CELTIC has a business model that relies on over 50,000 supporters buying a season ticket in the 60,000 capacity stadium that Fergus McCann built in the East End of Glasgow. Make no mistake, Celtic’s success has been built on and around the world that Fergus did in the mid 1990s and it is to his vision and his belief that he could fill 60,000 seats on a match by match basis, mostly to season ticket holders that has led Celtic to being sitting on the threshold of four trebles in a row and of achieving the magical ten.

Dermot Desmond and his CEO Peter Lawwell deserve some credit too but make no mistake that the significant contribution came from Fergus McCann.

The Celtic support has been singing about Ten-in-a-Row for a number of years. It has been the target and it is also the one that the Rangers support fear the most. They haven’t had the vision to start having their own nightmares about Celtic ‘Going for 55’ but that will come after the Ten.

Last summer as Celtic basked in the glory of a Treble Treble win and eight-in-a-row, season tickets for the nine-in-a-row season sold out and there was a waiting list of many thousands to buy the tickets.

Celtic retained the league Cup, built up a substantial and almost certainly uncatchable lead in the Premiership and reached the semi-final of the Scottish Cup when the Coronavirus stopped play. The BBC down south (ignored by their Govan branch who had their own agenda) had a ‘super computer’ which estimated the percentages of league leaders around Europe going on to win their leagues and also the percentage chances of any challengers winning the title.

Celtic, at 98.87% certainties were only beaten by Liverpool who had a 100% chance of winning the Premier League.

Near the end of our last game at Celtic Park at the start March, I posted a video in You Tube of The Bhoys chanting “This is how it feels to be Celtic, Champions again as you know, the Coronavirus won’t stop ten in a row, ten in a row.”

I remember saying to my son, “Hope they’re right” and here we are three months later and no sign of when we’ll be able to sit in our seats at Celtic Park and watch the Champions play.

Yesterday Celtic released details on the season ticket with the virtual option to cover games that will inevitably be played behind closed doors and it is fair to say that the club experienced quite a substantial backlash, with the biggest issue being that multi-season ticket families were being asked to pay their usual season ticket prices for each and every member of the family. Some supporters with five season tickets complained of having to pay over £2000 to watch the games on a laptop.

Stand behind the team. Renew your season ticket today. | CelticFC | Ticket News https://t.co/nQ9YoSEOv5

— Celtic FC SLO (@CelticFCSLO) June 8, 2020

As an aside, Celtic down-play the role of fan media to quite a substantial level and the PR team at the club remain focused on servicing the needs of a press pack from the mainstream media that has continually knifed Celtic in the back. Liverpool FC, as we mentioned last week, have modernised their thinking and put Liverpool fans media as their top priority in communicating with their fans. The press comes second. That’s another story but the relevance is this – I remember a Celtic Director explaining to me that we must remember that not all Celtic Supporters are online and have access to a computer to get their Celtic news so the club needs to meet their needs by working with the likes of Daily Record.

There is some logic in that argument although the tide has continued to go out on the fortunes of the printed red tops and the coronavirus will be having a devastating impact on their newspaper circulation figures. (In contrast The Celtic Star has recorded very strong audience figures during the lockdown months). So how does that logic sit for season ticket holders who don’t go online but just read the papers?

Ref additional info on next season’s Season Ticket Package, more details are contained here https://t.co/HoSaKkdBR9

— Celtic FC SLO (@CelticFCSLO) June 8, 2020

Celtic have put in place the BT Sport production team to deliver on the games we’ll be watching on the laptop. The service won’t be the often criticised level of Celtic TV as the club have been working for several months – as we have reported – on significantly improving the service so that large volumes of subscribers (season ticket holders) can watch the games without the usual hassles that are often reported from overseas supporters paying to watch Celtic TV.

The biggest problem with all of this seems to be the amount that bigger families are being asked to pay. In my household we have two season tickets – one adult and one student season ticket – and renewing is happening with no complaints and no rebate asked for. That is probably a fairly standard number of tickets and response to the rebate offer. However if you have two adult tickets, maybe a student ticket and two kids tickets in one household then the price seems excessive and these bigger families – who in previous seasons have on a pro-rata basis put more of the family’s disposable income into Celtic than others, are being asked to shoulder a bigger share of carrying the club through this unprecedented global crisis than seems fair and reasonable. These families probably haven’t asked for the rebate either so are leaving more money in the club that other smaller families.

Celtic should look again at this. Surely under 18s season tickets should be free until such time as play resumes and then they can be charged on a pro-rata basis for the games that we will be able to attend?

🎥 #CelticFC is delighted to announce that it will be engaging with highly-rated production company @sunsetandvine as we look ahead to matches being broadcast as part of the Club’s season ticket. https://t.co/fQ8Te9KlL2

— Celtic Football Club (from 🏡) (@CelticFC) June 6, 2020

Maybe this could extend to a policy that no household pays more than two full price season tickets now and then after that any additional seats reserved to existing season ticket holders are charged at a pro-rata basis as above from the games we can go to?

It’s fair and reasonable. Everyone has to shoulder a share of the cost on getting Celtic through this and maintaining our position as the dominant force in Scottish football. The plan that Celtic have is as solid and professional as we’d expect from the club but it does need tweaking.

Celtic did offer rebates on the games we missed last season and the support will have left the vast majority of those funds with the club (we have no update on actual numbers on this). There have been a few complaints about the procedure for claiming rebates but nothing like the backlash poor old John Paul Taylor has to endure yesterday.

The Celtic support has by and large left that money with the club. The club can give a little back today by recognising that families can’t be expected to pay thousands of pounds to watch a game on a laptop that they might not even have, if the board’s media logic is to be factored in.

This crisis is hopefully a once in a lifetime situation. The Celtic support don’t want it to stop Ten-in-a-Row but today we’re asking the Celtic Board to meet the support somewhere in the middle on this one and do what os right for Celtic families who risk losing their seats in Paradise simply because their family members have attended Celtic Park over the previous seasons.

Family first, Peter. Please sort this today.