Kilmarnock confirm Rangers' ticket allocation will be slashed to one stand

[cooponthewing 1,139]

1 hour ago, Franc Ergs said:

The Rugby Park side’s chairman Billy Bowie has since confirmed this will be a long-term step and admitted that the potential financial costs are something that “doesn’t really bother” him, according to the Daily Record.

 

Sounds to me like a man intent on running his club into the ground.

I have no issue as long as we never request more than 4K from now on. They would rather ruin their finances than have us there then fair enough. Four thousand Bears don’t need to give them our money any more.

[JFK-1 1,666]

Well it “doesn’t really bother” them anyway. So be it but it seems to bother all the others who scream unfair when deprived of a Rangers visit while a rival gets one more than they do pre split.

[Gonzo79 13,546]

22 minutes ago, cooponthewing said:

I have no issue as long as we never request more than 4K from now on.

We'll take what we're given and accept it with a whimper.

 

I have no idea why Bears want to fund people who openly mock us but they do.  Until it stops, they'll continue to mock us.

 

Edited April 17, 2019 by Gonzo79

[buster. 4,808]

11 hours ago, Franc Ergs said:

The Rugby Park side’s chairman Billy Bowie has since confirmed this will be a long-term step and admitted that the potential financial costs are something that “doesn’t really bother” him, according to the Daily Record.

 

Sounds to me like a man intent on running his club into the ground.

He is ambitious and wants to capitalise on the upturn in the clubs fortunes by growing the home support and the reduction from 8K to 4K is within the SPFL rules. Kilmarnock do historically have a decent crowd base that he's trying to attract back, whether they or the new generations buy ST's we'll soon see.

 

The last couple of seasons have seen a relatively significant upturn in their home support and if you are ambitious then you have to move things whilst the relative good times roll. The obvious problem arises further down the line when the good times stop but what is Bowie going to do parallel to this to try and make them last ? 

 

It's their prerogative and it's their financial risk.

 

IMO the club(s) shouldn't threaten to not take any tickets in the future.

Leave it up to the paying customers whether they want to buy them, surely it's their shout.

[craig 5,195]

On 18/04/2019 at 08:35, buster. said:

He is ambitious and wants to capitalise on the upturn in the clubs fortunes by growing the home support and the reduction from 8K to 4K is within the SPFL rules. Kilmarnock do historically have a decent crowd base that he's trying to attract back, whether they or the new generations buy ST's we'll soon see.

 

The last couple of seasons have seen a relatively significant upturn in their home support and if you are ambitious then you have to move things whilst the relative good times roll. The obvious problem arises further down the line when the good times stop but what is Bowie going to do parallel to this to try and make them last ? 

 

It's their prerogative and it's their financial risk.

 

IMO the club(s) shouldn't threaten to not take any tickets in the future.

Leave it up to the paying customers whether they want to buy them, surely it's their shout.

The increase in their average home attendance in the last couple of seasons can be almost entirely attributed to Rangers return to the top league - something they are now restricting.

 

Statistics can be used to prove anything but the Killie average attendances over the last 10 years had been no better than static - indeed, the numbers have dwindled since 1993/94 season which, presumably, was when they returned to the top flight.

 

Their average home attendances can be found here : http://www.fitbastats.com/kilmarnock/club_records_league_attendance.php

 

If they take us from 8k to 4K tickets then their numbers this season would be down 8k which, up to this point, would be a reduction of about 500 (8,000 dicvided by 16 home games) meaning their average attendance would be about 6,000 which is no better than season 2010/11.

 

As someone from Ayrshire who lived in Killie, and whose best friend was the Killie SLO for a number of years but now rarely bothers to attend I can say that their crowds are, and have been, shite since at least the early 80’s when I moved there.

 

Bowie can be as ambitious as he wants and, as you rightly say, it is his financial risk to take..... but I have significant doubts that this risk is one that will pay off with rewards.

[buster. 4,808]

 

12 hours ago, craig said:

The increase in their average home attendance in the last couple of seasons can be almost entirely attributed to Rangers return to the top league - something they are now restricting.

 

Statistics can be used to prove anything but the Killie average attendances over the last 10 years had been no better than static - indeed, the numbers have dwindled since 1993/94 season which, presumably, was when they returned to the top flight.

 

Their average home attendances can be found here : http://www.fitbastats.com/kilmarnock/club_records_league_attendance.php

 

If they take us from 8k to 4K tickets then their numbers this season would be down 8k which, up to this point, would be a reduction of about 500 (8,000 dicvided by 16 home games) meaning their average attendance would be about 6,000 which is no better than season 2010/11.

 

As someone from Ayrshire who lived in Killie, and whose best friend was the Killie SLO for a number of years but now rarely bothers to attend I can say that their crowds are, and have been, shite since at least the early 80’s when I moved there.

 

Bowie can be as ambitious as he wants and, as you rightly say, it is his financial risk to take..... but I have significant doubts that this risk is one that will pay off with rewards.

 

 

From what I can see, your initial claim is wrong.

Yes, our return has increased their average but home crowds have increased accross the board, including against provincial clubs, eg. look at their home crowds for those games in 2019 and then look at them for tha same months in 2017 (pre-Clarke).

 

You are right in saying that stats can and are usually used selectively.

What I'd point to with the link you provide is the minimum attendance (which obviously isn't anything to do with our visits to Rugby Park). There you can see a relatively big difference (% of attendance) and if you look at the time periods I refer to above, you'll see that the difference generally applies to most of the games against provincial teams. 

 

Your comparison dates back to 2010/11.

When Bowie took over and brought Clarke to Kilmarnock, he faced a very different reality to that.

 

 

We discuss Bowie and the financial risks he is proposing against a difficult reality but seem to forget to actively consider our own situation when it comes to our relative financial reality/risk taking, within the current state of play.

 

Edited April 20, 2019 by buster.

[ranger_syntax 3,750]

Though the straits be broad or narrow, follow we will

 

[Gonzo79 13,546]

If it's a toss up between following on or not funding parasites who hate us, as a matter of principle - I'll go with the latter.  

 

There's always friendlies and matches in Europe. 

[buster. 4,808]

9 hours ago, Gonzo79 said:

If it's a toss up between following on or not funding parasites who hate us, as a matter of principle - I'll go with the latter.  

 

There's always friendlies and matches in Europe. 

It will always come down to the decisions of fans whether to buy the tickets or not.

It's their cash, they make their choices and they should be respected.

 

In this case, I simply don't think "hate" has anything to do with the proposal/decision taken by Bowie/KFC board.

At the same level but I think with (mostly) different individuals, KFC were the only club not to vote us out of the top tier back in the day.

 

It's their prerogative, there is no reason why they should bow down to us or Celtic,...but it obviously comes with a financial risk.

 

It would be good for the Scottish game if more people can be attracted to games accross the board. Now whilst that is probably akin to swimming against the tide or putting a 4 team accumulator on at 32Red, it's their decison/risk to take and yours, to buy Killie away tickets in the future,or not. 

 

I reckon it may work for them in the short-term but give it 12/18 months, it'll start to go the other way and eventually we'll revert back to 8K allocations. By the time it were to happen, if we were doing well, we'd forget the rhetoric of today and fill it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ian1964 10,372]

1 hour ago, buster. said:

KFC were the only club not to vote us out of the top tier back in the day.

They sat on the fence! hardly voting to help us and they to me are just as bad as the rest of Scottish football who hate us and proved it by voting us out of the league trying to kill us.

Edited April 21, 2019 by ian1964