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- Past hour
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After a break and some training time, we are going to absolutely muller them.
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Stama mutualled to pursue 'opportunities elsewhere'. Just hasn't really worked out for him here.
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Ap Stam away. Club just announced
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For those who favour a notion of redeveloping current home - yet to see anything tangible offered, how would you view redevelopment? Footprint is prohibitive, future access will be restricted as the periphery ring road eventually takes shape are just two examples for consideration.
- Today
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That Old Chestnut - Do We Move Or Do We Stay
Goggles & Flippers replied to Kmcalpin's topic in Club Chat
I think there’s a few things here that need cleared up. If you value the memories and uniqueness of Fir Park and loathe to move because it’s what you know, value tradition, etc. just say that. Don’t use we couldn’t afford anything new as a Trojan Horse to get your point across, because we certainly could. Finding a financier and dealing with Ravenscraig may offer issues of their own, but if we’re clever we can afford it. Likewise the other bad faith argument is the soulless Lego brick SMiSA/McDairmid and fear of us getting something similar. Why would anyone think we go you know what that’s the pinnacle of stadium design let’s emulate it, fans will love it. Remembering the fans “in theory” own the club so couldn’t have it imposed upon us. Saying that, we were meant to have a say on this as per a ratified major votes document, the feasibility study should have been made available or at very least a snapshot because we know they can cite “commercially sensitive” to bypass doing that and we’re meant to have a working together agreement that’s also yet to be published, yet every other fan owned club in Scotland has it front and centre on their ownership groups website. Yes it’s going to be a revamped Fir Park because that’s what we’ll do as it’s what we’ve always done, just this time we’ve got a wad of money in the bank or promised to be in the bank. -
Yep pal I agree with fact with I just don't know how we would fund a new stadium. I would love us to regenerate Fir Park but I totally get the cost of this also. I dont sit in POD but it needs so much work as do the other stands. And yes if we decided to move to new stadium it has to be unique and not bog standard 4 stands a bit like st mirren's
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You could well be right Allan but the club should be doing more than just hinting about its preferred option. It should be coming out and telling us.
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Outdated coaching methods, outdated and poorly qualified coaches, a governing body thats not fit for purpose, a league structure thats set up to pander to two teams at the expense of the other 40, lack of talented players, academy players struggling to get game time, a governing body that thinks it can do no wrong,, useless crap referees, a compliant media only interested in two teams. Thats a few reasons to be going on with.
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Could it be because our coaches are dinasours and play not to lose rather than play to win. Football is a simple game. Pass and move into space to receive the ball. As a kid i was tought that. Yet professional players seem incapable of doing that. Another thing is that we keep hearing how our players conditioning is miles behind other countries. That surely an easy fix. Guys like Andy Murray, Chris Hoy show with dedication they can improve fitness, which improves performance. Some players cant seem to play more than 60 mins per game and more than twice a week. They are tired apparently. Sports science seems to have overseen a decline in players fitness. They also dont address the issue that all our best youth is hoovered up by English teams for a pittance. There is a danger that rather than focus on the basics, ie fitness and game education they are overthinking it and bringing in ill thought out rules that will make our teams even more uncompetitive in europe and widening the gaps between teams in this country.
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Lets start with the SFA...
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Having thought about this again, I think maybe we are all missing the point of this debate. The review that’s been carried out has got nothing to do with league re-construction etc. it’s been aimed at asking why we as a nation are so bad in the European and International football arenas.
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The club going ahead with the Dalziel park proposals is for me a big hint that they want to stay at Fir Park, as it makes no financial sense to spend millions on new training facilities that could be incorporated into a new build stadium site and have everything on the one site. I think the cost of a new stadium for a club of our size is beyond our means so staying at Fir park with all its faults and the no doubt high refurb costs etc might be the cheaper and financially sensible option. Also if we do decide to move it has to be to a stadium design thats suitable and acceptable to the fans, and not a generic 4 stand open corner soulless ground that we would alk hate.
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I've never understood the offset rule! 🤪🤪
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That Old Chestnut - Do We Move Or Do We Stay
joewarkfanclub replied to Kmcalpin's topic in Club Chat
Regardless of your opinion on stay or go, this IS a major decision for the club, which lets remember, IS owned by the fans. I think the feasibility study requires to be published, if only for transparency purposes. The board should then put forward their preferred option and any alternative for the consideration of the clubs owners. Its not quite up there with the Barmack proposal in terms of importance, who owns the club will always top the list. But where we play our football is a close second. -
I'm fully with you this Goggles, as I've said before. Now we could discuss ad infinitum on this thread about the actual size of a proposed new stadium ranging anywhere from 10K to 18K and all stops in between, but thats for another day. Yes, a new stadium would be very expensive but so would staying at Fir Park as you show here. Costs apart, Fir Park is now no longer fit for purpose in 2026. As you rightly say our stadium is hemmed in by a 20th century land use legacy. The footprint is very tight and limits what can be done. Specific points: * The POD is on life support and needs demolished and replaced urgently. Space for development is severely restricted by the housing near Mrs Baillies. That will never change. * The Hunter Stand at minimum needs a new roof. Its the wrong shape, with access limited to one end and as we've seen recently long queues building up on busy match days. There is no room whatsoever to expand to the east. Catering and toilet facilities are poor and always will be. The views are also poor due to the low inclination of the seating and steel supports, which result in impaired access for some. * The McLean Stand is ageing and replacement of seating is already an issue. * The Cooper Stand is probably in the best health, but the hospitality facilities are sub standard and access for disabled fans is problematic, if not impossible. * At some stage, the floodlights will need replacement but I've no idea of the cost of that. No doubt there other maintenance issues about which we are unaware. Safety standards are ever evolving and each year more work needs to be done, at considerable cost, just to maintain the status quo. The world has changed but Fir Park hasn't kept pace and never will be able to. Fans in 2026 will simply not tolerate the same standard of facilities our predecessors did 60 or 70 years ago.
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numpty started following Motherwell v Aberdeen 15/09/2027
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It’s non fitba but have a laugh
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One of the 4 …Sad 😧
- Yesterday
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That Old Chestnut - Do We Move Or Do We Stay
Goggles & Flippers replied to Kmcalpin's topic in Club Chat
And I think that sums up the general mindset of our country. We limit ourselves at the outset, actually even before that. I get why we have the rain day mentality, there's various socio-economic reasons for it. Not a criticism lads, just our general make up as Scots unless you choose to buck the trend. I'm not suggesting we'd could do anything other than something appropriate or bankrupt the club, that would be grossly irresponsible. But you gotta aspire to more than the sum of your parts, trying to see that play out on the park is why we show up week after week isn't it? Being so focused on the here and now on stuff such as personal inconvenience gripes isn't for me. I've tried to illustrate why I think it could work and provided numbers (even if back of fag packet maths and no doubt with many holes), it's a bit more than nah it'll never work, we need to know our place, etc. Simply put Fir Park will always be limiting to our ambition and revenue. Maintenance will be like the Forth Bridge, the McLean is needing major work done to it throughout and probably the most pressing as we currently earn a fair whack of cash thanks to it. The POD is on life support and no longer fit for purpose. The Hunter will follow as it's roof needs addressed, then the floodlights and the Cooper, before the pitch or the McLean needs another touch up. All I've tried to show is rather than syphoning money into Fir Park that can be directed to a new venue that gives you 20-25 years with minimal maintenance. A new POD (is £8m fair? in construction and lost revenue), POD brought up to standard (£2m), other stands and infrastructure (£2m), ongoing maintenance over the next 20 years (£4m) and never realised commercial revenues because FP is hemmed into a residential area with limited premium options (£4m). I've highlighted that for ever 1,000 seats we make available to OF fans beyond their current 4,800 allocation (that brings in £2m extra income over 20 years, so sell 9,800 seats to OF/Hearts = £10m). Those all combined have us at £30m. If you feel that's generous, then what we're about to spend at Dalziel Park you can add in too as all the features of the new facility will already be part of any new main stand. That's all before you add in rents, SFA hiring the stadium for U21's etc, concerts and an expected boost in the home gate. Something of this magnitude can't be looked at as an isolated outlay but a long term investment. I do find it odd that folk are so quick to tell us to limit ambitions when pretty much most adults on this will buy or have bought a house worth more than they have available in the bank and in many cases will use every penny of the 5.5x their current salary to maximise what they can realise. -
Aye ok then fancy new stadiums and training facilities, feasabillity studies, its all a bit hypothetical pie in the sky BS for a club of our size and means. Personally id settle for decent, fit for purpose seats in the POD.
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No I'm with you. I think its good and exciting , that's why i'm so against changing leagues cos it changes fuck all. However any product can be improved . Excitement, increase investment and keeping it affordable are what we should be looking at. However there are plenty things we could do to enhance an already decent product.
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Am I the only one who thinks our league is entertaining. I love the SPL. It’s a bit mental, we have some great games and the atmosphere most of the time is good. Also as we have proved the best way to increase attendance is to improve the entertainment in the ground. Play good football and fans will come and watch, no matter the result, also playing good football tends to bring success. It’s not all doom and gloom to be honest.
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In over our heads and ideas above our station . Sorry but thats all i see .We are a provincial football club not property investors or property tycoons , or landlords or hotelliers depending on others to rent etc from us. It's Scotland, we are a wee club football club .There is global uncertainty and uncertainty in Scotland. Football is only a money maker if your a top club in European stages or English. We will need to cut our cloth to suit our financial limitations and geographical position ie 16 miles from the arse cheeks in a wee country of 4.5 million people. Most of whom are far from rich.
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It baffles me the amount of Blazers and fans who think changing the leagues changes anything. All it would do is spread limited income even thinner. Not one league reconstruction in the last 50 years delivered any of the promised benefits It didn't increase attendances It didn't result in more young players It didn't improve the quality. It didn't make the games more exciting It didn't remove the fear factor. Its actually a sad state of affairs that it is all anyone can come up with and they think its radical thinking. Probably explains why fuck all ever changes in the Scottish game. For me to be radical we should try and get more excitement and generate more money rather than shuffling who the teams are (off the top of my head) Move to summer football, stop trying to be a cheap version of the English Leagues. Secure better TV deals based on Summer Football If a game ends in a draw it goes to a penalty shoot out. If you lose the shoot out you get 1 point , if you win it you get 3 points. If you win in normal time you get 4 points. Stop seeding in the League Cup. End the League Cup sections (Another thing that was done 50 years ago and was binned because it was boring and fans didn't turn out). Away tickets capped at £25 (most clubs home tickets can be obtained for less than that) Every teams games able to be streamed live on an SPFL TV reliable platform (lets look at it realistically many folk already get it illegally anyway, so get the money to the clubs not the IPTV providers) Create one ticketing platform where fans can also buy away season tickets (Having to get a physical tickets that gets scanned anyway at the grounds is a pain in the arse ) Stop allocating a seat number on visiting fans tickets. Print "Sit Anywhere" on every ticket. All grounds to have QR codes at the gates so folk can buy at the gate on the day of the game. Stop Sending offs (it generally ruins a game) a 10 or 15 min sin bin to replace sending off. All referees wired to stadium speakers as they have in Rugby to explain VAR decisions . All top League grounds to have Large TV Screens where the VAR pictures are replayed as the decisions are being reviewed (as they do in international rugby) Strict limit of 2 mins on VAR reviews. If they cant decide in 2 mins its not clear and obvious and on field decision stands. Points deductions enforced if fans destroy away ground facilities. Points deductions if fans enter the field of play. End the Rangers / Celtic strangle hold on the voting structure but ALL the authorities will ever do is change the number of teams in a league cos we are "all bored watching us play the same teams". Not once in 50 years have I ever gone to a game thinking "aw fuck Hearts for the 4th time I wish it was Dunfermline" Scottish football is so utterly pathetic because they couldn't have a radical thought if their life depended on it.
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He got an early start. Coming on as a sub after 15 mins