Examining sentiment ineffective governance

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You’ll remember the days of the season ticket waiting list. Then came the imaginary waiting list, which existed a while after seats were openly available. Now anyone can browse onto the Celtic web site and view exactly how many seats are available, and where, inside Celtic Park. It tells a fascinating story.

There’s the odd solitary seat and a few hundred with restricted views but that aside only the previously-closed part of the Lisbon Lions upper is not subscribed – and a significant number of tickets there will not include games against Newco, who are likely to ask for their entire entitlement according to league rules.

We’ve not seen anything like this since 1995 when Celtic Park reopened. Season 1994-95, at 34,000 capacity Hampden, was far from inspiring. We didn’t even sell-out a late-season game against Oldco, but Fergus had mortgaged our future on a partly-built 40,000 seater stadium, with projects underway to finish the job.

I looked at the empty seats at Hampden that day in 1995 and wondered if Fergus had blown his money. It didn’t look possible that we’d come anywhere close to filling a much larger stadium. As last season came to an end today’s ticket bonanza looked equally unlikely (although I did expect a pick-up).

Sometimes it doesn’t pay to examine sentiment too closely, just be grateful when you have it and know that it can change quickly when it’s against you.

Noting the increase in match day traffic around Celtic Park, you have to wonder how many millions of man hours will be wasted sitting in immobile cars and buses because Police Scotland no longer man traffic lights to allow spectators to leave the area quickly after events.

That’s another cost of our Offensive Behaviour’ Bill. Ponder that when you’ve moved 1 mile in an hour next season. Event-related gridlocks are another manifestation of ineffective governance. For decades police had budget to control traffic junctions at major events, not any more, in Scotland, anyway.

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587 Comments

  1. fieldofdrams on

    Winning Captains and Res12 guys, is the Guardian story one that Private Eye would pile into?

  2. 50 shades of green on

    Re : Strikers with good songs .

     

     

    We just released one with a great wee catchy number.

     

     

    Awe the best Stokies.

     

     

    SDHTQ.

  3. Goodbye Magic Hat.

     

     

    So, who will be next Sevco manager?

     

    I hear a gardener is looking for work:-)

     

     

    Mibbee’s naw?

  4. Yooz don’t know how well off you are re broadband, you have cos cutting their throats for your business, I have take it or leave it, I suppose I should move to a metropolis :-(

     

    Best of Anto

  5. Colour Blind Bhoy on

    EDB, thank you and that will sway me further towards VM, much appreciated.

     

     

    PS, sending my best wishes to you re your current health issues and I hope that your treatment is a success. Cryptic clue here, you may not know me as CBB but you may remember me from a few times we met a number of years back, one of them was in the Ubiquitous Chip as your family celebrated a special graduation.

     

     

    Hail Hail and kind regards.

  6. Pathetic excuses for the delay in the Forth Road Bridge. Teflon ministers.

     

     

    Now that’s offensive behaviour to all motorists. It seems the only economy, is with the truth. Sounds familiar.

  7. Thindimebhoy on

    Level 5 priority

     

     

    Memo to all concerned and the Scottish version of the (with shareholders) main stream media

     

     

    When Warbo appears

     

     

    No questions about the cup defeat only questions about the cup defeats consequences off the field

     

     

    He has still no made his mind up

  8. Big Georges Fan Club - Hail, Hail, Wee Oscar on

    CBB – sorry to be a dissenting voice, but had Virgin – top package – for 6 months. Started good, but deteriorating service (broadband) and the most irritating TV interface and handset ever, made me jack them in.

     

     

    Went back to Sky for TV, and BT fibre broadband. More expensive, but easier to live with.

     

     

    Perhaps an unpopular view, but there you go.

     

     

    HH

     

    BGFC

  9. jude2005 is Neil Lennon \o/ on

    BEEN WITH VIRGIN FOR A FEW YEARS NOW NO COMPLAINTS GREAT SERVICE !!!

  10. SmashingMilkBottles on

    Warbo has committed himself to TRFC

     

    CcKing is rolling his £500k bonus into his 16/17 salary

     

     

    Watch Level5 pronounce mañana

     

     

    Weiry Dave misses out on a pension promotion….more’s the pity

  11. Celticrollercoaster supporting Shay,our bhoy wonder along the way on

    SMB

     

     

    You got those walking shoes yet? :-)

     

     

    HH

     

     

    CRC

  12. GlassTwoThirdsFull on

    Good to see Joe Ledley recover so quickly from his injury. Been a bummer to have missed out on that.

  13. Big Georges Fan Club - Hail, Hail, Wee Oscar on

    TT – agree. Virgin started out super, mega fast, but became slower by the week. Virgin TV interface was painful in comparison with Sky (not praising the company, before anyone gets their knickers in a twist – just commenting on interface).

     

     

    Handset was counter-intuitive, and increasingly annoying to use – again, just a comment on design – Virgin’s handset design, and associated interface, tries to be ‘not Sky’, rather than being easy to use.

  14. Colour Blind Bhoy on

    BGFC, T&T and JUDE, thanks all for your responses, much appreciated, life was simpler when we had less choice -:)

     

     

    Have decided that D-Day is tomorrow so the more info I have before the better the decision I’ll make!

     

     

    HH

     

    CBB

  15. Big Georges Fan Club - Hail, Hail, Wee Oscar on

    Other opinios are, of course, equally valid :-)))

  16. CBB

     

     

    You have me thinking now. Coming up for five years later this month. Did you know Moira perhaps through work? What a small world.

     

    Younger daughter graduates in a fortnight.

     

    Hmmmm!

  17. TheBarcaMole on

    Sky, BT, Virgin,…

     

    Choices, options, decisisions…

     

     

    BBC, pay the license, no pay the license…

     

     

    Season ticket/card, pay as you go…

     

     

    Living wage, wageless…

     

     

    Boring job, no job…

     

     

    Takeaway or out of date from the co-op…

     

     

    Two worlds within a five minute stroll from ‘Paradise’…

     

    Happy to have a telly and a place to sleep csc…

  18. Already departed:

     

    Blackett, Stokes, Derk

     

     

    Look close to departure:

     

    Cole, CKR, Scepovic

     

     

    Don’t renew contracts:

     

    Mulgrew, Fisher, Findlay

     

     

    Can’t see returning:

     

    Rogic I would keep but don’t see him signing new contract.

     

     

    Don’t want to see returning:

     

    Forrest, Ambrose, Cifchi, Commons, GMS, Johanson, Allan

     

     

    So far it looks like 6 departures from the first team pool and I could be another 11 to follow.

     

    Even with that amount of players gone we would still have 18 first team players in;

     

     

    GK Gordon, Bailly

     

    RB Lustig, Jenko

     

    LB Tierney, Izzy

     

    CB Simonovic, Sviatchenko, Boyata

     

    CM Bitton, Brown, Ajer, McGregor

     

    AM Robert, Christie, Armstrong, Henderson

     

    CF Griffith

     

     

    Think we have the bones of a good young squad, if we can move enough players on we could easily afford a quality centre back, defensive midfielder, creative midfielder and centre forward. If we are spending a fortune on wages let’s make those wages count. Only 11 payers can play on the park at any one time. We would have 22 players plus bhoys like Nisbett, Radson and Atchison from the youth team.

     

     

    HH

  19. Saint Stivs says SACK THE BOARD on

    Watching football focus.

     

     

     

    Tell ye what . I love martin o’neill

  20. thetimreaper on

    Current number 1 trending story on Guardian website – MASH ‘humiliating’ step down from RRT Board

     

     

    Sums.It.Up

     

     

    Incidentally John James blog thoughts on that today…

     

     

    ‘Despite what you may have read in the Level 5 tainted Scottish media, the appointment of Justin Barnes to the board of Rangers Retail was not in any way an embarrassing climbdown by Mike Ashley. Mr. Barnes is a registered trade mark attorney and has significant experience in the field of intellectual property law. He has worked for Sports Direct International as a consultant since 2004 and became a full time employee in February 2007. Mr. Barnes is currently Head of Brands at Sports Direct International Plc. Cameron Olsen is Head of Legal and Company secretary at SDI. Mr. Barnes and Mr.Olsen are the two finest legal minds at SDI. Rangers are represented by an accountant, Paul Murray, who is clearly out of his depth, and a career criminal who has been passing himself off as an accountant in South Africa.

     

     

    Ashley has bolstered his Rangers Retail representation. At the top of Mr. Barnes’s in-tray will be to ascertain whether the withdrawal of the intellectual property is in contravention of the agreement with SDI. Given that Mr Barnes drew up the agreement he is ideally placed to advise on how to proceed. He will either invoke a clause to sell the new replica shirts as normal, or he will invoice Rangers for the full retail amount at a predetermined time.

     

     

    Ashley is preparing himself for a war of attrition. Justin Barnes and Cameron Olsen will wipe the floor with Murray and King. If the latter believed that the anticipated legal action would have inconvenienced Ashley, to force a compromise, they should think again. Ashley won’t be in court. He has passed the gauntlet to Justin Barnes. Ashley has called King’s bluff. King is evidently happy to gamble with Rangers future but on this occasion this could escalate into a dispute that could lead to administration. James Blair will know what’s going on. He is facing a dilemma. As rainmaker to Anderson Strathern, any legal action benefits his company; however as Company Secretary of RIFC, he knows that the losses from this war of attrition could be catastrophic.’

  21. What is the Stars on

    Cork celt

     

    Great story about the YMCA

     

    young man, there’s no need to feel down

  22. jude2005 is Neil Lennon \o/ on

    HOPE BRENDAN GETS TOM ROGIC TIED DOWN WITH A NEW CONTRACT HE IS GOING TO BE A BIG PLAYER FOR US!!

  23. Saint Stivs says SACK THE BOARD on

    Thebarcamole

     

     

    Last 3 days in London. At things with the highest ranked business people in the city.

     

    All want to chat brexit. I tease a lot about them breaking up great Britain and the last of the empire.

     

     

    However.

     

     

    The number of poor wretches on every, and I mean every , corner, is quite unbelievable.. Some pitiful sights.

     

    And its not immigrants. Its all, faces and peoples.

     

     

    I cleared a Sainsbury local of their cheap sandwiches , reduced from £2.80 ffs to £0.99. Bringing it down to pound shop levels. OK, I only spent a fiver. But I walked back to hotel in holborn and handed them out in 30 metre walk.

  24. Big Georges Fan Club - Hail, Hail, Wee Oscar on

    THEBARCAMOLE on 8TH JUNE 2016 11:27 PM

     

    Sky, BT, Virgin

     

     

    Happy to have a telly and a place to sleep csc…

     

    ———-

     

    As am I.

     

    Just offering advice when asked.

     

     

    HH

     

    BGFC

  25. thetimreaper on

    Kevin McKenna, former Herald Deputy editor and now working freelance, occasional Guardian columnist and *OF* lover. Has written a few Celtic bashing articles over the last few years, sometimes correctly admittedly. Just having a look at his profile on LinkedIn, it reads,

     

     

    “In addition to this, I still maintain my own love affair with the UK’s newspaper industry by writing regular columns for The Observer and the Scottish Daily Mail.

     

     

    I’m delighted to speak to anyone who may be encountering some turbulence with our newspapers or who simply wants to raise his or her media profile.”

     

     

    He is ideally positioned you would think to tackle the Guardian censorship. Will he speak up? Doubt it.

  26. Colour Blind Bhoy on

    EDB, you’re very warm, a couple of times when I phoned Moira you answered her phone as she had inadvertently left it at home :-)

     

     

    I worked with Moira from 2008-2011 and as well as work our other common interest was Celtic, it was she who got me reading CQN as she mentioned you spent the odd hour or two on it.

     

     

    She was great to work with, I saw her once a month and she always greeted me with a cheery smile and the words “hello boss.” When I left each day her words were always “cheerio and thanks.”

     

     

    Pleased to hear that M is now graduating, Moira was very proud of both her and K and spoke with real warmth about them.

     

     

    More clues available if required :-)

  27. TheBarcaMole on

    BGFC…

     

     

    Thanks…

     

     

    Not personal, just offering some perspective…

     

     

    Cheers…

     

     

    Regards & Hail Hail

     

    YBM

  28. Big Georges Fan Club - Hail, Hail, Wee Oscar on

    THEBARCAMOLE

     

     

    Appreciated (and I don’t disagree with any of your comments).

     

     

    HH

     

    BGFC