The news that St Johnstone are consulting their supporters on whether to change Celtic’s ticket allocation from next season is hardly surprising.
What’s notable is that their club leadership has gone on the record to stress the financial implications, pointing out that a full house is worth an additional £75,000 per game. They’ve been upfront: any reduction in allocations to our fans—or those across the city—will impact the manager’s budget.
This is a rare instance of a club balancing its fans’ desires with a clear message: “Your decision will have consequences.”
If sanity prevails, St Johnstone supporters will make the right call. However, this issue goes beyond just Celtic or Ibrox fan allocations.
It’s another example of why Scottish football needs broader protections—not just for away fans, but for clubs themselves.
In St Johnstone’s case, even a minimum guarantee for away fans probably wouldn’t result in a significant change, as Celtic fans will likely still receive a decent percentage of the ground even without such rules. But at other clubs, cuts to allocations have been much more drastic, reducing our numbers to mere hundreds in grounds that aren’t even close to selling out weekly.
In these cases, fan-driven agendas actively harm the clubs they claim to support.
There’s talk that a minimum allocation guarantee lacks sufficient support to pass a vote, but clubs might reconsider if they understood that such a policy could shield them from their own supporters’ more counterproductive demands.
St Johnstone’s situation is unique because their fans boycotted a cup game when the Ibrox club was allocated three of McDiarmid Park’s four stands. That, understandably, felt like a step too far. A home fixture shouldn’t feel like an away game.
But the reality is that clubs like St Johnstone depend heavily on the income from these high-demand fixtures.
If their own supporters filled the seats, this wouldn’t be necessary.
The St Johnstone board has laid it out clearly: we can cut away fan allocations but our own fans must step up by attending more games and providing additional financial support. Otherwise, the consequences will fall on the team, with a reduced budget for the manager.
That honesty is commendable, and it means supporters are making their decision with full knowledge of what’s at stake.
For a club which has occasionally flirted with relegation, every penny counts.
This isn’t just about denying the manager a couple of players; it’s about survival.
Those players could be the difference between staying up and dropping into the Championship.
Relegation would devastate a club like St Johnstone, causing long-term financial pain that even an increase in local attendance might not fix.
No one relishes the idea of going to their home ground and seeing it dominated by away fans. It’s got to be an uncomfortable experience.
But realism has to prevail. If enduring it a couple of times a season allows a club to stay competitive, avoid the drop, or even push for a place in the top six—or on a great year, challenge for Europe—it’s a trade-off worth considering.
Ultimately, St Johnstone are trusting their fans to make this decision, armed with the facts.
Whether they choose pragmatism or principle remains to be seen.
Either way, the consequences will be felt.
Fair play to the footy club from The Fair City !