Celtic sometimes can’t do right for doing wrong, and I really don’t want to slag the club here when they are actually taking a positive step.
Today’s announcement that they are freezing the 3 match package in the Europa League to £72 for standard season tickets is good as far as it goes; it still comes to over £20 per game though.
It also pays no heed whatsoever to a dark, and looming, possibility; that we are on the brink of a new series of mitigation measures as positive test result numbers continue to rise and rise.
This week the First Minister has held two separate briefings on the matter, and the case load climbs ever higher. For the third consecutive day the infection number record has been blown past.
Today, in fact, it was shattered. 6800 cases, and no end in sight.
Celtic has to be concerned about that and we have to be aware that some kind of “circuit breaker” lockdown is almost certainly coming. Hospital numbers continue to increase, and there are way too many deaths.
We’re not getting through 2021 without some restrictions coming back, or unless some form of vaccination passport is introduced.
Either would have an impact on the club. Both have to be troubling people inside Celtic Park.
So too must the sight of stands full of people not wearing masks.
I am already sick going on about this.
It’s a simple measure, a minor inconvenience which costs nothing, which is easy to do, it’s mandated by the law and asked for by the club. It reduces case numbers, keeping both the wearer and those around them safe.
I cannot understand why anyone would choose not to do it.
I thought that Celtic would price its tickets for these three games accordingly.
I understand that the club sees this as a potential cash windfall; there’s sense in what they are doing and also credit in that the prices for these games haven’t increased in three or four years … on one hand I commend it.
But the likliehood of full stands for those games is receding rapidly.
It would have been reasonable for the club to acknowledge that with a reduction to £60. That would have kept things sensible and taken account of potential government measures.
Whilst I cannot be too critical of them, I can’t give them full marks for it either.
The stadium announcement asks people to wear masks while moving around NOT while you are seated. That is similar to bars / restaurants when you leave or return to your table.