Morton v Aberdeen

[vanderark14]

1 minute ago, goodguy said:

That's not the point I'm making.

 

I know, but it goes against what others have been arguing here, surely as the bigger team Celtic deserve more than 50% of the allocation? As the smaller team Aberdeen should just roll over and take it. Celtic fans within their right to argue that Aberdeen took around 11,000 to the semi then they shouldn't get anymore.

Any team should be afforded the chance to sell 50% of the tickets but at the same time that team has to be realistic. Morton were way with their estimate of 10,000 and should rightly be ridiculed for it. The game should have been played at one of the Edinburgh grounds, the vast majority of people saw this as the right option.

[Parklife]

7 minutes ago, goodguy said:

That's not the point I'm making.

 

I know, but it goes against what others have been arguing here, surely as the bigger team Celtic deserve more than 50% of the allocation? As the smaller team Aberdeen should just roll over and take it. Celtic fans within their right to argue that Aberdeen took around 11,000 to the semi then they shouldn't get anymore.

I've honestly no idea what point you're arguing... Teams should be given the chance to sell 50% of tickets to a semi or final. However, teams also need to be responsible and realistic. Saying you need 10k tickets to sell and then only taking 4k fans to the game is pathetic and unprofessional. That's what people are saying.

They're not saying Morton shouldn't get 50% if they are capable of selling 50%. 

[Rossy]

I would have loved to have seen 10K fans from each team at Easter Road...the atmosphere would have been brilliant.

It was never realistically going to happen though and in the end the sensible thing would have been to have a 15k/5k split.

Still. The Morton fans I met were all good lads and they gave their team great support....looking back on the game Morton played very well, and while I believe Aberdeen deserved to win overall, if Morton had gone a goal up the story could well have been different.

Good luck to Morton for the rest of the season

 

[SMcoolJ]

The allocation for the final is 21.5k to each team and the rest to the suits/corporate/clingers onners. 

Edited October 24, 2016 by SMcoolJ

[Stewart_Aberdeen]

How do they split the final anyway? 

Assuming they just start at the North Stand and work their way round towards the South.

[Parklife]

12 minutes ago, Stewart_Aberdeen said:

How do they split the final anyway? 

Assuming they just start at the North Stand and work their way round towards the South.

Celtic have to get "their" end and "their" dressing room at the neutral venue. 

[Stewart_Aberdeen]

12 minutes ago, Parklife said:

Celtic have to get "their" end and "their" dressing room at the neutral venue. 

Oh I knew that but we've had that can of worms opened several times on here before. 

[deecie]

As the 'home' team, surely the Famous get first pick of Hampden.

If Celtic want more than 21.5k tickets, I'd be alright with the final being played at Murrayfield instead.

I'm really not that bothered where it is we win it.

[sbcmfc]

49 minutes ago, Parklife said:

Celtic have to get "their" end and "their" dressing room at the neutral venue. 

It would be great if Aberdeen or any other team challenged that "tradition". Would love to hear the SFA/SPFL try to justify it.

[vanderark14]

12 minutes ago, sbcmfc said:

It would be great if Aberdeen or any other team challenged that "tradition". Would love to hear the SFA/SPFL try to justify it.

can you imagine the uproar from the media if any side challenged it?

[Toepoke]

18 hours ago, goodguy said:

Our support is unpredictable though, wasn't that long ago we took 5000 to a scottish cup tie against Motherwell so can understand why we said 10k. Appears the Rae family have damaged the support beyond repair. 

My mate told me his uncle, a Cappielow regular, refused to go because the ticket price for OAPs had gone up from £12 to £15 from the previous round. The difference equates to about 1p a month since their last semi.

 

[sbcmfc]

I was genuinely surprised by how low the Morton support was. As has been referenced elsewhere, they brought more to fir park for a last 16 Scottish cup tie a few years ago.

Dispels the myth that they're a sleeping giant.

[goodguy]

2 hours ago, Parklife said:

I've honestly no idea what point you're arguing... Teams should be given the chance to sell 50% of tickets to a semi or final. However, teams also need to be responsible and realistic. Saying you need 10k tickets to sell and then only taking 4k fans to the game is pathetic and unprofessional. That's what people are saying.

They're not saying Morton shouldn't get 50% if they are capable of selling 50%. 

Maybe taking a bit of a long road to get to my point to be fair... We all (well most) agree that teams should be given the opportunity to sell 50% of the tickets at a neutral ground, Aberdeen didn't want to allow Morton to attempt this which played a part in the game being at Hampden, not fair for some to just say Morton "demanded" it be at Hampden when there has been an accumulation of factors. The fact that the 2 clubs couldn't agree made Hampden the only option. Kick off time on the other hand...

This isn't a justification but I'll try explain why we said 10K, this was uncharted territory for us and I genuinely thought we'd have had 10k easily when we made the semi-final. This would certainly have been the case 10 years ago. Unfortunately it looks as though years of gross mismanagement and a series of very poor managerial appointments has taken its toll on our support who have chucked it altogether and can't even be tempted back for a national semi. This has been the saddest thing to come out the whole affair for me.

Considering the venue I though the atmosphere was still decent and I enjoyed mingling and chatting with 'Dons fans before and after the game and genuinely wish you all well for the rest of the season. McInnes is an absolute class act and hope you can hold onto him, was one of my hero's growing up and I'm still convince if Rangers hadn't pinched him we've have won the league in '96. I'm just glad we gave a good account of ourselves on the pitch, and if Quitongo had buried his chance at HT who knows... I won't mention the offside goal!

[goodguy]

28 minutes ago, sbcmfc said:

I was genuinely surprised by how low the Morton support was. As has been referenced elsewhere, they brought more to fir park for a last 16 Scottish cup tie a few years ago.

Dispels the myth that they're a sleeping giant.

Its certainly dispelled it for me. Looks like our drop in supporters is beyond repair.

[Parklife]

7 minutes ago, goodguy said:

Maybe taking a bit of a long road to get to my point to be fair... We all (well most) agree that teams should be given the opportunity to sell 50% of the tickets at a neutral ground, Aberdeen didn't want to allow Morton to attempt this which played a part in the game being at Hampden, not fair for some to just say Morton "demanded" it be at Hampden when there has been an accumulation of factors. The fact that the 2 clubs couldn't agree made Hampden the only option. Kick off time on the other hand...

This isn't a justification but I'll try explain why we said 10K, this was uncharted territory for us and I genuinely thought we'd have had 10k easily when we made the semi-final. This would certainly have been the case 10 years ago. Unfortunately it looks as though years of gross mismanagement and a series of very poor managerial appointments has taken its toll on our support who have chucked it altogether and can't even be tempted back for a national semi. This has been the saddest thing to come out the whole affair for me.

I assume Aberdeen said they wanted 15k tickets and Morton said they wanted 10k. Making Hampden the only option. It's a shame that both clubs got it wrong, with Morton seriously over estimating. It's a shame that a crowd of <17k watched in a stadium with a 52,000 capacity, while a stadium with a 20k capacity in Edinburgh sat empty. Hopefully everyone learns from this and ensures the most appropriate venues are chosen for future games. 

[Toby]

I don't recall Morton publicly saying anything about how many tickets they could sell, but we did exactly the correct thing in the interests of our club by insisting the game was at Hampden.

The club's £2 million in debt to Rae's company, has been losing £300-400k a year for God know's how long and never get to the latter stages of cup competitions. Why would they allow even the possibility of not cashing in as much as possible when the chance arises?

I can understand why the Aberdeen fans weren't happy but we had to look after our own interests first and foremost by demanding it was at the bigger venue in case there was a risk of it selling out somewhere smaller.

It's then up to the SPFL to decide if those demands are merited, but as a Morton fan, I'm more concerned about the money we owe our parent company than I am about how a lot of empty seats look like at a game which most neutrals will have forgotten about in a fortnight anyway.

[Parklife]

12 minutes ago, Toby said:

I don't recall Morton publicly saying anything about how many tickets they could sell, but we did exactly the correct thing in the interests of our club by insisting the game was at Hampden.

The club's £2 million in debt to Rae's company, has been losing £300-400k a year for God know's how long and never get to the latter stages of cup competitions. Why would they allow even the possibility of not cashing in as much as possible when the chance arises?

I can understand why the Aberdeen fans weren't happy but we had to look after our own interests first and foremost by demanding it was at the bigger venue in case there was a risk of it selling out somewhere smaller.

It's then up to the SPFL to decide if those demands are merited, but as a Morton fan, I'm more concerned about the money we owe our parent company than I am about how a lot of empty seats look like at a game which most neutrals will have forgotten about in a fortnight anyway.

There would've been a lot more Aberdeen fans in attendance if the game had been played at Easter Road or Tynecastle. 

[Toby]

6 minutes ago, Parklife said:

There would've been a lot more Aberdeen fans in attendance if the game had been played at Easter Road or Tynecastle. 

Perhaps so, but there was no way of estimating Morton's support, as there wasn't a similar fixture to use as a precedent, although it would undoubtedly have been smaller at Easter Road or Tynecastle. Then you also run the risk of turning it into a glorified Aberdeen home game.

About 16,000 seems about right for a game between Morton and Aberdeen at a neutral venue, and is actually more than in the 1979 semi final when both teams were enjoying much more successful eras. But if there was a chance of a higher gate, we were correct in taking that risk, speculate to accumulate and all that. And it's the SPFL paying the rent, not us. It probably didn't pay off, but that's life.

I don't dispute that it's probably a pretty selfish approach, but I'm interested in what's best for Morton, not Aberdeen.

[euan2020]

43 minutes ago, Toby said:

Perhaps so, but there was no way of estimating Morton's support, as there wasn't a similar fixture to use as a precedent, although it would undoubtedly have been smaller at Easter Road or Tynecastle. Then you also run the risk of turning it into a glorified Aberdeen home game.

About 16,000 seems about right for a game between Morton and Aberdeen at a neutral venue, and is actually more than in the 1979 semi final when both teams were enjoying much more successful eras. But if there was a chance of a higher gate, we were correct in taking that risk, speculate to accumulate and all that. And it's the SPFL paying the rent, not us. It probably didn't pay off, but that's life.

I don't dispute that it's probably a pretty selfish approach, but I'm interested in what's best for Morton, not Aberdeen.

but being selfish - would you not have got more folk at Easter Road, and larger share of the crowd receipts ?

I expected more neutrals - but i just looked back at Queen of South V Aberdeen in 2008 and it was 24K, so think the kick off made difference, although no excuse for Morton - more likely less Aberdeen tickets sold  

Edited October 24, 2016 by euan2020

[neilser]

33 minutes ago, euan2020 said:

but being selfish - would you not have got more folk at Easter Road, and larger share of the crowd receipts ?

I expected more neutrals - but i just looked back at Queen of South V Aberdeen in 2008 and it was 24K, so think the kick off made difference, although no excuse for Morton - more likely less Aberdeen tickets sold  

The Queen of the South semi was an early start as well - check out the time of the BBC report:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/scot_cups/7341879.stm

That was one of the longest most miserable journeys home from Hampden ever - it felt like coming back from a Scotland game

[Toby]

34 minutes ago, euan2020 said:

but being selfish - would you not have got more folk at Easter Road, and larger share of the crowd receipts ?

I expected more neutrals - but i just looked back at Queen of South V Aberdeen in 2008 and it was 24K, so think the kick off made difference, although no excuse for Morton - more likely less Aberdeen tickets sold  

I don't know. Is there much evidence that Aberdeen would've brought much more to Edinburgh other than what the Aberdeen fans are saying?

Tynecastle would've been just about sold out anyway with the crowd that went to Hampden, and the last semi final you had in Edinburgh against St. Johnstone was a 3pm kick off and wasn't live on the telly. There might have been more at Easter Road, there might not have been. There would certainly have been less Morton fans though. Morton did what they felt was best for them by demanding it was played at Hampden, it was up to the SPFL to decide otherwise.

[Rossy]

Whats 'best' for clubs doesn't always equate with common sense or what's the most realistic or sensible option.

Morton are not unique in this by the way. 

[jcs]

8 hours ago, sbcmfc said:

It would be great if Aberdeen or any other team challenged that "tradition". Would love to hear the SFA/SPFL try to justify it.

I don't remember anybody complaining at the old Hamden when we had to stand in the "traditional" celtic end in the  pishin rain n the "traditional" Rangers end was covered .

[OLAS]

19 minutes ago, jcs said:

I don't remember anybody complaining at the old Hamden when we had to stand in the "traditional" celtic end in the  pishin rain n the "traditional" Rangers end was covered .

Ye should've. Poor victimised souls. 

[Parklife]

1 hour ago, jcs said:

I don't remember anybody complaining at the old Hamden when we had to stand in the "traditional" celtic end in the  pishin rain n the "traditional" Rangers end was covered .

 

Got to love the utter pish that the Tims are using to try and justify this in built advantage.