Hearts seem to be struggling badly with ticket sales for this weekend’s Scottish Cup quarter-final against Celtic.
Ange Postecoglou‘s Hoops face the Jambos twice over the next four days, with tonight’s Premiership fixture at Celtic Park a sell-out.
But it doesn’t look like that’s going to be the case for Saturday’s clash, with thousands of seats set to be empty in the capital.
As we told you last month, Celtic have received 3,155 tickets for the match, with Hoops supporters set to pack out the entire Roseburn Stand.
That leaves the rest of Tynecastle (approximately 17,000 seats) to the home support. Given the nature of the one-off fixture, you would have expected most of them to be filled.
But, as Hearts fan Scott McIntosh posted on Twitter, the Main Stand, Gorgie Stand and Wheatfield Stand all have vast swathes of seats not yet sold.
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The latter in particular looks half full at best on Wednesday morning.
Of course, there is still time for Hearts fans to snap up these seats. But as some of the replies to McIntosh’s tweet point out, there are a number of factors at play.
Saturday’s game is live on Viaplay Sports, and the 12:15pm kick-off is hardly an appetising one for supporters.
Adult tickets cost £30 (Hearts) and there’s probably an argument that not too many Jambos actually believe their side can pull off an upset on Saturday.
That is a compliment to the Celtic side Ange Postecoglou has built over the past 18 months.
He and his players would still fancy themselves at the most hostile Tynecastle, but it is undoubtedly a boost to our chances if the ground isn’t as buzzing as usual.
First of all, we need to take care of business tonight.