This was a fascinating read.
This season, St Mirren announced that they would be limiting ticket allocation to the Celtic fans to just on stand for the foreseeable future.
Their aim, as is their right, is to try and encourage more home supporters to attend matches and to stop fan disruption as when the Hoops come to visit they needed to move some of the home support season ticket holders to allow the away fans to fill two ends of the ground.
In an interview with Renfrewshire Live Sport Buddies chairman, John Needham spoke of the ‘encouraging’ signs of the first home fixture against the Hoops with the new ticket allocation set up, “Home advantage counts for a lot in sport, everyone knows that.
“There certainly were more home fans there than last time we played Celtic.
“We’re still working out the final financial impact, but the attendance comparisons were very encouraging. With the cost of tickets going up slightly as well this year, financially we’re hoping to break even.
“But this is just the start. Things don’t change overnight and we’re hoping the better atmosphere, and ultimately better results will see our fans return in even greater numbers.”
So let’s look at the attendances when Celtic visit Paisley [Football WebPages].
Season 2018/19 – 7288
Season 2019/20 – 6797
Season 2020/21 – N/A due to COVID
Season 2021/22 – 6596
Season 2022/23 – 6331
A steady decline in numbers and where I will not dispute Needham’s assertion that more home fans attended the business model to support that is just not sustainable in this current economic crisis.
St Mirren launched the Help a Buddie scheme in June this year where supporters can purchase tickets for those less fortunate in society.
It is a great scheme and on Sunday it seems to have shown good promise but the cost of living crisis is going to bite hard this winter as food inflation and domestic utility prices continue to increase.
Just how practical is this long-term to continue to ask supporters to dig deep with Christmas just around the corner?
And if they are working out the financial impact from Sunday already will it really be as successful as they hope and what happens when their fans can’t continue to support it?
St Mirren should be commended for the initiative but I fear it could come back and bite them sooner rather than later.