League Reconstruction stitch up ...

Some grounds still have rivers of pash to contend wae,now and again

Now, now DC we're attempting to have a sensible debate for once

Stevie im talking long term investment into infrastructure as well as league reorganisation, they should go hand in hand.

New stadiums would also open up other comercial revenues for clubs to supplement their football incomes. Most clubs when thinking about new facilities talk about confrencing and leisure parks as well as football grounds.

We have too many clubs for a country our size we should be encouraging some of these clubs to amalgamate. One way to do this is with the incentive of new facilities either it be stadium or training grounds.

I guess what p!sses me off is that the idea you are putting across Chuman sort of stinks of the kind of stuff that wee Roger Mitchell, the brainchild of the SPL, came out with when this whole thing started.

One of the ulitmate results of that kind of thinking was Falkirk being denied promotion to the SPL coz their stadium wasnt good enough, and lower end SPL teams and first division clubs getting into all sorts of debt building new stadiums, and for what, to accomodate the old firm twice a season?? That in turn led to the reliance on teh old firm dollar, and kicked off the whole chain reaction of clubs needing the old firm to stay afloat, and that was a major factor in the shambles over the summer!!

Look at Rugby Park.....great stadium, but HARDLY EVER anywhere even near full for a Kilmarnock game, not even when the old firm come to town unless its a title decider.

So aye, nice comfy safe stadium and all that...but whats it doing for the game, seriously, how good is the atmosphere, the fans enjoyment when they are sitting nice and comfy in a half empty stadium, the noise level escaping out the top with ease and a few thousand fans rattling about in this vast space??? Its $hite!!!

A smaller stadium with poorer facilities, but closer to the pitch, appearing fuller on matchdays, and crammed to the rafters for big events, keeping the noise in the place and transfering the atmosphere onto the park and not out the roof makes for a better fan experience, better fan enjoyment, and ultimate its better for the game...surely!!!

I wouldnt set a cap on capacity like the SPL did previously. I also wouldnt expect it to be totally funded by the clubs themselves, if it was part of a community leisure project then some of it would be funded by Gov, some of it funded by the SFA/SPL/SFL (one body) and by the club. It doesnt need to be a mega build. Just safe,comfortable and opening other revenue streams.

In Fife alone you have dunfermline,east fife, raith rovers, alloa (to a certain extent) cowdenbeath in the one area. You cant say that these clubs would be much better supported if they had say only one or two clubs with brilliant facilities.

Kilmarnock suffers because the locals would rather support rangers and celtic, how do you change this? I dont know.

I'm not suggesting for a minute that new stadiums is the answer to scottish footballs problems. Im just saying that it should be part of a bigger plan to regenerate scottish football and I think it would help.

wouldnt be much better supported*, sorry.

"You cant say that these clubs would be much better supported if they had say only one or two clubs with brilliant facilities."

Its just not as simple as that though is it??

This is 4 clubs you are talking about amalgamating here, all 4 of them over 100 years old, two of them fierce rivals (Raith and Dunfermline).

If Rangers, Celtic, Queens Park and Partick were all amalgamated into a super Glasgow club, there would be vast numbers of old firm fans that would refuse to support this new entity and you know it mate......if thats true of teh big clubs, you cant just write it off and ignore when it comes to smaller clubs becasue the reasoning is much the same

If Killie, where they are situated, suffer from fans wanting to support the big two in Glasgow, then so do Motherwell, Airdrie, Hamilton, Morton, St Mirren, Clyde, Partick, Queens Park, Dumbarton, Albion Rovers, as everyone of these clubs is far close to the glasgow catchment area than Killie are....do we just almagate all this lot too like?? Where does it stop??

There are 42 clubs in this country, we should be doing what is best for the 40 clubs that struggle, 40 clubs with the vast majority of them having been around for around 100 years or more also, the thinkig should be geared towwards them and not the two that will look after themselves regardless becasue their fanbases are massive and loyal enough to ensure their survival regardless of whatever happens.

Bigger stadiums and almagamations, in my view, arent what the fans or the chairmen of the smaller clubs want, they want better opposition to pit themselves against, better opportunities, more publicity and to be nearer the top table where the action is.

Two leagues, 20 in the top flight, 22 in the second, means all clubs, if they are not already in the top flight, are one good season away from it, and all the clubs on the fringes of it just now get it automatically when the recontructon happens...that and variety with 3 up and 3 down every year helps to reinvigorate the league every season

Its the action at the top of the league, along with the scrap at the bottom, and the Swansea's, Blackpool's and Stoke's of the premier league that intorduce that something different that make that league what it is down there.

We cannot be as big or as successful as that, and we never will be, but having 4 or 5 teams scrapping over relegation on the last day, 3-2 teams scrapping for a european place, and the odd first division marvel side coming up from the bottom teir and having a great first seaon and surprising everyone, these are the kind of things, that in the simplest and easiest manner possible, that will make Scottish Football worth watching again

This is were we certainly differ in opinion stevie. Scotland in my opinion has too many clubs for its population size. An 18-20 team league is only accommodating these smaller clubs with miniscule supports (in the grand scheme of things). Im not talking about forcing these clubs to join together im talking about incentivising them. If you read back my original idea on league reconstruction proposes that we lose 8 clubs and form two professional top leagues of 16 and 18.

Either we lose them to regionalised leagues or to amalgamation. If they dont wish to do so then so be it, but im sure their are a few small clubs that might think of it as a good idea.

I admire your romantic vision of a top league with thrills and spills but the simple fact of the matter is that clubs who spend more on wages than their competitors normally perform better than its rivals. Clubs like the previously mention simply cant do this because they dont have enough fans to support this.

Scottish football in my opinion needs a total restart from top to bottom. Less clubs, fair voting rights, fairer spread of the money and better facilities. I would also go as far as looking at introducing a national training academies for players unattached to clubs ran by the national association. (if we can do it for coaches why not players) Then allowing the worst placed teams first pick of the best players something similar to the draft system in the US. This could take the strain off clubs financially from training their own youth players and would allow us to implement a football style/training regime on a national scale. It may finally take us away from our culture of hoof ball.

You really dont get why you are in the 3rd tier do you??

Hint : Its nothing to do with the big tax case

Typical....before the allegations relating to the BTC were shown to be erroneous....its now nothing to do with that ! You just dont grasp that if the BTc had not been , Rangers would not have been sold to Whyte and would certainly nevr have been accused , wrongly, of having debts of 130m+. It was aginst this background that Rangers were put into admon and the furore started. Do you honestly belive that we would be where we are had the BTC not been around ?