The Falkirk FC Thread

[PedroMoutinho]

Interesting statement. Not sure how well the FSS subscriptions now being solely a donation to the club with the FSS membership having effectively no say on how they are spent will go down. Tbh I am surprised that has been agreed to.

[Jimmy1876]

16 minutes ago, PedroMoutinho said:

Interesting statement. Not sure how well the FSS subscriptions now being solely a donation to the club with the FSS membership having effectively no say on how they are spent will go down. Tbh I am surprised that has been agreed to.

I didn't get that from the statement to be fair, especially with the statement from FSS on their website which specified that the donation could very well be conditional based on the agreement. 

[Bairney The Dinosaur]

13 minutes ago, PedroMoutinho said:

Interesting statement. Not sure how well the FSS subscriptions now being solely a donation to the club with the FSS membership having effectively no say on how they are spent will go down. Tbh I am surprised that has been agreed to.

Now that the shares have been bought there are very little other options available other than donation. It is what happens with most fan owned clubs.

Short-term focus on keeping us full-time but driving towards establishment of Falkirk Academy is what was discussed at the members meeting.

[falkirkzombie]

12 minutes ago, Bairney The Dinosaur said:

Now that the shares have been bought there are very little other options available other than donation. It is what happens with most fan owned clubs.

Short-term focus on keeping us full-time but driving towards establishment of Falkirk Academy is what was discussed at the members meeting.

Exactly, we have only arrived at this point sooner than expected because of the fan bank money. Long term the academy being a focus of FSS should be a vote winner. 

[Harry Kinnear]

I may be wrong but I don’t see many cancelling their monthly payment. The shares have been bought and the money coming in is being put to the good of the club/team. I said as much at the meeting that I thought the money should go to the first team budget but have no issues with it helping the academy.

[Enigma]

3 minutes ago, Harry Kinnear said:

I may be wrong but I don’t see many cancelling their monthly payment. The shares have been bought and the money coming in is being put to the good of the club/team. I said as much at the meeting that I thought the money should go to the first team budget but have no issues with it helping the academy.

Is it not the case that a large chunck of contributions will just going towards paying back the Scottish government? If I were a Falkirk I wouldn’t be putting my heard-earned towards that.

Edited September 11, 2023 by Enigma

[Bairn in Exile]

1 minute ago, Enigma said:

Is not a large chunck of contributions not just going back to paying the Scottish government? If I were a Falkirk I wouldn’t be putting my heard-earned towards that.

A Fifer happy to default on a debt. Who would have thunk it?

[Jimmy1876]

I think the two statements have been very good. Understand the issues others have but my concern was the shares. These will be achieved, with more money into the club as well. The FSS statement in particular outlined everything really clearly and I like the future direction. I agree an initial aim of getting out the league needs to be the priority but the future ambition of funding the academy is a noble one and something I would stand behind. This would also free academy funds for the first team as well. I also appreciate the fact that any future share issue will have a minimum of 25% ringfenced for FSS protecting that safeguarding percentage. I guess next step is for FSS and the club to decide how the shares will be maintained? Will the club accept monthly payments as a loan to be repaid in shares or will FSS simply keep a percentage in the bank to make sure there is a cash reserve to purchase shares when needed. Really alleviates a lot of my concerns. Clearer communication earlier could have avoided a lot of the initial unhappiness but I'm happy to see the future direction and communication lesson learned. Hopefully we get a good board representative in the elections now and we can all move forward. 

[Harry Kinnear]

5 minutes ago, Enigma said:

Is it not the case that a large chunck of contributions will just going towards paying back the Scottish government? If I were a Falkirk I wouldn’t be putting my heard-earned towards that.

Think the figure is something like £17k a year out of what we bring in which I believe is just over £100k at the moment. Scottish Government obviously saw Falkirk FC and fans as a club who have a proud history of paying debts in full unlike other Scottish clubs.

[Disco Duck]

54 minutes ago, Bairney The Dinosaur said:

Now that the shares have been bought there are very little other options available other than donation. It is what happens with most fan owned clubs

Apart from, y’know, issue more shares in return for the cash.

[Jimmy1876]

7 minutes ago, Enigma said:

Is it not the case that a large chunck of contributions will just going towards paying back the Scottish government? If I were a Falkirk I wouldn’t be putting my heard-earned towards that.

Not until 2024 firstly. Also even then more than 83% will continue going to the club and that will continue to increase as FSS grows. And its absolutely worth it for that percentage to go to that loan when that loan is what allowed a fans group to become the largest shareholder in our club. 

[Springfield]

1 hour ago, FalkirkBairn2021 said:

This has been my experience of going to Falkirk games for a long time too.

There's a fair number of 'Buckie in the back pocket of the jeans' fannies that I've seen try and start fights. 

We don't want to be getting a reputation for that at away venues. Then you get retaliation and it's usually the decent fans that get caught up in it. 

Really difficult to nip in the bud though.

Already witnessed some “so called Ultras” trying to get into a known town watering hole, clearly underage and with horrible attitude. Not sure if these are representative of the true Ultras, but it was a given that this type of establishment would attach itself, once the young team was set up. Should have simply named them the “Navy Blue 1876”

[FalkirkBairn2021]

I'm surprised most fan ownership models end up with donations v shares. I don't buy the argument that you can't just keep creating more- that's completely untrue. 

Still at least the percentage ownership point has been resolved. That's something. 

I don't like conceptually the idea of donation - I don't think it encourages good corporate behaviours. 

But that's for fans to decide with our hard earned.

[Bairney The Dinosaur]

12 minutes ago, Disco Duck said:

Apart from, y’know, issue more shares in return for the cash.

Yeah I guess, but I can see why the club doesn't want to do that. The statement talks about endlessly issuing shares as disproportionately inflating our market value (or something like that).

[Harry Kinnear]

To be fair to the Ultras group, we had wee fuds attached to our support before they came along, think the Grahamston Station dancing team against Hibs. The vandalism part of it at Alloa is shite though and just ends up costing the club money.

[Grangemouth Bairn]

9 minutes ago, Harry Kinnear said:

To be fair to the Ultras group, we had wee fuds attached to our support before they came along, think the Grahamston Station dancing team against Hibs. The vandalism part of it at Alloa is shite though and just ends up costing the club money.

From what I can see, the Ultras are just mainly the same group of people that classed themselves as ‘Casuals’ in subsequent seasons and are behaving exactly the same way but have swapped Stone Island and Adidas for drums and balaclavas.

[Barr]

This months FFC podcast is an accompaniment to todays statement and follows on from the meeting last week (which I missed)  https://www.falkirkfc.co.uk/2023/09/11/ffc-podcast-episode-10-available-now/

The FSS guys are looking for volunteers so an ideal time to get involved.

[Harry Kinnear]

8 minutes ago, Grangemouth Bairn said:

From what I can see, the Ultras are just mainly the same group of people that classed themselves as ‘Casuals’ in subsequent seasons and are behaving exactly the same way but have swapped Stone Island and Adidas for drums and balaclavas.

Understandable,drums and balaclavas are much cheaper, what with the cost of living nowadays.

Edited September 11, 2023 by Harry Kinnear

[Jimmy1876]

2 statements, Falkirk Daft statement and a podcast? Where was all this communication weeks ago?! All jokes aside really appreciate the efforts made to clarify all the concerns. 

Edited September 11, 2023 by Jimmy1876

[HopeStreetWalker]

26 minutes ago, FalkirkBairn2021 said:

I'm surprised most fan ownership models end up with donations v shares. I don't buy the argument that you can't just keep creating more- that's completely untrue. 

Still at least the percentage ownership point has been resolved. That's something. 

I don't like conceptually the idea of donation - I don't think it encourages good corporate behaviours. 

But that's for fans to decide with our hard earned.

Remember any new shares issued dilutes the % of existing shares held by any grouping or individual unless the shares issued are exclusive to them