10IAR, Part Virtual Season Tickets and Some Frequently Asked Questions

Football is back – almost – and Celtic are weeks away from returning to competitive action – Praise the Lord – and the fans should be able to see it all at Celtic Park by the time Santa Claus is putting his feet up – Well that will be a Happy New Year –

In the meantime SKY Sports, the SPFL and the clubs have got a framework at least for showing the Behind Closed Door (BCD) games prior to the return of the bums on plastic seats in the New Year.

Those renewing their season tickets also look like they will have exclusive rights to these closed door matches as part of their season ticket deal and again, protecting the supporter who makes that financial and emotional commitment season after season certainly makes sense. Buying a season ticket and not being able to attend the early stages of the season is a big ask and this exclusivity certainly seems as fair a way as possible to protect the investments of those supporters who renew in such uncertain times. As good a reward as they can come up with at present I’d suggest.

With the majority of the big encounters including the remainder of this seasons carried over Scottish Cup Semi Finals and Final due to be held back until fans can attend games once more, it looks like the second part of season 20/21 – and the possibility of 10-in-a-row and five consecutive trebles – isn’t one for missing out on. Though it looks like that first part may be a little unusual to say the least.

So who would you rather be now, the Celtic TV media team or SLO John Paul Taylor facing a myriad of questions, many of which have yet to have answers? Think I’d swerve both those roles for the next few weeks. Tough gig.

Will supporters need a Sky Subscription even if they’ve boycotted Rupert Murdoch for 20 years?

If a household has five season tickets and their pal two streets down has one season ticket do they pay they pay per household or per season ticket?

How do you ensure social distancing when there’s a crowd of 15 of your pals ‘just in your area’ at 2.55 on a Saturday afternoon, carry out in hand?

Why does my sister who lives in Spain get to watch the games on Celtic TV for £150 a year yet the season ticket holder pays £600?

If there’s a second spike in November and we’re back to Lockdown, what happens with my money?

What about the supporter who travels up from England buys tickets via the club but doesn’t have a season ticket as only gets to 6 or 7 games a season, is he/she locked out?

What about away games, will I be able to watch Aberdeen TV or Hamilton Accies TV (is there even such a thing?) or will I be stumping up extra for that?

Will it include League Cup games and pre-season friendlies?

And If I have a season ticket but the in laws are round for dinner, can I have a clause in the contract that means I have to ask them to go home?

Just a fraction of the queries people will have no doubt.

Like I say there are certain employees I wouldn’t want to be. On the plus side we can get all those furloughed staff back to work, even if it’s just to answer the phones and respond to e-mails tomorrow. There is likely to be a rush.

Some poor chap is already drafting a list of frequently asked questions for the website and the questions far exceed the answers. But you’d expect that, and you’d also expect some answers will be forthcoming soon enough, and clearly there are going to be winners and losers. No-one has done this before and nobody has a roadmap, not really?

What we need to hope for is that this sticking plaster is for the start of the football season only. By the time the trophies are handed out it looks like those purchasing season tickets will have a little bit of Gold Dust in their hand, for what we all hope could be that historic 10-in-a-row season.

In the meantime at long, long last we will have Celtic back playing football matches where we don’t actually know the result when we sit down to watch. Reminiscing is all very well but it doesn’t beat the kick off to a live match and not knowing how things will pan out, be that behind closed doors or in a capacity Celtic Park, I’d take watching Celtic again, just about however they can make it happen.

And let’s get that new Hoops top on the Bhoys so I can stop seeing ‘concept kits’ everywhere online. Like every five year old’s picture of ‘look Daddy I drew Celtic’ is somehow going to have Adidas knocking down the door for exclusivity rights. What is that all about by the way? Yes you are right I probably am getting old.

This situation will have and already has had, an effect on Celtic, and as we went into the Covid-19 crisis as the most dominant and best funded side in Scottish football, now we need to come out of it the same way. If that means we have to buy season tickets and the first half of the season is watched with the continued safety of the country in mind, then it has to be that way.

If as supporters we want to see a strong squad, new signings and the return of old faces like Fraser Forster, we are going to have to accept that comes with putting up the cash for a slightly diluted product until the New Year. The alternative is the dilution of the squad and the gap to those with aspirations to challenge us could narrow. An eroding of the distance we have built up, and the success upon which that advantage has brought us, or ramming 10-in-a-row right up em?

Of course I do appreciate that some fans who were going to renew will no longer be in a position to do so, due to redundancies and reduced income, or even that they cannot accept paying full whack for what they see as a short term television subscription, and that’s understandable and entirely valid, we all have to make hard choices. For those who can’t, of course family comes first, but for those who can but may decide not to, there’s a bigger picture here.

The continued success of Celtic as the dominant force of Scottish football could come down to this financial sacrifice in exchange for a lesser product in the short term. Such an outlay for this small amount of time could become something incredible and historic, something to tell the grandchildren just how it felt to experience it and to see it first-hand.

Come May – when that 10-in-a-row trophy is held aloft by Scott Brown – it may well seem like a smaller sacrifice than it may look today and probably one well made.

For now next May can wait. Bring on August, and bring on the journey. It looks like The Bhoys are back in town. Hopefully with a new kit and the mock up artists can take a breather.

Niall J

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About Author

As a Bellshill Bhoy I was taken to my first Celtic game in the summer of 1987. It was Billy McNeill’s return to Celtic Park as manager and Celtic lost 5-1 to Arsenal . I thought I was a jinx, I think my Grandfather might have thought the same. It was the finest gift anyone ever gave me when he walked me through Parkhead's gates.

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