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Kind of want us to play our first League Cup game on Sunday 30th June just so Brian Graham can keep his streak going.

Some great stats. Can we request that Colin Steven is the ref for our remaining matches this season ?

This season the Club was budgeting for a six figure loss assuming playoffs (as trailed at AGM). Can’t comment on future seasons in the specific yet, as there are live budget discussions between the Club and Trustees at the moment. But it shouldn’t surprise anyone that it’s almost impossible to break even in this league no matter what your footballing performance unless (a) your team is part time (like Arbroath) (b) you set a relegation budget and drastically exceed that performance (like I suspect Airdrie have done this year) (c) you have exceptionally high sources of commercial revenue (like St Johnstone did many moons ago) or (d) you get a very very good cup run or Old Firm Cup tue (like Morton did last year). For a Club like Thistle, genuinely breaking even on pessimistic footballing assumptions while remaining competitive for the play-offs is virtually impossible. Clubs with similar budget to ours: Raith Rovers, Dunfermline, Inverness CT, Queen’s Park. All will, I am reasonably certain, post six figure losses for financial year 2023-24 (some may even post seven figure losses) once you strip out interventions from their owners.

I thought it might be along those lines. I realise no boom or bust, which is what it should be.

I would assume there may be a slight deficit or close to break even if we were to go up for the accounts that season then we would have a Premiership budget that would take that into account whilst in the top flight. So no boom and bust.

Live on BBC ALBA, keep the sound turned up and catch up on the Gaelic.

Just asking and not wanting to start a big discussion that results on a further 24 pages or so about our finances. As our stated aim is to break even, is it still likely for us to get promoted, either this season or in the future. Or i take it our aim is to do both ?

That is indeed astonishing. At the same time rather worrying on an eggs and basket basis.

Videos, reaction, reports, stats and whatnot all in place... Thistle 2 Airdrie 1 → DANGEROUS DUO ● Aidan Fitzpatrick becomes the first Jag (since our assists records began more than 10 years ago) to register double figures in both the goals and the assists column (11 & 10) in a single season. ● Brian Graham's opener means that he has now scored in a 16th (SIXTEENTH) consecutive month for Partick Thistle in competitive action. With a competitve game from last June, it's a freak-streak, but no surprise to us all the same! ● 78-goal Brian Graham enters the All-Time Top 20 of Partick Thistle's competitive goalscorers. ● 8-goal Brian Graham is now Thistle's third most prolific hitman vs. Airdrieonians; only Willie Sharp (18) and Willie Paul (9) have gone beyond that in competitive action. ● Brian Graham & Aidan Fitzpatrick - jointly acknowledged this week with a Thistle Pin - have an astonishing 49 (FORTY NINE) goals or assists between them this season, with Thistle having scored 84 goals in all competitions so far. ● Stuart Bannigan goes shoulder-to-shoulder with Kris Doolan on 403 competitive appearances (both also aligned on 401 'major competitive' appearances). Only 13 men have went further. ● Thistle have won 7-in-a-row when Colin Steven has been the referee! ● Airdrie become the most-consecutively-beaten club on Thistle territory in all of history. 11-in-a-row takes over from the 10-in-a-row vs. Raith Rovers (1912-1924). ● 4 of those who returned for the play-offs - Brian Graham, Luke McBeth, Aaron Muirhead & David Mitchell - continue 9 games unbeaten in all competitions. ongoing sequences: ● 37 consecutive competitive appearances for Lewis Neilson, 15th Sep 2023 to date, a new personal best. (Longest run since: Steven Lawless - 60 games, 18th Feb 2023 to 6th Apr 2024. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games, 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

That’s because SPFL don’t claim a cut for the other playoffs. They don’t contribute to the parachute regime. We’d have been well within our rights to do it for Firhill but I don’t think we’ve ever done it in modern times as the place is never consistently much fuller unless OF come calling.

I know this was a question for @Dick Dastardly but as I share pretty much same view I will chip in with my 2c. It is solely a dislike for the other clubs. In European comps I will support the foreign clubs. I am totally non plussed on outcomes of other matches. Yesterday’s ugly sisters I could not have cared less on score. I have no personal ‘hate’ towards majority of other players/supporters. Some of my best friends support ugly sisters, Dunfermline, Raith etc. I did not like Brian Graham pre Jags but now I would have his babies. Same in past with the likes of Scott McDonald and reverse wise in recent times with Holt, Turner etc but couldn’t care less about em now. It is not constant hatred at all but my football world is solely Partick Thistle and will leave others to have their soft spots.

Not to totally dismiss this point but they are different sports and the required level and type of fitness is different. Just as a very basic stat, our players will have each ran over 10km on Tuesday, a tennis match over 3 sets you'd be looking at 1-2km. What you are doing for that movement is clearly very different however and isn't directly comparable. The contact aspect of football is also a big factor not present in a sport like tennis and is a significant factor in fatigue and recovery. Granted we do look a very tired team these last two games!

Hospitality on offer for Tuesday night's game, you need to book by noon on Monday: https://ptfc.co.uk/ptfc-news/raith-rovers-play-off-hospitality-now-on-sale/

The team are in action today away to Celtic with a 12.10 kick off: https://ptfc.co.uk/ptfc-fixture/celtic-wfc-v-partick-thistle-wfc-12th-may-2024/#match-preview

It is a bit of an odd setup. Playoffs below the Premiership ones can include season tickets. I think Raith employ different category for games as described above. Dundee used to do similar I think. I noticed on ticket site that there is now a note saying seats marked with a sticker are for season ticket holders even though it is obviously still unallocated seating.

Key point here is that, with cup games, there's gate splitting between the home and away side, and so pricing is in practice agreed between the Clubs or may be set in part by the organisation running the competition (be it the SFA or SPFL). With the play-offs, we're in the slightly different situation of having a two-legged fixture (as distinct from even replays which have now essentially been phased out) and therefore no gate splitting (the home side simply keeps the income, subject to an SPFL levy on the proceeds that is then earmarked for Parachute Payments). The SPFL sets a minimum ticket price of £12 Adults, £6 Concession/Child for a non-final play-off game and £18 Adults, £12 Concession/Child for a final play-off game. This is done to ensure that some funds are actually raised for the Parachute payments. It's also why the fixtures: can't be included in a season ticket can't have a kids-go-free incentive (or similar) Beyond that, Clubs often just set prices as they would for an equivalent home league game. In Thistle's case, £22/£16/£6 has been our standard pricing structure for PATG. Raith Rovers' standard pricing structure this season discriminated based on whether a game was against Dundee United/Dunfermline or against anyone else. The rationale presumably being that Starks Park often sells-out against them so they can get away with sticking another £2 on the ticket. I imagine for the play-offs, they've concluded that the fixture is equivalent in that respect, hence £24 for an adult instead of £22.

I suspect part of it here (may be wrong) is that each stand has a different capacity for safety certificate purposes based on whether the seating is allocated or unallocated. Hence, for example, the John Lambie (which wasn't literally full on Friday night) topped out at about 10% below its literal "how many seats" capacity.

It's not quite that simple. For example, if your gates for the play-off matches are 6500 rather than 3500 then, all other things being equal, you will make more money in income. But the fixed costs of hosting the play-offs (policing, stewarding, stadium, appearance/performance-related bonuses, latterly VAR) and the requirement for the SPFL to get a substantial cut of the gate receipts, means that, overall, it isn't a great money-spinner in the way that, for example, a sold-out away tie in the Cup at one of the Premier League's "Big Five" would be. There is no club-level prize-money for winning the play-offs. The reward is you get promoted. Depending on the bonus structure of a football club, that could actually mean getting promoted costs money, compared with losing the Final, Semi-Final or Quarter-Final. That often evens-out in terms of financial health, because the prize-money differential is massive the following season. But it's why teams hardly ever escape this league while breaking even.

We keep hearing that we make next to nothing out of the play offs. You'd think then that the pricing would be universal, set by SPFL.

Really? For a seat behind the goal. I haven’t travelled there this season but I wonder if that’s what they’ve previously charged?

Wow. That's a good stat actually. How come these tennis players look tired?

I see that the price for adults at Firhill is £22, but for the away game the adult price is £24.

On the subject of old tennis versus new tennis: The speed of the game nowadays is much quicker but the rallies are on the whole much shorter and the incessant bouncing of the ball and fiddling with clothing before serving is seemingly endless - players nowadays have umbrellas for shade and seats during the breaks and don't even get their own drinks. Innumerable "toilet breaks" are also a feature nowadays and I doubt any modern day player would dream of wielding a wooden racket! So yes the comparison is false but for me the days of Laver, Newcombe, Rosewall, Smith, Nastase, and even the year of Kodes and Metrovelli constituted a rather more enjoyable era in tennis than the wham, bam, thank you mam tennis that is on show these days. Anyhoo - back to football and enough of this strawberries and cream and barley sugar nonsense!!!

I looked up the stats. On average a professional footballer covers 7 miles per match. On average, a professional tennis player covers between 1-2 miles per match

Sorry if I came across as a grump about modern players. I am genuinely puzzled as to why they appear to tire at such a young age. I fully accept that djokovic's fitness guru must be a master of his craft. Rosewall was always one of my favourites but I don't remember him or Pancho and Lew had at craiglockhart, so deeply sorry I missed that one. I served as a ballboy for laver, hoad, gimeno and barthes at Paisley ice rink...