The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread

[RedEd]

Folk need to realise that like it or not, the season is finished. Some countries are ahead of us with regard to the virus and might, only might, have a chance of the season resuming. Contracts being extended would be a legal minefield,particularly in situations where they could overlap with pre-contract agreements. And what happens if a player or one of the backroom staff develops COVID-19? More games postponed, therefore chaos. 

I have serious doubts we will be back to normal for a bit of time yet. When community groups, individual volunteers and local councils are busy making sure people are receiving food because they cannot go out or don't have the money to buy it, football has to take a back seat. As do many other things.

There is no perfect solution but I would rather our club is here to compete again next season. If that means this season is curtailed then so be it.

[diegomarahenry]

The start of next season is almost going to be like the American sports draft. All the players out of contract in May, clubs not wanting to sign anyone until they know when they will start again, Once the green light is given it'll be a free-for-all but no one will have any cash to spend. 

Clubs that have done business early, like Thistle signing Doc on a pre-contract will be regretting it now. Or any club that signed players at Christmas on 18 month and two year deals. 

[D'Jaffo]

The start of next season is almost going to be like the American sports draft. All the players out of contract in May, clubs not wanting to sign anyone until they know when they will start again, Once the green light is given it'll be a free-for-all but no one will have any cash to spend. 
Clubs that have done business early, like Thistle signing Doc on a pre-contract will be regretting it now. Or any club that signed players at Christmas on 18 month and two year deals. 

Doc is still a very good bit of business for them now. He’s been a standout in the last two League 1 campaigns when fit.

[rb123!]

40 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

Doc is still a very good bit of business for them now. He’s been a standout in the last two League 1 campaigns when fit.

Would be amazed if Doc doesn't have a relegation clause in that pre-contract deal, if he doesn't he's an idiot.

[Trogdor]

7 hours ago, rb123! said:

Would be amazed if Doc doesn't have a relegation clause in that pre-contract deal, if he doesn't he's an idiot.

Tidser had one and he still went to Falkirk for the dough. Now hes at Kelty Hearts. 

[Guest]

12 hours ago, RedEd said:

Folk need to realise that like it or not, the season is finished. Some countries are ahead of us with regard to the virus and might, only might, have a chance of the season resuming. Contracts being extended would be a legal minefield,particularly in situations where they could overlap with pre-contract agreements. And what happens if a player or one of the backroom staff develops COVID-19? More games postponed, therefore chaos. 

I have serious doubts we will be back to normal for a bit of time yet. When community groups, individual volunteers and local councils are busy making sure people are receiving food because they cannot go out or don't have the money to buy it, football has to take a back seat. As do many other things.

There is no perfect solution but I would rather our club is here to compete again next season. If that means this season is curtailed then so be it.

I get what you're saying but the other side of the picture is that there's lots of us still working pretty much BAU apart from a bigger focus on social distancing. There's also an appetite to start easing restrictions throughout Europe and we're only a couple of weeks behind them. Denmark have already decided to reopen their schools.

Being honest if I and many others can safely commute to Glasgow and work in an office with another 500+ people throughout this crisis, then I don't believe it's such a jump to expect football to return within the next two to three months.

As mentioned previously, German sides are restarting training and are planning recommencing by May, granted without fans, however another month on from this then it has to be feasible.

Even a little "thinking out the box" could have options such as home crowds only with social distancing in place which would stop major movement and potential spreading of the virus from area to area.

Ultimately there's more happening here than just football, so if we as a country have eased restrictions on travel and social distancing by the likes of June (which I believe we will), then this question will have been answered for us and football will indeed be capable of restarting with only minimal, if any, restrictions in place.

 

[Lochwood]

Excellent post Wattoo

[ayrunitedfw]

1 hour ago, Trogdor said:

Tidser had one and he still went to Falkirk for the dough. Now hes at Kelty Hearts. 

Hopefully a similar path for Ross Docherty. 

[RedEd]

1 hour ago, WATTOO said:

I get what you're saying but the other side of the picture is that there's lots of us still working pretty much BAU apart from a bigger focus on social distancing. There's also an appetite to start easing restrictions throughout Europe and we're only a couple of weeks behind them. Denmark have already decided to reopen their schools.

Being honest if I and many others can safely commute to Glasgow and work in an office with another 500+ people throughout this crisis, then I don't believe it's such a jump to expect football to return within the next two to three months.

As mentioned previously, German sides are restarting training and are planning recommencing by May, granted without fans, however another month on from this then it has to be feasible.

Even a little "thinking out the box" could have options such as home crowds only with social distancing in place which would stop major movement and potential spreading of the virus from area to area.

Ultimately there's more happening here than just football, so if we as a country have eased restrictions on travel and social distancing by the likes of June (which I believe we will), then this question will have been answered for us and football will indeed be capable of restarting with only minimal, if any, restrictions in place.

 

Yes, 2 to 3 months takes us into next season. The 19-20 season is completely is completely gubbed. From what I'm told all over 70s will receive a letter telling them to shield for the next so many weeks, so we are far from returning to normal. I'm expecting to be told to start delivering food etc. to those unable to venture out fairly soon.

Some, only some, countries are closer to returning to normal because they have been more successful at suppressing the virus. We havent.

[Finlay21]

22 minutes ago, RedEd said:

Yes, 2 to 3 months takes us into next season. The 19-20 season is completely is completely gubbed. From what I'm told all over 70s will receive a letter telling them to shield for the next so many weeks, so we are far from returning to normal. I'm expecting to be told to start delivering food etc. to those unable to venture out fairly soon.

Some, only some, countries are closer to returning to normal because they have been more successful at suppressing the virus. We havent.

We are a bit further behind other countries , most of the countries have had TOTAL lockdowns where we have pussyfooted around it , experts saying this morning that we are looking at July earliest to start looking at any normality 

Edited April 10, 2020 by Robbo63

[itzdrk]

16 hours ago, Lochwood said:

The club have  clearly already said  previously they can manage even though there would be no income from the  home games that were left so your point about coming out of furlough and it’s effect has been taken into consideration, irrelevant any way as Cameron has made his statement on national papers and I disagree with it entitled to my opinion football integrity out the window.

They said they can manage the 20%, if you start playing you are asking then to play the full wage plus any bonus' with no income.  No happening. 

[rb123!]

Scotland is also even further behind England in getting to the peak of this, they reckon England will be ready to lift restrictions before us.

[eez-eh]

40 minutes ago, RedEd said:

Yes, 2 to 3 months takes us into next season. The 19-20 season is completely is completely gubbed. From what I'm told all over 70s will receive a letter telling them to shield for the next so many weeks, so we are far from returning to normal. I'm expecting to be told to start delivering food etc. to those unable to venture out fairly soon.

Some, only some, countries are closer to returning to normal because they have been more successful at suppressing the virus. We havent.

Why do we have to gub this season to preserve next? It is far fairer to give this season a change at playing out, then if it affects next season at least everyone knows from the start.

Too many of our fans are happy with this because we’re one of the clubs who aren’t hugely disadvantaged by it. Can you imagine though if we were 2 points from safety, with a game in hand and 9 games left to play and were told we were being relegated? Or if we were 1 point behind the league leaders (with a vastly superior goal difference) with 8 games to go and were told “that’s it, first place is going up but you aren’t”. We’d - rightly - be fucking fuming.

13 minutes ago, itzdrk said:

They said they can manage the 20%, if you start playing you are asking then to play the full wage plus any bonus' with no income.  No happening. 

Season tickets have already been bought and that makes up the vast majority of our home crowd. There’s also the opportunity for clubs to stream their games - something that I know plenty of us would be willing to pay for, fans could be asked to donate their gate money (I’ve seen plenty on here saying they’d do so). Couple that with not having any policing or stewarding costs.

It’s far from ideal, but the SPFL should be giving out an advance payment of prize money (they’re currently sitting on £8 million - effectively bribing clubs to vote for this). It would give everyone a bit more time to see what’s actually going to happen and to investigate ways of finishing the season without fans at games. Calling it at the beginning of April is a knee-jerk reaction because the SPFL don’t want anything interrupting their TV deal for next season.

[Finlay21]

24 minutes ago, eez-eh said:

Why do we have to gub this season to preserve next? It is far fairer to give this season a change at playing out, then if it affects next season at least everyone knows from the start.

Too many of our fans are happy with this because we’re one of the clubs who aren’t hugely disadvantaged by it. Can you imagine though if we were 2 points from safety, with a game in hand and 9 games left to play and were told we were being relegated? Or if we were 1 point behind the league leaders (with a vastly superior goal difference) with 8 games to go and were told “that’s it, first place is going up but you aren’t”. We’d - rightly - be fucking fuming.

Season tickets have already been bought and that makes up the vast majority of our home crowd. There’s also the opportunity for clubs to stream their games - something that I know plenty of us would be willing to pay for, fans could be asked to donate their gate money (I’ve seen plenty on here saying they’d do so). Couple that with not having any policing or stewarding costs.

It’s far from ideal, but the SPFL should be giving out an advance payment of prize money (they’re currently sitting on £8 million - effectively bribing clubs to vote for this). It would give everyone a bit more time to see what’s actually going to happen and to investigate ways of finishing the season without fans at games. Calling it at the beginning of April is a knee-jerk reaction because the SPFL don’t want anything interrupting their TV deal for next season.

We have around 500/600 people buying a ticket every week , that is a substantial part of our income ,players would need to be paid 100% salary , pay per view would be nowhere near that 

[RedEd]

Another  fly in the ointment is that the authorities might refuse permission for matches to resume. Requests for medical cover could also be refused, and this is required whether the game is played behind closed doors or not. 

Edited April 10, 2020 by RedEd

[diegomarahenry]

Pay per view would have to cost less than a match ticket, there are upsides and downsides. 

Where you would get more away fans buying access than would normally travel, you will likely have a household that would normally pay per head, would pay for one viewing. The lack of atmosphere might make some people tune out of it. 

There would be reduced overheads on policing, stewarding and matchday costs but reduced income from food purchases, Program sales (a downloadable subscription package?) and casual shop purchases. 

You could have more targeted advertising than normal due to the almost literally captive audience. 

I think it would be manageable on a small scale.  

[third lanark]

1 hour ago, rb123! said:

Scotland is also even further behind England in getting to the peak of this, they reckon England will be ready to lift restrictions before us.

There’s idiots up here ignoring the restrictions but it’s even worse in places like Manchester and London, because of the irresponsibility of some of these idiots who are still infecting people sadly the peak could last some time yet in England 

[eez-eh]

1 hour ago, diegomarahenry said:

Pay per view would have to cost less than a match ticket, there are upsides and downsides. 

Where you would get more away fans buying access than would normally travel, you will likely have a household that would normally pay per head, would pay for one viewing. The lack of atmosphere might make some people tune out of it. 

There would be reduced overheads on policing, stewarding and matchday costs but reduced income from food purchases, Program sales (a downloadable subscription package?) and casual shop purchases. 

You could have more targeted advertising than normal due to the almost literally captive audience. 

I think it would be manageable on a small scale.  

Fair points, and these are some of the things that should be getting looked into - rather than railroading through the end of the season when no one has a clue what the script will be this time next week.

[RedEd]

It still doesn't take account of whether medical cover would be in place. And whether the authorities would permit games to take place. 

[eez-eh]

7 minutes ago, RedEd said:

It still doesn't take account of whether medical cover would be in place. And whether the authorities would permit games to take place. 

Yeah, I’m not saying we can commit to games being on, I’m saying give an advance payment of the prize money and give it a bit of time to see if it’s possible.