Celtic attracted a paltry 41,000 through the turnstiles for a game against the current 3rd best team in the league - a team who are now only two points behind the east end mob. This figure can only get worse after a disastrous defeat which vastly lowers their hopes of wrestling back the title, and can only cause more despondency in the ranks – swelling the growing epidemic of empty green seats further.
That compares with a little over 47,000 at Ibrox for the recent Hearts game - a match of similar stature. This is about 150 lower than average for the season; however, both club’s figures could be seasonally adjusted due to the perceived, traditional end of January financial gloom of the nation. The comparison between the clubs; however, still stands.
Their average has dropped to just over 51,000 in a 60,000 stadium giving an uptake of 85% with 68% of capacity at the game last night. That could be even lower when you consider their attendance stats are often a round thousand - which could suggest massaging of figures, not unheard of from a club which obsesses in perpetuating myths.
Rangers have about 92% uptake on capacity which is fairly reasonable and as mentioned by our chairman, is currently one of the best in the UK. It also could demonstrate that the number of seats at Ibrox is about right for the current climate and plans to increase the stadium size are quite rightly shelved for at least the medium term.
So Celtic are averaging about 4,000 more through the gate than Rangers, a gap which could lessen if Walter’s Winners tighten their grip on the SPL trophy, currently gleaming in the Ibrox trophy room.
That is about half what is has been in recent years and cuts the annual financial reward for building a cheaper, low quality but ultimately larger stadium, from about £4M to about £2M (at a guess).
Combine that with the difference in European money due to Rangers being the only Scottish representative in the Champions’ League while Celtic had to make do with the relative paucity of the Europa Cup, out of the League cup early on, and the £10M spending spree of Mowbray compared to SFA by his Govan based counterpart, and it seems that while Rangers are bravely weathering a financial storm, Celtic’s bank balance could be starting to take a bit of a battering.
This could be exacerbated next year if Rangers again become the sole Scottish representative in Europe’s premier competition, when you consider how difficult it is to qualify as a runner up in the league, with far more affluent English, Italian and Spanish teams barring the way.
It was expected by the Parkhead hoards that Celtic would start to flex some financial muscle while Rangers were reeling in a weakened state, and with a golden circle of success bringing income bringing success. They have brought in a new manager and thrown some money at him, but the return has been spectacularly poor, almost but not quite on the same scale of disaster as the ill fated, short lived, Le Guen era at Ibrox.
Who next takes the lead in the ups, downs and almost outs of the off the park money game, all depends on how a proposed take-over of Rangers pans out. The club will surely benefit and vastly strengthen from releasing the manacles of a hefty debt and perhaps a small cash injection and a fan-based share issue, but ultimately the board will have to find a way to live within its means. This may mean defocusing on European success, and the removing the reliance on Champions’ League money, a prize which will soon become as difficult to win as the jackpot from your average puggy machine.
For the largest two clubs to survive the financial barren financial future of post recession credit squeeze, post Setanta demise and during a time of incredible financial input into the bigger European leagues, they will both have to cut their cloth and concentrate on the more parochial goals of dominating the main three Scottish football competitions.
It’s an Old Firm tradition which has sated most of its fanatical and vociferous followers for over a hundred years, and will have to suffice for the near future, until greed and mismanagement of banking proportions, bursts the fragile bubble of the likes of the English Premier League.
The good news is that even with the profligacy of our long term owner putting us into a very difficult and constraining time, we could be competing on a reasonable level financial playing field – and with a much better team on the pitch.
Their average has dropped to just over 51,000 in a 60,000 stadium giving an uptake of 85% with 68% of capacity at the game last night. That could be even lower when you consider their attendance stats are often a round thousand - which could suggest massaging of figures, not unheard of from a club which obsesses in perpetuating myths.
Rangers have about 92% uptake on capacity which is fairly reasonable and as mentioned by our chairman, is currently one of the best in the UK. It also could demonstrate that the number of seats at Ibrox is about right for the current climate and plans to increase the stadium size are quite rightly shelved for at least the medium term.
So Celtic are averaging about 4,000 more through the gate than Rangers, a gap which could lessen if Walter’s Winners tighten their grip on the SPL trophy, currently gleaming in the Ibrox trophy room.
That is about half what is has been in recent years and cuts the annual financial reward for building a cheaper, low quality but ultimately larger stadium, from about £4M to about £2M (at a guess).
Combine that with the difference in European money due to Rangers being the only Scottish representative in the Champions’ League while Celtic had to make do with the relative paucity of the Europa Cup, out of the League cup early on, and the £10M spending spree of Mowbray compared to SFA by his Govan based counterpart, and it seems that while Rangers are bravely weathering a financial storm, Celtic’s bank balance could be starting to take a bit of a battering.
This could be exacerbated next year if Rangers again become the sole Scottish representative in Europe’s premier competition, when you consider how difficult it is to qualify as a runner up in the league, with far more affluent English, Italian and Spanish teams barring the way.
It was expected by the Parkhead hoards that Celtic would start to flex some financial muscle while Rangers were reeling in a weakened state, and with a golden circle of success bringing income bringing success. They have brought in a new manager and thrown some money at him, but the return has been spectacularly poor, almost but not quite on the same scale of disaster as the ill fated, short lived, Le Guen era at Ibrox.
Who next takes the lead in the ups, downs and almost outs of the off the park money game, all depends on how a proposed take-over of Rangers pans out. The club will surely benefit and vastly strengthen from releasing the manacles of a hefty debt and perhaps a small cash injection and a fan-based share issue, but ultimately the board will have to find a way to live within its means. This may mean defocusing on European success, and the removing the reliance on Champions’ League money, a prize which will soon become as difficult to win as the jackpot from your average puggy machine.
For the largest two clubs to survive the financial barren financial future of post recession credit squeeze, post Setanta demise and during a time of incredible financial input into the bigger European leagues, they will both have to cut their cloth and concentrate on the more parochial goals of dominating the main three Scottish football competitions.
It’s an Old Firm tradition which has sated most of its fanatical and vociferous followers for over a hundred years, and will have to suffice for the near future, until greed and mismanagement of banking proportions, bursts the fragile bubble of the likes of the English Premier League.
The good news is that even with the profligacy of our long term owner putting us into a very difficult and constraining time, we could be competing on a reasonable level financial playing field – and with a much better team on the pitch.
