Good on Falkirk for taking a tough stance on Rangers and Celtic’s demands for a 5% ‘handling fee’ for tickets allocated to their supporters for away matches next season.
The Old Firm clubs stirred up the proverbial ‘hornet’s nest’ last week when they announced that they’d be moving away from facilitating the sale of tickets to their supporters for away matches for free, with the subsequent fees being charged to the club’s hosting the games instead. It was yet another example of the arrogance that gets shown by these clubs from time to time in this country – fair enough, they are head and shoulders above the rest in terms of their size and the number of people who want to go and watch them, but trying to pull off this stunt is surely just opportunism in its lowest form?
Clearly the other SPL clubs feel the same way and it’s encouraging to see that at long last people are deciding to stand up to the bad guys, with Falkirk leading the way in veto-ing the new proposals. Their Managing Director, George Craig, had this to say about his club’s plans for hosting the Old Firm in the coming season:
‘Since we returned to the SPL in season 2005-6, it was always the preference of all concerned that the away club would facilitate the sale of tickets to their own supporters.
‘Recently, along with all other clubs in the league, we received letters from Rangers and Celtic informig us that if we wished them to continue to provide this service then a five per cent handling fee would be charged to the home club.
‘Over a season this would mean that a considerable amount of Falkirk FC gate revenue, which has already been allocated to the playing budget, would have to be re-directed. Therefore, we have decided not to take up this offer and we will in future co-ordinate the sale of tickets for home matches involving the Old Firm. We also hope that by having tickets available for the away sections we will minimise the instances of home tickets being bought by visiting supporters, which has caused problems in the past.’
It would be nice to think that the other SPL clubs will act in a similar way. Falkirk’s strategy actually makes quite a lot of sense from their point of view, and if employed across the country it could in fact reduce the amount of trouble at matches involving Rangers and Celtic quite a bit. As Craig states, it is continually a challenge to prevent tickets for the home sections in these games falling into the wrong hands, so anything that minimises the risk of this happening can only make things safer. Another positive here is that if the clubs themselves will be selling tickets directly to all the people attending these fixtures, then surely that will mean that they’ll have all the information they require on each individual who may decide to vandalise the stadium or act in an inappropriate way, which tends to happen at the Old Firm fixtures more than any of the others. You’d have to imagine that this would also help to reduce the threat of crowd trouble.
Will the other SPL clubs follow Falkirk’s lead? Let’s hope so…..
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Why is it only Rangers *and* Celtic who are attempting this scam? (because that’s all it is really). If it was the case that a 3rd party (e.g. Ticketmaster) was charging them a handling fee and all they were doing was passing that on then why are none of the other clubs doing the same? We should charge them 20% for the same priviledge. If ever there was doubt that the “Old Firm” work as a cartel on Scottish football, this should lay it all to rest.
biggest scam is when the SMALLER clubs put up their prices when the BIG 2 are in town so why shouldnt we claw something back and really think hearts supporters should keep their gobs shut after all youve got enough to worry without worrying what we do
ps ……how long will this manager last answers on the back of a postage stamp to …………
how is it a scam? celtic and rangers both incurr costs to sell your inflated tickets to their fans for which they see no capital reward despite you and all other scottish clubs making vastly more in gate receipts due to the large numbers. time to stand on your own feet. if you don’t like it then get you armchair fans off their erses and down to the game on a saturday……or vlad the regailer to cover it.
Interesting comments. Hearts’ lowest home attendances in recent years have actually been against Rangers and Celtic (due to segregation in the Roseburn Stand). If we’d allocated them no tickets then the crowds would have been bigger, so you can’t say that gate receipts everywhere are improved when these clubs are in town – take the point that this is not the norm though. There are so-called scams going on all over the place, but in terms of the smaller clubs charging more money, it’s not just exclusively for Old Firm matches – Hearts (and sometimes Hibs and Aberdeen) get charged just as much when they travel to most stadia around the country, and you can’t exactly say the prices at Ibrox and Parkhead are cheap can you?
I’m confused. When I book a ticket for a Hearts home game online, I get charged a fee (£3 I think), even if I actually have to go to the office to pick the bloody thing up. My understanding is that SOME of this fee is for Ticketmaster (but I could be wrong) … so do Hearts effectively get a commission/handling fee from their own fans ? If this is the case, then why don’t Celtic/Rangers charge a similar fee to their fans for selling them the tickets ? Maybe the question should be …do Hearts already charge a fee already to their own fans for selling AWAY tickets ? Basically this whole “handling fee” concept is similar to banks charging you to withrdraw your own money at cash machines. We’ll soon have Greggs charging an extra 5% for taking a steakbake out the oven -how else are you going to eat the bloody thing unless they take it out the oven ? It’s a scam (as you say). Mind you, I’d be more than happy to not give the OF any tickets for Tynecastle…. who cares if they retaliate by not giving us any for Ibrox/Parkhead ?
To answer leedscelt … the “capital reward” which the OF receive is the influence of a few thousand vociferous OF fans acting as a constant reminder to the ref who the big team is, when interpeting 50-50 decisions on the park.