St. Johnstone joined Premiership sides Hearts, Hibernian and St. Mirren in reducing the allocation for traveling supporters for fixtures against Celtic and Rangers.
At least in the case of the Perth side, the goal of the move is to make its home ground, McDiarmid Park, “a true fortress for our team, particularly when hosting Celtic or Rangers,” according to an open letter by owner Adam Webb published on the club’s web site. Or rather, that’s the publicly acknowledged reason.
The Full Scottish
In recent years, there have been several incidents of damaged seating in the away ends of multiple grounds across Scotland, in addition to ticketing problems and confrontations with the police. These matters have involved supporters of both Celtic and Rangers.
Notably, as we’ve mentioned in this space previously, neither of Glasgow’s big two is currently allowing traveling support for derby matches at their respective grounds.
There’s also the (no small) matter of sectarian singing, an eye-of-the-beholder issue to be sure, but still a trigger for many.
Now, to be fair, there have been incidents involving away supporters of other clubs as well, such as Hibs.
But the decisions regarding Celtic and Rangers, specifically, at St. Johnstone, Hearts, Hibs and St. Mirren are not insignificant.
Assuming £30 per ticket, the reduced allocations could amount to more than £50,000 in lost revenue per match, for each of the up to two visits by either of the Glasgow clubs during a typical season.
At St. Mirren, which reported total revenues of £4.2 million in 2022, for example, that’s a pretty big dent in income.
Meanwhile, Kilmarnock last year claimed that it has suffered no loss in income since reaching the decision to reduce away-ticket allocation in 2019.
All of these clubs are run by smarter minds than us here at the Full Scottish, but the sea of empty seats is hardly a good look.