England move would triple value of Celtic, says McCann

I just don't know if I buy it mate, in all honesty. There's a few American guys here who say that its difficult sourcing Celtic merchandise over there. I was quite surprised at how Liverpool pulled in more fans than us in Dublin too.

Think it comes down to what being a fan is all about. A lot of the supposed 1 million fans probably never keep up with Celtic or Scottish football in general, but might say they have an affinity with the club because of their Irish roots. Dunno, I know our club has global appeal but think it can be overstated at times. The media coverage you get in the BPL is huge compared to our own coverage and that's where we lose out.

 

Much is made of the pull of the EPL in Ireland. If it is so strong why have none of the EPL teams a shop in Ireland. Man U tried it once.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1678457-manchester-united-lose-millions-on-irish-property-deal

Manchester United are still paying the price for one of the worst financial deals in the club's history. The Red Devils' are still paying rent on their Dublin Megastore in Ireland—11 years after the store closed its doors for the last time.
According to Jack Fagan of The Irish Times,United have spent €520,000 per year on rent since they first bought the store in 1999—the year they famously won the Treble.
Considering that the failed venture closed in 2002, just over two years after first opening its doors, this, in the fullness of time, can be seen as nothing but a dreadful deal gone wrong. So confident were United in 1999 when agreeing to rent the landmark Lafayette building, that they agreed to a 15-year lease of €520,000 per year.
Add their rent together since 1999 and you come up with a cool €7.8 million. On top of which the Red Devils must pay a further €390,000 penalty fee to finally end the leasing arrangements. The total sum United will have paid out by August 15, 2015, when the lease finally ends, will be a whopping €8.2 million.

Lafayette Building location from Google Maps

The famous six-storey landmark building, on the corner of Westmoreland Street and D'Olier Street, will go on sale next week for just €3.5 million.
The Dublin Megastore opened to huge fanfare in November 1999, with Roy Keane, Sir Alex Ferguson, Gary Neville and Mark Bosnich all coming over to Ireland for the grand opening. At the time, a United spokesman described the shop as the "closest experience you can get to actually going to a game" for United fans. Time would prove how wrong he was.
Part of the enticement to get fans to shop in the store was live Premier League Manchester United matches. Fans would also get the chance to buy the official match program, which would be flown in especially for matchdays.
However, the store proved to be an unmitigated disaster despite the club having a rich and long history with Irish players and coaches. Former Ireland and Manchester United legend Roy Keane was captain of the side when the Irish store opened in '99.
Somewhat embarrassingly, the much-vaunted 15,000 square foot Megastore closed in February 2002 amidst poor sales and the club's plummeting stock price. Since then the famous building has been used as a clothing store, cafe and in 2011, as lease holders, United helped renovate part of the old shop into the Lafayette cafe and bar.





Yet Celtic have a shop in Dublin for more than 10 years. There are "supporters"(EPL) and there are supporters(Celtic).

If you want to use google you will find out how big Celtic are in North America in comparison to any of the other European teams. Maybe try the Celtic wiki.

 

It has come up before about how few Celtic fans were at the Liverpool game in Dublin. The reason for this is because we prefer to go over to watch the real thing. I for one did not even consider going to it to mix with the EPL fan boys.

 

I went over for the game but in all honesty i and the others went for a grand * up

 

Got a cracking sing song at the game. At the top of the lower tier, opposite end from the goal balde scored in. Voice was hoarse at the end. Great wee day out.

 

There is zero prospect of Celtic getting * like QPR or Cardiff if we went down south. Mainly because we are alredy owned by one of the world's richest men, our board has billionaires on it. Billionaires. Plural.

Desmond will never sell his stake in Celtic, never.

There is NO chance whatsoever of anyone coming in and chaning our name or strip colours.

As for Celtic Park being renamed for sponsorship reasons, I can see that happening and tbh wouldn't be against it. It wouldn't be the * sports direct arena or something embarrasing like that, it would be Magners or Guinness or Nike and nothing in reality changes, just a few words emblazoned a hundred metres up above where we sit and walk.

The EPL would be great for Celtic in literally every conceivable sense and all the bluster and negative propaganda is just scaremongering. Celtic are currently in probably the best position of all clubs in Europe. We would go stratospheric if given access to the funds and markets of the EPL.

Our history and identity will always be there. We won't die like Rangers. We won't be sold out like Cardiff. What we should want to do though, is ensure that history doesn't stop now. I want to see us win another European Cup. I want to see us be the best team in the world again. We simply have to move to make these dreams come true, this is fact.

 

Hi, Caz. Don't take this the wrong way because I've always respected your viewpoint, but you've basically stated a lot of personal opinions as if they were facts here. You may well be right; but I'm not sure where you get your sense of certainty from. I'm not scaremongering, mate; I genuinely fear for the club we both love if we were ever to join the EPL.

 

Morning RR,

I tend to agree with Caz on this. I think the club has already long crossed the line of "selling out". We are a global brand PLC ran by billionaire majority shareholders. We are sponsored by multinational alcohol companies, and our stadium is decorated in American corporate logos. We buy and sell millionaires for millions of pounds while we refuse to pay living wage to our lowest paid workers, and we punt credit cards and debt repayment schemes to allow people to buy overpriced season books who likely cannot afford. As well as that we now have a significant number of fans at war with the board over what they can and cant sing at Celtic games.

All that in mind, I do think worrying about "selling out" doesn't really mean much anymore. Compared to the origins of the club, and compared to every local club in Scotland, we have already sold out. We are arguably the most dominant corporate machine ever to play football in Scotland, and the way the company is currently set up allows majority shareholders to do what they like, regardless of the league we play in. That is just the nature of modern football and if fans want Celtic to compete in the champions league and play against the biggest and best teams, this is something we just need to accept goes with the territory.

I don't see why a move to the EPL would make us more likely to change our name or change our colours. If someone wanted to try and do that, they could do it tomorrow if they buy enough power at the club, and that is the case across the footballing world. As I said earlier, the money involved in joining the EPL doesn't really bother me that much, but the sense of competition and significance in every game would be brilliant fun and it would lead to a complete revival in supporter interest and atmosphere. That is why I would be all for a move.

 

Sorry to just pick out one point from this Sween as I largely agree with most of what you have put about Celtic having already moved away from the origns of the club and the whole ethos around Celtic having already changed.

However in terms of changing the name colours etc I think it would be more likely to happen in the EPL purely because Celtic in the EPL would be a far more attractive proposition to some madman like Tan etc.

Celtic in the EPL may revive supporter interest but from a purely personal point of view I would not be sure it would attract the sort of Celtic fan that I like to spend my matchdays with. Then again it ain't for me to pick and choose who and how folk support Celtic.

 

I can't really argue with any of that and yet I still think that joining the EPL would be crossing some kind of point of no return in this regard. I can't back that gut feeling up with anything more substantial, though. I just think that at the moment, it could all be wound up over a few years if the will were there (which at the moment it isn't, I admit): as deals reached the end of their lifespans, we could do away with the embarrassing corporate logos and the alcohol advertising etc, etc (and obviously downsizeour wage bill and therefore playing staff accordingly). Join the EPL and this ceases to be even a theoretical possibility with the debt people are talking about taking on in order to quickly get the team up to that standard. It'd be pretty much an irreversible decision to * ourselves out even more flagrantly.