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For those clubs who cut Celtic’s allocations, a day of reckoning is never far away.

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Image for For those clubs who cut Celtic’s allocations, a day of reckoning is never far away.

Once again, those watching Scottish football this weekend were confronted with a depressing but increasingly familiar sight: empty seats at a major Premiership game.

This time, it was Celtic’s trip to Tynecastle, where the champions were given a miserly allocation of just 650 tickets. That would be bad enough if the home end were packed, but it wasn’t. The sight of so many gaps in the stands has sparked outrage, debate, and plenty of discussion in its wake.

Social media has been ablaze with the topic, it’s featured in the mainstream press, and Celtic supporters’ groups have released statements condemning it. The Bhoys issued one of their own, pointing out the friction it’s causing among fans, with some accusing these groups of hogging the limited tickets while others miss out. The Bhoys have gone out of their way to refute this, but the frustration among the wider support is understandable.

This issue is not new. It’s been discussed on here plenty of times before, and the results of these allocation cuts are visible week after week: empty seats all over the stands. Few clubs ever manage to fill their stadiums for games where our allocation has been slashed to the bone. The situation at Tynecastle on Sunday was particularly embarrassing for a club that prides itself on being able to sell out its ground without the need to bother with us.

But what makes this weekend even more interesting is what happened at Ibrox.

It’s gone largely unremarked upon by the mainstream media, and even the blogs haven’t picked up on it much. If you watched the highlights of their game, though, you’d have noticed plenty of empty seats there too. Some will claim the weather was a factor, but this is becoming a trend. Tynecastle isn’t going to be packing them in for much longer, and the gaps at Ibrox are becoming harder to ignore with every passing game.

The truth is simple: these allocation cuts are built on arrogance and short-term thinking. It’s easy to boast about your support and to claim you don’t need away fans when your team is doing well. But what happens when form dips?

What happens when a club hits a rough patch?

Hearts may well soon be finding that out the hard way. Fans don’t want to watch a team that’s locked in a relegation battle, and why should they? They were promised that their club was the “third force” and eyeing up “splitting the Glasgow clubs.” What happened to that prediction? And every empty seat represents money left on the table, cash that could be reinvested in the squad but is now being thrown away. It’s a policy that’s as self-defeating as it is short-sighted.

Celtic supporters’ groups, understandably, are furious.

Some have even called for a boycott of away tickets, but I’m not convinced that’s the solution. A boycott might send a message, but it won’t address the underlying problem. This issue will be resolved by simple economics.

The clubs making these decisions are already hurting themselves far more than they’re hurting us. The sight of empty seats is evidence enough of that. Every penny they refuse to take from us is money they don’t have to strengthen their own teams.

St Johnstone, to their credit, seem to understand this.

They’ve consulted their fans, explaining that maintaining the current arrangement is their choice—but it comes with consequences. If their fans vote to cut our ticket allocations when faced with that reality then I guess that’s fair enough. It’s democracy, of a sort, and at least everyone knows what’s at stake. Whether it leads to Celtic’s allocation being restored to what it was five years ago remains to be seen, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Contrast that with Hearts.

A club in freefall, with a team that looks increasingly out of its depth, and a stadium that’s steadily emptying out. Do the decision-makers at Tynecastle still believe cutting our allocation was the right move? Maybe they do. But I wonder if they’ll still think so in two years when the full financial impact of these decisions comes home to roost.

If Hearts don’t climb their way into the top six, if they remain stuck in the dogfight at the bottom of the table, those empty seats will only multiply. If they get relegated, I suspect that they will have to get used to them for many years to come.

It’s easy for clubs to take a swing at us when the sun is shining, the grass is green, and all is well on the pitch. But when the team isn’t performing, when fans start finding other ways to spend their Saturdays, and when the financial realities of these allocation cuts start to bite, that’s when they’ll regret this policy.

The empty seats at Tynecastle were an embarrassment for Hearts this weekend. But what’s worse is what those gaps in the stands represent: a club cutting off its nose to spite its face, and in this cash-strapped league of us the reckoning for them, and for all the others who’ve pursued similar policies, is never going to be all that far away.

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10 comments

  • Clachnacuddin and the Hoops says:

    Hearts will ALWAYS cut their nose off to spite their face when it comes to us for sure…

    Even Sevco too regarding tickets –

    They won’t care at the minute if it’s covered by season to tickets…

    Not a good look on TV tho…

    No wonder Scottish Football is the laughing stock of The Universe !

  • PortoJoe says:

    It’s sheer madness and the clubs must know it themselves. Do they really think that Celtic will be intimidated by empty seats and bottle it? I would have thought it more likely that home players would be inspired by a full house and noisy atmosphere. I suspect Aberdeen fans are beginning to share the same frustration as they would bring decent numbers at the moment to away games. And the TV companies would pay more for a noisier spectacle.
    These clubs are turning away millions in revenue every season and yet most make a loss…go figure!

  • Jim m says:

    More like cutting off their faces to spite their nose , well if they choose to bite the hand that feeds them then they will certainly reap what they sow , wouldn’t miss the diets if they get relegated.

  • Brattbakk says:

    I don’t see the upside for these clubs, obviously at home you want your own fans but you definitely don’t want empty seats. 650 is a complete joke yet it was the 650 making the noise in the stadium. Economics will surely win the day, give Celtic a stand and focus on filling the other three stands.

    • Mr Magoo says:

      Gotta laff guys.

      Imagine them thinking an away reduction of tickets would stop our team of champions wiping the floor with them . Christ , even the huns can’t beat us with none of our supporters in the crumbledome .

      I say even if they offer more than the 750 we still tell em shove them tight up their shiters.

      If as I suspect when the league game at their gaff comes around we are 12/13 points ahead , there will be empty seats as the orangie will not want to see their team getting humped again by us .

  • SFATHENADIROFCHIFTINESS says:

    Meanwhile the SPFL & SFA Financial Wizards sit on their hands and play dumb.
    Try selling this ‘football experience’ when they have to re-negotiate all their Sponsorship and Broadcasting Contracts. Club Sponsors and Advertisers will start pulling their horns in as the reduced exposure doesn’t justify their financial outlay. It’s a downward spiral for the Clubs.

  • Johnny Green says:

    I have said it every time this subject arises, we should not accept away tickets from any Scottish club. The tail is wagging the dog here and it’s about time we brought them all to heel. They will be screaming blue murder if we do this, their bottles will go and they will all get together and come to a satisfactory conclusion regarding our allocation. We have got to force the issue though, not just any particular club, all of them en masse. Celtic have a duty to our support to sort this out by any means necessary.

  • Jay says:

    The SFA have to step in & follow the EPL in making a mandatory minimum allocation.
    10% of stadium capacity capped at 3,000 if the stadium capacity is over 30,000.
    Still leaves 90% of a stadium for the home team as a minimum & let’s be honest Aberdeen are probably the only other team that would fill that right now & still have demand.
    This all just shows what a joke of an association Scottish football is. We all get annoyed when the English media treats the league as some backwater where we kick a ball about but when the people who run it are of the same mindset it’s not surprising that is the perception to the outside. I wouldn’t be surprised if we are addressed as the plucky underdogs in Europe in most other countries with the image our league portrays.

    • Jay says:

      To add to this I’d say we’d have to put a caveat in on Scottish football that if away allocation hasn’t been taken up within 48 hours of the game or however long a club needs to make necessary adjustments to the separation of fans it is returned to the home team to sell to home support. It wouldn’t be essential but I’d imagine certain teams wouldn’t have a sufficient away support to take full allocations.

  • Wee Jock says:

    As someone who was lucky enough to get a ticket for swinecastle I was shocked by the make up and behaviour of some of our supporters. Blocked the view of disabled supporters and open drug dealing being just a couple of actions. Let’s be honest some of our support make it easy for clubs to reduce allocations.
    The home clubs themselves claim to be community clubs but deny local community businesses the opportunity to earn money and stay afloat by reducing allocations but at the same time the clubs owe millions to the Scottish taxpayer in interest free loans. The SFA and SPFL have to sort this out or we should pressurise the Scot Gov to call in the loans and appoint a independent regulator. Personally I support a boycott and give them nothing in return for Celtic Park.

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