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Creating Or Joining A Ta Club


Mazziessc

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Iv'e been considering creating local TA club for some time or at the very least joining one....

Been going to games for many years and through the set up of the SSC Iv'e not missed a home game in a decade or so but due to lack funds and laziness on my part Iv'e only been to one away game. Pish I know!....... but with circumstances having changed Iv'e decided to step that up a good bit.

I was wandering if anyone here would know how to go about creating one from scratch, I understand there's a lot of work both planning and running a group regardless of its size.

I would be interested in joining one if there was one available locally however I cant find any and I am not completely sure I am looking in the right places. I stay in Alexandria between Dumbarton and Balloch.

Any ideas or advice in any of these would be appreciated.

cheers.

Edited by Mazziessc
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Firstly you need to find a decent pub to accommodate meetings which blows your plan right out the window considering you are 8 LOL. Which area are you in Mazzie ?

haha seen and edited that error, im now 28 again. I am west Dunbartonshire between Dumbarton and Balloch. Plenty of boozers.

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WESTA (West of Scotland Tartan Army) has a member from Alexandria.

We meet on the last Sunday of every month (not July) in the Iron Horse, West Nile Street, Glasgow at 19:30.

Can recommend this cub, I have travelled to dortmund, dublin, fulham, emirates, cardiff ( twice) with them AT COST PRICE.

Non-profit run travel and a great bunch of guys and girls.

Come along to a meeting MazzieSSC, new members always made to feel welcome.

Edited by Robroysboy
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Can recommend this cub, I have travelled to dortmund, dublin, fulham, emirates, cardiff ( twice) with them AT COST PRICE.

Non-profit run travel and a great bunch of guys and girls.

Come along to a meeting MazzieSSC, new members always made to feel welcome.

gr8 cheers, planning to be at the next available one! :ok:

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gr8 cheers, planning to be at the next available one! :ok:

Last sunday in August, look forward to meeting you.

WESTA are meeting up in the ironhorse for the WC draw but i will be in albuferia for a recon mission for my return in october.

I am sure you would be made welcome at that also.

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just out of curiousity how many of the regular away travellers would be members of clubs ? 50% more ?

There is a bit of a schism developing among Ireland fans between independants and supporters clubs ( I know first item on the agenda is 'the split') especially after the allocaton of Scotland tickets where independent away regulars got shafted

I am not a member of any supporters club and to be honest I don't particularly want to be ( Groucho Marx and all that) and the impression that we are being forced to join a SC to get away tickets is enough to want me to resist even more

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It's next to impossible to say and I wouldn't want to put a number on it.

Big difference for us though is that tickets are allocated directly from the SFA via the SSC on a one member one ticket basis for home and away matches. For home matches there is sometimes a possibility to get extra tickets subject to availability but that tends to be linked to buying a home season ticket. Clubs do have the opportunity to get a block allocation of tickets together but that needs o be backed up by a list of SSC members.

For away games we have a loyalty based points allocation based on attendance at the last ten games which in general works pretty well, it's pretty much the regular travellers who get the tickets.

There are some concerns about people's ability to get on the points ladder - which are pretty groundless - and points harvesting, which is people buying a ticket with no intention of going to the game to keep up their points tally. This is a bit more of an issue although there are arguments about the scale of the problem and the SFA do take steps to stop this although arguably they could do more.

Clubs are more about organising group travel and social events.

There is a federation of clubs called ATAC, the Association of Tartan Army Clubs which provides a liaison and means of communication with the SFA. As someone who was formerly involved in this for many years the success of that depends upon who is in charge at the SFA, when the late David Taylor was there it was excellent.

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just out of curiousity how many of the regular away travellers would be members of clubs ? 50% more ?

There is a bit of a schism developing among Ireland fans between independants and supporters clubs ( I know first item on the agenda is 'the split') especially after the allocaton of Scotland tickets where independent away regulars got shafted

I am not a member of any supporters club and to be honest I don't particularly want to be ( Groucho Marx and all that) and the impression that we are being forced to join a SC to get away tickets is enough to want me to resist even more

There is only one Scotland Supporters Club that gets you access to tickets. As an unsubstantiated guess I’d say about 80% of folk that regularly go to away games are members. That guess would drop when Wembley, Paris or Dublin come along.

Other clubs main raison d’être is to organise travel to home and away games – as opposed to tickets.

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I am familiar with your away scheme as it was the basis of my own proposal which is currently with the FAI filled under' not a fecking chance this is to be implemented otherwise how can I dish out tickets to any Tom Dick or Harry like some sort of Don Corelone figure dispensing goodies'

The thing is there is a tradition of TA clubs whereas there hasn't been historically with Irish fans with the exception of a few of the bigger/older clubs we have tended just to do their own thing, especially given the travel options these days.

Of the more far flung destinations eg Georgia the majority would likely be independents, though only anecdotal evidence for this

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The thing is there is a tradition of TA clubs whereas there hasn't been historically with Irish fans with the exception of a few of the bigger/older clubs we have tended just to do their own thing, especially given the travel options these days.

Of the more far flung destinations eg Georgia the majority would likely be independents, though only anecdotal evidence for this

Back in the days of the Home Internationals, there were lots of "Wembley Clubs" which would primarily be from a pub or local town and would be focussed on the biannual trip to Wembley.

There have been a few chartered flights over the years but that's quite rare due to cost outlay, logistics and the availability of scheduled travel. There was also a specialist travel agency - Passport Travel - until a few years ago which was pretty popular.

The TA clubs now have been going for 20 years or so. This is only my own anecdotal view but I would say that more of the regular away fans would be members of a TA club than not but there are plenty of independent travellers. It's really difficult to say as there's no real distinction. Most people would travel to an away game in a smaller group anyway and typically this might include people who are members of different clubs and people who are members of none.

Edited by aaid
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Define a club? A group of pals who give themselves a collective name, based on their locality or another theme? Having a flag or t-shirts printed?

I’d go with a club has members who pay a fee/subscription to join.

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just out of curiousity how many of the regular away travellers would be members of clubs ? 50% more ?

There is a bit of a schism developing among Ireland fans between independants and supporters clubs ( I know first item on the agenda is 'the split') especially after the allocaton of Scotland tickets where independent away regulars got shafted

I am not a member of any supporters club and to be honest I don't particularly want to be ( Groucho Marx and all that) and the impression that we are being forced to join a SC to get away tickets is enough to want me to resist even more

A very small %

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I'm part of a group of anything from 4-10 all ssc members, we tend to sit at home games together, however due to work/finances many don't travel away.

I started this thread as a means for finding others who have a club who's members regularly travel away.

I was actually unaware that so many ssc actually travel alone or in small groups with no association to any ta club.

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In a TA club.

For big away games there's 25-30 of us and none of us in a registered TA club.

Majority in SSC though.

Is that not a bit of s contradiction ? You are saying only a small percentage wouldn't be in a reg TA yet none of your 30 mates are ?

I can imagine a large % are in SSC as its the formal way to get away tickets

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Is that not a bit of s contradiction ? You are saying only a small percentage wouldn't be in a reg TA yet none of your 30 mates are ?

I can imagine a large % are in SSC as its the formal way to get away tickets

I think he's saying that a small percentage of his group are *not* members of a supporters club. That's fair, based on his own personal experience. My experience is different in that the vast majority of people I travel with *are* members of clubs, even though I'm no longer one myself.

It's really a moot point though as, unlike the ROI it seems, there's no particular advantage or disadvantage to being a member of a supporters club, certainly where ticket allocation is concerned as that's all done through the SSC.

Vast majority 80-90% of regular travellers are in the SSC.

Edited by aaid
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Really depends what you are after..... Meeting up with mates to go to the games, then just find a pub in your local area, put word about that let it grow.

This is how we started in West Kilbride... When I started going it was anything from 15-30 folk going to games.... Just a case of keeping the interest there (which is not easy).... Some folks will lose heart with the national team.... Folk go off to university/work.... Guys get girlfriends/married/kids etc..... And suddenly you are back to square one again.

If you are looking to meet new people, and maybe get involved in the politics of following the national team (or having a voice heard) then look to join one of the established clubs (can get boring at times, but you meet many new folk from a further catchment area than just your local boozer).

Edited by wanderer
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