We need to get the price of watching football down.

[Joe O'Rourke]

You can talk about reconstruction and all the different permeations for as long as you want, but the most important aspect of watching football from a supporter’s perspective is the cost.

Sure supporters will pay big money to watch Barcelona and Juventus, but they wouldn’t do it on a weekly basis, because most people just can’t afford it, and that is the reality of the situation.

I am delighted that Celtic has agreed a stand-alone shirt sponsorship deal with Magners, but if we can’t guarantee Champions League football every season, then we need to increase our commercial revenue streams.

We play in an environment where the television money on offer cannot sustain our playing squad and ambitions, so unless we can find a way into another League, we have to improve our business model.

I have wrote to Stewart Regan and Neil Doncaster on a number of occasions suggesting we try to follow the example of the Bundesliga, where they play in family friendly modern stadia at a reasonable cost to the supporter, I wasted my time.

We are fortunate at Celtic; we have a modern stadium with good facilities. We have a first class team competing and performing well on the big stage of Europe, but the stadium is only full when we play in the Champions League.

I said at the Celtic AGM, that as well as investing in the youth on the playing side, we need to invest in the youth on the supporter’s side; we need to encourage more families to come to Celtic Park, for that to happen it must be affordable as well as enjoyable.

I know Angela Forbes and her staff at the ticket office work extremely hard at trying to get more fans through the gates, I’m sure she will have some new initiatives in place for next year. Until then, let’s all get behind our team, and give them the support they so richly deserve.

[Auldheid]

A belated happy new year Joe.

I agree with what you say but the quality that Celtic want to see on the field of play requires a wage level that keeps prices up. Maybe some of the CL income will go to lower prices and not into players' pockets but then the risk is that they leave.

Inititiatives like the Overseas Season Book [URL:7ddf9886]http://celticunderground.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=962:the-overseas-season-book-scheme-not-just-an-emotional-commitment&catid=49:season-2012-2013&Itemid=85[/URL:7ddf9886] are a means of raising more from supporters, who for many reasons (apart from geography), cannot attend games. I think that the principle of broader load sharing has to be looked at by the support at large.

I think there is a limit to what we can ask match attenders to contribute to supporting the club and ways have to be devised to get non match attenders, who watch by various means either live or on delay, to pay more for doing so.

Here is my take on it from a post I placed on CQN.

[SIZE=2:7ddf9886]" My stage left take on the season book reduction problem is that as a support we have to stop thinking that watching Celtic should cost more to do if done one way than another.[/SIZE:7ddf9886]

[SIZE=2:7ddf9886]I get as much if not more satisfaction (at my age) from watching on a screen rather than at the game. I think that will apply to others as they age.[/SIZE:7ddf9886]

[SIZE=2:7ddf9886]Spending the winter away from home I was able to sign up to Celtic TV and for around £3.50 a game I could watch EVERY game Celtic play from the comfort of my temporary home. What a friggin deal. [/SIZE:7ddf9886]

[SIZE=2:7ddf9886]You will probably have read about the Overseas Season Book where I elected to pay near the same conscessionary SB price of £300 (£7.90 a game) as I did last year wherebye the difference allows someone to attend a home game in my absence.[/SIZE:7ddf9886]

[SIZE=2:7ddf9886]The way forward has to be a levelling of the price to watch Celtic across the global support and finding ways to enable the support to do it once they buy into the underlying reality that the cost of supporting the club through watching a game can no longer fall mainly on SB sales.[/SIZE:7ddf9886]

[SIZE=2:7ddf9886]For those overseas the model now exists. For those in the UK broadcasting restrictions mean watching live is not possible although watching later is available. It would be wrong to expect folk in this position to pay the same as those overseas, but it would not be wrong to ask those not able to attend but who watch live in a pub or streams to become a non SB viewer by paying something like £50 to £60 a year for which they also get the Celtic TV offering for UK residents. [/SIZE:7ddf9886]

[SIZE=2:7ddf9886]Even if it is never used, rebranding the Celtic TV service as one for Celtic supporters who live in the UK but cannot attend, as a means of making up for the shortfall in SB sales (and so enabling the quality of player to be maintained) is an avenue waiting to be used.[/SIZE:7ddf9886]

[SIZE=2:7ddf9886]All it takes is for the support to change its mind about how each one can support Celtic financially and the club making the means available once this idea of sharing the load across the full supporting spectrum is owned by the support as a whole.[/SIZE:7ddf9886]

[SIZE=2:7ddf9886]One of the biggest obstacles to the acceptance of this idea is that somehow this is helping Celtic as a separate entity from the support governed by a Board whose mission in life is seen by some to screw the support. [/SIZE:7ddf9886]

[SIZE=2:7ddf9886]However in effect, when we argue against a broader sharing of the support load for this reason, it is not the Board that suffer but ourselves as a support and individually, as the quality of player we can afford drops.[/SIZE:7ddf9886]

[SIZE=2:7ddf9886]That is not to say that complaints against the Board are not always valid but it has to be recognised that we ALL share the same aim and that is that Glasgow Celtic flourish, and when they do everyone one of us a supporter benefits."[/SIZE:7ddf9886]

[Guest]

For me its the price of matchday tickets thats a joke Joe. I know lots a people who, for reasons of money or health or work, cant make the commitment to a season book but would gladly go on days when they can. But at nearly £30 a pop for an spl game feel they're being took to the cleaners by the board. I know they need to make season books the more attractive option but alienating those who want to support the team when they can is wrong. I used to be in that position myself and when i told people how much i was paying to see celtic v inverness they just laughed.