A Little Concern

WE HAVE written many articles over the last few years about the thorny issue of entrance prices for SPL football. Almost everyone agrees that prices should be reduced however with most clubs in financial bother it is unlikely they will agree to reduce their income. Every club sets their own prices however, Killie’s visit to Motherwell in November proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back for one Killie fan. Stuart Little is a Killie regular but along with the rest of the Killie fans he was horrified at Motherwell’s pricing policy.

We’ll give a quick description of Fir Park for  anyone who hasn’t had the pleasure to visit the ground where no two stands are remotely similar. The Main Stand (West) is the only stand in the country where they have built three quarters of it then given up the ghost. The home stand (North) behind the goals is on so much of a slope that many home fans regularly slide off their seats. The Subbuteo stand (East) looks ridiculously out of place and could be replaced by a three-piece suite. Finally the South Stand behind the goals IS where the away fans are situated.

The pricing for the Killie game was as follows: West Stand £20, North Stand £18, East Stand £16 and South Stand £20. In other words the Killie fans, who had to watch from behind the goals, were charged the same as the punters in the main stand and we paid more than the other two home stands. Stuart decided enough was enough and wrote to Motherwell FC to question their strange pricing policy. Their reply included the following:

“According to the SPL rule C14.6.1 the home club for a league match is prohibited from charging higher admission prices to accommodation designated for supporters of the visiting club for broadly comparable accommodation designated for use by supporters of the home club at the same league match. For Motherwell Football Club, the comparable accommodation to the South (away) Stand is the Main Stand (used by home supporters) and so the price for these two areas should be the same i.e. adults £20, Juveniles £9, family gate £27, concessions £13. You have argued in your e-mail that the South Stand facilities do not even match the East Stand, but I would reject such arguments in terms of the excellent view from the South Stand and all the first class ancillary facilities available therein. I would also point out that no matter the different opinion expressed re the standard of away accommodation, according to C14.1 of the SPL rules, the home club, in its absolute discretion, shall determine admission charges for league matches”.

Of course Stuart was less than impressed as there is absolutely no way that the stand behind the goals can be compared either in terms or facilities or viewing. He contacted the SPL to highlight the issues however they predictably quoted the same ambiguous rules and proved of no help whatsoever. Stuart has written another letter to Motherwell FC accusing them of breaking the SPL rules and includes the following:

“In summary I believe that Motherwell are in breach of SPL rule C14.6.1. Any argument can be made but during the Motherwell v Kilmarnock game on November 5, 2005 the visiting supporters were charged more than home supporters behind the goals at the North Stand and Motherwell fans in the East Stand. The view of the pitch cannot be as good in the South Stand compared to the Main Stand and facilities are no different in the North Stand which was £2 less. The view is better in the East Stand as it is not behind the goals but the stand is not as modern and the fans paid £16.”

Stuart has promised to update us with their next reply but you can bet your bottom dollar that they won’t be backing down and admitting the Killie fans were ripped off. One issue we have raised with the Killie board in the past is why Kilmarnock can’t charge away fans the same price as we are charged at the respective away grounds. We have been told this is not possible however the Motherwell pricing policy suggests otherwise…over to you Mr Johnson.

Super Killie

HAVING not missed a league game this season we have waxed lyrical about several excellent Killie performances but last Saturday’s display against the high flying Jambos tops the lot. From the first whistle you could tell we were ‘up for it’ and if we had won more convincingly then nobody in maroon could have complained. It was a tremendous team performance in every sense with every player giving their all to ensure our first win in 13 games against Hearts. Fraser Wright had his best game in a Killie jersey, James Fowler continued his fantastic run of form, Johnston is in a class of his own whilst Naismith is the best youngster in Scottish football at present.

The crowd was excellent once again with the East stand in fine voice for ninety minutes. We were a little surprised that the crowd was given as 8,800 because it looked like the ground was well over half full but far be it from us to question some creative accounting in our favour! Well done to the players and management for a great day out and we’d advice all you armchair fans to get back to the Theatre of Pies…you don’t know what you’re missing.

Lovely Weather

FOR OUR sins we have friends who support both sides of the old firm and they usually have to take an ear bashing from us on a regular basis but this week it was the turn of the bluenoses. No doubt you will have heard by now about the incident last week when BBC weather forecaster and Killie fan Kirsty McCabe referred to Ibrox as Castle Greyskull on air…well the reaction of some ‘Gers fans as reported in one of the papers had us rolling about the floor of the pub! To be fair we think the majority of their fans just laughed it off as well but what about the guy who was quoted as saying he didn’t believe what he was hearing so he rewound it and listened again. What was he taping the weather for? To play it the next day and check if it was right? You couldn’t make it up. Well they say that any publicity is good publicity so we look forward to seeing Killie Kirsty doing the half time draw very soon.

Everygame

THERE are still many bargains to be grabbed at the Killie shop including the away strip at half price. However, possibly the best deal on offer is Davie Ross’s excellent book “Everygame – the new official history of Kilmarnock FC”. This is a must for all Killie fans and is now less than half price at £8.95. It’s guaranteed to solve 101 pub arguments about Killie players, scorers and fixtures from our glorious past. We wonder if it mentions that John McEachran’s only Killie goal was courtesy of a deflection off his rather oversized bahookie?
 

Read the B&H column in the Kilmarnock Standard every week