Celtic needs to upgrade stadium infrastructure … and the professionalism of some staff.

So everybody’s favourite drone enthusiast did an overfly of Celtic Park just the other day to give us a look. This is the guy who’s been doing the overflies of Barrowfield— the Drone Audits Scotland bloke.

Last week, he gave us all a glimpse of what Celtic Park looks like at the moment, with the pitch having been torn up and some other minor modifications being done.

One modification in particular piqued my interest: the chatter about mobile phone masts. Now, I don’t know if this is something that’s been recently added to the Celtic Park footprint or not, or whether they’ve always been there, but I found the chatter interesting because if they are a new addition, then it’s well overdue.

One of the appalling things about the Celtic Park match experience is how absolutely shocking the Wi-Fi coverage in the ground actually is.

Anything that improves that is a step forward.

Of course, this is part of a larger conversation going on at Celtic. There was talk about moving to the notorious digital season tickets — a policy so unwelcome it’s ludicrous to even be thinking about it. I wonder at the sanity of people who reckon it’s a good idea to attach a season ticket to a piece of technology which can break, get lost, stolen or be compromised. And a lot of tech these days is compromised.

For anything like that to work, you would need some form of Wi-Fi signal around the ground that’s better than the current level.

So, it’s entirely possible that this is one of the things they’re gearing up to do. I’ve heard a lot of stuff from these so-called tea and biscuits fan forums that this is a direction the club is considering. I’d welcome it if the club made it voluntary rather than something people are forced into because they have no choice.

There’s also plenty of chatter about a Celtic app — something which is long overdue. It’s painfully bad that such a thing doesn’t already exist. Ironically, I can see it being used for coercive purposes, but that’s a story for another article, something to discuss further down the line and of great interest to me and some of the bloggers.

Like I said, that’s a story for another day.

By and large, the ability to use your phone or another mobile device inside the ground and be sure you’ll get a signal that actually works is something many of us have been clamouring about for a while.

It would be good if the club is finally putting some money behind proper mobile infrastructure. I know there’s been talk that they’ve upgraded the Wi-Fi — I don’t know what level they think they’ve upgraded it to, but I find it pretty subpar.

We’re a club with a lot of money sitting in the bank. It would be crazy not to use that money on something like this to improve the fan experience and the technology available within the stadium. All of that would be most welcome.

There are plenty of people who don’t think that would be a proper use of club funds, saying the manager should be spending it on the pitch. You know what? We’re a club with enough cash that we should be able to do both. This is a step in the right direction, if indeed that’s what it is.

On another note, I find it extraordinary that a Celtic official threatened to call the police when a guy who didn’t have to come in and talk to him did so as a courtesy, just to tell him he was putting up a drone.

It’s equally absurd that the club’s policy is to call the police in such matters, even though, as long as the guy is operating the drone from off-site, no law is broken. The drone operator pointed out this was simply a waste of police time. He’s been doing this a while. He knows the law like the back of his hand.

The Celtic official came off looking like a fool. Club stadium personnel should be a lot better educated on this stuff. The second guy he spoke to, the guy at the end of the clip, was excellent and friendly and a proper credit to the club.

The drone operator didn’t even have to walk into that office and let them know. He made it very clear he wasn’t asking for permission because he doesn’t have to. What he did was show some basic courtesy, which is more than he got back.

That’s why this guy is a class act — because he always observes the courtesies, not just the letter of the law. It doesn’t matter that he’s legally in the right; he wants to make sure everything is smooth and cool before he does a single thing.

That should have got a better response than, “Well, I’m going to call the police.” Honestly, our security staff need to know more about this stuff, and they shouldn’t be so surly and rude when someone is actually showing them and the club the proper level of professionalism and respect.

A lot of us find this guy and his work very informative and respect the job he does. Not only has he been very helpful giving us regular updates on what was happening over at Barrowfield, but he was also very handy in the summer of last season with his frequent videos on the unfolding calamity in the Copland Road Stand over the way.

His videos were not just interesting to us as a result – they were the basis of some good stories mind you – but were of interest to fans across the city and the wider Scottish football community as well.

He provides an excellent service, and his work should be applauded — not seen as some sort of insidious threat, which it most certainly is not.