What’s the point of Celtic’s Home Cup Ticket Scheme – for supporters

Andrew H on the challenging issue of cup final ticket distribution

It seems to have become at least a twice-yearly occurrence that I find myself in ad hoc therapy sessions with family, friends and acquaintances over Celtic’s Home Cup Ticket Scheme (HCTS).

So it has been this week as many angst-filled conversations have flowed from the ticket carve-up for the Scottish Cup final. A distribution that appears to have resulted in eight out of every 10 fans that have raised the topic with me being carved-out of the briefs equation of the showpiece against Aberdeen on May 24 wherein Celtic will be looking to complete a sixth treble in nine years. My 15-year-old son was fortunate to be among the two in 10, I must point out, while my brother, cousins and so many work colleagues have been in the camp of those who missed out on the big day at Hampden.

It must be stated straight off the bat that Celtic are in a no-win predicament in situations like these; when demand far, far outstrips supply. Moreover, none of the figures I am about to set-out are verified, and so could be far off the mark. They are best guestimates in the absence of the club publicly providing any information on how they slice up a 20,000 Hampden allocation. But allowing for all those caveats, what we have here is 35,000 HTCS appearing to be in a bun fight for 11,000 tickets, with 9,000 taken up by corporates, supporters’ clubs and those in the higher reaches of the away ticket points ranking system.