Ross County relegated: How will it affect life in Dingwall?

BBC News

2 days ago

Highland club Ross County's battle for survival in the Scottish Premiership fizzled out with a 4-2 defeat to Livingston on Monday night.Relegation has left the Staggies - and its home town of Dingwall - facing a potentially challenging season in the Championship, both on and off the pitch.Hotels and pubs have enjoyed a boost to takings from hosting large crowds of visiting fans from teams like Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen. Will a move into the lower leagues have an impact beyond football?
Raffael Santos owns The Mallard - a pub on Dingwall Station's platform and a few minutes walk from the stadium. It is regularly packed out on home match days, with about 35-40% of business coming from visiting fans. But like many Ross County fans, he is hopeful their spell in the Championship is short-lived. "A lot of the town's businesses survive from big games like Rangers, Celtic and Aberdeen," Mr Santos said. "We'll need to work hard to make the business keep going, but hopefully next year they are back into the Scottish premier league."
Big games were also profitable for The Legion Club.Its chairman Mike Murray said: "We got coaches of supporters booked in - like Hearts, Aberdeen and Hibs. They'd tend to phone two-three weeks before a game. "We could have 150 to 200 supporters through in the function room, and a good Saturday was a boost to the club."
Leia Stephen, co-owner of the National Hotel, is experiencing the effects of relegation for the first time. County was last relegated in 2018.Ms Stephen said home games have been helpful to the business during quieter winter tourist seasons."Football fans usually just stay one night but sometimes make a weekend out of it," she added."Our bar and restaurant host away and home supporters."
The Championship is a highly competitive league, but experts say it will not match the financial benefits of playing in the big league brought to a small club.Kieran Maguire, a University of Liverpool football finance lecturer, said County will miss the revenue near-capacity attendances that visits by bigger clubs brought.He said the Staggies could lose at least £500,000 because of lower gate receipts, having fewer televised games and less prize money.And with an already tight wage bill, he warned there is "not a lot of fat to cut" to help make savings.
But councillor Graham MacKenzie said one of County's strengths was that it was deeply rooted in the community.When he worked as a teacher he was impressed by how many young people chose the Staggies over a bigger club."It's come as a bit of a blow to everyone," Mr MacKenzie said of relegation."It's not so many months ago we had high high hopes we could finish in the top six."But he believes both town - home to about 5,500 people - and club have the resilience to cope with the coming season.
Bruce Ritchie, one of many Staggies fans in Dingwall pondering the future outside the Premiership, said football was important to the town. "I'm really proud of the fact that we've been in the top division for so many years. "It's going to be a big miss."Other Staggies fans might be hurting, but they are far from sore losers.
"I just felt Ross County weren't good enough, I'm afraid," conceded fan Panja Bethune."It's a shame that they've been relegated. "Livingston were the better team on the day."George Meiklejohn agreed his club were beaten by a good, strong team.He added: "But they've bounced back once before and I'm sure they will again."
Another fan, County Kebab takeaway manager Alex Toward, says regardless of where the club is in the leagues it should be proud."This area is not big and not very well-known - yes, everyone knows of Scotland and the Highlands - but not many think of Dingwall specifically," he says."I think the fact they (Ross County) are trying so hard to make a name for themselves and have come so far, they should be impressed and proud of their achievements."