bigy

Good to see we've still got a couple of derby games at christmas time!!

Now is the time to apply to the FA. Given the barriers against us no court could rule against us joining the English league, so regardless of the level we need to go in at, we should go to England now and truly fuck the SFA.

No word yet on what SPL have decided regarding ourselves.

By going to Division 3 it is almost a 5 year ban. Year 1 is us in Div 3, year 2 in Div 2, Year 3 in Div 1, year 4 in SPL and can qualify, year 5 in Europe. That is, of course, unless we win the Scottish Cup in year 3 or 4.

Or has it been extended?

What I find most baffling is why any consortium would choose Bomber as their main figure head!! As someone in the background to shake things up, maybe, but as a figurehead I'd want someone more eloquent and persuasive. Walter Smith, Gordon Smith, Laudrup, Gough, etc. People like that would come across well in the media and with the support. Without meaning to be disrespectful to Bomber, he's not cut out as a figurehead and has been hung out there by whoever's behind the consortium. I think that raises as many questions about the people behind the bid and their decision making as anything else.

I cancelled my ESPN, but I love the Ryder Cup, Premiership, Champions League, etc and that's what I pay my Sky money for. Plus my wife and kid wouldn't have been best pleased. Each to their own though, and hopefully the pressure will begin to show.

It's not the subscriptions that will hurt Sky, it's the lack of advertising revenue. The Old Firm games pull in 800k-900k viewers for Sky, of which there have been 4 which makes roughly 3.5m viewers per season. Games involving Rangers and other SPL teams get average viewing figures of between 250k and 330k, and there are roughly 15 of them across Sky and ESPN, which makes roughly 4.5m viewers per season. Games involving non-old firm clubs all pulled in under 100k except the Edinburgh derby which gets just over. So even being generous, and assuming the games that replace our 19 or so games on Sky get 100k each, that's only 1.9m viewers against 8m which we pulled in. So Sky and ESPN are likely to suffer a drop in ratings of around 75%, and that'll have a significant impact on their advertising revenue. And this also assumes that the viewing figures for Celtic's games remain the same, and I doubt very much that'll be the case as a lot of Celtic fans would watch our games and vice versa. Bottom line is Sky and ESPN will need to renegotiate asap or lose money.

Given all our pre-season games have been cancelled, anyone else think we should organise a blues v reds match at Ibrox for a week on Saturday? I know we might not have the squad numbers, but even a game between those in the first team and the u19s or something. It would get money into the club for starters.

The thing that most in the frenzied media haven't yet grasped is without Rangers in the SPL we're not going to be listening to radio phone-ins and not going to be buying the daily sports papers. Audience figures and paper sales will crumble further, advertising revenue will freefall, and many of these so-called journos who have shouted from the rooftops to get us punished will now find themselves out of a job. Ain't karma a bitch!!

A fair statement. Wonder if any other SPL chairmen will be pulled up on their fiduciary duty. Also wonder if any shareholders could complain about them.

I know where your coming from, but the reality is as soon as we're in SFL 3 and Sky significantly reduce the money on the table along with other sponsors, then the leagues will be revised and we'll end up at the top of a new structure within 2 years.

I actually think we can sell out next season, but only if the tickets are priced correctly. We'll have a young team and the sense if injustice and 'no surrender' attitude could shine through.

Easily said, but reality is we'll be offering match tickets at £10-£15 and we have one less home game. We will need to reduce the price as a lot of people can't justify £430+ to watch 18 games against Elgin & co.

Was there any chat at the meeting last night around how ticket prices will be affected dependent on what division we're in?

J think there's a caveat in the UEFA rules which say if a club's been denied the opportunity to compete at a decent standard, and with todays SPL vote we could certainly argue that. I'd also imagine competition and EU rules would be in our favour given we've been denied the right to compete at a competitive level in Scotland.

The decision should really have been made by the SPL board, as it should have been, and this would have protected the SPL clubs from having to make a decision in the best interests of the game which was against their fans wishes. EVeryone just seems to want to pass the buck now and the SFL have called the relevant parties out on this. Either way, Regan is now a proven serial liar and has to go.

So what happens if no decision's made in the next few weeks? Just noticed Alison Robbie tweeting that Green & Murray have been called back into the meeting, so maybe they've reached a decision.

I seen a post on FF claiming it was said on Sportsound last night that if the vote's delayed beyond a certain point that we could retain our place in the SPL by default. Does anyone know it this is actually the case? There must be a point where this has to happen though. If the vote's delayed today it could take another 2 or 3 weeks to sort out, by which point we're within a 2-3 weeks of the start of the new season. This can't go on indefinitely, and if no vote takes place it gives all the bitter SPL chairmen an out as they wouldn't have voted to keep us in.

Then there's another question about what is democracy? If those 661 Motherwell fans attended every home game that's 12,500 tickets next season, which give or take is what we'll take to Motherwell in 2 games. So democratically the minority are getting to rule over the majority, which isn't very democratic at all. As you say though,t he SPL are an embarassment and we really need to take things away from them, take Division 1 off the table and make it clear it's the SPL or SFL3. That'll really sort out their positions and at least then we'll get a proper vote.

BBC are reporting on Twitter that there's a late night conference call among the other 11 SPL clubs, with many wanting to postpone the vote until the SFL have voted!! Absolute bottle merchants!!

What happens after Wednesday? Obviously a lot depends on what Division we're in, but let's say that Green is serious about keeping the club, and taking us forward with a share issue planned at some point in the future. A share issue is only going to be successful if we're a success off and on the park, so I don't see the benefit of Green asset stripping or the like. If Brown's bid falls as others have, what will it take for fans to get behind the team and the club? Will we buy season tickets regardless? Will we give Green the benefit of the doubt whilst keeping up the questioning? How will the various fans groups react if Green does maintain control? Alternatively, could yet more bids come out of the woodwork and take control? I thought things were going to get clearer the longer it went on, but the exact opposite seems to be happening.

It should be SPL with no further sanctions, but if not it has to be Div 3.

According to BBC Radio Scotland we've not submitted it. Perhaps we have a move to England up our sleeve, and will offer the SPL an ultimatum. Keep us or we're off down south.

If the SFL vote to allow us into the Third and nothing else, as they should, it'll be interesting to see how the SPL clubs vote. If 5 clubs are really threatened with administration, how on earth can they vote against us. I also think Ross County and Celtic will vote for us, which with the 5 administration threatened clubs would give us the 8 votes.