On a night when my mind is focussed on the prejudice many show towards Celtic fans, Kilmarnock have offered a sterling, and diabolical, example of it.
The Rugby Park club, who last year went grovelling to the bank, Sevco style, to clear their debts, have announced that they want to give visiting supporters the best possible deal by enacting the “Twenty’s Plenty” plan which has gone down well in England.
The basics of that plan are simple; football fans should be charged no more than £20 to watch their teams.
That’s laudable.
That’s a superb idea, and every club should be thinking about implementing it at once.
But they’ve made it clear that this applies to all clubs except one.
Yes, Celtic are that one.
Kilmarnock, you know, aren’t totally to blame here; their mistake is to broadcast the policy with a megaphone.
But other clubs do this to us too, and have been doing it for years.
Charging our fans different rates, as if Celtic fans have more disposable income than their counterparts at Hearts or St Johnstone or elsewhere.
Our fans get shafted.
And so too did the supporters of Rangers before they were liquidated.
What galls me is how much the supporters of these other clubs sneer at “Glasgow fans”, when we are the ones who put new roofs on their stands, and help them sign new players.
Remove our full houses from the equation and you’ll see changes happen there right quick.
If boycotts aren’t the answer then our club should calculate how many tickets to take for our fans based on how much we’re being overcharged.
If they’re charging Motherwell fans £10 and a couple of hundred of them show up for games and our supporters are being charged double that, then perhaps we should only take a hundred tickets for the game.
Let the stands sit empty if they want to play these wee games with us.
Cause here’s what they’ve overlooked, or perhaps just don’t care about; a stand full of Celtic fans paying £10 will still get them a ton more money than a three quarters empty one full of Inverness or Dundee fans.
These people are taking us for a ride and they’ve been doing it for years.
We should thank Kilmarnock for putting this debate out there, for letting us have it in a public fashion at last, instead of this being one of the Scottish game’s grubby wee secrets; Celtic fans are playing a role in building the infrastructure of other clubs, because those clubs are blatantly ripping the piss out of us every second week.
They won’t stop doing it until our fans stop letting them get away with it.
A Facebook campaign to boycott Rugby Park has just been launched.
But the issue goes beyond Kilmarnock. It’s something that ought to be on the agenda at our club’s next AGM.
We need to consider SFA/SPL rules to prevent fans getting hosed.
This kind of crap has gone on far too long.
something needs to be done it’s about time we as a club and faithfull fans stood up to this blatant disrespect where do these clubs get off charging us double for tickets we are
working class people who follow our team all over but we haven’t got mega bucks to through at these clubs for them to benefit it is one rule for them and another for Celtic as a club we should hurt them in the pocket they wouldn’t be long back tracking HH
If Kilmarnock are doing this to us (celtic) , why can’t we not do the same to them?
Darren, clubs like Kilmarnock don’t have the 7,000 travelling support Celtic have.
Darren,
Wouldn’t make a scrap of difference. Killie bring about 50 fans to Parkhead for a regular league fixture, charging them more will probably decrease that number to about 4 die-hards!
Ask Yourself this. What is the cost to killie fans for the corresponding match at Celtic park.
how much do we charge Killie fans for restricted view crap at CP? Can we really take the high moral ground here. At least we get a decent stand at rugby park. And with the number of empty seats at our ground we could come up with a better deal for them. Don’t boycott-work in partnership. £20 for rugby park per ticket in return for the whole section covered by the banner for a fixed fee. if they sell it out at two pound a skull it makes for the sam return as now and a better atmosphere.why try to kill our football when a bit of imagination could grow it.
Think there are a few reasons that smaller clubs charge fans of Celtic more:
1. Market forces: for the same reason that your club get away with charging you far too much – the Celtic fans will pay it. I don’t see anything in your blog complaining about the ridiculous process at Parkhead.
2. Because we are charged a fortune to sit in a very poor away section at Parkhead. Two wrongs don’t make a right but it does feel better.
3. I think you over estimate the value of the Celtic support. It costs more to police and steward your games. Killie are perhaps slightly different because their ground is so big and empty but clubs with smaller stadiums struggle to recoup the costs of having a large group of fans with a history of causing trouble in the ground.
My club have had bigger attendances for games involving teams outwith the gruesome twosome in recent years.
All this talk of boycotts and how powerful you are is very Rangers in its attitude. Are you the people as well?
its not like Kilmarnock are supply the top class opposition
100% agree, or just charge all the fans that come to celtic park, the exact same as we get charged, they will complain to their club, that would soon see change in the price that we pay HH
One price for all fans killie have just exploited other clubs celtic fans should hit where it hurts in the pockets see how they survive without our fans
I’ve always wanted this but falls on deaf ears
I agree £20 is plenty, what do away fans get charged at Celtic Park ? Our position is stronger if our club shows an example, oh but Sevco will be back soon so there is no chance of that happening.
Stuff kilmarnock they have been like that with celtic for years.when they get relegated this season then next year thay can charge £10 instead.thats if they still excist..
What Killie are doing again is to shaft our great club, I honestly hope that this time Celtic Fans vote in favour and do not give in-to this Plastic Sevco from Ayrshire, It is time we stand together on this and let them know how we feel, I hope that our Chairman Mr Peter Lawell comes out also in defience and stand up and show the whole of Scotland that we shall not be putting up with discrimination against our club. PS Their shall be more pies at Rugby Park than supporters 2 For 1 Anybody, Fat Sally shall be right in there hahaha.
Yes, agree that a £20 maximum should be implemented. As it is, if the game is on TV, it is very tempting to watch it on TV in the pub or your house, is it not? Pies are a lot cheaper from the local bakers as well!
Time to take a stand against such banditry.
£20 across the board would be grand but id be all for boycotting the sevco b team.
Celtic charge away fans plenty for a seat with a restricted view. Stay way if you feel the need.
they’ll need us before we need them all out boycott of them all h.h.
If our own club charges us more than £20 for a home match then it might be an encouragement to other clubs to charge the same for Celtic fans. Perhaps Celtic fans should pusue our own club for a better deal before we start complaining about others.
The Bayern fans have come up with an interesting ploy with regards to Arsenal overcharging the Bayern fans, the Bayern fans stay out of the stands for the first five minutes of the game. This takes away a fair bit of atmosphere and shows empty seats on T.V., while also showing the greedy club what the future will hold if they continue with their thoughtless policy. After the five minute “boycott”, Bayern fans would then return and support their team. Greedy teams such as Kilmarnock deserve a similar response, consider it a shot across their bows as a warning of possible escalation in future games.
Do these clubs think we all make a grand a week,there are many fans at these clubs earning much more than Celtic fans.Theft if you ask me.
we should pay a tenner to watch it live at various locations then donate the takings to a host of good causes connected to the worlds greatest team and fans hh god bless
1. It costs more to visit Celtic park with a restricted view.
2. Visiting fans from the old firm have been in decline for years ( due to TV and silly kick off times )
3 It cost more to police and steward these fixtures.
So a boycott might save Killie some cash.
4 This is surely something we should all be united on