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NAE NOOKIE
06-05-2013, 10:10 AM
When ICT were formed in 1994 there was a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth in Inverness from folk ( especially Thistle fans ) who didnt fancy the idea.

I seem to remember at the time a Caledonian insider joking that the colours of both clubs would be respected, in as much as the bogs in the new stadium would be painted Red.

Watching ICT v Motherwell on the telly last night it would appear that it wasnt a joke after all ..... Theres about enough Red in the ICT strip to cover one sock and as far as I can make out the seats in the stadium are Blue.

ICT were playing a vital game with a possible European place at stake, but the home support in a ground with a capacity of less than 8,000 was miserable. I cant help thinking that the Thistle component of the merged clubs support have drifted away as a result of the club, in all but name, looking more and more like Inverness Caledonian. In fact I wouldnt be surprised if at some point in the future the Thistle part of the clubs name is quietly dropped.

Cant help thinking that a change of name to Inverness Utd or City and inviting Clachnacudden to join in with new club colours with no Blue or Red involved would be of great benefit to this club.

I always thought Inverness was a hotbed of football passion ... given the crowds the 3 clubs could attract for Scottish Cup ties in the past. I had visions of crowds of up to 8,000 at home games in a decent stadium. Instead of which they get about 4,000 in a rubbish ground.

At the time ICT were formed I thought .... cool, this is just what Scotland needs .... a new club with the potential to be as big, if not bigger, than the likes of Dundee Utd. On the pitch they have done pretty will it has to be said, off it they seem to have got it badly wrong.

I know I have probably posted all this before, but I just have a real bee in my bonnet on this subject.

nairn hibee
06-05-2013, 10:42 AM
I think the problem is that the population of Inverness ,has more than doubled in the last 20 yrs or so, most of the people have no links to the area and could'nt care less about the football,and people from the area over the age of 30 had allready had a team, mostly the old firm ,but as they say ,its easier to change your wife than your football team ,remember that before they were admitted into the league you had your local highland league team and a scottish league team that you followed ,living in nairn 16 miles from inverness i find that anyone who remembers them from highland league days did'nt like them and would'nt watch them now,whereas they have no ill feeling towards ross county ,around nairn i see a few kids with ict tops and think it will probably take a generation before it changes ,although i could be talking crap

frazeHFC
06-05-2013, 11:55 AM
It really is sad up here, the potential for Inverness to get good crowds is huge with all the surrounding areas and them being the main team around here. I went to college in Inverness and in my class i was a Hibee obviously, there was 1 Inverness fan, 1 County fan and the other 11/12 that liked football were all Old Firm, mainly Celtic. Only 1 of which went to game, i knew more about the club than most of them.

Rarely see Caley tops when in Inverness, it's a shame tbh.


And talking of Nairn, my second cousin and most of his mates are Celtic fans....some of them just cos their pals are. :rolleyes:

Sergio sledge
06-05-2013, 01:17 PM
There's a certain generation of Caley fans and Thistle fans who don't go to see Caley Thistle because of what happened. I deal with a few of the old Caley stalwarts through work and there is an attitude there from some of them that they were betrayed by the board of their club in accepting the merger. If anything, I would say there are more ex-thistle than ex-caley people at the games, but in the main the crowd is made up of a lot of the younger generation who didn't grow up a Caley or Thistle fan and who aren't scarred by the events of the merger. There is a feeling up here that ICT are more Caley than Thistle, (Strips, stadium name, etc.) however as the years pass and ICT get more successful this is fading.

There is certainly big potential up here to grow the club, but there are a few big issues:
Support for Celtic/Rangers/Aberdeen - There are a lot of people up here who support one of these clubs, going back to a previous time when Highland clubs couldn't get into the Scottish League and these clubs were successful on a European scale. These people aren't going to change who they support, so ICT have focussed on trying to win over the younger generation with free tickets at schools etc. This is a long term thing, but the demographics of the crowd at most home games is certainly pretty young, so they'll be hoping it pays off. Success such as this season can only help them.
Population of the city - As Nairn Hibee mentioned, there are a lot of "incomers" in Inverness who have no affiliation with the football club and this is where the focus on the schools will potentially pay off too, but again it is long term. I'm one of them, but there is no way either of my children is going to end up supporting Caley....
Ross County - Having local rivals in general helps clubs to generate interest and having county ion the SPL is a good thing for both clubs, but again as a hangover from the merger, there were quite a few fans of both clubs who defected to Ross County when the clubs merged rather than support the new club. Ross County also tend to pick up the support from the north and west of Scotland. There is the perception that Ross County are a real club whereas ICT are a manufactured club which leads to people deciding to support Ross County over ICT.

As an aside, I played amatuer league football for a couple of seasons up here and we played against the "Caley Supporters Club" football team, who still played with the old Inverness Caledonian badges on their tops, the team included Caley legend Billy Urquhart who was well into his 50's at the time and still a cut above the rest of us, despite his increased weight.... Despite playing for ICT when they formed, he's apparently no fan of ICT and still counts himself as a Inverness Caledonian Fan.

A good article on the feelings up here when the merger happened is here: http://www.caledonianfc.co.uk/tears.html

Rory
06-05-2013, 02:28 PM
I live in inverness and was drafted in for a game for caley thistle supporters alongside local hero billy urquhart and the clach keeper of great repute Derek rudkin. Still forces to be reckoned with and show the younger amateur players how its done.

There's not many ex thistle fans following ict !I'm hoping hibs can reverse form and start beating ict & county regularly !

pontius pilate
06-05-2013, 03:24 PM
I remember being up in fort George around the time the merger was happening and you could feel an un easy ness around the town. Of course Mr G's was always a good night out. Or the ship inn I'm sure that was in Nairn