Our DESTINY is in our own hands, Glasgow's Green and White.

[Joe O'Rourke]

[COLOR=#000000:add5ca2b]I don’t know about you but I’m sick of hearing about Newco, Oldco, Sevco, even Seb Coe, the only football team that interests me is Glasgow Celtic, and as I said in a previous post, if the SPL and SFA had acted in a decisive manner some months ago we wouldn’t be hearing so much about Newco now.
[COLOR=#000000:add5ca2b]And if they had acted in a decisive and appropriate manner with regards to comments made by Mr Mc Coist, maybe he would stop putting people’s lives in danger by making further inflammatory and intimidating comments.
[COLOR=#000000:add5ca2b]Enough talk about the other teams, we need to now concern ourselves with the welfare of our Celtic Team. It has not been a glorious pre-season up until now with only one victory gained, and a big game on Saturday against one of the true giants of European Football in Inter Milan.
[COLOR=#000000:add5ca2b]What concerns me most in the apparent drop in season ticket numbers this season, everyone knows there would be a financial penalty to pay with the loss of the Glasgow Derby matches, but I had hoped that our support would at least be maintained, if not increased this season.
[COLOR=#000000:add5ca2b]We all know that football needs to be self-sufficient, the days of Banks lending big money to football teams have gone, and rightly so, the only way for clubs like ours to survive at a decent level is with supporters going through the turnstiles.
[COLOR=#000000:add5ca2b]Our game does not gain most of its commercial income from television like England and Spain, our main source of income is from supporters attending matches, so like every other business you have to cut your cloth to suit, less supporters through the turnstiles equals a drop in the quality of the playing squad, it’s just as simple as that.
[COLOR=#000000:add5ca2b]I was asked in an interview last week if I would miss the Glasgow derby matches, I said I would miss the competitiveness of the matches, but certainly not the bile that was brought to them by the opposing team’s supporters, I said that the Glasgow derby could not compete with the big European nights at Celtic Park in terms of atmosphere.
[COLOR=#000000:add5ca2b]Well here are the realities of the situation, if we don’t get the required numbers of season ticket holders, the playing squad will take the brunt of it, the squad will be reduced, and the quality of player will also drop considerably, that unfortunately is the simple reality.
[COLOR=#000000:add5ca2b]The money people will tell you quite rightly that we should be strong enough to win the Premier League comfortably with the squad we have just now, but if we harbour any ambitions of progressing to the Champions’ League Group stages and beyond, we need to have a full Celtic Park every week.
[COLOR=#000000:add5ca2b]So come on you Bhoys in Green, Glasgow’s Green and White, let’s keep it that way.

[Guest]

Joe you are 100% correct. My season ticket was renewed months ago. Supporting Celtic is paramount through this period. On a related topic, its time for groups like CSA, CQN, E-Tims to bring SKY/ESPN to task for the pathetic TV support of Scottish Football.

Conservatively, Scottish football fans and pubs probably contribute around £120m per annum to SKY and ESPN sports channels, so their combined offer of £16m per annum stinks. It means Scottish Football fans are subsidising the EPL to the tune of £104m per annum! Neil Doncaster has done a really poor job selling SPL TV rights!

[celtdavy]

I couldn't agree more it's time for the Celtic support to get back to what it does best supporting our team, let newco sevco our what ever they eventually call themselves do what they want, as long as it's within the laws of the game.
WE need a full house next Wednesday against HJK to support this young team of ours and to create the special atmosphere that Celtic Park can have and to frighten the oppostion and give the bhoys a goal of a start
Hail Hail
Celtdavy

[Guest]

Anybody know how many have been sold? Mine purchased in May. HH

[bigpaul]

Joe , do you know the actual figures of STs sold.
Celtic made a big ,mistake this year in their pricing. to actually increase the book prices was crazy considering the climate and the farce that has surrounded the demise of RFC.
The days of folk needing a Season ticket are gone, fans know they can pick and choose games to watch and for there to be no financial benefit to paying up front is a major issue.
What benefit is there now of owning a season ticket other than sitting in the same seat week in, week out.
I have renewed as I always will, but Celtic need to rethink its whole pricing structure, if it wants full houses again.

[Kiwibhoy]

Yeah, but to have people going through the turnstiles, you need to have a "product" that will encourage them to do so, and a lot of that product - the financial and sporting viability of the teams you are playing - is not, actually, in your hands.

But has the penny finally dropped, that a poor domestic outlook of the SPL (both financial and sporting), will flow through into Celtic's efforts in Europe? Football is a [I:4cd4a97b]business[/I:4cd4a97b] - there's no way round that challenge.