The improved Celtic Park matchday experience has been highlighted in a neat video posted by the club on social media.
The three-minute video is likely to have gone under the radar ahead of today’s St. Johnstone game. Supporters are so engrossed in the actual fixture that ‘match day information’ is unlikely to pique their interest.
But Celtic are actually trying to hammer home the point that there’s loads more to do at Celtic Park than just watch Brendan Rodgers‘ side play.
“There’s more to a matchday than just 90 minutes of action,” is the phrase that club figure Gerry McCulloch says at the start of the video. (Celtic on Twitter)
McCulloch goes on to list a number of the options on offer to match-going fans today, and on every other matchday.
There’s ‘the Celtic Way’ where fans can arrive early to mix with each other, take part in events and welcome the first-team around 90 minutes before kick-off.
There’s also the West Stand Concourse — open from 11am to 1pm — where supporters can go inside, grab an alcoholic drink, watch the live lunchtime game and tuck in to some Smokey Trotters food.
The recently launched Sports Bar is a similar hub for supporters before and after matches.
The video features a fair amount of talking up from the club. The the above could probably be summed up on a sentence or two, and there’s hardly anything groundbreaking there.
However, the club clearly have made improvements to the Celtic Park matchday experience in recent times. Regular season ticket holders can now get an alcoholic drink in the lead-up to matches, and there are higher quality dining options arriving in the concourse.
The Celtic Way is also a brilliant part of the stadium that wasn’t even a thing 15 years ago. The stadium is looking and feeling good on matchdays and the club deserve credit.
But more can and should be done. Celtic announced plans for a fan zone outside the stadium in 2018 (Glasgow Times) but ran in to council issues.
Having a huge area where supporters could mingle before matches, and enjoy some refreshments, would be a huge boost to the appeal of going to Celtic Park, as well as the finances of the club. It would be great to see that followed up on in the future.
Improvements have been gradual. It will be interesting to see where we are in a few years.
In other news, Celtic team news and Predicted XI vs St Johnstone
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