Edinburgh City

[the philosopher]

Is it true you sold your old social club for a £million ?

If so where did it go ?

[Good Citizen Bad Citizen]

Just now, the philosopher said:

Is it true you sold your old social club for a £million ?

If so where did it go ?

It wasn't a million. And the social club is a separate entity and business to the football club 

Probs best to ask them directly as none of us will know the answer to your question 

 

[TxRover]

1 hour ago, Todd_is_God said:

Taking @HibeeJibee's post above (and the mechanisms now in place to gain promotion to the SPFL) into consideration I'd like to think the SPFL / its member clubs would veto any attempt by an existing club to effectively buy another club's playing licence in a higher league.

IDK, there is an attraction (at least to the owners/money men) to the idea of a mechanism for that type of process, since it would increase the value of all the smaller clubs across the board. It's a shite process, and totally anathema to the intent of football clubs and fanbases, but it's all about money in the end. If Loch McLochface United can't pay the bills, and Ben McBen Athletic the next town over is more successful but a couple of leagues lower, it might make sense to combine the two into a stronger version of United. Of course, as Thistle and Caledonian fans will tell you, it ain't all smooth sailing...and the further apart the teams/fanbases are...   

[Tenkay]

1 hour ago, Good Citizen Bad Citizen said:

All the hard work to get us to the SPFL in the 1st place has been undone. Granted, we had a non existent fan base when we got here which was always going to be a red flag to begin with. I'm going to try and write this my best in chronological order as to what has gone completely wrong and why we are in this position now. Firstly when Jah stepped down as chairman the club was handed over to highly ambitious businessmen that didn't have the funds to sustain their ambitions. Secondly, the move to Ainslie Park and not having our own home within a year and the signing of a convicted sex offender done absolutely no good to the pretty decent PR and goodwill the club built up under the EOSL/Lowland regime plus our 1st season in League 2. We were very lucky that Cowden were tragic in 2017/18 or we would've been toast, we also racked up a bit of debt. During the 2018/19 we had this ambition to become the best part time team in Scotland, decent players were signed on NOT high wages like many believe, a couple of gems from non league were unearthed and things looked a lot rosier until we found out the club were in the red and we needed a backer. Then along comes this backer who just wanted to run a football club from his home city, he ploughed a lot of his own money in. Covid then hit which wasn't ideal but we seemed to survive that and in 2022 we were promoted to League 1 despite the team being pretty mediocre all season. The club then decided to change the name of the club immediately without consulting any fans whatsoever and what little fanbase we had dwindled away and the club, with the money it was paying to try and chase a deluded dream to get to the championship, became completely unsustainable. The owner then told us we had 3 weeks to save the club and we found out the owner was trying to negotiate a deal with Spartans for them to take us over unless a fan led consortium took over which somehow miraculously happened. We were told things would be tight but it now seems the two who saved us at the last hour were lead down the wrong alley and the club was in a serious amount of debt with just about everyone and anything you can think of. Despite lowering ticket prices to attract more support we just haven't, the membership scheme has not even managed to touch the sides when it comes to plugging back any losses therefore we now find ourselves in this position where we could either go into administration, go to the wall completely or be opened up to a takeover from another club(again) 

As a long term fan who has overly invested emotionally over the years this is heartbreaking stuff. I've been to nearly every corner of this country following this basket case of a football club and the fact i and many others are completely powerless to help save the situation hurts us even more. There just isn't enough of us, and that stems from not having the fanbase for SPFL football in the first place. 

An absolutely grim situation, we aren't sustainable, and sadly I'm now resigned to the fact we are finished. 

I hope I can revisit this post in a years time and laugh at how wrong I was, but I doubt this thread will exist in a years time

Excellent post mate!

Sad times for genuine Edinburgh City fans but as you say there's just not enough of us to sustain League one football.

Hopefully we can pull through this and survive and then settle at a comfortable level,   for us might only be League 2 or lower.

Whatever league we do end up, we absolutely MUST either get away from Meadowbank to have ANY future, or sort something better there.

The old board had grand plans to build another stand and terracing on the opposite side which definitely would have helped. However these would still be years away due to the new houses needing to be built first.
I said at the time, the directors then were in far too much of a hurry, to rush us back to the old Meadowbank site before construction of the leisure centre was even finished, and Should have waited another year or two until we had a decent venue ready and in place.

I've no idea what the future holds so I'm just now praying we can survive and hopefully retain our league place for the people that worked hard to get us into League Two in the first place

 

 

[CoveRangers1922]

Horrible situation to be in, really feel for Edinburgh City fans who are left bewildered as to what the future holds for their club. Hopefully you can pull through, stabilise and then again start looking upwards. 

Watched the MacIndoe post SA interview and by all accounts he's still uncertain of the full gravity of the situation or perhaps the possible resolutions. This upcoming week will tell more I expect.

Credit to Liam Fontaine and Scott Mercer for playing yesterday. 

Edited December 10, 2023 by CoveRangers1922

[Shodwall cat]

7 minutes ago, CoveRangers1922 said:

Horrible situation to be in, really feel for Edinburgh City fans who are left bewildered as to what the future holds for their club. Hopefully you can pull through, stabilise and then again start looking upwards. 

Watched the MacIndoe post SA interview and by all accounts he's still uncertain of the full gravity of the situation and possible resolutions. This upcoming week will tell more I expect.

Credit to Liam Fontaine and Scott Mercer for playing yesterday. 

I'm sure macindoe could come up with a scheme to raise a few quid quickly. Hes had a lot of experience in that area allegedly.

[Brazilianlex]

4 hours ago, parsforlife said:

But if your one of the pyramid new clubs who fancy jumping a few leagues and do a livi/airdrie with them it maybe tempting

Mick Kennedy, Si Ferry with their Black Rooster and Open Goal franchise would be my bet. They both have already jumped Clubs takings their investments within them.

[Brazilianlex]

3 hours ago, Todd_is_God said:

Taking @HibeeJibee's post above (and the mechanisms now in place to gain promotion to the SPFL) into consideration I'd like to think the SPFL / its member clubs would veto any attempt by an existing club to effectively buy another club's playing licence in a higher league.

It wouldn’t be East Kilbride tho. Kennedy and Ferry have already moved Clubs before , (Darvel and Broomhill) and taking their investment with them.

[kevsmart]

7 hours ago, HibeeJibee said:

 

Plus there are actually 2 different rugby sides using it... Boroughmuir Bears in SRU Super 6 and old Boroughmuir RFC in Scottish National 3... with their own occasional Fri-Sat/Sat-Sun double-headers.

Indeed, but the Super 6 might not be here for much longer.

[WC Boggs]

10 hours ago, Otis Blue said:

The thing with the Gr*tna debacle was though - anyone with even the merest smattering of common sense could see that it was an unsustainable joke and a bubble that would rapidly inflate and burst spectacularly, but the blazers who run our game were happy to let it happen and pan out and of course our smug media thought it was all wonderful fun and couldn't get enough of it.  Should the game not have checks and balances/processes to prevent repetition of this sort of thing?

There are fair play rules supposed to stop clubs spending above their revenue.  Sugar daddies and directors can get round it by paying wages directly from their own money or half the money under the table.  I feel sorry for the city fans though. It was rumoured  for some time that City was only meeting wages by regular begging around Edinburgh for cash. What are fans  supposed to do about it, but keep quiet and hope the worst doesn't happen?  

[WC Boggs]

4 hours ago, Tenkay said:

Excellent post mate!

Sad times for genuine Edinburgh City fans but as you say there's just not enough of us to sustain League one football.

Hopefully we can pull through this and survive and then settle at a comfortable level,   for us might only be League 2 or lower.

Whatever league we do end up, we absolutely MUST either get away from Meadowbank to have ANY future, or sort something better there.

The old board had grand plans to build another stand and terracing on the opposite side which definitely would have helped. However these would still be years away due to the new houses needing to be built first.
I said at the time, the directors then were in far too much of a hurry, to rush us back to the old Meadowbank site before construction of the leisure centre was even finished, and Should have waited another year or two until we had a decent venue ready and in place.

I've no idea what the future holds so I'm just now praying we can survive and hopefully retain our league place for the people that worked hard to get us into League Two in the first place

 

 

I hope you do survive. I've no ill will towards the fans, It's the chancers who do this to them that need booted out of the game.

[Brazilianlex]

1 minute ago, WC Boggs said:

There are fair play rules supposed to stop clubs spending above their revenue.  Sugar daddies and directors can get round it by paying wages directly from their own money or half the money under the table.  I feel sorry for the city fans though. It was rumoured  for some time that City was only meeting wages by regular begging around Edinburgh for cash. What are fans  supposed to do about it, but keep quiet and hope the worst doesn't happen?  

The lower level pyramid is full of Clubs who pay a wage but top up with off the books “sponsor” bonuses. It’s illegal but SFA put the practise into the too hard to deal with basket.

SPFL seem to do a bit more scrutiny tho.

[WC Boggs]

3 minutes ago, Brazilianlex said:

The lower level pyramid is full of Clubs who pay a wage but top up with off the books “sponsor” bonuses. It’s illegal but SFA put the practise into the too hard to deal with basket.

SPFL seem to do a bit more scrutiny tho.

I don't think the SFA are tougher on it in the SPFL mate. When you have clubs who can barely get a 300 average home gate signing players that clubs with twice and 3 times that support can't afford, scrutiny seems non existent to me.

[Brazilianlex]

1 minute ago, WC Boggs said:

I don't think the SFA are tougher on it in the SPFL mate. When you have clubs who can barely get a 300 average home gate signing players that clubs with twice and 3 times that support can't afford, scrutiny seems non existent to me.

Yeah your maybe right actually !

[Otis Blue]

8 hours ago, WC Boggs said:

..... When you have clubs who can barely get a 300 average home gate signing players that clubs with twice and 3 times that support can't afford, scrutiny seems non existent to me.

^^^ Exactly. 

[Ginaro]

16 hours ago, Tenkay said:

I said at the time, the directors then were in far too much of a hurry, to rush us back to the old Meadowbank site before construction of the leisure centre was even finished, and Should have waited another year or two until we had a decent venue ready and in place.

Well it's a year and a half since you moved back to Meadowbank so surely it should've been a lot longer than that. That's assuming Meadowbank could ever be a decent venue? As soon as the plans came out it was obviously not going to be suitable.

[Beepee67]

19 hours ago, RubyTuesday said:

Some mostly sensible comments and empathy from decent fans of other clubs here - thank you. 

If I were to trace the current situation back to a single decision it would be the previous board signing off the decision to move back to a Meadowbank that was still under construction.  Any ground where fans are sited behind a running track at ground level just isn't going to work. I think the fans knew that, but the anger was instead consumed by the change of name to FC Edinburgh in summer '22. 

But, we are where we are. It might be possible to avoid going into administration (with a points deduction), but I don't know if the full extent of the club's financial peril are even fully obvious to the current board. 

 

Well put across RubyTuesday  

While some people mock at the hard times & demise of clubs, especially in the lower leagues, it's the loyal fans who suffer as the passion in the lower league is greater rather than the glory hunters,

I definitely agree that the hasty move to Meadowbank stadium has taken a big toll, lack of revenue & no real atmosphere, the layout,running track, it's not something that appeals to you every 2nd week if you are an ECFC supporter & can only see it dwindling further,

I wish you guys all best in your survival battle & security 

[WattersIsGod]

Much sympathy from here as well.

Sometimes you have to count your blessings.

We've been on a shocking run of form lately but at least we have a decent ground and aren't going bust imminently.

I hope something gets sorted and you still have a team to support 

[EdinburghBlue]

23 hours ago, Todd_is_God said:

What, put it to a members' vote which club is elected to be club 42?

Unlike in 2012 there is now a mechanism in place to determine that so it would not be the same situation.

The mechanism is:

If, for any reason and during or after any Season, any Club ceases to operate or participate in or to be member of the League or any Play-Off Competition, its playing record in the League and/or any Play-Off Competitions may be expunged by the Board and/or the Board may determine the deemed score in the remainder of its
Official Matches and/or the Board may take such steps and make such determinations as to League and Divisional position and/or promotion and/or relegation and participation and/or results in and outcome of any Play-Off Competition and/or any other Competition operated by the Company and any and all such further or other steps or measures as the Board shall consider appropriate in the circumstances.

So basically they can do what they want.

[EdinburghBlue]

21 hours ago, Stag Nation said:

How many SPFL clubs actually make a profit? 

If you can't see a return on your money, then 'chickenfeed' may be the fair market price.

Have a look at my analysis for 2021/22 in the Next to go thread in the League Two forum.