Crowd Limit Of 500 Imposed

Outdoor events will be limited to 500 spectators from Boxing Day. Empty stands are back. Fancy your chances in a raffle? LINK

We need someone to hire fir park for their wedding on Sunday at 3pm with a 4,000 strong guest list.

A tweet from Alan Burrows,

Covid-19 is not going away and we must find ways to slow the spread. But today’s announcement and the restriction to just 500 is incredibly frustrating. Most pertinently, it is a serious blow for fans who have been through so much and rely on football as a method of supporting themselves mentally with some normality and release.

It is also a difficult situation for the clubs themselves who have had uch a torrid time trying to keep their head above the water. Restrictions to this level are, ironically, worse than a full lock out as you retain a significant element of your cost base and have virtually no means to commercialise the event. You also have the huge issue of trying to select 500 fans from a highly engaged pool of people who are all desperate to attend. Fan versus fan, how do you make that fair?

We should start the winter break now, and rearrange these matches when all fans have a chance to attend at a later date when hopefully restrictions are eased. That way we increase the likelihood (from zero, currently) that fans can watch the gives live, all matches are played under the same parameters and clubs can commercialise the fixtures in line with current budgets. During that time, we put our facilities and platform at the disposal of the local health authorities to ensure as many booster vaccinations can be administered as possible

Fron the official site...

Our Boxing Day game with Livingston will be played with 500 home supporters in attendance.

The decision of the Scottish Government on Tuesday to restrict numbers means our next fixture at Fir Park will be played with limited fans.

On Wednesday, the SPFL board ruled that the match should go ahead.

Our away games against Ross County on 29 December and St Mirren on 2 January have now been rearranged for Tuesday 18 January and Tuesday 1 February respectively.

Season ticket holders are asked to enter a ballot for the Livingston match now.

In ‘theory’ it seems like a good idea to bring forward the winter break, however it is absolute fantasy to think that come mid January the virus surge will have subsided enough to allow crowds back in. We will be lucky to get back into grounds in full numbers before the end of the season IMO.

The only reason this is happening is because Celtic want it to, to suit their own selfish needs. And as usual in Scottish football these days, what Celtic want, Celtic get.

I think it's a 50-50 call, not fussed either way. Certainly you can justify it because you might get lucky with the crowds and if not you lose relatively little. Like yourself I doubt there'll be a material change in circumstances in three weeks and then you need to just get on with it.

One contributing factor that people may forget is the ridiculous decision of FIFA to hold the World Cup in Nov/Dec 2022 in Qatar. That puts huge pressure on all football leagues to finish on time this season, have little or no pre-season in the summer and fit in a competition in the middle of next season. Unfortunately, that is where the money is, so that pressure filters down and there is little or no opportunity for leeway.

https://www.skysports.com/football/n...neil-doncaster

That's the official explanation.

This restricted crowd will surely be an advantage to Livi.......it'll be like a home game atmosphere for them!!