Morton v Aberdeen

[Cowshed118]

Why was their matches televised at 3pm on the Saturday in the earlier rounds, Rangers away to Motherwell im sure was at this time?

[lubo_blaha]

Why was their matches televised at 3pm on the Saturday in the earlier rounds, Rangers away to Motherwell im sure was at this time?

I believe that it was allowed because the 3pm blackout only applies to certain parts of the year. Because the game was in July, it was before this window.

They allow cup finals to be shown live at 3pm on a Saturday, don't see why that can't be the same for Semi Finals.

[vikingTON]

Aberdeen fans would have had to get up early regardless: unless plate tectonics have moved Edinburgh 100 miles north of the Central Belt. They're having an absolute disaster over this. 

[Jamie_M]

It does seem, that regardless of who we were to draw in the Semi final, we would be experiencing a version of Victim FC.

 

[vikingTON]

21 hours ago, RussellAnderson said:

 

Genuinely not on the wind up here. In my memory, Morton have never been in the top flight, where StJ are consistently in the top six, and when they have been relegated they've come up pretty sharpish. They pull roughly double Morton's home gates and by pretty much every measure are a larger side.

 

i) "Your memory" isn't actually a credible working basis in determining what a big team looks like.

ii) Saint Johnstone in fact spent much of the 2000s in the second tier, when absolutely no-one considered them to be a "big team". That'll be your memory slipping, see i). 

iii) "Pulling roughly double" home gates, in a league involving Celtic, yourselves, Hearts etc. on a regular basis as opposed to Dumbarton and Raith Rovers is really not an achievement.

The bottom line is this: Morton's officials reckon that the maximum support could be as high as eight-ten thousand or so. This is based on credible, historical experience of very large Morton crowds surfacing for big games in the past fifteen years, as well as the unknown quantity of a semi-final appearance. It is only right that the club should aim to accommodate its maximum potential following in determining the choice of venue. 

And yet allocating Morton said number of tickets, at least to begin with, wouldn't actually have ruled out Easter Road as a venue. What Aberdeen's tear-stained "public statement" points to however is that they weren't happy with their fans 'merely' getting half of the tickets for a semi-final in Edinburgh. They wanted Morton to accept being punted into one stand while they hoovered the lion's share of tickets. Which was rightly shot down.

Now both Morton and Aberdeen can get as many tickets as they can sell, played at the only appropriate venue. 

[RussellAnderson]

i) "Your memory" isn't actually a credible working basis in determining what a big team looks like.

ii) Saint Johnstone in fact spent much of the 2000s in the second tier, when absolutely no-one considered them to be a "big team". That'll be your memory slipping, see i). 

iii) "Pulling roughly double" home gates, in a league involving Celtic, yourselves, Hearts etc. on a regular basis as opposed to Dumbarton and Raith Rovers is really not an achievement.

The bottom line is this: Morton's officials reckon that the maximum support could be as high as eight-ten thousand or so. This is based on credible, historical experience of very large Morton crowds surfacing for big games in the past fifteen years, as well as the unknown quantity of a semi-final appearance. It is only right that the club should aim to accommodate its maximum potential following in determining the choice of venue. 

And yet allocating Morton said number of tickets, at least to begin with, wouldn't actually have ruled out Easter Road as a venue. What Aberdeen's tear-stained "public statement" points to however is that they weren't happy with their fans 'merely' getting half of the tickets for a semi-final in Edinburgh. They wanted Morton to accept being punted into one stand while they hoovered the lion's share of tickets. Which was rightly shot down.

Now both Morton and Aberdeen can get as many tickets as they can sell, played at the only appropriate venue. 

The second half of that post is a really well put argument and pretty much exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.
Shame you prefaced it with such deprecating rubbish. Not everyone's out to get you mate.

[vikingTON]

You're the one who made an utterly ridiculous claim based on - incorrect - anecdotal evidence. Don't come crying to me when it gets shot down. 

 

[Milners]

22 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

Aberdeen fans would have had to get up early regardless

That is true with buses as they would have left about an hour later if 3pm kickoff. The biggest problem I see is that with the lack of pubs near the ground and with a 12.15 kick-off can't really book in a place nae that close! Watching the Dons sober isn't very good

[vikingTON]

There was never going to be a 3pm kick-off though because of the televised match rule. The only real grounds for complaint are that this semi-final should have got the 2:15 slot on the Sunday rather than the bigots, but Sunday football raises its own issues about pubs and transport links. 

[La_Leyenda]

A lot of people have misread Aberdeen's statement. Nowhere do they say they wanted the game at Easter Road with an uneven split of tickets in favour of Aberdeen.

Aberdeen fans complained to the club about the kick-off time and venue. The club "clarified their position" to make it look like they were fighting for the fans' interests.

The general feeling is the kick-off time is unfair, when there was an afternoon kick-off on the Sunday available. People are presuming the police have said the Old Firm game has to take place on the Sunday - I've not seen that anywhere, and did the last old firm game not take place on a Saturday lunchtime, so what would change now?

Had it been an afternoon Sunday kick-off, Glasgow would be fine (I would have suggested Parkhead opening just the lower decks is better than Hampden as the fans would be right on top of the pitch, but that's another debate). But lunchtime on the Saturday, then it may aswell be in a smaller stadium, and Edinburgh will be easier anyway as there are no direct Aberdeen-Glasgow trains on the morning of the 22nd. You have to change in Edinburgh.

Due to the short distance from Greenock, and Morton not making many semis, I don't think the number of fans they'll bring would change regardless of venue and KO time. Aberdeen's will. The last semi-final we played in Glasgow which had a lunchtime kick-off was against St Johnstone at Ibrox, the overall attendance was 19,000. I think we sold 14,000 that day, but expect us to take even less this time. At least in April they can leave when it's daylight.

A 50/50 split at Easter Road would be fine. That would give Aberdeen 10,000-12,000 tickets, which is what we're going to bring to Hampden anyway, and is what we got at Tynecastle v St Johnstone, and the atmosphere would be cracking. No-one is suggesting Morton should receive a small allocation.

The atmosphere at Hampden is going to be terrible. And the £25 tickets are another boot in the baws on the back of trains already being priced at £58.

 

[Toby]

13 minutes ago, La_Leyenda said:

A lot of people have misread Aberdeen's statement. Nowhere do they say they wanted the game at Easter Road with an uneven split of tickets in favour of Aberdeen.

Aberdeen fans complained to the club about the kick-off time and venue. The club "clarified their position" to make it look like they were fighting for the fans' interests.

The general feeling is the kick-off time is unfair, when there was an afternoon kick-off on the Sunday available. People are presuming the police have said the Old Firm game has to take place on the Sunday - I've not seen that anywhere, and did the last old firm game not take place on a Saturday lunchtime, so what would change now?

Had it been an afternoon Sunday kick-off, Glasgow would be fine (I would have suggested Parkhead opening just the lower decks is better than Hampden as the fans would be right on top of the pitch, but that's another debate). But lunchtime on the Saturday, then it may aswell be in a smaller stadium, and Edinburgh will be easier anyway as there are no direct Aberdeen-Glasgow trains on the morning of the 22nd. You have to change in Edinburgh.

Due to the short distance from Greenock, and Morton not making many semis, I don't think the number of fans they'll bring would change regardless of venue and KO time. Aberdeen's will. The last semi-final we played in Glasgow which had a lunchtime kick-off was against St Johnstone at Ibrox, the overall attendance was 19,000. I think we sold 14,000 that day, but expect us to take even less this time. At least in April they can leave when it's daylight.

A 50/50 split at Easter Road would be fine. That would give Aberdeen 10,000-12,000 tickets, which is what we're going to bring to Hampden anyway, and is what we got at Tynecastle v St Johnstone, and the atmosphere would be cracking. No-one is suggesting Morton should receive a small allocation.

The atmosphere at Hampden is going to be terrible. And the £25 tickets are another boot in the baws on the back of trains already being priced at £58.

 

It's not necessarily the case that the Celtic v Rangers tie has to kick off on the Sunday, it's that the last one had to kick off on the Saturday. It was scheduled for the weekend before the Champions League's first round of group games, meaning that there was a 50/50 chance that Celtic would be playing on the Tuesday night (they did). It's fairly obvious that the police would prefer them to play on the Sunday, when most folk are back at work the following day and their drinking's curtailed. What has changed is that the police have an opportunity to nip any anti-social behaviour that's associated with that fixture in the bud this time, when they didn't have that opportunity earlier in the month.

This doesn't of course explain the madness of them playing their next league fixture on Hogmannay, though.

[williemillersmoustache]

Watching the Dons sober isn't very good [emoji4]

Tried that once, harrowing experience. Avoid at all costs.

[Jamie_M]

1 hour ago, Milners said:

Watching the Dons sober isn't very good

That will be a very fair complaint when you have watched them being sworded by Quitongo.

[Milners]

23 minutes ago, Jamie_M said:

That will be a very fair complaint when you have watched them being sworded by Quitongo.

Is that the youth player we signed up in 2014?

[Milners]

2 hours ago, vikingTON said:

There was never going to be a 3pm kick-off though because of the televised match rule. The only real grounds for complaint are that this semi-final should have got the 2:15 slot on the Sunday rather than the bigots, but Sunday football raises its own issues about pubs and transport links. 

Aye but it would be fantastic with a 5pm kick-off. Sunday would have been best for all concerned 2.15pm slot would be fine and easier to book up social club/bowling club before the 12.30pm licence in some pubs. 

[Jamie_M]

1 hour ago, Milners said:

Is that the youth player we signed up in 2014?

The very same.

[port-ton]

Can't see the huge issue with Aberdeen fans having to get up early to travel to Glasgow. Morton fans will be up at that time drinking anyway. Man up.

[glasgow-sheep]

Be interesting if this games musters more than the capacity of easter Road. I initially thought it would be given the kick off time, TV coverage and train issues might struggle to get over 20k into hampden. Expect Aberdeen crowd to be little over 10k if at all.

[RussellAnderson]

You're the one who made an utterly ridiculous claim based on - incorrect - anecdotal evidence. Don't come crying to me when it gets shot down. 

 

Sorry for upsetting you king of p+b

[craigkillie]

9 hours ago, La_Leyenda said:

A lot of people have misread Aberdeen's statement. Nowhere do they say they wanted the game at Easter Road with an uneven split of tickets in favour of Aberdeen

They didn't say that, but they quite clearly implied it.  They wanted the match to be held at "a venue that would ensure a capacity attendance", and go on to say "we understand and accept that it is for all clubs to indicate the crowd they anticipate taking and Hampden Park was chosen on this basis."

In other words, "We wanted it at a smaller venue, but Morton wanted to take too many fans".  It's unlikely that Morton said they wanted more than 10,000 tickets, so Aberdeen would still have had access to at least half of Easter Road in this scenario.  Had Aberdeen told the SPFL that they were happy to settle for 10,000 tickets, then Easter Road would have been fine.  Given that the game hasn't been scheduled for Easter Road, we have to assume that Aberdeen weren't in favour of this even split.

 

 

9 hours ago, La_Leyenda said:

The general feeling is the kick-off time is unfair, when there was an afternoon kick-off on the Sunday available.

Aberdeen's statement explicitly states that they wanted a Saturday afternoon kick-off, something which was never on the table.  "Our stated preference was that the game took place at a more reasonable time on the Saturday".

There is no mention at all of a Sunday afternoon kick-off.