Celtic must move with the times and bring in a ticket exchange system

Things have changed when it comes to how fans access football, with increased options of what to watch and the cost of living crisis diversifying viewing habits.

While the season ticket model is undoubtedly one that Celtic should stick to, it is not a route that suits every fan. In the current climate, not every fan can be expected to shell out for the costs required. However, there may be a potential solution that has untapped potential from the club's point of view.

Ticket exchange systems are in place across football and have proven to be a success at most clubs. While every team does things a bit differently, an example of a route Celtic could follow could be similar to fellow Scottish Premiership side Hearts. 

The Edinburgh club describe the system on their website as: "Giving season ticket holders the ability to sell their designated seat at face value for any Premiership home fixture they are unable to attend.

"If a season ticket holder sells their seat via ticket exchange, they will receive 50 per cent of the value as credit to their account.  This credit can only be redeemed against next season’s season ticket."

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Hearts do this in the event of a home sell-out, which is obviously easier for them to achieve than filling 60,000 seats at Parkhead, but Celtic could take this further so that the system could be implemented for fixtures that are not scheduled to be full.

This could help the club combat touts and provide a streamlined way for fans to sell their season tickets for one-off matches and receive compensation for it. Champions League fixtures and Glasgow Derbies are, of course, sellouts but the other league and cup matches may provide an opportunity for fans to take advantage of any empty seats that are available. The club have a significant waiting list for season tickets at the moment and this could be one of the ways to solve the problem, at least on a short-term basis.

Increased chances of more regular full houses at Parkhead would benefit the club both from a commercial perspective and a social one. Being able to showcase the stadium at full capacity on more than just a few occasions would make for an excellent selling point.

There is an argument about whether there would be a demand for a strategy like this to be in place for every game; early rounds of the League and Scottish Cup always create the opportunity for more tickets to be available and they are not always taken up.

However, this does not reduce the case for implementing a ticket exchange system, as it would still be beneficial the majority of the time. Whether the club themselves want to bring such a thing in is another story. They have appeared quite tight-lipped on the matter until the last year or so.

When asked about a potential ticket exchange system at Celtic's AGM in November, CEO Michael Nicholson said: "The club has 5000 matchday tickets and we balance that with a competing ticket exchange. We considered it in the summer but we’re looking at a deal with Ticketmaster…watch this space." 

This sounded promising but with just a month until the 2023-24 campaign gets underway, it looks like another season will begin without a strategy in place. Club SLO John Paul Taylor also made reference last year to something being considered for the following season but that is yet to bare any fruit.

Celtic must move with the times and adapt to the ever-changing football and economic environment. The cost of living crisis means that a number of fans are simply not able to make the financial commitments required for a season ticket but this should not mean they are not able to attend any games across the season.

The club was founded on the principles of helping those in need, and while this strategy cannot be compared to the charitable areas of Celtic, it can still go some way to helping the relationship between the fans and those in charge. It seems like a win-win for all parties.

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The potential partnership with Ticketmaster that Nicholson referred to at the AGM would be a good way of way signalling that those in charge of the club are serious about bringing in this policy. The outlet has a long history of providing ticket exchange services which means Celtic would have a ready-made system available to them.

It feels like an opportunity that is too good to ignore. There is clearly demand and it would benefit the fans and the club and also shows Celtic are willing to move with the times. A large number of teams across Europe already have a ticket exchange system in place and there is no reason the Scottish champions should be any different.

There are always things that can be improved upon in terms of how the club is run, and while this might not seem as pressing for some compared to appointing a director of football for example, it is clearly an issue Celtic should act upon.

This piece is an extract from the latest Celtic Digest newsletter, which is emailed out every weekday evening with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from The Celtic Way team.

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