The reaction to the news this week that St Johnstone are set to reduce the allocation for Celtic and Rangers supporters when they visit McDiarmid Park was predictably measured on social media.
Responses ranged from sober observations that the Scottish game was eating itself alive to questions around why Scottish football hates itself, with others wishing the Saintees out of business for having the temerity to offer just the two full stands behind the goals and a section of the Geoff Brown Stand to the Old Firm travelling support.
Now, I can well understand the knee-jerk frustration of the Celtic and Rangers supporters, despite the fact that this really isn't much of a reduction at all.
After all, they have travelled to these grounds in huge numbers for years, topping up the coffers of these smaller clubs and often being charged through the nose for the privilege. Their matches at these venues are always ‘Category A’.
And the decision of new Saints owner Adam Webb to thank them for packing out McDiarmid Park in particular over those years by cutting their allocation no doubt came across as just the latest slap in the face after Hearts, Hibs, St Mirren and others had already done so.
Their argument that an empty seat where a Celtic or Rangers fan could be not only deprives a club of much-needed revenue, but also projects a negative image of the overall Scottish football ‘product’ on television, is sound enough too. Even if home fans would rather have the empty seat.
I also don’t want to be hypocritical on this issue, having long bleated about the need for Celtic and Rangers to knock their heads together and solve their own ticketing tit-for-tat in the Old Firm fixture, as I firmly believe that a healthy away support adds greatly to the spectacle.
But their grousing over smaller away allocations only goes so far before it falls down on a few accounts, and it also rather misses the point. For a start, with the exception perhaps of Tynecastle, their allocations throughout the Premiership could hardly be described as stingy.
Also, while a demand for a certain number of briefs gives off more than a whiff of entitlement, there is currently no entitlement to a minimum percentage of tickets to be awarded to any away supporters under SPFL rules.
You can argue that there should be, and even that average home gates should be taken into consideration when calculating it, but as it stands, you are given admission to away stadiums by grace of the host. And the only suggestion from the SPFL is that allocations are 'reasonable', a hugely subjective term.
Some stadiums, and certainly McDiarmid Park, may historically have been taken over by Old Firm fans whenever the Glasgow giants have rolled into town, but the stadiums themselves don’t belong to Celtic or Rangers.
I spoke to St Mirren CEO Keith Lasley on this very subject last February after his own club had taken a similar step to the one that Webb has now taken, with the success of that decision in Paisley no doubt inspiring in him the confidence to follow suit. And it was Lasley that cut straight to the nub of the issue.
“As far as we are concerned, it is our fans’ stadium,” Lasley told me.
“It is The SMiSA Stadium, but it belongs to them, essentially.
Read more:
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Keith Lasley on why St Mirren put own fans first and cut Celtic and Rangers tickets
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Rangers and Celtic ticket allocations confirmed by St Johnstone
“We want every strategic decision moving forward, particularly a big one like that, to have our supporters at the heart of those decisions and they have a say.
“Personally, for me, I would almost like to take the Old Firm out of that issue. For me, all home matches, whoever it is we play - whether it be Real Madrid, Barcelona, the Old Firm or Greenock Morton – our supporters are our first concern when they come to our home stadium.
“It’s not about the Old Firm or any other team. It’s about a sense of belonging, and that is hopefully something we can really build on moving forward.”
In other words, it’s not always about you, lads. And St Mirren certainly did build something tangible from the decision.
The financial Armageddon that many predicted ultimately failed to materialise.
Ticket receipts for the season rose from £1.2m the previous year to £1.6m. Fans who may traditionally have stayed away from matches against Celtic or Rangers – and there are many who do throughout the division – started to come back. The family stand that was previously turned over to the Old Firm is now a lively part of the ground with a strong base of season ticket holders.
These are the people that turn up every week, not only when the big boys and the TV cameras roll into town, and they must always be the main priority of the boards of such clubs.
At the start of last year, St Johnstone’s then board made the decision to give over all but their Main Stand to Rangers for a Scottish Cup tie. As a result, just 400 home fans attended the game, with the rest staying away in protest at being made to feel like visitors in their own home.
The new regime at the club will hope that by keeping a part of that home just for their own, they can replicate some of the success that St Mirren have seen, and over time, become less reliant on the ‘Old Firm pound’.
This isn't about Scottish football eating itself, it's about Scottish clubs not biting the hand that feeds them. And not just on four occasions per season.
