Season Ticket Numbers

[Squirrelhumper]

1 hour ago, Theyellowbox said:

 

All of this against a backdrop of a pretty small country, with probably 80% of the population within 90 mins travel of the 2 biggest clubs. 

Try being 30 mins away, thankfully its a battle we seem to be winning.  Especially with youngers. 

[ClydeTon]

5 hours ago, Buckets said:

I think Hearts and Kilmarnock both broke their records for season ticket sales last season and St Mirren and Aberdeen have done so this season. Not in the Premiership but Raith Rovers also hit a 10 year high in sales. Great to see the rising attendances across Scottish football. 

All of the Big 5 clubs have seen a hike in attendances in recent years compared to the 2000s. I think European football can be a draw so 5 European spots and guaranteed Euro group stage football for third is helpful. 

Probably because the football's better now; The Championship in particular has improved drastically over the last so many years, no longer is it ex-premiership players who are coming for a wee retirement bow out, and now it's actually a league of quality teams. Even L1 has it to an extent, with the smaller teams coming up and often proving fairly successful in the championship, and beyond. (e.g. Livingston, QP, Arbroath, Rangers). As you say, for the Premiership it is the draw of European Football, guaranteed for 1st-3rd, driving competition at the top and driving fans back to the grounds in turn. If our clubs would stop making total arses of themselves in qualification maybe we could get ourselves even more of it.

Beyond the big leagues- It's also good to see the smaller L1/L2 clubs like Spartans and Stirling having wee "Ultras" groups. Not much but it's an honest effort and it's good that lots of clubs are attracting younger fanbases who'll be hooked to those clubs forever. It's what the game needs, imo.

 

[Buckets]

8 hours ago, Squirrelhumper said:

Try being 30 mins away, thankfully its a battle we seem to be winning.  Especially with youngers. 

That's good to hear. I think I heard similar with Raith Rovers doing well to engage with kids in schools in Kirkcaldy. Maybe it's obvious, but I think it's so important clubs go out to schools in their catchment area and even mark their territory in the town in whatever way they can. Getting players to visit schools or even giving out some kits or tickets can get kids hooked and going along with their pals and become a fan for life. 

[Buckets]

3 hours ago, ClydeTon said:

Probably because the football's better now; The Championship in particular has improved drastically over the last so many years, no longer is it ex-premiership players who are coming for a wee retirement bow out, and now it's actually a league of quality teams. Even L1 has it to an extent, with the smaller teams coming up and often proving fairly successful in the championship, and beyond. (e.g. Livingston, QP, Arbroath, Rangers). As you say, for the Premiership it is the draw of European Football, guaranteed for 1st-3rd, driving competition at the top and driving fans back to the grounds in turn. If our clubs would stop making total arses of themselves in qualification maybe we could get ourselves even more of it.

Beyond the big leagues- It's also good to see the smaller L1/L2 clubs like Spartans and Stirling having wee "Ultras" groups. Not much but it's an honest effort and it's good that lots of clubs are attracting younger fanbases who'll be hooked to those clubs forever. It's what the game needs, imo.

 

Interesting to hear you would say the Championship has improved. I would maybe say the same even though I mostly only see the TV games now. Agree with the ultras part, I think it's a positive draw, even for kids too young to be involved, to see the colour and noise. Hopefully the up and coming Saudi League further highlights the disconnect between football at that level and ordinary football fans and makes people realise the great clubs they have in their own towns where they can actually feel like a part of the club. 

[hk blues]

About 4,300 for the Dees.

Not bad all things considered. 

[ClydeTon]

8 hours ago, Buckets said:

Interesting to hear you would say the Championship has improved. I would maybe say the same even though I mostly only see the TV games now. Agree with the ultras part, I think it's a positive draw, even for kids too young to be involved, to see the colour and noise. Hopefully the up and coming Saudi League further highlights the disconnect between football at that level and ordinary football fans and makes people realise the great clubs they have in their own towns where they can actually feel like a part of the club. 

I think the TV games often bring the best out of players - our games against Dundee and Inverness, both at home and on the BBC, certainly did - and the increased profile of the league may be helping decent attract players and supporters into it- among other factors.

The best thing for Scottish Football (although there is no way to force it to happen) would be for most people to support their home town team. I know quite a few who have 'converted' from the Old Firm to Morton in the last couple of years and I wouldn't be surprised if that happened in most places. Again, the 'Ultras' at the typically "smaller" clubs is just amazing to see. Spartans had an effort at a Tifo, as well: 

So it is a good sign, especially with those in the picture above being younger than you'd expect from such a group, they'll grow over time and ultimately follow the club forever.

Anyway, back to the point of the thread; St. Johnstone, Hearts, Aberdeen and St. Mirren- the latter three who I've always thought of as having decent home supports (yes, even St Mirren)- matching season ticket heights of the last 10 years (or beyond) is a really good sign too. Especially the ones who did it this year, in the middle of this Cost of Living crisis. Fair play.

[Squirrelhumper]

What's the numbers like then - roughly as follows?

Celtic 52,00?

Rangers 45,00?

Hearts 15,000

Aberdeen 12,000

Hibs 12,000

Killie 5,000

Dundee 4300

St Mirren 3800

Motherwell?

County?

St Johnstone?

Livi?

 

 

[Black_and_White_Stripes]

3 hours ago, hk blues said:

About 4,300 for the Dees.

Not bad all things considered. 

Nah, that's brilliant, to be fair. I was impressed with your fans queuing for tickets for the play-off game against Queen's Park last season, too. Good to see loyal, passionate fans. 

Edited August 9, 2023 by Black_and_White_Stripes

[Buckets]

5 minutes ago, Squirrelhumper said:

What's the numbers like then - roughly as follows?

Celtic 52,00?

Rangers 45,00?

Hearts 15,000

Aberdeen 12,000

Hibs 12,000

Killie 5,000

Dundee 4300

St Mirren 3800

Motherwell?

County?

St Johnstone?

Livi?

 

 

Could be wrong but I don't think Hibs will be near 12,000. 9-10k I'd have thought. 

[capt_oats]

It's not really clear what sort of numbers we (Motherwell) are on.

The last update that put a precise figure on things came on June 14th (so almost 2 months ago now) when we announced we'd hit 3000+ (3,150 to be exact - an increase of 300 compared to the same point the previous year).

Since then all we've had is an update from the Chairman last week August 4th to say (amongst other things):

Quote

"I would like to take the opportunity to thank our fans for their ongoing support. Season ticket sales have been excellent, and we are confident of reaching our target by the time we play our first home game against Hibernian."

Link

Take what you will from that...

For context our ST sales last season were 4,807 but our prices have noticeably increased after a few seasons of price freezes and, of course, our gratis offer for ST holders who had purchased during the Pandemic season.

This season an early bird adult ST in the cheap seats has been bumped up to £375 (£395 full price) compared to £330 (£345) for 22/23.

Edited August 9, 2023 by capt_oats

[hk blues]

4 minutes ago, Black_and_White_Stripes said:

Nah, that's brilliant, to be fair. I was impressed with your fans queuing for tickets for the play-off game against Queen's Park last season, too. Good to see loyal, passionate fans. 

Cheers.

I'm happy enough with our number but I doff my cap to Killie fans - 5,000 or so is a more than decent number.  

[Black_and_White_Stripes]

I always feel a bit of sympathy for Livi. They have a great stadium, albeit with a plastic pitch, and have a team that have punched well above their weight for several seasons. What more can they do?

I'm guessing the problem is Livingston is anew town, essentially an over-spill from Edinburgh and Glasgow and so they haemorrhage support to the Old Firm and the Edinburgh clubs. 

[RandomGuy.]

1 hour ago, Squirrelhumper said:

What's the numbers like then - roughly as follows?

Celtic 52,00?

Rangers 45,00?

Hearts 15,000

Aberdeen 12,000

Hibs 12,000

Killie 5,000

Dundee 4300

St Mirren 3800

Motherwell?

County?

St Johnstone?

Livi?

 

 

Last i read we were about 2600

[Billy Jean King]

Imagine this thread if Falkirk ever get back to the big league (no sniggering at the back lads). They always loved a crowd w**k, can't imagine their years in the wilderness have altered that mentality.

[Dons_1988]

19 minutes ago, Billy Jean King said:

Imagine this thread if Falkirk ever get back to the big league (no sniggering at the back lads). They always loved a crowd w**k, can't imagine their years in the wilderness have altered that mentality.

That’s quite an imagination you’ve got. 

[CoF]

1 hour ago, capt_oats said:

It's not really clear what sort of numbers we (Motherwell) are on.

The last update that put a precise figure on things came on June 14th (so almost 2 months ago now) when we announced we'd hit 3000+ (3,150 to be exact - an increase of 300 compared to the same point the previous year).

Since then all we've had is an update from the Chairman last week August 4th to say (amongst other things):

 

Definitely feels like we've not been kept as up to date as previous seasons. I canny mind if the official channel updates have actually reduced compared to the past, or whether we're just missing Alan Burrows sitting at midnight in his MFC pyjamas and still replying to folk? 

[capt_oats]

3 hours ago, CoF said:

Definitely feels like we've not been kept as up to date as previous seasons. I canny mind if the official channel updates have actually reduced compared to the past, or whether we're just missing Alan Burrows sitting at midnight in his MFC pyjamas and still replying to folk? 

It feels like there's been less of a push this summer.

Having a quick scroll through the Twitter feed and the official site there seem to have only been a handful of ST related posts - the announcement itself, a reminder about the early bird deadline, a post about us extending the early bird date and since then...not a lot.

I mean, I've never been a ST holder - just a PATG guy standing on the sidelines occasionally being snarky but whether it's true or not there definitely seems to have been less noise about STs compared to recent seasons which as you say is probably down to Burrows not being at the club and engaging with folk by posting stuff like this :

Then again there was a bit of pushback to the slightly tone deaf roll out in light of the price increase and changes to stuff like additional kids tickets - whether or not the club have read the room a bit and kept it low key or not IDK.

I've mentioned this before in our thread but our ST sales (as reported by the club/Flow) have generally seemed to have been on an upward trend although 5k definitely feels like it's our ceiling:

22/23 - 4,807
21/22 - 5,226 (inflated by Well In scheme- 4,784 purchased)
20/21 - Covid season - the post linked above suggests 3,732 fans carried their tickets over from 2020/21
19/20 -4,488
18/19 - c.4,300

In that respect it would be interesting to know what 'our target' McMahon mentioned in his update is likely to be.

Edit:

And just like that...

Edited August 9, 2023 by capt_oats

[Savage Henry]

About a month ago County were sitting at 1700, which apparently was 20% more than at the same time last season.  I’d say about 2000 is a fair estimate.  

[0Neils40yarder]

6 hours ago, Black_and_White_Stripes said:

I always feel a bit of sympathy for Livi. They have a great stadium, albeit with a plastic pitch, and have a team that have punched well above their weight for several seasons. What more can they do?

I'm guessing the problem is Livingston is anew town, essentially an over-spill from Edinburgh and Glasgow and so they haemorrhage support to the Old Firm and the Edinburgh clubs. 

I'd be amazed if more people from Livingston went to watch Rangers or Celtic, than people from somewhere like Paisley. 

Livingston are a new club and people just aren't born with the connection to that club that they are to Killie, Motherwell or any other Club that has been kicking about for nearly a century and a half.

Someone further up said that St Johnstones crowds are poor in comparison to other one club towns such as Motherwell and Kilmarnock but the difference with Perth is that it really is a town surrounded by countryside and the odd village rather than huge conurbations like Lanarkshire and Ayrshire. 

Motherwells support is ridiculous given how close it is to Glasgow and how small its population is, but it can't be denied that the support is swelled by folk from neighbouring towns. This however, doesn't explain the pitiful historical support of Hamilton just across the Clyde.

[MazzyStar]

I’m hearing Celtic have sold 200,000 season tickets.