The Big Queen's Park FC Thread

[Ranaldo Bairn]

So what's the long term goal here? (No trolling).

Is the aim to make you guys Celtic B in all but name and plod around the second tier on their behalf? Because (preaching to the converted I know) what's gone on is an absolute scandal.

[HoustonSpider99]

12 minutes ago, Ranaldo Bairn said:

So what's the long term goal here? (No trolling).

Is the aim to make you guys Celtic B in all but name and plod around the second tier on their behalf? Because (preaching to the converted I know) what's gone on is an absolute scandal.

You’re going to need to explain yourself here. 
 

It’s well documented Willie Haughey has links to Celtic, and that Celtic’s u-21 Champions League games are at Lesser. Believe me, most fans are not happy about that, but you’d expect the club will be getting a fee for that. 
 

But other than one player on-loan, there are no other immediate connection to Celtic. I note that last season, Falkirk brought in three guys from Raith Rovers. Are Falkirk aiming to become Raith B?

[Ranaldo Bairn]

14 minutes ago, HoustonSpider99 said:

You’re going to need to explain yourself here. 
 

It’s well documented Willie Haughey has links to Celtic, and that Celtic’s u-21 Champions League games are at Lesser. Believe me, most fans are not happy about that, but you’d expect the club will be getting a fee for that. 
 

But other than one player on-loan, there are no other immediate connection to Celtic. I note that last season, Falkirk brought in three guys from Raith Rovers. Are Falkirk aiming to become Raith B?

No need to get tetchy. The Celtic B comment was ever so slightly tongue in cheek, but you've basically summed it up in one word: Haughey.

Do you have an explanation for the goings on? I simply can't accept incompetence alone. It looks like there was no intention to build a stadium suitable for 2nd tier football, so what's the plan?

 

 

 

[Ethan Ross was the only guy signed on loan from Raith Rovers last year. Lang and Spencer were out of contract.]

[starshot131]

46 minutes ago, Ranaldo Bairn said:

So what's the long term goal here? (No trolling).

Is the aim to make you guys Celtic B in all but name and plod around the second tier on their behalf? Because (preaching to the converted I know) what's gone on is an absolute scandal.

The long term goal is in theory to become a sustainable 2nd tier club with good facilities, and to grow the fan base. The fan base has indeed grown, but just about everyone here would agree that the committee are letting us down with their current plans, and no-one really knows if they even want to leave Hampden. It's a joke, because we consistently have to play elsewhere because the sfa decide that they need to host a big concert/put up a poor desperate old firm team at Hampden.

Hampden's shite, lesser's shite as it is, committee seemingly deems it too big an investment to fix

[starshot131]

10 minutes ago, Ranaldo Bairn said:

I simply can't accept incompetence alone

Why? Have you ever spoken to one of these guys?

[Spider1975]

13 minutes ago, Ranaldo Bairn said:

Do you have an explanation for the goings on? I simply can't accept incompetence alone. It looks like there was no intention to build a stadium suitable for 2nd tier football, so what's the plan?

No, the supporters don't [have an explanation] and nor do the club, lest not one they wish to share and that predicates on the club understanding there's an issue in the first place.  

The Rangers fiasco seemed to suggest that QP moving out of Hampden (our registered ground) back to Lesser for Rangers' benefit was carried out purely altruistically.  You'd have thought there'd be some financial goodwill in there, as you'd also expect from giving Celtic access to Lesser, but the talk of feasibility studies, significant investment and costings may suggest otherwise.

All the 'Scotland' branding around Lesser and Templeton's suggestion that QP were coerced to sell Hampden, (lest the SFA move to Murrayfield) suggests an unwillingness of those in charge to accept inevitable change, i.e. that a redeveloped and owned home at Lesser that could accommodate 5,000ish was the future.  Instead we've taken SFA money in order to build them a bespoke training facility, (with a pitch that would be rarely used) to allow us the goodwill to use Hampden, albeit when it suits the SFA.  

It's a mess.

Edited Tuesday at 08:41 by Spider1975

[Ranaldo Bairn]

A mess indeed. Glad to hear the fanbase is starting to grow. Yes, yes, Falkirk crowdwanking again.

I hope it's not too late to get something sorted properly at LH but from the outside it looks like a grim fankle.

[Zanetti]

I still think part of the insistance on using Hampden is because Haughey thinks we'll end up in the Premiership at some point, and the capacity has the potential to be a serious money maker at that level compared with even getting Lesser up to its maximum potential of 4/5k.

[Grumpy Soo-sider]

11 hours ago, On the bench said:

The saddest thing about the entire episode is that Sam got more (still next to hee-haw) information about future plans etc than the club have deigned to share with us mere punters.

Fair play to him but just got me up to new levels of annoyance at the missed opportunity that Lesser is.

Yup, it's amazing we get more info from a vlogger than we do from the club. Things need to change on the communication front. 

Was there ever any update of the Supporters Liaison Officer posts?

[Spider1975]

3 minutes ago, Zanetti said:

I still think part of the insistance on using Hampden is because Haughey thinks we'll end up in the Premiership at some point, and the capacity has the potential to be a serious money maker at that level compared with even getting Lesser up to its maximum potential of 4/5k.

Yeah, completely get that, but that will require significant investment and we're now almost five years into his 10 year plan and it seems, certainly if you listen to Davidson and Joyce that the finance to achieve this isn't readily forthcoming.   Appreciate opinion is divided upon whether a win vs Dundee back in 2022 would have been a good thing or not, but, personally, going through what the Women's team are going through at the moment would have been a hard watch.

The product we're selling at the moment is sub-par, by that I mean the team whilst generally great to watch and punching above their weight are let down by the rest of the match-day experience; low crowds rattling around an empty stadium, surly G4S staff and over-priced, poor quality catering aren't exactly supporting the growing fanbase we'll need to get that finance in.  Suspending tickets for schools at the whim of the SFA isn't helping growing that support either.  That all leaves identification, development and sell-on for profit playing talent and whilst that might get us to the Premiership, it'll be difficult to sustain that model when/if we ever get there in order to stay there, unless we're content with yo-yo-ing up and down the leagues.

Any business will have growing pains and certainly we've grown rapidly as a club since 2019, exceeded expectations in some areas and been let down in others.   A proper development of Lesser, allowing the team to play in front of near capacity crowds I think would have done far more to grow the fan base (& finances) than continuing this unhealthy obsession with playing at Hampden which Templeton seemed to suggest.  Professionalism, I feel, has left the Committee behind....a relic of amateurism and days gone by; I'd argue if anything needs to change then the Committee structure is where it should start - but the vested self-interests will ensure that won't happen.  

Frustrating.

[Zanetti]

43 minutes ago, Spider1975 said:

Yeah, completely get that, but that will require significant investment and we're now almost five years into his 10 year plan and it seems, certainly if you listen to Davidson and Joyce that the finance to achieve this isn't readily forthcoming.   Appreciate opinion is divided upon whether a win vs Dundee back in 2022 would have been a good thing or not, but, personally, going through what the Women's team are going through at the moment would have been a hard watch.

The product we're selling at the moment is sub-par, by that I mean the team whilst generally great to watch and punching above their weight are let down by the rest of the match-day experience; low crowds rattling around an empty stadium, surly G4S staff and over-priced, poor quality catering aren't exactly supporting the growing fanbase we'll need to get that finance in.  Suspending tickets for schools at the whim of the SFA isn't helping growing that support either.  That all leaves identification, development and sell-on for profit playing talent and whilst that might get us to the Premiership, it'll be difficult to sustain that model when/if we ever get there in order to stay there, unless we're content with yo-yo-ing up and down the leagues.

Any business will have growing pains and certainly we've grown rapidly as a club since 2019, exceeded expectations in some areas and been let down in others.   A proper development of Lesser, allowing the team to play in front of near capacity crowds I think would have done far more to grow the fan base (& finances) than continuing this unhealthy obsession with playing at Hampden which Templeton seemed to suggest.  Professionalism, I feel, has left the Committee behind....a relic of amateurism and days gone by; I'd argue if anything needs to change then the Committee structure is where it should start - but the vested self-interests will ensure that won't happen.  

Frustrating.

Agree with all of this other than the point about going up when we came close (it would've at the very least been a good laugh), and I'm definitely not in any way trying to justify the absolute nonsense that had continually taken place in recent years. Just pointing out that I suspect, long term anyway, that's what they're planning for.

It's obviously risky, and as you say slightly strange given the finances which the first team is obviously constrained by. As has been pointed out many times on here, Haughey is minted, and if he really wanted to throw daft money at it we'd be a top 6 Premiership side already but that's not the case.

The club obviously put a lot of faith in Beuker/Veldman and that didn't work out, but right now I'd be amazed if our budget is higher than around 6th or 7th in the league. I genuinely have no idea where we'll be in as few as 3 or 4 years on or off the park which is objectively not a long time, but those in positions of power clearly don't care how the fans feel.

[Dooflick]

18 hours ago, Spidersmad said:

A warning to us all ...

I'm going to have to watch this several times to take it all in, especially the interview with Gary Templeman.

Always had time for this guy but that interview with him was just s---e.

[Spider1975]

I think, other than Ian Cairns, (who gets a free pass given his excellent work promoting the Women's and Youth teams), that's the first I've seen of a Committee member giving an interview.  The last interview I recall Haughey giving was the one where he was adamant Beuker wasn't going to Ajax.  

I assume that nobody from the Committee/Management has ever come forward like Beuker, Fox, Murray and others have to offer the Spider's Talk gents an interview to put their side across?

[NavyBlueArmy1876]

2 hours ago, HoustonSpider99 said:

Are Falkirk aiming to become Raith B?

We actually have 5 of their old players. But no, we are the A team now. Old Raith can be our B team if they like 

[Anonymous Spider]

I think "heated-seats... shush" is about as clear a representation of the Club's attitude as you can get. Shambles.  

Not seeing much impact from those new committee members either. What was the point in all that? 

 

[Spider1975]

3 minutes ago, Anonymous Spider said:

I think "heated-seats... shush" is about as clear a representation of the Club's attitude as you can get. Shambles.

Well, given that little revelation, I am now praying to every deity I can think of for every QP home game at Lesser to be met with heavy sleet, driven on by a 40kt easterly gale......if only to test the seats thermal properties and the wicking nature of the shag-pile carpet that's presumably so delicately illuminated by those chandeliers. 

[Spider1975]

2 hours ago, Ranaldo Bairn said:

A mess indeed. Glad to hear the fanbase is starting to grow. Yes, yes, Falkirk crowdwanking again.

I hope it's not too late to get something sorted properly at LH but from the outside it looks like a grim fankle.

If you've got it flaunt it!  First visit to TFS on the opening game of the season and other than the weird outlook onto the M9, (and we're far from being able to critique others stadium design, plus three stands are better than one), thought the whole set up was excellent. 

[williebraveheart]

2 hours ago, Spider1975 said:

Any business will have growing pains and certainly we've grown rapidly as a club since 2019, exceeded expectations in some areas and been let down in others.   A proper development of Lesser, allowing the team to play in front of near capacity crowds I think would have done far more to grow the fan base (& finances) than continuing this unhealthy obsession with playing at Hampden which Templeton seemed to suggest.  Professionalism, I feel, has left the Committee behind....a relic of amateurism and days gone by; I'd argue if anything needs to change then the Committee structure is where it should start - but the vested self-interests will ensure that won't happen.  

 

Got it spot on. I would suggest Templeman is just a relic, amateur or not. He represents everything that is rank within this committee.

[williebraveheart]

19 hours ago, Ziggy said:

Was it heavily edited? A few people were far more polite than I expected them to be!

Bit like in a restaurant when the waiter asks if everything is all right. 99% will say, "yes, thank you", when in fact they have just eaten a rotten meal.

[Northsea80]

Firstly the blazer he interviews says the ground was built when the club was in league 2. That’s not true. They may have started building or whatever that shambles of an attempted initial build was. He says built in a, this is it sort of fashion. Forgetting that we’ve all seen the initial plans for what it was supposed to look like! 
When the guy asks where additional seating would go he points behind the goal and mentions temporary stands only? Then something about costing and feasibility! Isn’t that already done when costing the initial build of the stadium? 
They also mention additional seating in terms of catering to bigger travelling supports. Not the need to house a growing fan base!