Thursday 25th September, 2025 at 7:30am
Our board met with fans in a public event at Firhill on Thursday 18 September for an open Q&A, which covered a broad range of topics.
In attendance on the night in the Alan Rough Lounge were Richard Beastall (Chairman), Sporting Director Ian Baraclough, existing director Elliot Gilmour, fan-elected directors Allan McGraw and Alistair Gray, and newly-appointed directors Jacqui McInnes and Grant Russell.
The transcript of the event is below.
There’s lot of unhappiness about the hospitality prices. It’s changed from last season, and it’s got much higher, and people can’t afford the hospitality prices. So there’s a lot less footfall in the hospitality as a result.
Answer from Richard Beastall, Chairman
I think we’ve recognised that. There is an announcement coming out post the Celtic game about that we’re revising the hospitality offer. We got it wrong, so we’re sorry. We were hoping to increase the revenues, but we put the prices up too much. So we recognise that and we’re fixing it, and there’s an announcement going to come out after the Celtic game.
The team in hospitality has been really busy getting ready for the Celtic game, so we felt it wasn’t fair to put this announcement out because one of the things we’re going to offer is that if you bought a hospitality ticket later in the season and paid a higher price, we’ll offer to refund the difference to you. So we didn’t want to open the phone lines to people asking for refunds when we’re trying to sell Celtic tickets. So there’s an announcement coming out to cover that and, yeah, we got that one wrong. The new price will be less than last season’s
We heard today that tickets for the Celtic game have sold out. Unfortunately, a number of supporters who haven’t bought two tickets on Fanbase in the last few years weren’t allowed to buy tickets for this game. What can the club do to mitigate this from happening again in the future.
Answer from Richard Beastall, Chairman
It’s difficult. It’s really difficult. We have sold out now for the game on Sunday. All tickets are now gone. You have to be able to draw a line between giving access to as many fans as you possibly can, but also balancing the risk that could be posed by somebody who’s not a Thistle fan getting in amongst the Thistle fans. And that’s something that both the police and the security officer raised as being a real concern.
So we had to draw the line somewhere, and it was felt that season ticket holders and then those who had two Fanbase purchases was an appropriate way to do it.
Have some people missed out? Yes, it’s unfortunate. But unfortunately, you can’t please all of the people all the time on these things. So we’ve had to draw a line somewhere, and regrettably, that’s where we drew it.
Answer from Allan McGraw, Board Fan Representative
Obviously, people who pay cash or buy at the booth didn’t have the two Fanbase histories. But we have the staff in the offices who have been taking calls from people, and we’ve been trying to help them to show us a history with Partick Thistle.
So we’ve had people email us in copies of Greaves receipts where they’ve bought the strip, or send us photographs with them in their strip, etc. And on that basis, we’ve sold them tickets. So we’ve tried as far as we can to help people who have contacted us.
But I would say I’ve been at quite a few Celtic matches here when all around you are Celtic supporters. And it is a very, very uncomfortable environment to be in. So what we’ve done as best we can to mitigate, to reduce that, minimise that. We won’t have solved it completely. Some will have sneaked through, but we’ve tried as best we can to try and mitigate that risk.
Just to touch on the point you made there about infiltration, with us being moved. I’ve been a Jackie Husband season ticket holder since it was built. I don’t like moving out, but the logistics are we have to. So we make the John Lambie, and the Main Stand, Partick Thistle only. At the last cup tie, we were surrounded by Celtic fans, and Celtic stewards when we came in to the ground asked us if we were home or away fans. And we were led to believe from Gerry Britton at the time that it would be home fans only. If there’s infiltration this time from Celtic fans, how will it be dealt with?
Answer from Richard Beastall, Chairman
That’s down to the security team. I think there will be more stewards present, as you’d imagine for this game. There’s going to be a significant police presence. So I think if anybody’s aware of anything like that, they would speak to the nearest steward and make them aware that that’s a problem.
But one of the reasons for these Fanbase controls is to try and prevent as best as we can. As Allan says, somebody somewhere is gonna sneak in, but hopefully we’ve done our best to stop it. And if anybody’s aware of something like that, then please go and speak to a steward.
Answer from Allan McGraw, Board Fan Representative
There’s a pre-ops meeting which happens before every game, where Celtic and Partick Thistle will be represented, as will G4S and the Police. And these things will be discussed about what is the tactics should that arise.
I don’t know what the answer will be because that’ll be in discussions tomorrow, but certainly anyone who turns up with a Celtic scarf, for instance, won’t get through the turnstiles. If they’re in the ground with without any colours and they’re sitting there quietly watching the match, probably nothing will happen. If they start to do what you say and take potshots, and I have been in that environment, then hopefully the stewards will deal with that.
With regards to the Celtic game, do you guys have an estimate of the extra income that we’re getting for having them in the Jackie Husband stand?
Answer from Richard Beastall, Chairman
It’s hard to say the extra income we will get from having Celtic in there. I think the initial comms that we shared at the time for the fan vote outlined exactly what the split was likely to be with the two options that were presented. With a sell-out, our gate share is about £100,000. I think it’s 60/40 Celtic/Thistle in terms of the [ticket] split. I guess it’s £20,000 that we might not have had if we hadn’t sold out the Jackie Husband stand.
There are a lot of us who normally come to the Jackie Husband and we’ll get moved over there. Every home game, we go into the Aitken Suite. Now for the Celtic game, we’re not in it, so there’s a big crowd of us who aren’t going, and that’s a matchday experience ruined. Because we always go there, we’re in by one o’clock, stay till six o’clock after the games, we can’t do that against Celtic, and that’s just ruined the whole matchday experience for a lot of us because we’ve given it over to hospitality.
Answer from Richard Beastall, Chairman
When the decision was taken, it’s something we should have spoken to more people about, but the decision was taken that we would make more revenue from hospitality than we would from the bar. So that was the reasoning behind it. Perhaps we should have made that clear and discussed that with more individuals. I’m sorry you feel like that, and I’m sorry that the matchday experience has been ruined by that being the case, but that was the thinking behind it.
Answer from Allan McGraw, Board Fan Representative
Just to add to that, and just to remind people, we have given the commitment that the vote that we had, the fan consultation, was for this match only and that we will come out at the end of the season to look at our strategy for allocation going forward, should we get into a position where we’re playing here more regularly in the Premiership.
How much will we actually make from the Celtic game overall?
Answer from Richard Beastall, Chairman
I think maybe a better question to answer is how much has the cup run to this point been worth? And the answer is about £140,000 of profit that was unbudgeted as a result of getting this far. We’ll make £100,000 from our share of the gate. The prize money for getting this far is £100,000, plus we get £30,000 because it’s on the telly. So there’s £130,000 of prize money against the £36,000 we had budgeted for being knocked out in the group stage. Now there are greatly increased security costs for having Celtic here. I did some numbers earlier this week, and I think it’s £140,000 is what it’s been worth to get to this point.
We don’t hear much about the youth system. Years ago, I used to go to youth games and used to know basically all the Under 19s or 18s. But nowadays, it’s very little. I am just wondering, can we get more publicity and find out who these guys are really. And more about them really?
Answer from Elliot Gilmour, Board Representative
We’ve had somebody in and just restarted some of the social media for the Academy. Now is a particularly good time to do it. The Under 17s are currently sitting top of the league. The Under 19s are currently sitting top of the league.
We’ve got a lot of young, talented players that will hopefully make their way on to the first team. That’s happened. I think three or four players signed professional contracts actually this season. There are seven apprentices, either year one or year two apprentices, that are currently with professional contracts.
I think another big positive step that happened when Mark [Wilson] and Brian [Graham] came on is that the Under 18s at the time, a number of them actually started training with the full squad as well. It’s quite a big transition to go from academy football into first team football. And I think that the guys have made a really good positive step forward in preparing them for that. But yeah, your point’s really good. My passion is the academy, I could probably talk about that for the rest of the night if you want, if you were willing to listen.
I think the more that we can tell people about what’s happening in some of the younger groups, the better. Because I think us Thistle fans would all like to produce our own. I think that that’s something that we probably haven’t done a massive amount of, albeit that I think we’re a lot better than some other clubs.
Answer from Ian Baraclough, Sporting Director
On the young lads, players like Jamie Low, Matt Falconer, and Liam Rooney came through towards the end of last season. I think it’s important that these lads are given plenty of time. They’ve got potential, and that’s what it is, it’s potential. Now, the more they train with the first team group, the more they’re integrated, then it’s going to benefit them in the long run. But they’re nowhere near the fully-fledged players that they are. And if they dip in and dip out, then that’s great.
But they also need a games programme that they’re the age that they are. So 16, 17, 18, they’re developing physically, and they’re developing as people as well. So you’ve got to really give them a proper games programme, and you’re talking 35, 40 games a season.
Now, some of those players we’re looking at moving out and giving them some first-team experience and get them on loan. Whether that’s through a Cooperation Agreement, and I’ve been talking with a lower league club, or they go out on loan. But for me it’s important to see those players develop. And at time, these players outgrow the Under 19s system so it doesn’t test them. So to get them playing men’s football is so, so important.
So for me, that’s part of my role with Craig Dargo, with Mark, to discuss where the right place is because it’s not a case of just sending them out on loan and letting them fend for themselves. It’s got to be the right club. So there’s been several meetings with different clubs that we think are the right places for them to develop. Do they play the same sort of football to what we’re trying to play with Mark? And don’t forget that’s in the infancy. It’s not just a case of getting them out, and we can get a hundred quid for them. It’s not about that. With those youngsters, it’s got to be thought through and they’ve got to be put in the right place and then monitored, looked after and nurtured, and then when they come back, they’re in a much stronger position.
On any controversial decisions made by the club, how would you communicate on social media, and be better at communicating that?
Answer from Grant Russell, Board Representative
In terms of how we communicate anything, whether it is something maybe perceived to be controversial or a tricky subject, we will endeavour to do so with the full transparency that a fan-owned club merits.
I think we only need to look at our consultation around the Celtic cup match, which is a difficult topic, an emotional topic for many people, and it’s already been alluded to in this room with the Jackie Husband Stand. So what our ethos is, and will continue to be, is about that high level of transparency. Really breaking down the level of decision-making that’s going into it, and where possible putting that back to the fans to be able to either communicate back to us or have an active role in it.
It is all about that transparency, deep detail, not skirting over the detail, really getting into it, and just making sure we persist with that approach.
I came along here first in 1956, aged 12. And for about 20 years, there was no segregation other than for the Old Firm. You could change ends at half time, you could mingle with opposition supporters as if they were human beings, the same as you were. Unfortunately, that changed and a generation came in who were more interested in winding up the opposition fans than they were watching the game. Do any of the panel see a future where we might get rid of segregation again?
Answer from Richard Beastall, Chairman
I think that would be great. But I think it’s unlikely, if I’m honest. I can just about remember some of that. But I think given some of the stuff that goes on in social media, and some of the casual culture that exists in all clubs, I think it’s pretty unlikely, unfortunately.
Answer from Allan McGraw, Board Fan Representative
It would be good to get back there, definitely. I was here in the early 70s when you could walk from one end to the other at half time and cross over and speak to the opposition fans. And then they built a big metal fence there in the middle of the shed, so you were segregated. After that, we were chased from that many away grounds, back to the bus or back to the train. So I don’t see it getting back to that.
But the one hope we’ve got, I was at the match down at Glenafton in pre-season. I was at the Edinburgh City match in the League Cup group stages. No segregation, no hassle, and a really good evening and afternoon. So maybe there is a little bit of hope that we might get back there.
I realise it’s obviously pretty early in this season, but there’s obviously quite a lot of players out of contract in the summer of 2026. So I was just wondering if there’s any work being done around the extension of that. I realise it’s early doors, but obviously come January, they’re free to look elsewhere, and there’s a lot of important players on the team who will be out of contract come then. So I’m just curious what work’s been done around that.
Answer from Ian Baraclough, Sporting Director
Yeah, I think it’s an important part of my role not only bringing in new players that have strengthened the squad hopefully and given us a new look, but also you know, certain players in the squad have entered the last season of their contract. And quite rightly, we’ve got to engage early to show our interest that we want to keep those players.
Now that becomes progressively more difficult with agents and players that obviously want to seek pastures new. But we’ve got to put a squad on the park that’s strong enough and exciting enough for them to want to stay. They’ve got to see that there’s a chance of potentially getting promoted to the Premiership and staying with the club, and developing with the club.
So players like Ben Stanway for instance. One of our own. We want to nurture him, we want to see him through. With players like Ben, I know there’s been interest in him from the summer, and nothing materialised on that front, so there’s nothing to report. But it’s important that we try and keep players like Ben that we want to see develop.
We are in a position, we’ve got to admit, that we can’t keep hold of these players when they do well. They will get cherry-picked, and that’s just the footballing nature. That’s how it is. But we do our utmost to try and keep these types of players. It’s my role. And I have been speaking to agents, players, and there are several of the squad.
I’m not going to name players, I’m not going to name individuals. But there are several that we’re in communication with, and we want to make sure that they don’t get to January where they’re suddenly then free to talk to clubs or even sign pre-contract deals. Even though we know in this day and age that they do speak to them on behalf of a third party. So it’s increasingly more difficult, but hopefully we’ve got the right things in place, and the right people in charge as well looking after them on the pitch that entices them to stay and extend their deals.
Answer from Richard Beastall, Chairman
I’m just going to add a little bit to that and say I think it’s important that we also recognise we have to operate within our budget. So we could quite easily put a contract offer in front of a player that we couldn’t afford, that they would probably sign. So that’s where Ian’s real skill comes in. Balancing that, you want to play for Partick Thistle because it’s good for your career, but we’ve got to make sure we live within our means.
In terms of extra money from the Celtic game. Is that helping the player budget, or is that plugging gaps?
Answer from Richard Beastall, Chairman
We had made some commitments to cut some costs towards getting towards break even. It’s allowed us to take a breath on some of those cost cuts and decide whether we need to do them right now, rather than spend more on the playing budget. So we’re keeping a watching brief on it.
We will probably reassess in January where we are in the league and how we’ve gotten in the other cup competition.
Did we get any money for James Penrice when he left Hearts to go to Greece? And if we did, when that money filters through, will that then go into the playing budget? And likewise, any player who does leave Partick Thistle because they’ve got a sell-on clause or a development fee, will that then go straight into the playing budget and be ringfenced for that? Or will that just get absorbed into the club?
Answer from Richard Beastall, Chairman
A bit of both is the short answer. So, James Penrice, first of all. Yes, we’ll get a share of training compensation, a share of his fee. So 5% of any transfer fee is then shared amongst the clubs that he spent his youth career with. So we don’t know exactly how much he was sold by Hearts for. We know roughly. And we think we’re going to get a sum of money for that, which is significant. It will help the budget for this year.
So we allocated a little bit of budget for expected transfer income, because you get something every year, and it just gives us certainty around that income for this year.
The way it works is that when transfer fees are paid, you get paid in line with how the other club pays for that player. So quite a lot of transfer deals are actually done in instalments. So it could be instalments over three years, and we’ll get paid for James over three years if that’s the case.
There’s a degree of income in the budget for transfer sales and for solidarity payments. Once we go above that, it will initially go into the overall budget, but if we see there’s a surplus, then the first place we look to is to either improve the infrastructure or consider if we can put more on the pitch, because that’s obviously long-term going to earn us some income.
With the Youth Academy, the method is ideal for getting players coming through and playing for the first team. Now, going back before Freedom of Contract, young players came through in Scottish football and were sold on at a profit if they were any good, and it generated income. Now recently, I think that has virtually disappeared. Even young Rangers and Celtic players are getting picked up for peanuts to go and play in Premier League in England. What I would like to know is the strategy behind the Youth Academy, and exactly how is that going to move Partick Thistle forward and make them money, because it’s obvious we desperately need money.
Answer from Elliot Gilmour, Board Representative
Great question. I’ll answer the first part of that and then perhaps pass on to Ian. The generation of compensation for youth academy players when they transfer between academies, I think the rules have changed on that quite a lot. And its a legal thing. So there’s legal directives around not restricting the movement of amateur footballers between clubs. I don’t necessarily agree with that, because it probably costs three to four thousand pounds per player per year. We have to pay pitch lets, we have to pay a whole host of things, including coaches and everything. So it costs about three or four thousand pounds a player each year to develop them.
In my view, and it’s only my view, if Celtic or Rangers come along and want one of our really good players, they should pay compensation for that. Now, ultimately, they would, but we would only get the money for that when they sign a professional contract. I think for clubs like ourselves, where we are producing some really good players, we’re not really immediately getting the just desserts for the money and investment that we put into them.
Now I think in terms of the second part of your question on what is the strategy? For me, the primary strategy is getting them into the first team. I think you don’t really want to be selling your players out of the academy. What we really want to do is to try and build value in them. So if they get 10 appearances, 50 appearances, 100 appearances like Ben, that Ian was mentioning before, their value increases. exponentially.
I think one of the things that we probably haven’t done a lot in the last few years, from a revenue generation point of view, is have a really good player trading model. We haven’t really brought kids through and given them that game time so we’re not really building value in what we’ve invested in. I’m sure the board would echo this, and it’s very much a personal point of view. I think that’s what our academy should be doing. It should be primarily producing players for the first team. They then build value then at some point in time, if a bigger club comes along, we get proper money for them, not just compensation for the training that we’ve put into them. That’s something that we’re very much working on.
We did sell a player from the Academy to Everton last year, which you’ll know about, which we did get some decent money from. Again, that was only because he signed a professional contract when he was 16.
We’ve had one or two more. We’ve got one that went down to Sheffield United and trialled this year. We’ve got another one potentially going out to Burnley next week. Again, you’re kind of selling a bit early. In my opinion, I’d like to get them into the first team and get the value of them playing on the pitch and then sell them for proper money later on.
Answer from Ian Baraclough, Sporting Director
It is important that we try and get players in early, as young as possible. You talk about this pathway. They’ve got to have somewhere that they can see that they’ve got a chance of going and playing. So someone making their debut like Jamie Low last year at 16 years of age. Does that entice a younger player at the age of 14 to say do I go there? Or I’ve got a chance of going to Celtic or Rangers for instance. I’d hope to think that I’d like to go to Partick Thistle because I might get a chance in a couple of years’ time because they play young players. They give them a chance. They give them a pathway. And then that starts to snowball.
I think you’ve got to start somewhere, and I think the work that Elliot, Craig and the academy are doing at the moment is fantastic work. I think there’s some real, real quality in the younger age groups, but the reality is they will get cherry-picked at times. And if it’s a case of going to Sheffield United or Burnley, or Celtic or Rangers, ultimately, we can’t really stop them. And we can only get small money for them at that age.
So we want to entice them to come here, sign for us, develop with us, get 50, 60, 70 games under their belt. First team games under their belt. And then they go with our blessing. And players then see, well, that guy’s been given a chance, that guy’s been given a chance. They’ve made great strides, and they’re playing first-team football far quicker. So it depends on the individuals that you’re able to bring in. But I think once that development pathway starts showing, then I think you entice more and more coming through the door and better quality as well.
Ian, we signed Oisin Smyth from St Mirren. I know you were Northern Ireland manager. Did you recommend him?
Answer from Ian Baraclough, Sporting Director
Let me just tell you a little bit about the way we, or the strategy for, how we bring players in. And it’s not down to one person. Someone’s got to have a link with someone at some stage, somewhere along the line. Or it’s from a scout that we’ve got, and I was talking to the board today about the scouts that we’ve got in various areas of the UK. They’re all volunteers. None of them gets paid expenses. But they all do a fantastic job for us at this moment in time.
If they flag a player up, it’s my job, and then Lee Turnbull, the head of recruitment, Mark, and Alex Rae, to potentially go and see them and develop that. There’s a lot that goes in between that, but generally that’s what happens.
Between myself, Mark, Lee, and Alex, we’ve got quite a few years of experience, and we’ve come across quite a few contacts in the game and maintain those contacts. And it could be a tip-off from somebody. It may be a phone call that you’re just having generally. It may be that we go around trawling games and seeing what there might be out there, for instance.
With Oisin, yes, when I was senior manager, he was in the Under 21s, and my friendship with Stephen Robinson goes back a long way, and I suppose with that one, I knew what we were bringing into the football club. But we won’t bring a player into this football club without Mark Wilson giving it the go-ahead. And it’s important that people realise that.
It’s not down to me saying we must sign him. It’s not pressure put on Mark or Alex. It’s with their agreement. It’s my job, it’s Lee’s job, to put players in front of them. Generally, three or four in one position. If we’re looking for a fullback, for instance, there’s three or four fullbacks. They’ve probably got varying attributes, whether they’re a defensive type, or an attacking type. Whether they’re big, they’re small. Whether they can fit within our finances. A lot of things go into consideration, But not one person will come in here unless Mark Wilson said yep, I’m happy with that signing.
I was here in November last year when we had the consultation on the Tranche Two investment. We were presented with quite a detailed summary of where the club was at that point in time, and where it was going to move through this season in particular. There’s a couple of things that are conflicting in my mind.
When you set that out, you very much said that the target was break even for this season. It wasn’t being budgeted for cup runs, I don’t think, at that point in time. There was quite a lot of challenge around non-playing staff appointments as well at that particular session. You mentioned earlier that if it weren’t for this cup run, you might have been actually looking to cut staff, which seems a bit unusual considering you were promoting how many non-playing staff you were adding into the club at that point in time.
Similarly, going back to the very first question the gentleman asked at the start, I think only about four or five weeks ago, I can’t remember whose interview it was, but one of the board stated that commercial revenues were up through hospitality. You’re now going to cut prices, I assume, because something’s not working. You wouldn’t clearly cut prices if the revenue was up and the uptake was going well.
Similarly, I think Richard, you said at that Tranche Two consultation that any additional monies would go into the playing budget. So from a layman’s point of view, this season appears to have went pretty well. Let’s assume that we’re within budget for the playing side. We’re ahead on the cup run. Attendances are reasonably healthy. You talked about budgeting for three, three and a half thousand, I think, perhaps, at home games. Shirt sponsorships and all these other things that the board said they were hamstrung with because these deals had been put in place before you were there, are presumably coming to an end. So it sounds to me like there’s lots of opportunity actually, and that theoretically our numbers should be pretty healthy so far this season.
I have my scepticism about the board’s performance over the last two years with the hope that things are improving for us. I really welcome the appointment, particularly of Jacqui, because a finance director seems like it’s something that was sorely missed, given we had to go and sell fan shares for a million pounds to plug a gap. So give me some hope please. Tell me things are going well, or that some of the challenges I’m making here are wrong.
Answer from Richard Beastall, Chairman
We budgeted for break-even this season, and that’s still our ambition. We should be delivering that. Achieving that break-even budget involved cutting some staff numbers, unfortunately. We took the difficult decision that if we wanted to break even, we’d have to cut some staff numbers. I would challenge the fact that there were lots and lots of staff recruitment. I think there are seven full-time equivalent members of staff not within the football department. So I would challenge the fact that there’s lots and lots of staff recruitment. So the fact that we’ve got to this point in the League Cup means we’ve not had to make those cuts that we’d planned to do to deliver the break-even budget.
Most of the commercial deals are up at the end of this season, rather than the end of last season. We’ve achieved record numbers in the kit sponsorship, so that’s a positive. I think that Wright Kerr have given us a record number for the kit. I think there’s more on the kit this season than there has been previously in any other previous season.
Hospitality, we’re no worse off this season than we were last season. But I think we’ve acknowledged we perhaps got the pricing wrong, so we’re looking to fix that.
We took in that investment of around £1 million from Donald McClymont and his colleagues. That was getting used for stadium repairs. It was quite clearly set out that there was X amount getting set out for stadium repairs, there was X amount for cash reserves or whatever it was. Is all that money still there? Are we still in a good financial position? We’ve got all that money set aside, we haven’t eaten into it, we’re not overspending it? And as long as we can increase the revenues, then we should be seeing an upside this season? Whether that’s on the playing budget, or whether that’s just making sure that we’ve got a good sort of balance sheet to move forward from.
Answer from Richard Beastall, Chairman
We’ve spent about £100,000 on stadium repairs since the Tranche Two was brought in. There was a problem with the roof in the Colin Weir Stand, so that’s been fixed. We spent £25,000 on a new CCTV system that the police asked us to put in place, given some of the crowd disquiet that we’ve had in recent games. So there’s £100,000 that’s gone there. The rest of it, we’re in line with our budgets for this season. We did go over budget last season. We’ve admitted that, we’ve acknowledged that. That was due to some late injuries and things like that that happened at the end of last season. That’s unfortunate, but it happened. But we budgeted for break-even this season, which means we’re, other than the shortfall last season, we’re in line with what we said when we presented the Tranche Two.
What opportunities do you see from a brand and marketing point of view that’s going to help us on that front?
Answer from Grant Russell, Board Representative
A lot, which will become a lot clearer over the coming weeks and months. But to try and summarise, there is such a good story here, and such a strong identity for this club, that really hasn’t been surfaced. There will be a survey around the supporter base in the not-too-distant future. But I think if I spend some time with you afterwards, and ask you “if someone landed from the moon tomorrow, what is Partick Thistle” and explain it to them, there might be a lot of different answers in the room.
If we can establish what that it is, and then get on the front foot by getting out and telling those stories, what that ultimately does is brings more people towards us, who want to be a part of it for whatever reason that may be. It may be the product on the park, it may be the matchday experience, it may be something to do with our value system as a club. There are many, many reasons we’ve all come to support this football club.
And then there’s also the ongoing engagement with existing supporters like yourself, ensuring that you keep coming back. And so we’re doing that, putting out content and storytelling and actually having good marketing in place as well to continually push that and increase the revenues. So there are so many different opportunities around the club. Of course, you don’t need me to outline what they are. They’re very basic, such as bums on seats or sponsors on shirts. But that identity piece and then getting out on the front foot and articulating what Partick Thistle is, is what will help us grow and set us apart from most other clubs on our doorstep.
If you’ve got any budget, can you stick a few more lights in those floodlights? Because it’s getting dingier by the passing week out there.
Answer from Allan McGraw, Board Fan Representative
In terms of the floodlights, we recognise that the floodlights are getting duller and duller. And the lamps are obsolete. It is very, very difficult to get replacement lamps. So we had a meeting last week with the SFA, looking at a project to replace our floodlights. And the SFA were very open to supporting us in that. And I mean financially supporting us. We’ve got a process to go through to apply for a grant. We still have to find somewhere in the region of £100,000. If we find that, then we’ll get new floodlights and we’ll get some other improvements in the infrastructure.
We’ve got a meeting, an in-house meeting on Tuesday, to start the ball rolling on that application. And the SFA we’re pretty open that it should be a successful application, based on what the criteria is for the grant money.
Is there a specific strategy around lowering the average age? Has that been achieved, and is there any intention to change that strategy in any way moving forward?
Answer from Ian Baraclough, Sporting Director
Coming in in April, I looked at the squad and looked at the average age, and it was just over 27. So the work that’s been done in the summer, and the additions to the squad, and one or two that have departed, we’re well on track with where we want to be. We’re currently around just over 23, between 23 and 24, which is the age when I sat down with Richard and one or two board members before taking the job, I said that that would be the perfect average age of a squad that I would want to work with. And hopefully Mark’s showing you that it’s a more dynamic squad.
It’s, I think, a better product. than what we had last season. But it’s just the start of it. We’ve had one window. January is a typically difficult window to work in, so you don’t want to be doing too much work in there. But next summer, we’re building towards that already. So I think to keep the average age around 23, 24 is the optimum age.
People are criticising the media output, saying they’re not very professional. Is there anything to improve the media?
Answer from Grant Russell, Board Representative
On media output and content output, I think the quality of content can be a subjective matter. I know there are opinions, and we see them, and the team see them as well. What my role is to do is to establish a way of working and a framework that the content that is getting put out is laddering up to the bigger objectives of the club. Such as getting more fans in, engaging you, and ultimately growing the revenues. And along the way, yes, there may be different content approaches or other things may stay the same.
It is a subjective matter. I think the comments on it are heard, but what we want to try and do is improve it the way we can, but that improvement looks like the point of what we do on that side of the business is laddering up to the bigger picture. And there is a lot of ambition in the team and a lot of ideas in the team, and what I can bring to the table through my work is that broader world view of what works, and what works to help this club grow.
For Sunday, are we concerned about disabled supporters, where they are allocated and their safety?
Answer from Allan McGraw, Board Fan Representative
In terms of the Disabled Supporters Association and the match on Sunday, obviously the Jackie Husband being awarded to Celtic gave us an issue with the viewing platform. Our own disabled supporters will be housed in the John Lambie at the front of that, and in what was the enclosure area in the Colin Weir Stand. So I think we’ve accommodated all the requests for that.
The other issue we had was parking for Blue Badge holders, and I’m pleased to say that the requests we got for Partick Thistle fans have all been addressed. We’ve got a space for all of them in the car park across the road. We were unable to accommodate Celtic fans until just the other day, when the safety officer gave us permission to house some of the Blue Badge Celtic fan holders in the canal area.
So that will address at least some of their needs. We may not be able to address all of their needs, but we’ll certainly address some of them. And Dougie McInnes is working with both sets of fans on that.
Going forward, as I say, we’ll come with another consultation at some point towards the end of the season, looking at what our strategy would be going forward for matches against the Old Firm. And when we get some feedback on that, we’ll have a secondary strategy for disabled supporters.
Would it have been better also to put the Celtic fans with disabilities in the Jackie Husband Stand car park?
Answer from Allan McGraw, Board Fan Representative
For safety reasons, the safety officer has decided that no cars will be parked in the Jackie Husband car park, with the exception of police vehicles, the Premier Sports compound, and the Celtic coaches
Who is Lee Turnbull? I didn’t hear an appointment on that. And what scouts have we got, and where are they looking?
Answer from Ian Baraclough, Sporting Director
So Lee is somebody that I’ve known for a number of years. He’s worked at Premier League level in England, Championship, League One, League Two. He’s a former player, former manager, so a lot of experience. And he was made Head of Recruitment not long after I joined, actually.
He’s somebody that I admire, and have worked closely with at times. So when we were at Scunthorpe, he was heavily involved in bringing the likes of Billy Sharp, Andy Keogh, Gary Hooper, and Martin Paterson, which brought in almost two and a half million pounds for Scunthorpe United. So somebody with a track record, and somebody, I think we’re fortunate to have at the moment. I’m just waiting for a call to say that he’s off somewhere else because he would be that sought after. But fortunately, he works for us at the moment, and he’s doing a decent job.
We work very, very closely together, and him just on his own will be out at around 20 games a month. Just stacking up the games, whether it’s Under 18s, Under 21s… the games that we’re targeting are generally the leagues in the north of England, National League, National League North, the Northern Irish League, the League of Ireland.
And obviously, we’ve got scouts up in Scotland. One based in Aberdeen, one based in Edinburgh, one based in Glasgow. So a lot of knowledge there. We’ve got a guy based in Cambridge, so he covers the south of England and the Midlands. Lee covers the north of England and the Midlands as well. Between us, I think we cover the majority of the UK. I’m obviously still in touch with, and still go back regularly, to Ireland as well. For very little money, I think we cover quite a few areas and hopefully that gets seen in the long run.
I was just wondering when the documentary is being released and how much we’ve made from it.
Answer from Richard Beastall, Chairman
I believe that there ongoing negotiations. I spoke to Donald McClymont about this in the week. So there are ongoing negotiations with the BBC. The documentary makers want to secure a lead documentary provider in the UK, and then they will then look to sell it out to America to get to new markets. So that’s what I was told when I asked them that very question this week. So when it will be out, I don’t know, is the short answer.
It’s worth saying just on that, that Donald funded that personally, so it came at no cost to the club, so we didn’t spend any money on that. It was funded entirely personally by Donald with the view of building the brand of Partick Thistle internationally.
I’d to ask the new finance director Jacqui, what would you hope to achieve? What’s your ambition? What is your goal? And if you find anything that you’re happy or not happy with, how would you communicate with fans?
Answer from Jacqui McInnes, Finance Director
I am probably anticipating that there will be a lot of criticism. But what I can guarantee is that I will always do my absolute best for the club. I am not a Thistle fan, but what I do know is about finances. My initial plan is to get in, look at the controls, and get stuck in from the bottom up. I will be looking at ways to increase the revenue. I think the team’s already been thinking things like that anyway, from our board meeting tonight.
I’ll be looking at every cost line of expenditure, salaries, getting into that, I’ll be trying to look at KPIs so we can have a measurable impact, so we can look at the revenue and KPIs in terms of our gross profit margins, and all the kind of hospitality things and all that. Literally, I will be getting into every single detail. I am one of these nosy people who just like to put my nose into everything.
And in terms of your question on how I will communicate with fans, I’m kind of anticipating an open-door policy. I don’t know how you feel about that, but any questions that you have to ask, I am happy to answer. I might not always know the answer, but I’m happy to tell you that as well. But what I can guarantee is that I expect to do the very best for this club.
