Take measures to increase attendances
As a viewing spectacle, it is better to see full capacity stadia on TV.
The SPFL should enforce measures that prevent clubs from overcharging for both home and away tickets (i.e. introduce an affordable maximum price cap) to ensure more fans attend games.
In addition, rules should prevent clubs from limiting away fans as opposed to having near empty stands when there is a low uptake amongst home supporters.
For example, Kilmarnock used to give Celtic and Rangers two stands at Rugby Park but have now reduced them to one. If smaller clubs can fill three stands then fair enough, but if not increase the allocation for away fans. Sell out when possible.
Poor attendances make Scottish football look small fry! This does not help the case for negotiating improved TV rights with major broadcasting companies.
Ensure a return to more away fans in the Glasgow derby
In 2018, Rangers drastically reduced Celtic’s allocation at Ibrox from 8,000 to 800 fans. Celtic reciprocated this for Rangers’ visits to Celtic Park.
An overwhelming home support in either fixture has resulted in a more partisan crowd at both grounds. Some prefer this. However, it has undermined the one thing that made this fixture so special as both an attended game and a viewing spectacle on television: the ‘class of cultures’ that epitomises tribalism manifested through sport!
The Glasgow or “Old Firm” derby (depending on how you look at it) is one of the most passionate, volatile and renowned fixtures in world football. It is without doubt Scottish football’s unique selling point, as it has a far wider appeal to fans outside of Scotland.
For Scottish football to get the best TV deal possible, returning to large away allocations for its most high profile fixture is essential. If need be, the SPFL should introduce rules that prohibit clubs from severely limiting away support when there is such a high demand for tickets.
Conclusion
Both the current deal and proposed extended one drastically undersell Scottish football. Accepting another sub-standard TV package without putting the rights up for tender would represent gross negligence by the SPFL and Premiership clubs should they vote in its favour.
Although Scottish football cannot compete with its English counterpart in terms of finance and global exposure, it should be able to with similar sized countries like Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
All necessary measures should be taken to ensure that the ‘product’ appeals to fans not just in Scotland, but also to a wider UK and global audience. This will enable it to go into negotiations with broadcasting companies with greater strength, clarity and purpose. It is time to stop accepting the scraps from Sky Sports’ Anglo-centric table and demand more!
As a governing body, the SPFL has a duty to maximise Scottish football’s potential. In an age where TV money is king, ensuring the best possible deal is vital to the long-term stability and success of the national game.
Mark Nicholas
I couldn’t agree more with each of the points highlighted in the article. Especially the point about away fan allocation. We constantly hear from clubs outwith Celtic and Rangers that they don’t have the budgets to compete with the big two yet they’d rather see thousands of empty seats at their grounds than receive the additional income from filling those vacant seats with away supporters whichever teams they are playing. They cannot argue on one hand that they strive for greater revenue yet turn away the opportunity to acquire that revenue, albeit from away support. Cutting off noses to spite one’s face comes to mind. Futhermore, clubs in the SPFL often vote to protect their own interests by voting against expansion of the league to protect the income they receive by playing against the big two at least three times per season yet limit the away support when their grounds are half empty. Where is the logic in that? We need a complete overhaul of the league structure by expanding it to eighteen clubs with proper relegation and promotion, playoffs if practicable, and do away with this ludicrous split. I’m not suggesting that Celtic and Rangers won’t continue to dominate but there is a serious lack of ambition from the smaller clubs. They are happy in their self-interest to hunger after crumbs rather than develop Scottish football as a whole and grow the product to make it a more attractive spectacle. Scottish football is being governed by a bunch of inept, insular, antediluvian carrion crows.
Well said I completely agree.
Most if not all of these clubs struggle to get the basics right, on and off the field!
A lot of the time, watching a Scottish league game is similar to watching a kick about in a local park; players lack basic technique, teams lack structural discipline and tactics are basic!
These are all things that could easily be taught and coached into players and teams, but nobody bothers, and it shows more when our 3rd place finishers and below enter European competition for their annual pumping, often against teams working with similar budgets but who do get those basic fundamentals of the game right!
We have 3 choices as far as our leagues concerned, that i can see:
1. Do nothing, stay as is, 12 team set up with nobody outwith Glasgow learning or progressing.
2. Form a 14 team top flight, Championship and 3rd tier, with a split after 26 games in each, promotion/ relegation etc, and hope its better than present over time!
3. Form a closed Premier League consisting solely of Full-time professional clubs(i think we have around 21 – 22?), with no relegation, and hope teams can use this to their advantage by using the breathing space with fear of relegation removed to work on technique, tactics etc, perhaps even fielding more youth.
… wouldn’t do our league any harm if a company like Red Bull decided to invest in a team outwith Glasgow too, create a third force in the league…
A single Celtic v *rangers game can attract approximately about 1.5 million legitimate viewers worldwide, and a lot more if you count, ahem, streams of the game!
Could Celtic & *rangers get together and sell their own 4 game tv package for their league encounters against each other, sell them to armchair fans for £40 for all 4 say, and split the profit?
… it’d bring in both clubs a lot more per season than they can ever hope to make off Sky or whoever!
Let the SPFL weakly negotiate terms for games outwith the Glasgow Derby.
It also looks as if the number of clubs in the leagues mentioned in this article has a direct effect on how much the offer from tv companies amounts to, with those from an 18 team league making more than those from a 16 team league, and so on down to 12 team leagues…this could be yet another reason why it’d be more beneficial to restructure our league, though anything more than 14 teams in it wouldn’t be able to cater for 4 Glasgow Derby’s/season, but in the long term this may actually be beneficial to the league as a whole as it’d half the number of fixtures potential opposition title challengers would face against the Glasgow clubs!
Good article though and a lot of good points made.