One Scottish club has decided to put fans first. Celtic supporters thank them.

This week, Celtic fans got a great decision from one of the other clubs in the league, and I felt it before I even read it properly. That little spark, that flicker in the gut, the whisper that says: this just makes sense. Good on these guys.

Sure enough, there it was. St Johnstone opening the gates, with three full stands for Celtic supporters for next season’s fixtures. Not a grand gesture. Not some act of charity. But something far rarer in Scottish football these days: clear-eyed, unromantic, unapologetic common sense.

We don’t need to romanticise it or dress it up as anything else. This is a football club recognising reality. Recognising economics. Recognising supply … and demand. Perhaps most importantly, recognising that pride doesn’t pay the bills, but people do.

I’ve watched this debate swirl around for a while now, with clubs tying themselves in knots over allocations and talking about “home advantage” as if empty seats somehow roar louder than paying punters. All the while, the stands tell their own story. Patches of nothingness. Cold gaps where atmosphere should live and breathe.

There is something stubbornly self-defeating about it, this refusal to accept what is right in front of them. But this is different. This is a club looking at the situation and saying: we are not too big to be sensible, and we are not too proud to take the opportunity that is there.

Celtic bring numbers and noise. But Celtic also bring money. Proper, tangible income that keeps things ticking over, that allows a club to function, to plan, to survive and maybe even to grow. I admire that honesty more than any hollow talk.

There is a clarity to this decision that cuts through all the usual noise. It says: we will not turn away willing customers. We will not leave seats empty just to prove a point that nobody truly believes in anymore. Nor will we pretend that restricting allocations somehow levels a playing field which, in truth, was never level to begin with.

Besides, if the issue is the finance gap, how do you bridge that gap when you voluntarily decide to earn less money by closing your doors to willing customers just because they wear a different colour scarf to your own?

In that clarity, there is a kind of quiet boldness. I can already hear the usual grumbles. The mutterings about atmosphere, about giving too much away, about letting the away support “take over.” But I find myself asking: what atmosphere exists in a half-empty stand? What advantage is there in having a ground largely plunged into silence?

Football grounds are not meant to echo. They are meant to roar, to surge, to feel alive in your chest. If anything, this move invites life back into the game.

Inevitably, my mind drifts to Easter Road at the weekend. To those empty stretches, those visible absences that told their own story louder than any chant ever could. It was not just about one match or one moment. It was symbolic. A warning, even.

Because when seats are left unfilled by choice, it is not a show of strength. It is a missed opportunity, plain and simple.

Other clubs should be looking at that and asking themselves hard questions. Not emotional ones. Not tribal ones. Practical ones. Are we maximising what we have? Are we making decisions that benefit the club as a whole, not just the idea of what we think it should be?

St Johnstone, for all the noise that might surround this, have answered those questions with refreshing honesty. I respect it.

Because there is something else at play here, something I can’t quite reduce to spreadsheets or attendance figures. That instinct. That little pull I always trust. The Ginger Witch sense, if you like. It tells me when something feels right, when a decision aligns not just with logic but with the natural flow of things. This does.

Football thrives on people. On bodies in seats, on voices in unison, on that shared, chaotic energy that turns a match into something more than ninety minutes. Denying that, restricting it, shrinking it, that is the unnatural choice. That is the one that feels forced, brittle and doomed to crack under its own weight.

Opening the doors wider? That feels like breathing. Celtic supporters will fill those stands, of course they will. They always do. They will bring the colour, the noise and the relentless presence that travels wherever the team goes.

That is not something to be feared. It is something to be harnessed, to be understood as part of the spectacle, part of the lifeblood of the game itself. The home team should not fear that wall of noise from our fans; they should learn to love it. That will prepare them for visits to Celtic Park and Ibrox … and maybe even Hampden one day.

Hell, why not? After all, outside of Celtic theirs is the most successful club in the country at getting to Hampden and winning there in the last 15 years, a point I made earlier in my piece about Sausage Rohl and his team of losers.

The stadium is full. As a result, the club benefits. Every player learns to play against that noise. Moreover, the whole thing feels more alive. The game itself feels alive, and when sponsors and advertisers look at the average attendance figures at each ground over the course of the season, those home games against ourselves and the club from Ibrox will boost those numbers and, in turn, give the whole of Scottish football a shot in the arm.

Frankly, there is nothing about this that doesn’t make sense.

So, I look at this decision and I don’t see controversy. I don’t see weakness. Instead, I see a club refusing to be parochial, refusing to be trapped by outdated thinking, and refusing to turn its back on something that is obviously beneficial.

Ultimately, more of this, please. More honesty and pragmatism. Because we need more clubs showing the right willingness to accept the reality of modern football instead of clinging to illusions that serve nobody.

At the end of the day, the choice is simple. Empty seats or full stands. Lost revenue or embraced opportunity. Silence or song.

For once, a club has chosen wisely.

The Ginger Witch sends a spell of goodwill to St Johnstone.

It is a great decision. Other clubs should take note.

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