Within hours of its announcement Virtual Season Tickets became a massive talking point on social media.
For years the streaming of home matches, until recently there was an embargo on 3pm Saturday, has been a big issue with illegal streams available from a number of sources.
Over a decade ago various pubs were showing matches live from Polish TV with that sort of option now available without any subscription or commitment on a smart phone.
Peter Lawwell quickly came out with a statement that Virtual Season Tickets would be exclusive to Celtic Season Ticket Holders but as that detail sunk in it created more questions.
From around 50,000 Season Ticket Holders a large percentage of homes will have more than one season ticket, there is probably a decent number of households that pay £1,000 or more in season ticket monies.
Only one television is required per house which makes it a very expensive streaming service when Netflix is available at around £10 per month.
For a huge variety of reasons there are many regular supporters who don’t have Season Tickets, excluding them from watching on a match by match basis seems bizarre but could well be a condition imposed by Sky Sports.
At £10/match to stream live with the money going to the club there is likely to be a significant uptake but against that the club is anxious to put Season Ticket Holders first where many are paying £30 per game.
Celtic are now working on the detail for this scheme, the outcome could either be a huge opportunity opening the club up or a monumental own goal if many fans are excluded while homes with more than one Season Ticket are forking out a small fortune effectively for Celtflix.
“We want our fans to stay as close to the Club and be part of everything we do. It is imperative we cater for the needs of our supporters. These proposals are great news.”
Celtic Football Club welcomes the work undertaken by the @spfl and @SkySports.
Full statement ??
— Celtic Football Club (from ?) (@CelticFC) June 3, 2020
Non UK residents can buy access to every game for £15/month……so ST holders paying over the odds…..Celtic TV is renound for poor service, this sounds like a recipe for disaster
— ??PREMIUM LOGINS?? (@OperationRobo88) June 3, 2020
How is charging full price for Season Tickets looking after the fans? How is getting a refund from last season made very difficult for the fans? How is a virtual ST thesame price as a real one?
Hamilton arent selling ST this year but I bet they will will have a virtual ST.— Tigertim Esq (@asmallteaser) June 3, 2020
This is a huge opportunity to for the club to turn a crisis in terms of cash flow into a positive. Existing ST are the priority. However, the club should be driving for a full home and away virtual ST which is opened to all Celtic fans. This is a game changer.
— EM (@EddieMa12080010) June 3, 2020
Dont really think this has been thought through.
Livingston ST £300
Hamilton £320
Celtic £546On top of that what about households with multiple tickets? You’ll only need 1 code#SPFL @CelticFC pic.twitter.com/JPV1PnllDt
— Rachael (@R15DBR) June 3, 2020
But dont worry you are getting all this at “no extra cost” ?
— CNelson (@nellychris67) June 3, 2020
£550 to watch games on the tele? ?
I know Sky are cnts when it comes to subscription prices but £550!?— IGCeltic (@IGCeltic) June 3, 2020
It would make economic sense to enable this or even allow fans to buy the streaming of individual games. Not sure the whole concept has been fully considered.
— Michael (@Michael41319946) June 3, 2020
Absolutely disgraceful. Holding supporters to ransom because we are going for ten. Reduce the prices of the books is clearly the only option here. Can’t expect us to pay £500+ to stream games.
— SH67 (@67seann) June 3, 2020
I get the joke obviously but why should families pay for more than 1 season ticket ? When whole family can watch on 1 ticket ?
— Paul Kane (@pkane74) June 3, 2020
Away game will be on sky
— Westmuir ? Tim (@Dannym1989) June 3, 2020
The same fans that never took it up will be the same fans greeting about lawwell’s bonus.
— Ginzo (@Ginzo1967) June 3, 2020
So I need to pay £30 to stream a game because I’m a season book holder… but a guy in Spain can pay £15 a month for Celtic TV to watch the same game?? Am I missing something here?
— Stephen (@HughesStephrn) June 3, 2020
5 ST,s in this house alone, that’s over£1500 to watch a telly, way too expensive if you ask me. And my kids probably won’t watch it on tv too many distractions . We have Celtic tv just now and they don’t watch it.?????
— Sharon the celt murphy (@Shazbostribe) June 3, 2020
Come on guys, don’t make this exclusive to physical season ticket holders. The whole point of streaming is that the numbers are unlimited: are you really going to give up additional revenue? I don’t have a season ticket as I’m unable to attend but would happily pay for this.
— Chris Scullion (@scully1888) June 3, 2020
Why only to season ticket holders,surely everyone who is willing to pay should be able to get one of these,if only while the stadium is closed to spectators.
— Freddie42 (@Freddie425) June 3, 2020
You could probably sell hundreds of thousands of virtual season tickets worldwide,lots of money could be made
— Freddie42 (@Freddie425) June 3, 2020