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Keeping a semi-professional non-league club going costs money: not the sums required to fund a league club, but still quite substantial sums for an individual to find. Non-league clubs face a particular challenge if they live in the shadow of a league club rather than serving a town that has no league club of its own. This is the dilemma that has faced Clachnacuddin since the merger of the other two clubs in Inverness to form Inverness Caledonian Thistle who have risen to the Scottish Premier League while 'Clach' have continued in the Highland League. When Caley Thistle were at home to Dundee United earlier this month, Clach got barely 100 people for their game with Fraserburgh. As outgoing chairman David Dowling put it, 'We've been victims of Caley Thistle's success ... due to SPL football on our doorstep, Highland League is not an attraction.'
Dowling has announced that he is standing down as chairman because of the club's financial crisis. They owe over £49,000 in unpaid rent to Highland Council, relating to the lease of its home ground, appropriately named Grant Street Park in my ancestral city. Mr Dowling said, 'My family and my company have invested over one hundred thousand pounds over the years to help Clach, but my pockets are not deep enough. In addition, I am the bank's guarantor on the football overdraft as well as the social club - and without these personal guarantees Clach might have gone to the wall quite a while ago. After our recent meeting with Highland Council, who have been fair to us, it became clear that the club's plight is such that it needs new people, with major capital to invest, to come to the rescue if the club is to be saved. Paying all the football costs for next season plus the council rent of fourteen thousand pounds is just not viable, excluding the back rent due.'
Dowling has ruled out going amateur as an option. It would not save that much money and the last time this was done the club shipped 154 goals in a season. Corporate hospitality sponsors cannot be attracted to low quality matches. The fundamental problem is the fan base which is not enough to pay the rent on the ground. Before Caley and Thistle merged and Ross County and Elgin City joined the league, four figure crowds came to Grant Street. Although Inverness is booming as a city, there is no easy survival route for Clach.
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