main stand bar the changing rooms so the club now pays a service charge to use any of the corporate, hospitality or catering facilities. Club owns the seats, concourse catering area and the pitch with SA owning the south stand and the club owning the north stand.

Is that land not on a 175 year lease tho? At something daft like £1 a year? The club do effectively own the land

Sandy Alexander’s net worth will be considerably higher than 5 or even 10 million. He’s worth way way north of that!

They may

Or maybe rather than being “daft” he’d be acting as a philanthropic life long Falkirk fan in his elderly years who already has more money than god anyway.

Not sure if they have any foundation to them but the rumours have always been that SA has left the KM7 stand to the club in his wil.

Yes!

Kinda thought that was a strange comment as well, all teams drop what they would view as silly points over a season, when I think of some of the stupid points we dropped early in the season and then having only picked up one point in the two games against Dunfermline still feels like missed opportunity as well because I genuinely felt we were the better side in both those games but at the end of the day the only thing that matters is results and in that respect Dunfermline have unfortunately been pretty good at getting the job done so far this season.