In the late 1980s and early 1990s, many football clubs met their supporter’s desire for information by introducing a premium number that fans could call to get updates. Celtic were one such club, who charged upto 49p per minute for exclusive news and match reports.
The old board were not very commercially aware and missed many opportunities to make money through merchandise. As such, street traders and terracing traders filled the void… “Any macaroon bars/Spearmint Chewing gum?” However, they struck gold with this idea, exploiting fans for news at extortionate rates in the days before the internet.
Rather than wait for the next edition of the Celtic View fans called the number in their droves at times. But eventually, internet forums and satellite TV eroded this practise. Other means of generating revenue have taken their place and the club has a Superstore full of Celtic merchandise to bring in income. The advent of social media, fan media and podcasts has also ensured that clubcalls can never return.
The line at Celtic was operated by Terry McGeady, who was responsible for updating information for callers, and went on to have a football radio show on Scot FM.
Many fans were unhappy that the line just regurgitated stories from the Celtic View, which was somewhat cheaper than the phone call. It’s main advantage was to be used to listen to match commentaries, which would have cost about £50 per match!
Across football, these club calls were conning thousands of fans. Many people, especially those living far away from their club, were desperate for new content in the same sense that we get regular information today from sites such as this. Fans of lower league teams in England were hit hardest as the less popular the team, the less that team appeared in the papers, and thus the more some fans would phone up their club call.
Fortunately this clubcall notion is little more than a strange piece of history at Celtic Park these days.
