Attendances

Its a mix of many things i would think.
Lack of spending by the club.
lack of jobs
lack of money in fans pockets
lack of huns,hearts,hibs
lack of CL
Glory hunters staying at home

 

We dont have any real stars that are worth the admission fee anymore.

The opposition is not as good as years gone by

Everyone has seen Killie, Motherwell, Caley and so on dozens of times. You generally know how games will pan out.

 

I think it's definitely a mix of things but the prices of a Premiership game adds to it big time I think. I mean, we're playing 3 times within the space of 7 days this week, and you just have to see how much that would cost if fans wanted to attend all matches. £28 or £29 per ticket to watch a Premiership match? Makes it even worse when it's a match that was like yesterday's. It's a * of a lot to ask for fans to pay, especially at this time of year.

Attendances are usually down at this time of year anyway due to Christmas, other priorities, and the * weather anyway so that doesn't help of course, but even still, £29 to watch us play against the likes of Partick Thistle on a cold Winter Wednesday in December is a bit much.

In saying that, though, I'm surprised that there's only about 35K-40K or so are turning up for the European matches. I mean a really important match last week against Salzburg and the whole of the top tier is empty, as it has been for all our home matches in the Europa League. I thought if anything it would have been those matches that would have packed the ground out.

 

Fans try their hardest most of the time but for me the board and players haven't in recent seasons.

Main reason of course is ticket prices are far, far too expensive. SPFL games should be 10 maximum realistically yet you're charged nearer 30 * and they don't seem to do enough enticing offers like kids for a quid etc.

 

So if the board halved the ticket prices then we would have full staduims again? The club would make more money from match day spending? So why dont they do it?

TBH £25 a ticket for me is cheap, its £18 for me to watch my local vanarama conference team!!!

I think by refusing to go to games because of the board are we not in turn making the board less likely to spend money and make the club less attractive to good players?

How do we get the thuder back?

 

That's not exactly a good thing for down south. £18 is stupid money for that sort of league. You should be looking at £18 for a Celtic game, and a low league game either side of the boarder should be a third of that still.

 

What's the cheapest we could sell tickets for while still making the same amount of money as we do now if we hypothetically fill the stadium

 

Yes, you're right. But contrary to many fans' beliefs and dreams, modern football clubs don't work from the ground up. It's not about the fans making things possible for the team and club, it's about the playing and directorial staff doing their best to enthuse and entertain the fans, encouraging them to further support the team - a self-fulfilling cycle of positivity.

If the actions or words coming from the top down aren't to the liking of the fans, then it doesn't or shouldn't (always) fall squarely on the masses to make it all better.
That's the inherent responsibility that comes with leadership. The directors and Lawwell in particular get paid more than enough to come up with ideas to balance the financial stability of the club with entertainment value and happiness for the fans.

 

As suggested elsewhere following the German model of safe standing area's, allowing drink sales and cheaper ticket prices would I think make a very noticable difference not just to the actual attendances themselves but also to the atmosphere.

 

At the end of the day we've still sold 40k+ season tickets, that's up there with some of the best in Europe, more than many 'big' clubs in better leagues.

For one reason or another the Europa League group stages doesn't attract the fans. It didn't in 2009 or 2011 and it hasn't this year either. It's not even the quality of opposition because the likes of Salzburg, Atletico Madrid, Udinese, Hamburg etc. are all strong teams. Guarantee we'll get 55k+ in the next round...

 

I don't think drinking in the stadium helps at all maybe just be more tolerant of people coming in drunk

 

I think it´s a mix of some people beeing away because of the absence of the huns and some dont go to home games because of the poor threatment of the fans.

 

prices imo, also the fact I have to work every Sat for the last 15 years

 

Many reasons , apathy due to not having much of a challenge and most games we are playing against 2 banks of 4 , would be a lot better if teams had a go.
I also think we are feeling whatever most Scottish club supporters feel against us , that we know we can't compete in Europe and are there to make up the numbers does have an affect on supporters.
I also feel we are a little lost not having a major rival /challenge and that society is forcing football to clean it's image to the extent that it's not a working mans game anymore and that people are not gonna sit in cold stadiums to watch poor quality football and be told whatever to sing and wot not to , wots next heated seating and heated stadia , you must have a reason to go , fear of missing a great game , and being able to talk about incidents in the game , there is less skill and less poor tackles , so the game needs to change to bring in fans .

 

I've been to 5 games this season which I think is alright considering. I'd probably be more inclined to go if the prices weren't so dear. The half ST is tempting for me. I think it was a great move bringing that back.

 

Well the club knocked £100 off a ticket at a loss of 5million.

Some years we clear 11million some years its only 2 million.....so another £100 could in some years be ok and some years * us up.

 

As has been pointed out many times before on this forum, 55-60,000 average attendances are a historical anomaly for Celtic. It simply isn't the case that we've always carried that level of support and it's only dropped off in recent years. The historical average home gate for Celtic is in the region of 30-35,000 which is round about what we're seeing now.

I think the jump up to crowds of 55-60,000 that we saw in the late 90's - early 00's was largely brought about by the quality of players Celtic were buying at that time along with the decrease in quality of other Scottish clubs. I'm sure we picked up quite a few fans from other clubs around that time. Having players like Di Canio, van Hooijdonk, Cadete, Larsson, Moravcik, Stubbs, Petrov, Sutton, Hartson etc etc obviously encouraged more people to part with their hard earned cash than had previously been the case. The fact that the economy was doing well back then and the presence of a strong Rangers team to compete against also helped.

All of these things have gone now. The present Celtic team is not particularly good, people are struggling financially and there is no realistic prospect of us being challenged in the league. These are the fundamental reasons why crowds are going down. The board being complicit in a section of our fans being treated like criminals inside Parkhead probably isn't helping either.

 

There's your answer.

 

This.

£20 a ticket on a Thursday night was not a lot to ask for an important Euro Tie against a good side.

I can remember even in the dark days of the early 90's the place was packed when a European night came around.

I'm sure if we get Liverpool or Man City next Friday it will be packed to the rafters again.

 

Not a problem this season mate as all our games are on Sunday.