Where Are The Fans?

Emotionally detached fans who moan when people stand or sing & who don't give a * about Celtic unless it's a glamour game. I don't know why you're looking to take offence at that.

 

I can't blame people for not going to that game. When I was sitting there watching * football and freezing my * off I was questioning my decision to go, wasn't the most enjoyable experience of my life. The length of time it takes me to get back home is a problem as well and that will be worse for people who live further away than govan.

 

What do people want ? to go down the road of giving free tickets out to make the stadium look good ? .

 

Where the * did I give you the impression that your posts offended me? :smiley-laughing002::smiley-laughing002::smiley-laughing002:. I just think you're being highly over-dramatic.

In all my years of supporting Celtic and going to the football - home, away, Europe - I have only ever met/experienced a handful of people who actually fit your description of the "emotionally-detached fan".

 

Well, if "real" fans like those who follow the team through bad weather against teams like Dundee United were the only ones allowed to attend the big games we'd have empty seats at Champions League games!

Those fans who show up for the "big games" are part of the reason why our reputation among foreign clubs for our Champions League nights is so high.

 

Football attendances, ours in particular, have always had peaks and troughs. I remember us regularly playing to crowds of around 13000 in the early 80's. The numbers climbed towards the late 80's and then dropped again when we were *.

Wee Fergus breezed in and up went the crowds again. They've remained artificially high since then. 40000 is still a very decent crowd in these times. I read somewhere that only manure & ourselves have broken the half million mark this season, obviously we have played more home games than the likes of Arsenal, but it's still an impressive stat.

 

Even the GB were a little half arsed yesterday. It was pishing down and for the league games in recent times there has been a core support of about 40-45 thousand- it's obvious that a lot of people just are not interested anymore unless it's a "big" game in Europe or the game we can win the league on or whatever.

I don't think Celtic can do much more to try and entice the fans back to these games- they knocked £100 off the seasons books, created a family section and have reintroduced kids season books as well.

It is disappointing, I wish it could be 60k every week and the place bouncing like it is on Champions League nights, but at the end of the day a crowd of 40 odd thousand is still one of the biggest in the UK.

 

No one will admit to missing Rangers on here.

 

Hate to say it but even the opening game of the season had a poor turn out. Empty seats scattered all over. When you take into consideration the Lisbon Lions upper was also closed it makes it even worse.

 

I know, but the game was a 5:15 kick off and was on TV as well- would rather the fans were in the stadium but as I said some fans are just not interested anymore for whatever reason.

 

We all know the reason.

 

I am always very negative when I talk about this subject but I just see little value in going to watch Celtic in the SPFL. I have said it so many times on here but I think when there is so little competition and the chance of one team winning a league is about 1/40, there is really little value in watching such a competition. Of course it isnt Celtic's fault but spending £25 to watch a game in which you know Celtic are not going to be playing 100% and when the outcome of the game actually means very little, is a tough sell.

At the moment we could buy and sell every team we play, and in most cases many times over. We can buy or sell a player for more than the combined transfers of every other team in the whole country put together. We no longer have a sense of anticipation or importance for any single SPFL game because we recognise that the difference between a win, loss, or draw, doesnt really mean all that much in the context of the season. When every point matters, fans naturally carry a level of excitement and every goal is celebrated. When there is no significance, it becomes like watching a friendly each week.

When the chips are stacked so many in favour of one team beating every other, I think it no longer becomes fun to watch. Even if you happen to support the team that wins.

 

Very well put. In short we need more competition in the league. We do miss the challenge Rangers provided but even when they are in the league I don't think they will challenge us like they used to. They are a shell of what they once where and already have so many problems both on and off the field. They would have to spend over £20m just to get a team of the quality they had before they went into administration. Even then they probably wouldn't be good enough to challenge us. Obviously they can't spend that kind of money which leads me to believe that it will be a very boring stroll to 9 in a row. The season of 10 in a row will be great even if we romp it.

 

Weather, lack of quality, no competition ( leagues in the bag ) and dire football in general.

Whats this * im reading fans arent fans unless they do this and that? What a load of *.

 

seriously how hard are we to watch .dear me predictable and one paced.no flair at all and a strikeforce that's lighter than lightweight .maybe watching henrik,lubo,sutton ,hartson etc etc makes you like that. we don't have enough shots on target yesterday 35 mins without one at home. every game is a struggle where is the incentive to go out in bad weather to watch our effort yesterday .we need a few flair players to lift the crowd at times .never mind good luck for Wednesday another game we need to be at the top of our form hope we can do it

 

Absolute bollocks.

The attendances went down during Tony Mowbrays time and have never came back up.

For the majority of that time the Huns weren't dead.

 

I was there and there is no way 47k were at Parkhead yesterday.

The fans are turned off by a league that is already won and a team which knows the league is already won thus not bothering their *.

 

I find it hard to be overly critical of fans who don't turn up for league matches when there's a recession on, it's freezing cold and pishing with rain. The league is a foregone conclusion so where's the motivation to turn up when money's tight and the weather's boggin?

I went to the game against St. Johnstone last season when we got presented with the league trophy, it was freezing cold and pishing with rain that day as well. Did I enjoy it? If I'm being brutally honest, no I didn't. The game was * poor, we won 4-0 and St. Johnstone never put up any kind of opposition at all. It was like paying £25 to watch a training exercise. The atmosphere was non existent as well.

I can't make it to many games due to where I live but even though getting to that match was a rare treat for me I thought it was a thoroughly depressing spectacle on the whole. The best part of the day was getting back to the boozer after the game, having a few drinks with friends and a laugh.

Let's call a spade a spade here, winning a league that you have no realistic possibility of not winning just isn't any fun. It's boring.

 

The ridiculous European ticket policy will make this problem worse going forward. People who can afford to will simply buy a season book if they figure it gets them first option on the big champions league games every year. They will simply pick and chose what games they go to over the course of the season.

Arsenal has this problem at the moment. Most weeks the Emirates is meant to be near sell out yet there are thousands and thousands of empty seats. This is because wealthier fans just buy up the seat, even if they can only make a handfull of games each year. I think their fans were actually protesting about this last season.

Crowds will continue to dwindle because if there is no competition there is no point. Being perfectly honest, yesterday I had the day off so I could have went to watch the celtic game. Instead I watched Newcastle v Chelsea, the Celtic game on a stream with soccer saturday in the background, and then to the pub for Arsenal v Liverpool. Put bluntly, I knew I would have as much fun doing that than paying to go through to a game in which I suspected was going to be a half arsed effort, and knew it wouldnt be significant either way. Historically I would consider myself a more dedicated fan than most, but the last couple of years I have just felt no excitement when it comes to watching the SPL

 

I agree with everything you say here

And I would never criticise anyone for not going to a game of football. It is up to them, and I can completeley appreciate why people are not interested.