Hampden Park primed for another immense Celtic turnout; brilliant television move rewarded

By Hamish Carton

January 12, 2023

Hampden Park will be jumping again this weekend as tens of thousands of Celtic fans take in the League Cup semi-final against Kilmarnock.

Ange Postecoglou’s side are likely to play in bigger games between now and the end of the season, but the game against the Rugby Park side could be one of the most memorable.

The simple reason for that: the kick-off time.

Saturday’s game will get underway at 5:30pm – a pretty unheard of kick-off time, apart from in League Cup semi-finals.

Supporters will fondly remember two Saturday evening matches from the competition in previous seasons.

In November 2019, we battered Hibernian at the National Stadium with Moi Elyounoussi standing out with a double.

Then last November, a single James Forrest strike was enough to see off St. Johnstone.

Had the matches been played in the traditional lunchtime slot, they would likely have been much less memorable for supporters.

There’s something about the bright Saturday night lights that lingers, and television companies Premier Sports and now Viaplay deserve immense credit for the move over the past few years.

As a result, we’ll see Hampden Park packed full of Celtic fans.

Tickets have been sold out for just under a month. With Hampden holding just shy of 52,000 when full, and Kilmarnock unlikely to bring an enormous following, we can realistically expect to see around 40,000 Hoops fans in attendance.

For a match not at our home stadium, that’s a pretty immense turnout.

In other news, Callum McGregor has been speaking about his role in making Celtic successful