The Big Picture

If you have previously read the other pages in this section you’ll perhaps have had time to think about some of the other things you should be turning your attention to.

What about the ‘Big Picture’ then? After all is this not what you people claim to be your forte, your ability to see it when others cannot.

Do you think it stops at your club or does the ‘Big Picture’ extend to a higher plain?

Lower division chairmen often emphasise total commitment to the success of their club but does this contribute to the ‘Big Picture’ philosophy?

What is the point of resolutely defending your own club’s position if it harms or impedes the progress of Scottish football, or more likely, hastens its demise.

No doubt you think that your efforts do have side benefits for the overall good.

If like Ross County FC you were to invest in your own new facilities, Astroturf pitches, indoor and outdoor, you would expect this to be popular with your local community and you’d expect interest levels in your club to rise if use of these facilities were extended to community members.

Or like East Fife FC who have shown real enterprise in a development deal with a local builder that will deliver a state of the art stadium and a range of facilities.

And maybe like many clubs you’ll offer hospitality deals that will no doubt be very popular.

But when viewing things from the ‘Big Picture’ perspective, the neutral observer might easily ask where the football club is in all of this, for the bottom line here really comes down to; how effective are your methods of community engagement at creating that essential ongoing bond between club and local supporter?

Yes they will come, because they enjoy playing on good facilities. Yes they’ll come, for the promotional price deals on new facilities and yes they’ll come, for hospitality so that they can brag to their business associates the following week.

So do they come for those reasons or have you really created that bond? If the answer is the latter, you’ve cracked it. But if the answer is the former or if you don’t really know, then you need to go and find out. If this is the case, then you are definitely not seeing the ‘Big Picture’.

People go to football matches because the want to go. They want to go because their love of the game. They go to watch your club because of that special bond between individual and club. The value of that special bond is instinctive in all of us from a very early age, so do you understand this value?

You might appreciate the value of this special bond but understanding it, is a different matter entirely.

Should you continue with efforts like the ones previously mentioned? Most certainly, yes! But, do not loose sight of that special bond.

Within Scottish football, that bond isn’t being created on a big enough scale. Not nearly big enough!! It is what ensures that your club and the game has a future You can have as many promotional offers or facilities as you like, it won’t mean squat if you don’t create that special bond.

Notwithstanding any of the aforementioned, the ‘Big Picture’ requires vision. That’s why we call it the ‘Big Picture’. It’s not some myopic view the world from within your own little board room.

You need vision to see your own role in the big responsibilities and the big decisions that goes with it. And, big decisions always involve risk. Not foolhardy risk, but calculated risk.

Would you risk your club’s present league status to support a new setup similar to the one outlined at ‘Corporate Governance – A Framework’?

Would you consider it a responsible act to try and protect a failing system or is it better embrace the change that ushers in a new system?

Do you have the vision to see the potential that a new way forward can offer, in comparison to the consequences of failure to change?

In fairness you might be looking at some version of a ‘Big Picture’. Is it the right one or have you simply gone to the wrong cinema?

Or maybe you should have gone to Spec Savers.

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