The Falkirk FC Thread

[LatapyBairn.]

8 minutes ago, Numbers_One_To_Eleven said:

As someone mentioned earlier, the ability just to move out about in the terraces was a good thing. Even during the game.
 

It just felt a bit more real standing watching the football (with the opportunity to sit in the stand as well). Sometimes standing was a bit of a slog (I felt like leaving at times if was it a drab day on a cold or rainy day) but, it also felt a bit more of rewarding experience in a way.

A safe standing terrace would be a good thing in theory at TFS.

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? 

[Zbairn]

58 minutes ago, Bairn in Exile said:

If I was a multi-billionaire with money to burn I'd buy both the Arse Cheeks and amalgamate them! Their fans would go apoplectic and stop attending, the new club would go bust and Scottish football would finally be competitive. We can all dream, can't we?

If I was a billionaire, I’d do a Man City with Falkirk and really shaft the bigot brothers up

[Reggie Perrin]

12 hours ago, Bairn in Exile said:

I loved Brockville as much as the next fan (see my earlier post) but we have to acknowledge that it was of its time. In fact, at the end, it had gone past its time, it was a dump (see Cappielow and Somerset Park).

I think that the consensus on here is that we are unhappy with TFS but neither do we want a Lego Land stadium like St. Mirren’s. The preferred option would appear to be a smaller version of Tynecastle but that ship has sailed and we have what we have. Therefore, we have to make the most of what we have.

So, let us do a SWOT analysis:

Strengths

3 sided stadium

Located slap bang in the centre of Scotland

Easy access via the motorway network

Plastic pitch

 

Weaknesses

3 sided stadium

Lacks atmosphere

Plastic pitch

 

Opportunities

See strengths. As we have seen in the past we have an ideal stadium, location, pitch and accessibility for concerts. We just need to hope, indeed I would suspect, that the sales and marketing team who are doing a fantastic job are already on to this, contacting acts and agents and proposing TFS as a venue for the next few summers. Helps plug the annual £400K hole that we keep talking about.

(Because of the above,*heresy alert* I am not totally opposed to remaining a 3 sided stadium for the foreseeable future due to the additional funds that it can generate. However, I acknowledge that the “empty space” that is the 4^th sided of the stadium needs to be dealt with to improve atmosphere and noise on match days).

Threats

Lack of atmosphere on match days

Surely it would be possible to erect say a 60ft high “wall” of scaffolding along the length of the pitch on the Grangemouth side and then cover it with some navy blue, industrial strength, heavy duty nylon sheeting or such like? Then emblazon it with a humungous COYB logo. Not unlike the Rayo Vallecano wall proposed by @Bairns1994Have some holes poked in it to allow the wind through so that it doesn’t collapse in a storm. Easy enough to take down at the end of the season for the music concerts.

If / when we get to the Premiership we could then install some terracing over there and that could be our Ultras special place where they can bang their drums to their hearts content.

 

 

 

The grisly old print veteran in me insists that I let you know that mesh banner material exists for this type of work.

Sorry for being even more boring than usual.

[Reggie Perrin]

4 hours ago, Springfield said:

The day the arse cheeks announce they’re leaving the Scottish league, will be the best thing to happen to our game. The above stats are frightening and will only get worse. 

Who would have them?

[HopeStreetWalker]

9 minutes ago, Reggie Perrin said:

Who would have them?

They could form their own mini league and play a season of Old Firm derbies and their own exclusive cup competitions

[Reggie Perrin]

4 minutes ago, HopeStreetWalker said:

They could form their own mini league and play a season of Old Firm derbies and their own exclusive cup competitions

Make them play their mini league in Andorra in mid winter.

[Springfield]

19 minutes ago, Reggie Perrin said:

Who would have them?

Euro type league is still on the cards.

[Derry Alli]

1 hour ago, RC55 FFC said:

McGlynn song is catchy 

Listen, nobody's dead. 

[Grangemouth Bairn]

2 hours ago, Zbairn said:

My point is not based on the stats from this season but generally over the piece. Bayern have won the German league 17 times in the last 22 years. Pretty comprehensive one horse race in my opinion.

Yeah, but Bayern fans are not horrible, bigoted b*****ds.

[Zbairn]

38 minutes ago, Grangemouth Bairn said:

Yeah, but Bayern fans are not horrible, bigoted b*****ds.

True!

[Silvio Tattiescone]

23 hours ago, Back Post Misses said:

No drum, good old fashioned signing. Usually half a dozen pints help too.  

Can't see how having some wifey at the front of the stand doing this is going to help much.

[AUcal]

4 hours ago, LatapyBairn. said:

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? 

Somerset Park, Cappielow , Gayfield etc are all valid for the Premiership. 

There are small limitations in that there has to be a certain amount of covered seats for Prem. 500 minimum, I believe. In fact, I'd struggle to think of many clubs in the championship / league 1 that don't meet current requirements for the top flight.

The rules around all seater stadia were abolished at the point where SPFL was formed from the SPL / SFL merger. 

So aye, get some terracing put up on the empty side. Would be class.

[Guest]

That’s us into the last 5. 

[Guest]

4 hours ago, HopeStreetWalker said:

They could form their own mini league and play a season of Old Firm derbies and their own exclusive cup competitions

My thoughts too. Make no mistake, the proddies who never go to church and the catholics who never go to chapel would turn up in their droves for all 36 games. They could perhaps mix it up in games 10, 20, and 30 by them having to play crazy golf, pop up pirate and ice hockey. The knuckle daggers would still turn up in numbers.

The dream is of course that the EFL allow them in, and they no longer have any sort of presence in Scottish football.

Remember too that distribution of funds (apart from TV) was pretty much predicated on the horror show that was the Ibrox Disaster.

Rangers argued that their support were paying for the Ibrox re-build, and it was unfair that half of the gate money went to the visiting side who brought a few hundred to the game. It was successfully argued that each club could keep the funds it brought to the game…..I.E., home gate receipts.

As you dropped down the leagues, the principle was the same. For example, it would be a tough ask to expect Falkirk v Livingston with any attendance of 4,000 to hand over half the gate receipts to the visiting side who brought 87 people to the game.

I suppose the unfair stuff is TV and other monies are not used for the betterment of the game. Just syphoned off by the usual culprits.

[Numbers_One_To_Eleven]

I see Andy Nicol is the latest legend to be named in the North Stand initiative. Can someone describe his time at the club please? Also, I started going in 90/91 and he came back for 10 games that season. Anyone know the background to that? Gary Smith would’ve been the first choice right back at that point. 

[Springfield]

On a  slightly different topic, sincerely wishing all the very best wishes to the players, support and everyone connected with the club, for tomorrow’s game. Another meet with die hard bairn fans  from far away and let the party commence.

[Guest FFC1965]

I see that the SPFL https://spfl.co.uk/pages/key-dates doesn't yet show our playoff dates.  

I'm assuming that they will run like previous years ie start the midweek immediately after the final fixtures therefore...... 

Semis on 9/10 & 13/14 May (we'll be Away 1st if we finish 2nd)

Final on 16/17 and 20/21 May (we'll be home 1st if we get through and play Championship 9th place - vice versa if its the team that finished 4th in L1)

I see Arbroath's last two home games are Cove (34th game) then Hamilton on the final day.    

My only playoff wish is that Airdrie don't feature  

 

 

[Shodwall cat]

5 hours ago, LatapyBairn. said:

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? 

You can have what you want these days. If Arbroath had won the league last season then gayfield would've been fine. Clubs doing safe standing have to because they aren't going to knock down stands to replace it with terracing.

[Guest FFC1965]

15 minutes ago, Numbers_One_To_Eleven said:

I see Andy Nicol is the latest legend to be named in the North Stand initiative. Can someone describe his time at the club please? Also, I started going in 90/91 and he came back for 10 games that season. Anyone know the background to that? Gary Smith would’ve been the first choice right back at that point. 

Others will know more but briefly

- Local lad (Graeme High iirc) 

- Over 300 appearances https://bettermeddle.org.uk/archive/profile.php?name=1|1979|Nicol 

- Im sure his dad Harry was involved at the club as a coach ("trainer" in those days) and was a weel kent face too.  I can recall him joining in with a few kickabouts we we used to have as kids at the Bellsmeadow (before they put a HBFO road through it) and we dreamt that he was scouting us.  

- Andy was a long serving super steady full back whose 13 year career spanned our rise from the 3rd tier to 1st.  

- Ive no idea if he left and came back towards the end of his career.  My guess would be that he missed almost every game in 89/90 through injury and returned for a few games in 90/91 before leaving the club in summer 91.  As I said others will definitely know better

[Brockers61]

2 minutes ago, FFC1965 said:

Others will know more but briefly

- Local lad (Graeme High iirc) 

- Over 300 appearances https://bettermeddle.org.uk/archive/profile.php?name=1|1979|Nicol 

- Im sure his dad Harry was involved at the club as a coach ("trainer" in those days) and was a weel kent face too.  I can recall him joining in with a few kickabouts we we used to have as kids at the Bellsmeadow (before they put a HBFO road through it) and we dreamt that he was scouting us.  

- Andy was a long serving super steady full back whose 13 year career spanned our rise from the 3rd tier to 1st.  

- Ive no idea if he left and came back towards the end of his career.  My guess would be that he missed almost every game in 89/90 through injury and returned for a few games in 90/91 before leaving the club in summer 91.  As I said others will definitely know better

I recall he was part time as he had a good job as an accountant (?), I'm sure one season he had to go over to USA with work and that was why he missed a good part of that season.