ICM Capital

[aaronmcguigan]

Our Foreign exchange partner will be announced as our sleeve sponsor.

[Mitch]

Tom Cairney's insta feed let that cat out of the bag already.

[Holders]

This is really important, evidently without a "foreign exchange partner", the team's shirts wouldn't have sleeves. Or do they get better rates on their holiday money? Will fans be able to benefit from this?

What a load of tosh (sorry, Mr Chamberlain). What next - official popcorn, official bog paper? 

Take the money by all means but what sheer claptrap.

[Huxley]

Let's hope that now we are back in the big league, the club gets a bog roll sponsor to  not only ensure adequate supply on game day but the good 2ply stuff (4ply for the corporate boxes). Maybe some air freshener too...

[Riverside]

What we could do with is an official beer sponsor who would take over the running of the beer concessions and get the beer flowing

We would buy twice as much if was made easy !

[KingofCheese]

What we could do with is an official beer sponsor who would take over the running of the beer concessions and get the beer flowing

We would buy twice as much if was made easy !

It's about time we had a Real Ale concession like the ones at Wembley. Can't stand that corn syrup, make in four days slop from Carlsburg etc.

[KJS]

What we could do with is an official beer sponsor who would take over the running of the beer concessions and get the beer flowing

We would buy twice as much if was made easy !

It's about time we had a Real Ale concession like the ones at Wembley. Can't stand that corn syrup, make in four days slop from Carlsburg etc.

There was real ale available in the Hammy end last season

[Mitch]

What we could do with is an official beer sponsor who would take over the running of the beer concessions and get the beer flowing

We would buy twice as much if was made easy !

It's about time we had a Real Ale concession like the ones at Wembley. Can't stand that corn syrup, make in four days slop from Carlsburg etc.

Come around to the Hammersmith/Riverside corner. There's a tent there.

This is really important, evidently without a "foreign exchange partner", the team's shirts wouldn't have sleeves. Or do they get better rates on their holiday money? Will fans be able to benefit from this?

What a load of tosh (sorry, Mr Chamberlain). What next - official popcorn, official bog paper? 

Take the money by all means but what sheer claptrap.

Not sure it is any different from the official 'games partner' on the back of our shirt last season. FWIW, I don't like either, but it's seemingly becoming a necessary evil.

[SuffolkWhite]

There's always Guinness  :beer:

[Burt]

Always thought London Pride would be the most appropriate :)

[Holders]

What we could do with is an official beer sponsor who would take over the running of the beer concessions and get the beer flowing

We would buy twice as much if was made easy !

It's about time we had a Real Ale concession like the ones at Wembley. Can't stand that corn syrup, make in four days slop from Carlsburg etc.

Quite right.

I'm old enough to remember when the big corporate breweries first started pushing lager in the UK. They spent a lot on advertising it as some premium product when, it fact, it cost far less to produce than real ale and yet they could sell it for more. They wanted to displace real ale purely for profit motive and many youngsters of the time fell for it; I believe that's still the case today. 

I went on a brewery tour in Faversham (can't remember which one) and they had 6 or 8 huge mash tuns but the tour guide said that in the Carlsberg refinery in Denmark they had 20, each one as big as all of his put together. And you should see the Magners refinery in Clonmel, but that's another story!

Strange, isn't it, that Stella Artois was (maybe still is) perceived as a "superior" lager yet the Belgians, who know more than a thing or two about beer, despise it as "chemical soup". That's not to say that there aren't good lager type beers but they tend to come from smaller craft breweries, much like most real ale these days. Thus, you can get generally only get them on their home turf - where they belong, quite frankly, as local real ales do in England.

I think that the argument that would be put forward against real ale at football grounds would be that it has a shorter shelf life than the chemical soup and, with maybe a fortnight between matches, might not be economic.

[MJG]

Or maybe Real Ale is not as popular as some would make out?

Personally can't drink the stuff but then it's everyone to their own taste really.

[Holders]

I think it's largely a generational thing. Real ale has become much more popular lately as it's shed the "old man" image that was placed on it during the lager promotion of the 70s and 80s and as the lager generation passes through. I think, to some extent, it's the same (for want of a better word) snobbishness factor for an elite, superior product that the big lager firms assaulted the kids with in the past.

Personally, I can't drink fizzy lager but I do acknowledge that there are some good local ones (that actually taste good!) on the continent. That said, you can get darker beers from many German breweries.

I think lager is down to one of the king Ludwigs of Bavaria but I can't remember the full story.

[Twig]

Or maybe Real Ale is not as popular as some would make out?

Personally can't drink the stuff but then it's everyone to their own taste really.

You are kidding me right Mike? Have you noticed the explosion in real ale, micro breweries, brew pubs and even home brewing? The market doesn't lie.

[MJG]

Or maybe Real Ale is not as popular as some would make out?

Personally can't drink the stuff but then it's everyone to their own taste really.

You are kidding me right Mike? Have you noticed the explosion in real ale, micro breweries, brew pubs and even home brewing? The market doesn't lie.

Sales figures show larger out sells real ale. I'm not disputing that there has been an increase in sales and micro breweries etc. But its still not as popular. And certainly within the circle I mix there is hardly a real ale drinker at all.

[Holders]

I expect, MJG, you and your friends started drinking in the 70s or 80s when the big lager push was on. I do think it's a generational/cultural thing, possibly metropolitan/rural as well but, as Twig says, there has been a huge turnaround in ale sales since the dark days. The mega-breweries which tried to extirpate it or convert it to keg stuff were thwarted just in time and it's now "craft" ale that's perceived as the elite or prestige product, implying a discerning cultured palate.

[MJG]

I expect, MJG, you and your friends started drinking in the 70s or 80s when the big lager push was on. I do think it's a generational/cultural thing, possibly metropolitan/rural as well but, as Twig says, there has been a huge turnaround in ale sales since the dark days. The mega-breweries which tried to extirpate it or convert it to keg stuff were thwarted just in time and it's now "craft" ale that's perceived as the elite or prestige product, implying a discerning cultured palate.

Late 80's I started drinking.
So are you saying the younger you are the more likely you would drink real ale or the older?
Last sales figures I can find show 2-1 in favour of lager.

[Holders]

I expect, MJG, you and your friends started drinking in the 70s or 80s when the big lager push was on. I do think it's a generational/cultural thing, possibly metropolitan/rural as well but, as Twig says, there has been a huge turnaround in ale sales since the dark days. The mega-breweries which tried to extirpate it or convert it to keg stuff were thwarted just in time and it's now "craft" ale that's perceived as the elite or prestige product, implying a discerning cultured palate.

Latwe 80's I started drinking.
So are you saying the younger you are the more likely you would drink real ale or the older?
Last sales figures I can find show 2-1 in favour of lager.

Older and younger, not so much those now in their 40s and 50s.

The older generation just had ale available to them. I started drinking as a kid in the early 70s when there was a huge advertising push on lager for the financial reasons I described. Possible because of the circle I was in, I resisted that, though I did try it and didn't much care for it. I don't think you'll find many lager drinkers over 60-odd but the next tranche will mainly be lager drinkers because of the "push". That had a knock-on effect passed to the next generation.

So, your 2:1 probably reflects the amount still drunk by the middle group. I think there is a faction of the younger generation of drinkers who perceive a status factor in the new ales in the same way as the lager generation perceived a kudos in new, exotic "continental" lager that didn't have the "old man" connection.

I also think it's cultural as well.

Someone's probably done a PhD on this but those are my views, from my experience.

[LVBPTS]

has anyone got a picture of the sleeve sponsor from TC? i cant find it anywhere

[Mitch]

has anyone got a picture of the sleeve sponsor from TC? i cant find it anywhere

I tweeted it the other day. @tweets_by_mitch - it'll be in my most recent images.

Or check his IG story.