Celtic set for seven-figure Newcastle United payday but it should set alarm bells ringing for fans

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Celtic are set to face Newcastle United on Saturday.

Brendan Rodgers continues his pre-season preparations against Eddie Howe’s side at Celtic Park as the level of opposition the Bhoys face increases with each passing fixture.

When Celtic announced the friendly, there was fan fury directed toward the Parkhead board after they priced the tickets at £25 for adults to £12 for fans under 13 years of age.

Why the uproar? Well, these games are normally free to season ticket holders and Celtic fans were unhappy at paying such a high premium for a meaningless game.

And after looking at the official Celtic ticket site, the number of tickets sold should send alarm bells ringing amongst the Parkhead support.

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Celtic’s friendly against Newcastle is close to a sell-out

Tickets sales for Celtic’s pre-season game against Eddie Howe’s side have been motoring along quite nicely over the past few weeks despite claims from Newcastle fan media sites.

At first glance, it looks like there is still a bit of work to do with ticket sales with 12 sections of Celtic Park still having seats available for the match.

But if fans zoom in on the stadium planner, there looks to be only seven sections with more than 30 seats left to sell.

At a quick count, there seems to be around 400 seats left to sell for the match which will net Celtic a nice little payday of around £1m before expenses.

Why Celtic’s ticket sales for Newcastle friendly should worry fans

The Celtic board put a price point on the friendly taking away another perk for Celtic season ticket holders.

At a time where the club are continually asking fans for their hard-earned cash through Adidas merchandise releases, selling tickets for a meaningless game that is generally free puts another financial burden on the Celtic support.

Now that this friendly is almost a sell-out, the Celtic board’s decision to charge for these tickets has now been vindicated and the club could now continue this worrying trend moving forward.

Despite online fan anger, selling out this match shows that if the club get the right opposition, there is an appetite from fans to shell out their hard-earned cash.

Just like they did when they still bought their season tickets during COVID knowing full well they wouldn’t get to watch a single minute of football inside Celtic Park. Makes you think.