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Written by Harry Brady
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Saturday, 27 April 2013 23:21 |
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 Like many I have been greatly exorcised by the league reconstruction debate of late and the perceived lost opportunities to make the structure more exciting and move away from the current flawed split. As highlighted in my piece of two weeks ago however, the belief that this will be a panacea bringing the hoards back is flawed. Scotland already has one of the best per capita attendance rates in the world (the best when excluding countries with a population below 1.5m). The problem with our game therefore is the basic economics. We attend in record numbers, we pay high prices, but the product is poor. Changing the leagues is unlikely to change much of this, we need to completely change the economics of EVERYTHING around our game – there is no quick fix.
The recent debate is not the first and will not be the last lost opportunity in Scottish football; it’s not even the first lost opportunity of the last 25 years. The “Souness revolution” instigated by the decision of Lawrence Malborough/David Holmes to capitalise on having the most modern stadium in Scotland unfortunately led to a “speculate to accumulate” disaster in our game. 20 years on the financial vandalism wrought by Murray and his HBOS disciples has been touched on in many places with the part played by Milne in Aberdeen’s demise to be covered another day. One final piece of folly rarely mentioned however was the £60m spent on the Hampden white elephant. A poor quality stadium with limited facilities for the bulk of spectators; it is the 3rd best ground in Glasgow and a soulless caricature of a once magical place. Not fit for 21st century leisure time, the money spent on its refurbishment perfectly sums up the “what could have been” nature of so much of our game.
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Written by Mark Cooper
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Thursday, 25 April 2013 15:06 |
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 In the days and weeks following our game in Turin, I was quite surprised by the sense of despondency among some Celtic supporters. I remember reading a number of comments from Celtic fans opining that this was ‘the end of an era’, as it was being presumed that key players might leave in the summer. Paradoxically, selling may be one of the key aspects that this era is remembered favourably by. Furthermore, when it is done intelligently as part of a coherent transfer policy, it should be welcomed as it can enable us to be consistently successful in the medium and long-term.
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Last Updated on Friday, 26 April 2013 10:15 |
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Written by Harry Brady
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Thursday, 11 April 2013 12:57 |
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The debate about league restructuring has become wearisome and disappointing. The affliction of self-interest, which has dogged our game, continues to impede any form of restructuring which will facilitate the delivery of a product on the park so desperately sought by the fans of all clubs. The conversations never seem to get to the crux of the matter – tinkering about with the league structure won’t solve the bad business management which is at the heart of the problem; a bad business model set in place by the creation of a top 10 Premier League in the mid 70’s where every club predicated their financial planning not on how they trade, but on how many times they can get to play Celtic and Rangers. This model determined by fan base of just two clubs was then crippled by the ludicrous “speculate to accumulate” culture fostered by Murray, Masterton and their cohorts at Bank of Scotland which created a player arms race yet took no heed of the new dynamics of England’s TV deal which generated 1,600% player wage inflation. Scottish football can be saved, but clubs, SFA and all supporters need to be honest about what a country of our size can achieve.
Do you recall the heady days when 10’s of thousands of punters were at stadia across Scotland? When everywhere you turned were queues at turnstiles and EVERYONE seemed to go to a game? No? What age are you – 10? Ignore the perceived wisdom that the halcyon days of Scottish football were in the times of our fathers and grandfathers – we’ve just lived through them!
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Last Updated on Thursday, 11 April 2013 14:43 |
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Written by Harry Brady
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Friday, 12 April 2013 08:55 |
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 Scotland is a football mad country. As most know, and as I commented upon yesterday, we have one of the highest proportions of per capita spectator levels in the world with 3.6% of the populations going to games. We’re doing not bad when considering the current economic climate – with a (circa) 4% drop in average attendances this season we are 4th in Europe for a year on year attendance comparison.
Yesterday I wrote about the necessity to focus funds on those top clubs who harbor ambitions to compete in the top tier of Scottish football. We are a small country and by focusing funds on the top teams, we have a chance of returning to a period where teams could compete with Celtic. It’s a long road, but I believe a recovery is possible. The question that flows from this however is where does this leave this leave the “also rans”? I’m not advocating we cut them adrift, but at the same time, starved of cash and publicity they will no doubt wither away and follow the likes of Renton, St Bernards, Third Lanark, Clydebank and Rangers. Instead they should use our national game obsession as a way to re-invigorate their clubs and tap into the 50% who travel to Celtic Park and Ibrox every week and have a summer season.
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Written by Sparrow Thirteen
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Thursday, 04 April 2013 10:01 |
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Jock Stein eulogised that football without the fans is nothing, but immediately after this statement, he makes a pertinent qualification of his argument. It could be the greatest game in the world, he argued, but if there is nobody there to witness it what would be the point? I would argue further, by saying that if your team wins a match or a trophy without you being there to witness it, how can you truly celebrate the success? It would be akin to gate-crashing a party of that you have not been invited to, yet know everybody who is there.
My own club is not like Celtic, in terms of our away support. Whilst we have had an average away support this season of over 1000, and have sold out a number of away games, as a season ticket holder, I can always get a ticket. With Celtic, this opportunity is restricted, and so for the second time in my life (the first being Old Trafford in 2006), I watched a Celtic away match in amongst the home support.
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Last Updated on Thursday, 04 April 2013 11:58 |
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