Our financial plight cannot go on forever...or can it?

Everything said theres bang on mate! i do however feel like something needs to change! im so bored of the SPL right now... Watched a few championship games at the weekend there and honestly so much more thrills ... anyway right now the way the SPL is i wont ever be buying a Season Ticket, However if it did change and there was a prospect of us playing down South i would be happy buying a Season ticket. Its all about value for money i think and right now we are getting the * ripped out of us with the current prices of games.

 

Excellent post by UncleHo. I very much agree with him that we would be able to generate way more tv income if we were able to set up our own tv deal. But I don't see the spl allowing us to do this.

Thus I think his membership scheme idea is an excellent one. Especially having different tiers of membership and what they give you. Say Platinum, Gold, Silver with rates of say $300 $200 and $100 per year. How many members you would get to sign up though would be contingent on Celtic actually marketing our brand hard around various parts of the world. I made some points about Celtic's lack of effort to develop our commercial potential in North America in another thread. I think a membership scheme combined with targeted marketing of Celtic in different markets could develop a very healthy membership base which would bring significant revenue into the club. I think it should be targeted especially at getting membership from overseas as people in Ireland and Scotland can go watch Celtic play and can buy season tickets. Of course the scheme should include supporters in Ireland and Scotland but I think making a targeted marketing effort aimed at overseas supports could yield significant results for the club. These are people like me who obviously cannot ever buy season tickets so now in a way this can become a way for overseas supporters to have a season ticket holders level of support for our club so to speak. Plus this membership can also be tied in as Celtic looks to make commercial inroads into different markets.

I also love the idea of having a Celtic B team play lower league football as a way to further enhance our ability to develop and bring quality players through to the first team. I also like the idea if possible of starting this B team in the English lower leagues. Then who knows maybe one day this can be used as a way to backdoor Celtic into the epl with our spl place then becoming our B teams spot.

 

It was reported Celtic had 9 million fans worldwide, not Japan. Was a survey carried out by Celtic Credit Card company I think?

 

is this not a case of we've 9mill people who like celtic rather than 9mill fans. it's like me, i support west ham in england, will try to catch there games on tv and always look out for there results. but to say i'm a fan of the club, no, i'd never think of buying any merchandise or scarves or even going to see them play whenever i'm down in london. and i worked down there for 5 years. theres a big difference from being a fan and liking a club.

 

Exactly, I'm not suggesting they are fans - we probably have around 150,000 proper fans.

 

Dont talk *, for every celtic fan that was in seville, there were about 1000 that didnt go .

 

And thats the prblem with the spl and celtic ....we aint had cl propper for a while and look at the * we are in with our spending power.
We cant go year to year praying and hoping we get the cl so we can spend some cash and buy a player that aint got two left feet.
We have to find other ways to fund things.

 

Nah mate wont happen http://economics.about.com/cs/macroeconomics/a/run_out_of_oil.htm

 

I really doubt Juve ever had a support of over 200m. Even 20m would be a push, unless that's what you meant to type.

 

Let's be honest, Parkhead gets around 50,000 on a weekly basis. Yes, there are a lot of proper fans abroad etc and not all can afford to go but I wouldn't say there was much more than 150,000-200,000 fans as opposed to people who just like Celtic.

 

UncleHo's figures for the membership scheme are way off. If 500,000 signed up (which they wouldn't) and paid an average of £300 then that would equate to £150m not £15m. Loads of people aren't going to football games anymore due to costs so why would they pay money for "benefits"?

 

£300 is alot. Benfica's scheme is £55 a year.

200,000 x 55 = 1,100,000.

Is it worth the cost?
Would anyone here pay £55 a year for a membership like that for Celtic?

Being a member they get discounts on the official store merchandise, tickets and events.
I think they also get heavy discounts into Benfica's other sporting arms events like basketball, hockey and futsal.

 

I did mean 50,000 sorry.

 

I would take a good look through on the perks of it. I'm usually out £120 quid a year on 3 Celtic strips; would this give me a saving of £55 or over? Along with other benifits that may be added in.

 

absurd statement .go to any big city in the uk , into an irish pub on old firm day ,and you will see 100s of passioante , tattood, celtic topped diehard fans . english , scottish ,irish accents.. we have one of the biggest "real fans" fan base ....celtic transends from father to son even if the son is born in london or manchester ...it is more than a football club ,because of the religion , the irishness and the celtic family vibe ..kids from outside scotland still grow up with a deep connection to the club ... if a scottish celtic fan moves to london , his son will probably support celtic rather than west ham or another local team . whereas if a wolves fan did the same, his son would probably support a london team . that is the difference between celtic and 99.9 percent of other big clubs, and that is the reason we have a large genuine following all over the UK.

 

I like the idea of having a b team playing south of the border and eventually the club reversing the roles and the b team playing in Scotland with the firsts heading for the big money of the EPL.
Obviously we are proud of being an irish/scottish club but we are going nowhere in the SPL. I for one am sick of these mickey mouse teams in England spending millions on players while we are hunting the bargain basement.
I would quite happily forego our spiritual home if it meant we would be generating the kind of money our club and supporters deserve.
Within the next 10 - 20 years we could be where we deserve to be competing for european cups and our B team would very likely still be good enough to compete with the rest of the scottish clubs. Competing in Europe on 2 fronts?
The alternative as it appears to me is stay in Scotland competing with Rangers ( if they avoid administration ) and picking up bargain buys or older players, enticed by our support and history, and hoping to stay in europe long enough to balance the books.

 

I think you could get up to 100,000 members if you market the scheme in the right way. Give incentives that a season ticket can't give you, discounts etc..., 100,000 people paying 50 quid annually gives you 5 million pounds extra. Its something i think the board should take into consideration along with the B team idea.