The Falkirk FC Thread

[NavyBlueArmy1876]

1 hour ago, FFC 1876 said:

11 games left with us still waiting on a new date for Montrose away. Here's the run in.

Falkirk vs Peterhead
Dunfermline vs Alloa

Dunfermline vs Falkirk

Peterhead vs Dunfermline

Queen of the South vs Falkirk
Dunfermline vs FC Edinburgh

Falkirk vs Kelty Hearts
Montrose vs Dunfermline

Clyde vs Falkirk
Dunfermline vs Kelty Hearts

Falkirk vs Dunfermline

Falkirk vs Airdrie
Dunfermline vs Queen of the South

Alloa vs Falkirk
Airdrie vs Dunfermline

Falkirk vs FC Edinburgh
Dunfermline vs Clyde

Peterhead vs Falkirk
Alloa vs Dunfermline

Interesting sets of fixtures. Both sides appear to have 3 difficult away games remaining (both at Montrose and Alloa, us at QotS and Pars at Airdrie).

Though with the Pars away record this season they may be more likely to drop points in their home fixtures 

The only real advantage we can claim is we still have to play Peterhead twice. The two head to heads look like they will be massive

[LatapyBairn.]

18 minutes ago, roman_bairn said:

How does this approach raise more money when the number of people who will purchase a season ticket will inevitably go down?…

As long as any price increase is fair I don’t think it will effect renewals, on top of the fact season ticket prices have been frozen for 4 seasons now we also have double digit inflation as a country at the moment. It probably isn’t reasonable to expect the club to continually absorb all inflationary pressures indefinitely.

Edited February 27, 2023 by LatapyBairn.

[Proudtobeabairn]

At the very least there HAS to be an option on the ST renewal forms to sign up for FSS at the same time.  

The marketing for FSS generally needs to improve - no criticism of the guys running it all volunteers but we need to be much more creative to reach more people.  It annoys me when some say "fans have to back it or it'll fail" or numbers aren't where they need to be when we're not reaching the a big chunk of our fanbase.  Numbers will never increase via some chat on P&B. FSS needs to reach more people and be easy to join.  

E.g Where are the (non taxable) FSS benefits?  Make it as easy as possible for people to sign up at ST renewal time.  Are we distributing and collecting FSS sign up forms at hospitality each week?  I can link to sign up to the 1876 Club (at £10 a month) directly on the website but I can't directly sign up to FSS (not even any mention of FSS which is the recognised branding only 'supporters society' among a lot of other groups).  FSS sign up should be easy and front and centre online.  If the money is to go to fund players then it's in the clubs interest and shouldn't be left to the FSS guys alone. Have we even had John McGlynn or the players do anything to push FSS (videos etc)?  The COYB site could do much more too, a pinned link to sign up at the very least... 

Numbers will ramp up but not by sitting back and hoping for the best. 
  
 

[Guest Brockvillenomore]

37 minutes ago, Kevin James Left Knee said:

This is my personal view but I think rather than initiate a scheme like FF (which we should be honest has been received with rather a poor reception) the club should end the early bird scheme and put the prices up on season tickets. The latter will have to happen sometime - the price has been held stable for several seasons (and if we get promotion then ticket prices are higher in the Championship). I know this may cause some people issues and I am entirely sympathetic to their plight but this is a better way of raising money than asking for an additional donation which give you nothing, compared to the FSS where you get a vote in how the club should be run. 

I’m not sure a scheme that hasn’t been published can receive a bad reception, unless you’re judging by a handful of high level slides at the AGM. 

[Guest Brockvillenomore]

26 minutes ago, Kevin James Left Knee said:

Another personal view:

There are 640 members in FSS some of whom are donating more than £10 a month. That is NOT A FAILURE. In fact the mention of Motherwell at the AGM was a mistake - their membership has a lot of young people paying next to nothing and a large number of £5 a month subscriptions. If you look at the other supporters schemes they pretty much max out at 50% of their season ticket holders. FSS has been a huge success from a standing start and I get annoyed when it is hinted at that it has failed. 

There has been a steady stream of new members to join FSS over the last month. Around a further 50 will have signed up in the last 6 weeks and it keeps on slowly growing. I expect we will have around 700 by the end of the season and a boost if we get to the Semi Finaly/promotion. That brings in nearly £8,000 a month - a decent amount to help John and Paul.

It is important that FSS is well supported as it is the only voice of the fans - you can come to the AGM on the day after the Ayr game and ask questions, keep everyone accountable and meet the fan directors. That is much more important than simply just raising money for the club - you can have representation as well as helping keeping the team out of the red.

Furthermore there is a lot of work being done behind the scenes of FSS which will, we hope, will bring long term benefits to the club. That is another reason to donate to FSS instead of another scheme that gives you nothing really. Time will tell.

Nobody has ever said the FSS is a failure. Where does this come from? Have I missed something? 

[roman_bairn]

6 minutes ago, LatapyBairn. said:

As long as any price increase is fair I don’t think it will effect renewals, on top of the fact season ticket prices have been frozen for 4 seasons now we also have double digit inflation as a country at the moment. It probably isn’t reasonable to expect the club to continually absorb all inflationary pressures indefinitely.

A modest increase is fine and I think the club have already advised that this will happen anyway. However a substantial increase, as would be required as an alternative to another funding scheme (as proposed above), would probably cost us as much in season ticket drops as it would in increased income from prospective purchasers…….

[Richie Sacramento]

2 minutes ago, Brockvillenomore said:

Nobody has ever said the FSS is a failure. Where does this come from? Have I missed something? 

I think the consensus is more that its not failed, but the time frame required to build organically is something we can't really afford if we don't want the budget for McGlynn slashed next season (regardless of division by the way).

So trying to convert more season ticket holders into FSS/Falkirk Forever whatever it is is needed to get fan ownership on a sustainable even keel.

[Guest Brockvillenomore]

5 minutes ago, Proudtobeabairn said:

At the very least there HAS to be an option on the ST renewal forms to sign up for FSS at the same time.  

The marketing for FSS generally needs to improve - no criticism of the guys running it all volunteers but we need to be much more creative to reach more people.  It annoys me when some say "fans have to back it or it'll fail" or numbers aren't where they need to be when we're not reaching the a big chunk of our fanbase.  Numbers will never increase via some chat on P&B. FSS needs to reach more people and be easy to join.  

E.g Where are the (non taxable) FSS benefits?  Make it as easy as possible for people to sign up at ST renewal time.  Are we distributing and collecting FSS sign up forms at hospitality each week?  I can link to sign up to the 1876 Club (at £10 a month) directly on the website but I can't directly sign up to FSS (not even any mention of FSS which is the recognised branding only 'supporters society' among a lot of other groups).  FSS sign up should be easy and front and centre online.  If the money is to go to fund players then it's in the clubs interest and shouldn't be left to the FSS guys alone. Have we even had John McGlynn or the players do anything to push FSS (videos etc)?  The COYB site could do much more too, a pinned link to sign up at the very least... 

Numbers will ramp up but not by sitting back and hoping for the best. 
  
 

I agree. Perhaps part of the solution is for the FSS to explore how they can retain their independent status while looking for ways to work closer with the club, like support with admin, marketing, IT, videos via Falkirk TV, etc. 

[Guest Brockvillenomore]

1 minute ago, Richie Sacramento said:

I think the consensus is more that its not failed, but the time frame required to build organically is something we can't really afford if we don't want the budget for McGlynn slashed next season (regardless of division by the way).

So trying to convert more season ticket holders into FSS/Falkirk Forever whatever it is is needed to get fan ownership on a sustainable even keel.

I imagine that the way McGlynn has transformed us, particularly over the last window, has caught us all by surprise. He’s building the squad so well we COULD go up as champions and challenge in the Championship next season.  No presumptions here btw, but we are definitely ahead of where any of us thought we’d be. Or even in our wildest dreams.
 

My view is we must support the management team, we’re on the cusp of something special here. 

[Kevin James Left Knee]

16 minutes ago, Proudtobeabairn said:

At the very least there HAS to be an option on the ST renewal forms to sign up for FSS at the same time.  

The marketing for FSS generally needs to improve - no criticism of the guys running it all volunteers but we need to be much more creative to reach more people.  It annoys me when some say "fans have to back it or it'll fail" or numbers aren't where they need to be when we're not reaching the a big chunk of our fanbase.  Numbers will never increase via some chat on P&B. FSS needs to reach more people and be easy to join.  

E.g Where are the (non taxable) FSS benefits?  Make it as easy as possible for people to sign up at ST renewal time.  Are we distributing and collecting FSS sign up forms at hospitality each week?  I can link to sign up to the 1876 Club (at £10 a month) directly on the website but I can't directly sign up to FSS (not even any mention of FSS which is the recognised branding only 'supporters society' among a lot of other groups).  FSS sign up should be easy and front and centre online.  If the money is to go to fund players then it's in the clubs interest and shouldn't be left to the FSS guys alone. Have we even had John McGlynn or the players do anything to push FSS (videos etc)?  The COYB site could do much more too, a pinned link to sign up at the very least... 

Numbers will ramp up but not by sitting back and hoping for the best. 
  
 

We last leafleted 4 games in a row just over a month ago - a thousand leaflets at each game - we will no doubt do that again but after the 4th leafleting people were a bit fed up getting more paper. We decided to wait for a while before doing it again.

There is a monthly electronic  newsletter and we have people next to stand up banners at every home game trying to get sign ups.

We are active on social media and we have a good tie in relationship with Falkirk Daft that has a monthly draw for the prizes we offer to members. We are looking at other benefits but we have to be very careful about attracting VAT on any benefits - we recently did some research on this and it can be a minefield if we get it wrong.

We have put leaflets out at all hospitality events when we can. There is a page in every programme written by FSS. 

The club website has a direct link to the FSS sign up page on the ticket pages. You can sign up directly on teh FSS site (which is reasonably maintained) or download a standing order if paypal is not your thing. Here it is:

https://falkirksupporters.org/subscribe/

There were 3 "sign up" videos by McGlynn, Jamie, and Paul Watson produced and shared on social media at the beginning of the season. 

There you go - we've done eveything you suggest in your post and continue to do them.

Edited February 27, 2023 by Kevin James Left Knee

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Brockvillenomore said:

Nobody has ever said the FSS is a failure. Where does this come from? Have I missed something? 

That is the narrative that is forming, particularly when pairing us off against other schemes that have been running for years. Using Well Society members as a comparative number as opposed to our monthly contributions spins a narrative of failure rather one on an upwards trajectory. They chose the 18% of membership as opposed to 60% of contributions. That will have been done in an effort to boost numbers but to me if people believe something is failing then why would they jump on (what they believe) to be a sinking ship?

The FSS can do more and we are constantly looking at ways to achieve this but again we are volunteers, with no paid staff or resources available. Any advice is helpful but its not entirely fair to say they should do X, Y or Z if unwilling to give some of your own time to achieve these things as we all have other things going on on top of the work we already perform for FSS.

That said, if anyone here wants to help then please contact the FSS at admin@falkirksupporters.org. I’m trying to do my bit but won’t be on for much longer so the rest of the committee will appreciate any help you can offer. 

[Kevin James Left Knee]

Last post - a small spurt of new FSS members since the AGM. Now 651 members. Over £7,900 a month. 

Edited February 27, 2023 by Kevin James Left Knee

[Richie Sacramento]

14 minutes ago, Brockvillenomore said:

I imagine that the way McGlynn has transformed us, particularly over the last window, has caught us all by surprise. He’s building the squad so well we COULD go up as champions and challenge in the Championship next season.  No presumptions here btw, but we are definitely ahead of where any of us thought we’d be. Or even in our wildest dreams.
 

My view is we must support the management team, we’re on the cusp of something special here. 

So your almost there....

The budget McGlynn got this year was reliant the board budgeting for a £400k loss, which they hoped to make up through FSS/Patrons/additional revenue. That gap has been filled for this year, thankfully.

The board are however saying we cant keep doing this, therefore unless we can find a way of sustainably filling that 400k on an ongoing basis, we will need to cut budgets, and the only budget we can cut is the football budget as there is no money to be saved anywhere else. Therefore McGlynns budget for even a Championship tilt, would be less than this year for League One.

 

[Salvo Montalbano]

44 minutes ago, NavyBlueArmy1876 said:

Interesting sets of fixtures. Both sides appear to have 3 difficult away games remaining (both at Montrose and Alloa, us at QotS and Pars at Airdrie).

Though with the Pars away record this season they may be more likely to drop points in their home fixtures 

The only real advantage we can claim is we still have to play Peterhead twice. The two head to heads look like they will be massive

Queen of the South are pish, you'll beat them at Palmerston comfortably. As you say, our away record is great while our home record isn't so I'm probably more worried about the home games v Edinburgh, Kelty and obviously yourselves. 

[Shodwall cat]

10 minutes ago, Richie Sacramento said:

So your almost there....

The budget McGlynn got this year was reliant the board budgeting for a £400k loss, which they hoped to make up through FSS/Patrons/additional revenue. That gap has been filled for this year, thankfully.

The board are however saying we cant keep doing this, therefore unless we can find a way of sustainably filling that 400k on an ongoing basis, we will need to cut budgets, and the only budget we can cut is the football budget as there is no money to be saved anywhere else. Therefore McGlynns budget for even a Championship tilt, would be less than this year for League One.

 

There are also financial benefits though of being in the championship. Not sure what the prize money is for coming tenth but it's probably more or at least on a par with winning league one. There's bigger gates both from more home fans coming back and the fact we will have away supports from the likes of Partick, Raith , perhaps Dundee and more than likely Dunfermline . might not cover all the shortfall but would cover some of it .

 

[Guest Brockvillenomore]

10 minutes ago, Van_damage said:

That is the narrative that is forming, particularly when pairing us off against other schemes that have been running for years. Using Well Society members as a comparative number as opposed to our monthly contributions spins a narrative of failure rather one on an upwards trajectory. They chose the 18% of membership as opposed to 60% of contributions. That will have been done in an effort to boost numbers but to me if people believe something is failing then why would they jump on (what they believe) to be a sinking ship?

The FSS can do more and we are constantly looking at ways to achieve this but again we are volunteers, with no paid staff or resources available. Any advice is helpful but its not entirely fair to say they should do X, Y or Z if unwilling to give some of your own time to achieve these things as we all have other things going on on top of the work we already perform for FSS.

That said, if anyone here wants to help then please contact the FSS at admin@falkirksupporters.org. I’m trying to do my bit but won’t be on for much longer so the rest of the committee will appreciate any help you can offer. 

I was at the AGM. If they’d used Hearts in that slide I’d perhaps agree with you. But they didn’t.  I’m sure the comparison was size of clubs like ours. So it was St.Mirren, Motherwell and Morton? Not sure if there was another. All of them had more than us and framed as “it’s only been a year”. It was also an FSS rep who talked us through that section.

At the time I felt an awful lot was being squeezed into the time available and the slides were a bit rushed. 

My recollection is there was lots of support for the FSS throughout the presentations. You had your pop up stall and were canvassing for members for example. I can’t be sure but I think the FSS featured in every section in some way. All positively. 

There was also a reflection on a concern the appetite for fan ownership not being where the BoD thought it was and the added concern of the financial pressure on fans. 

Is that a narrative forming or a realisation of a potential reality? 

As a shareholder with a modest 300 shares I only saw people in FSS and the club wanting to bring success and trying their best. 
 

[Bigbrbairn]

1 hour ago, Kevin James Left Knee said:

Another personal view:

There are 640 members in FSS some of whom are donating more than £10 a month. That is NOT A FAILURE. In fact the mention of Motherwell at the AGM was a mistake - their membership has a lot of young people paying next to nothing and a large number of £5 a month subscriptions. If you look at the other supporters schemes they pretty much max out at 50% of their season ticket holders. FSS has been a huge success from a standing start and I get annoyed when it is hinted at that it has failed. 

There has been a steady stream of new members to join FSS over the last month. Around a further 50 will have signed up in the last 6 weeks and it keeps on slowly growing. I expect we will have around 700 by the end of the season and a boost if we get to the Semi Finaly/promotion. That brings in nearly £8,000 a month - a decent amount to help John and Paul.

It is important that FSS is well supported as it is the only voice of the fans - you can come to the AGM on the day after the Ayr game and ask questions, keep everyone accountable and meet the fan directors. That is much more important than simply just raising money for the club - you can have representation as well as helping keeping the team out of the red.

Furthermore there is a lot of work being done behind the scenes of FSS which will, we hope, will bring long term benefits to the club. That is another reason to donate to FSS instead of another scheme that gives you nothing really. Time will tell.

Thats why i suggested the Season Ticket + scheme. It would help club and benefit FSS

[Kevin James Left Knee]

6 minutes ago, Bigbrbairn said:

Thats why i suggested the Season Ticket + scheme. It would help club and benefit FSS

It might actually hurt FSS if people left FSS to give money direct - although why they would is beyond me when there is no additional benefit and no say in the club.

[Springfield]

14 minutes ago, Shodwall cat said:

There are also financial benefits though of being in the championship. Not sure what the prize money is for coming tenth but it's probably more or at least on a par with winning league one. There's bigger gates both from more home fans coming back and the fact we will have away supports from the likes of Partick, Raith , perhaps Dundee and more than likely Dunfermline . might not cover all the shortfall but would cover some of it .

 

If we can get into the championship for next season, we shouldn’t underestimate the value of the away support which has been virtually non existent for two/three seasons. As mentioned above if we could get an average of 3000 fans per quarter (probably more) x 4 would bring in a revenue of around £150K+ 

[Guest]

59 minutes ago, Kevin James Left Knee said:

We last leafleted 4 games in a row just over a month ago - a thousand leaflets at each game - we will no doubt do that again but after the 4th leafleting people were a bit fed up getting more paper. We decided to wait for a while before doing it again.

There is a monthly electronic  newsletter and we have people next to stand up banners at every home game trying to get sign ups.

We are active on social media and we have a good tie in relationship with Falkirk Daft that has a monthly draw for the prizes we offer to members. We are looking at other benefits but we have to be very careful about attracting VAT on any benefits - we recently did some research on this and it can be a minefield if we get it wrong.

We have put leaflets out at all hospitality events when we can. There is a page in every programme written by FSS. 

The club website has a direct link to the FSS sign up page on the ticket pages. You can sign up directly on teh FSS site (which is reasonably maintained) or download a standing order if paypal is not your thing. Here it is:

https://falkirksupporters.org/subscribe/

There were 3 "sign up" videos by McGlynn, Jamie, and Paul Watson produced and shared on social media at the beginning of the season. 

There you go - we've done eveything you suggest in your post and continue to do them.

So I assume with the “we” comments you are involved? 

Why do you think it is a slow burn? Have you thought about engaging the junior section of the support? Under 18 fee? if that’s how other clubs boost their numbers so be it. 
I have been a member from really early on and I signed up on PayPal? As a business owner we take payments by that method and it annoys the s**t out of me as it the most expensive way for me to collect my money. How many members are collected that way? How much does that cost annually? 
I spoke to one of your committee members on Saturday and I will now up my subs and move to SO. How many more current members are in my situation? What about working the phones proactively? I know when the former Bairns Trust did that back in 2010 they raised a load of money for the share sale then. 

I am fully behind Fan Ownership, but what I am more behind is the club’s requirements to raise the required finance to give the manager a competitive budget and that also finance that protects the club.

The Board and FSS cannot be blamed if only 25% of the fanbase have currently signed up. Therefore both the club and FSS IMO need to look at how they can tap into that 75% as a minim and enhance what it is getting from the 25%. Have you tried to sell us members anything? If you have I apologise as I have missed it. 

It appears to me that we have a great foundation to kick on. Kicking on will however need understanding, collaboration and hard work.

Good luck to all involved - it is a thankless task.