Club Statement, Fixtures

[p12tfc]

I don't think the column is too far from the mark. The imbalance of playing 3 games against each team is the issue and we've not exactly been outspoken about this over recent seasons. To focus on the cash benefits gained from the ugly sisters gives them a status and importance that we as fans have rallied against for as long as I can remember.

 

In my opinion we could have made our argument on the sporting impact of 4 visits to their grounds, which the league has always been keen to balance out evenly.

 

There is so much wrong with the fixtures that need addressed;

- Celtic given an away game to start off (Champions are always at home) so they can manipulate a home postponement in week 2

- Celtic and Dundee paired on March 17 so a trip to the USA can be facilitated

- Jags & Dundee always on a midweek

- the farce that is Christmas Eve

- far too many midweek matches scheduled

- and of course the OF fixture imbalance

 

All of this PLUS a New Year bigot brothers match, does anyone foresee a risk of reputational damage from this?, and you have to wonder who is advising these clowns on their public image.

 

The two I have highlighted are the worst for me. So much for " random fixtures " I can understand teams getting an away game when there ground is unavailable but for two teams to decide when they will play each other is ridiculous.

[Jaggernaut]

I think it speaks volumes that nobody from the SPFL has yet offered to either explain or try to justify the procedures used to come up with this farce of a fixture list.

 

Are they too embarrassed? Too cowardly? Too afraid of their fixing being exposed to suit their own agenda? All three can be ticked, I suspect.

[lady-isobel-barnett]

Just looked at the 24th Dec fixtures. Apart from ourselves facing our longest journey we make three other fixtures involve lengthy journeys (sevco v ICT, 'Well v Aberdeen and Killie v St Johnstone). You can argue all you like about luck of the draw and the likes but when the fourth longest of only six fixtures on Xmas eve involves a round journey of over 160 miles you have to question the sanity of those running our game.

[elevenone]

no surprises

 

http://ptfc.co.uk/news/2016-2017/june_2016/club_statement_feedback_from_meeting_with_spfl

 

wonder what non essential budget cuts will be?

[Mr Bunny]

At least it's good to have the reassurance that the player budget will be maintained, so I assume we'll see a centre back and a full back being signed in the next couple of weeks.

Edited June 29, 2016 by Mr Bunny

[Lindau]

Not sure what cutbacks they can achieve other than office staff and their doesn't appear to be too many of them anyway. Players just need to get the heads down and get us into the top 6 and get the ridiculous anomaly sorted

[MonehJags]

This response from the spfl isnt only unsurprising but also highlights how little foresight these folk have. Our club along with motherwell were slapped aside like a disobedient dug. At the end of the day there was nothing set in stone that the club could case much of a defence. It only goes to show that we can only help ourselves. After the signings weve made recently it has shown the direction the club want to move in and one i fully support and therefore i will be contributing to the player fund to make up along with many others the shortfall in revenue. Id like to add the work done by others on this forum to raise funds are to be commended. Keep up the good work and heres to a successful season

 

Eta

 

Is there anyway forward with a charity match on matchday 2 of the Callander. Rossvalve would make a good opposition, is there not an affiliation somewhere?

Edited June 29, 2016 by MonehJags

[ChiThistle]

What a load of crap. Diplomatic response from our Club, but "breakdown in communications" implies there were communications to begin with. You can't "break down" something that was never "built". And the previous sentence indicates the SPFL changed historical practice unilaterally with no communication to the clubs.

 

Sorry SPFL board, but if you don't understand that your smaller clubs are required to budget differently from your bigger clubs with regard to the importance of projected revenue, which is already kind of playing with fire to begin with, then you probably have no business running a league.

 

I swear to effing everything that is holy that Neil Doncaster gets his news about non-OF clubs the same way Varys gets his rumors on GoT.

 

[Mr Bunny]

Some criticism of Doncaster here (mightily deserved) but the SPL and and its ugly love child the SPFL have never given a damn about the wee clubs - and when it come to the bigger clubs they are far less important to them than keeping the OF going strong even though that does nothing for the game as a whole (and often is damaging to it).

Edited June 29, 2016 by Mr Bunny

[Gary Peebles Tackle]

Pathetic response from the SPFL, but wholly unsurprising.

 

We should, however, keep at them as the farcical situation with Celtic's friendly & the happy accident that is the Dundee game shouldn't be forgotten. I'm also a bit peeved that we don't play Celtic on 'derby day' - surely we should be given precedence over a newly promoted team?

 

It all stinks.

[Big Col]

Not sure what cutbacks they can achieve other than office staff and their doesn't appear to be too many of them anyway. Players just need to get the heads down and get us into the top 6 and get the ridiculous anomaly sorted

 

So long as the stadium cleaning budget isn't cut....oh wait a minute.....

[yoda-jag]

fu©k neil cockwomble doncaster

fu©k the biased and incompetent spfl

fu©k your seltic and fu©k your sevco

we're partick thistle and we are wonderful

 

we've got archie and shaggy, dools, the bridge, and banzo

fearless kingsley, plus cerny, osman, lawless, azeez and amoo

not forgetting syme, lindsay, devine, booth and doombuya too

redwards, christie, fraser, penrice and the ever hungry pog

we've got the mighty red and yellow army, and the baby shed too

this season against all the odds and the archaic establishment

we are thistle and we're all going to get it right up the lot if yous

 

 

 

 

 

^^^^^ not a song in case anyone is trying to figure out the tune

[scotty]

Not sure what cutbacks they can achieve other than office staff and their doesn't appear to be too many of them anyway. Players just need to get the heads down and get us into the top 6 and get the ridiculous anomaly sorted

Would be great if all three clubs could make the top six. We'd all be due home games against OF!

[partickthedog]

Sadly not great as the need for approximately equal numbers of home and away fixtures would kick in and we would end up losing one of the home games.

[JAGSMAN1968]

So, should we now maybe think about not going to support Thistle in these away games but trying to encourage more fans to all our home games.

It's not as if we'll be missed much anyway, stuck in the corner after having paid a ridiculous amount for the privilege.

[BowenBoys]

This response from the spfl isnt only unsurprising but also highlights how little foresight these folk have. Our club along with motherwell were slapped aside like a disobedient dug. At the end of the day there was nothing set in stone that the club could case much of a defence. It only goes to show that we can only help ourselves. After the signings weve made recently it has shown the direction the club want to move in and one i fully support and therefore i will be contributing to the player fund to make up along with many others the shortfall in revenue. Id like to add the work done by others on this forum to raise funds are to be commended. Keep up the good work and heres to a successful season

 

Eta

 

Is there anyway forward with a charity match on matchday 2 of the Callander. Rossvalve would make a good opposition, is there not an affiliation somewhere?

 

The club were waiting for resolution on the fixtures debacle before deciding what to do that day. I hope they do something and I suspect that they will.

[lady-isobel-barnett]

I can't accept"cuts will require to be made to non-essential parts of the budget" as anything other than bad news. I doubt there's one person that posts on here could come up with an example of how we can save anything like £100K+. Non playing staff? Stewarding/Police costs? Greenkeeping? Heating/Lighting? Hospitality special offers? No, then where???

 

I'm not meaning to be confrontational but we were told every last penny, once running costs have been covered, goes directly to Archie. The initiating of the Player Fund is based on this premise. It would surely be disingenuous to now tell us £100K+ of expenditure is "non-essential".

 

I think it would be far easier just to accept that either the player budget is now cut or we're going to be running over budget, in effect biting bullets..

Edited June 29, 2016 by lady-isobel-barnett

[scotty]

Or maybe the club was, shall we say, "exaggerating" when it stated the effect the fixture discrepancies would have on the budget?

[Lenziejag]

That's the way - let's stick if to the board

[Fawlty Towers]

I can't accept"cuts will require to be made to non-essential parts of the budget" as anything other than bad news. I doubt there's one person that posts on here could come up with an example of how we can save anything like £100K+. Non playing staff? Stewarding/Police costs? Greenkeeping? Heating/Lighting? Hospitality special offers? No, then where???

 

I'm not meaning to be confrontational but we were told every last penny, once running costs have been covered, goes directly to Archie. The initiating of the Player Fund is based on this premise. It would surely be disingenuous to now tell us £100K+ of expenditure is "non-essential".

 

I think it would be far easier just to accept that either the player budget is now cut or we're going to be running over budget, in effect biting bullets..

 

I have no inside knowledge so this is just speculation on my part. What if the club were planning to spend some money this summer on improving the toilets in the JH stand and generally giving the stadium a good tidy up. That could be classed as non essential as we would probably all like it to be nicer but if it doesn't get done we would survive? It would not account for £100K but if the club can increase income from sponsorship, etc then the full £100K or so does not need to made up in savings.

[lady-isobel-barnett]

I have no inside knowledge so this is just speculation on my part. What if the club were planning to spend some money this summer on improving the toilets in the JH stand and generally giving the stadium a good tidy up. That could be classed as non essential as we would probably all like it to be nicer but if it doesn't get done we would survive? It would not account for £100K but if the club can increase income from sponsorship, etc then the full £100K or so does not need to made up in savings.

 

But not spending money on the toilets etc would just be a deferment. The Club would still have to fork out that cost more sooner than later. So that would be merely a marginal saving.

 

I may be slightly prejudiced, based largely on personal experience, but I find the expression "non essential parts of the budget" rather ambiguous.

[Lenziejag]

 

 

But not spending money on the toilets etc would just be a deferment. The Club would still have to fork out that cost more sooner than later. So that would be merely a marginal saving.

 

I may be slightly prejudiced, based largely on personal experience, but I find the expression "non essential parts of the budget" rather ambiguous.

 

I understand what you mean. However, one interpretation of non essential parts of the budget could just mean that it isn't essential this year. By deferring it a year means that it will be funded by the extra income next year.

[lady-isobel-barnett]

I understand what you mean. However, one interpretation of non essential parts of the budget could just mean that it isn't essential this year. By deferring it a year means that it will be funded by the extra income next year.

 

Possibly. I don't know what the average lifespan of a gnome is but I suppose the sanctuary can wait another year. Just hope the non essential savings doesn't mean we're stuck with yon sound system another year. Maybe we should just all learn Morse code and the announcements made by aldis lamp. There's always semaphore as well.

[stillresigned]

Och same old same old from the powers that be!