Right from the start of Scot Gardiner’s tenure as Caley Thistle chief executive, he was convinced the club needed more than just football to survive.
The Inverness club won the Scottish Cup and competed in the Europa League in 2015.
But relegation to the Championship two years later dramatically altered the financial picture.
Failure to return to the top table, combined with the Covid pandemic, left the finances looking extremely bleak.
Around Inverness, fans often discussed rumours of the club falling into administration.
This is the final part of a three-part series looking into the leadership of Gardiner.
It will cover the club’s unsuccessful attempts to secure revenue streams outside of football.
Gardiner’s responses to the criticisms made of him are included throughout the story.
Caley Thistle concerts
Gardiner arrived at the club in 2019 and spoke of the need for the club to pursue outside revenue streams.
One of these was using the club’s ground as a concert venue, with Gardiner leading the charge to put it together.
The Caledonian Stadium had hosted high-profile gigs for Rod Stewart and Elton John in the past, before Gardiner came to the club.
They had been a hit with fans.
Westlife were lined up to appear at the stadium in the summer of 2020 but the show was ultimately cancelled because of Covid.
The Caley Thistle Concert Company bounced back by announcing gigs for Andrea Bocelli and Duran Duran on consecutive nights in July 2022.
Gardiner told one ex-colleague he had struck a deal for “the biggest concert the club had ever seen”.
In a LinkedIn post, Gardiner said Bocelli was “probably the biggest signing I have ever made”.
However, the gigs did not run smoothly.
Concert was ‘an embarrassment to Inverness’
Fans attending the Andrea Bocelli concert complained about parking, the huge queues to get in and some weren’t even able to see the stage from their seats.
One fan called the show “an embarrassment to Inverness”, while another said it was “disorganised chaos”.
And that was only the start of the issues. Around two months later, several firms said they were still owed thousands by the concert company.
A letter sent to creditors raised fears the company was about to go bust after it was advised to work with an “insolvency practitioner”.
It is understood that around £50,000 of the money Gardiner is pursuing Caley Thistle for is from a loan related to the concerts.
The Press and Journal has learned that the directors involved with the concert company have written off the money they had put up as a loan.
Gardiner has been encouraged to follow suit.
One of the directors involved called the event “a complete shambles”.
Gardiner did not accept any responsibility for how the concerts ran.
He said: “There were only two concert company directors and I was not one of them.
“The people engaged by the concert company were indeed a shambles, fraudulent even.
“I waived the monies owed to me by the concert company. I have not, however, waived the monies owed to me by the football club.”
Battery storage plan caused Highland Council dispute
The next major avenue that Caley Thistle pursued during Gardiner’s time as chief executive was the creation of a battery storage scheme.
It was earmarked for a bit of land close to Fairways Business Park in Inverness.
A successful application would have landed the club a £3.4m windfall – but it was opposed by a number of local community councils.
Highland Council’s planning department also advised councillors making the ultimate decision that it should not go ahead.
There were scenes of celebration at the Caledonian Stadium when the proposal was initially approved by a narrow 3-2 margin at the council’s planning committee in February 2024.
But the low number of voters – some councillors were unable to participate because they hadn’t attended an earlier site visit or because they had a conflict of interest – prompted concern.
Nairn councillor Paul Oldham lodged a notice of amendment to have the decision reconsidered by the full council.
That prompted a fiery response from Caley Thistle, who issued a statement criticising the move.
Chairman Ross Morrison said there were councillors who were “hellbent on killing the club by abusing their power”.
Gardiner also accused councillor Oldham of “appallingly biased behaviour”.
Councillor Oldham said: “It wasn’t well handled by the club at all. I felt they were under the misapprehension that they would get preferential treatment simply because they are Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
“That isn’t the way things work. I felt pressure to move it along and I know officers did too.
“My wife and I used to leave our front door unlocked. But after the correspondence I was getting [after the club’s statement], we had to change our routine.”
Gardiner: Battery storage statement was ‘subdued’
The full council ultimately rejected the application. That decision was then appealed by the club in July.
The project could still happen if the Scottish Government decides to overturn the planning committee’s decision.
Gardiner said Caley Thistle’s statements were “considered to be subdued, considering the damage done to the club”.
He added: “I cannot comment on how safe a councillor feels in any circumstance.
“But nothing said by the club, approved by the chairman of Caley Thistle, could possibly engender such behaviour.
“I could, however, say the same to the board and [Alan] Savage following their malicious public campaign against me.
“They would perhaps be better focussed [sic] on stopping the club going into a disastrous administration.”
Freeport and parking deals add to Caley Thistle woes
In the midst of an awful period for the club, it emerged in June 2024 that the land around the Caledonian Stadium was not going to be included in the green freeport zone.
This was only three days after the revelation that the club had lost out on the park-and-ride deal with Statkraft, said to be worth between £1.4m and £1.7m.
Coming on the back of Caley Thistle’s relegation and the huge backlash about the proposal to move training to Kelty, it was a brutal time for fans.
The situation remains perilous and the club is widely expected to enter administration this week.
A crowd-funder to help avoid that outcome was set up earlier this month.
At the time of writing, it remains more than £115,000 short of its £200,000 target.
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