Ross County chairman Roy MacGregor says the late rescheduling of Friday’s potentially title-clinching game against Queen of the South prompted the Staggies to organise an open day at Victoria Park the following afternoon.
County play their final home game of the season against the Doonhamers, with a point enough to secure the Championship title. The Staggies are six points clear of Dundee United with two matches remaining, and also 18 goals better off.
The match against Queens was brought forward by a day earlier this month for live television coverage on BBC Scotland, with County unhappy about the switch due to the problems it created for supporters based further afield.
Although County could have cause for celebration on Friday night MacGregor says organising a family fun day at the stadium at 3pm – which will also include the club’s player of the year award – will give remotely based supporters the opportunity to celebrate a successful campaign in which they have already won the IRN-BRU Cup.
MacGregor said: “We’ve done so many Fridays – four away and this will be two at home. The BBC have the agreement to take two at home, but we’ve had six in total.
“It wasn’t fair on our supporters for the last game, with people travelling from places like Kyle of Lochalsh, Brora, Skye or Thurso who can’t make it for a 7.05pm kick-off.
“We had people coming from Norway, Stornoway all over who had probably booked to come for the Saturday match.
“This is a chance for youngsters, families and people from the outlying areas to come on a Saturday afternoon.
“Instead of doing all of the presentations of players’ awards and things like that on the Friday night, it will be done on the Saturday.
“If we win the league on the Friday night, we might have to accept the trophy after the game, but we’ll do a re-run on the Saturday.
“We’re hoping to get a lot of supporters along. This is for them, because we’re not in control of the match scheduling for Friday night.
“If they can’t come on the Friday night and want to watch on the television, come on Saturday.”
BBC Scotland paid £350,000 for the rights to show 20 Championship matches, with County believed to receive just a £5,000 share of that figure.
MacGregor says the Staggies will lose revenue as a result of the Queens fixture being switched, adding: “I quite like the Friday night football, so long as it’s not overdone.
“We will lose a lot on hospitality, where we were fully booked for the Saturday – 480 people – but we can live with that for two games a year – but not the last game. That’s hard to take.
“The club will lose money overall. We tried to stop BBC taking the Friday night game – pleaded right to the top – but I couldn’t get them to change it.”
