Caley Thistle will compete in the ‘brutal’ Championship for a sixth successive year – with near promotion to the Premiership seeing the club miss out on up to £3 million of income.
ICT chief executive Scot Gardiner admits it was a blow to fall at the very final hurdle, with last month’s 6-2 play-off final aggregate loss against St Johnstone a bitter pill to swallow.
The teams were level at half-time in the second leg as Inverness sought to become the first club to soar from third spot in the Championship all the way to the top-flight. A four-goal power show from Saints took the tie away from the Highlanders.
Massive windfall passed ICT by
Staying where they are means far lower attendances, especially from visiting supporters, and considering the potential rewards of playing in the top division adds to the pain.
Gardiner said: “In the Championship, it’s a constant fight and battle.
“That’s why we’re hosting concerts and doing deals with (main club sponsors) Intelligent Land Investments (ILI). You can’t put a price on what it costs to remain in the Championship, but it is brutal.
“It is one of the most competitive leagues in Europe. I had not experienced a season like the one just finished where every club could beat another. Some teams were better at grinding out results than others.
“In terms of the cost, between £2-3m is the cost of not getting into the Premiership. But we never had that, so we’re not losing it.
“The difference is you’d have added £2-3m to the turnover and you’d have added £700,000-£750,000 coming in from away supporters alone as opposed to £50,000.”
ICT, who cut down their losses to £235,282 from £263,000 in this past financial year, are on the hunt for added boardroom experience as they bid to kick further forward.
Lower half teams caused ICT trouble
Last term, Inverness got the better of champions Kilmarnock, runners-up Arbroath and finished on a par in the head-to-heads with fourth-placed Partick Thistle.
Defeats against relegated Queen of the South and Dunfermline, as well as against Hamilton and Morton and Ayr, all bottom half finishers, were costly as they ended eight points away from Killie.
Gardiner acknowledges the need for improvement if they are to go on and win the title and automatic promotion.
He said: “If you look at our results against Kilmarnock, Arbroath, Partick Thistle and Raith Rovers, we’d have been top of that division.
“We’d have won that league if it was just those opponents, because we beat them more than they beat us.
“We beat Kilmarnock three times and Arbroath scored one goal against us in six games and even that was a fluke from the halfway line. We matched Thistle and beat them in the play-offs, while (fifth-placed) Raith just couldn’t beat us.
“It is clear we have to do better against the teams lower down the division.”
Early exit in cups would hurt ICT
Caley Thistle’s competitive season starts on July 9 with a trip to League 2 champions Kelty Hearts in the Premier Sports Cup.
Premiership Livingston, Paul Hartley’s newly-promoted Championship side Cove Rangers, and League 2’s Albion Rovers make up their Group G opponents as they seek to make the knockouts of the League Cup for the first time since 2015.
Gardiner insists head coach Billy Dodds and his team are determined to make that happen, which will bolster their finances.
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He added: “When you lose in the Premier Sports Cup or go out of the first stage of the Scottish Cup, these are big blows to clubs such as ourselves.
“We don’t budget for getting to the quarter-finals or semi-finals, but if you lose in the first round it’s a blow. It’s football – it can happen.
“Billy knows the impact losing early on in cups has. If we lose there, the impact is we cannot do that financially. Had we won that game, I could have done this. Every action has a reaction and both cup defeats were so last season. From our point of view, they were also unnecessary.
“To be fair to Billy, last season in the Premier Sports Cup, he was just in the door as our manager, but it will be different next season.”
Gardiner last week underlined his belief that Dodds remains the man they believe can deliver promotion back to the Premiership.
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