IT’S a topic which crops up every year at the Celtic AGM – and today one Hoops fan this year put a new spin on it.
Michael Nicholson admitted this time two years ago that Celtic had conducted a feasibility study on the costs of increasing the main stand at Parkhead.
Celtic fans have massive spending power[/caption]
The old main stand is dwarved by stands on three other sides of the ground[/caption]
The other three sides of Celtic Park were rebuilt in the late 1990s and dwarf the main stand, which with its red brick facade dating back to the 1988 centenary season, is significantly older.
The only problem with all this is the fact that when they asked the question the Hoops were quoted a cool £100m to redevelop the stand in its entirety.
Asked about this at today’s AGM, one Hoops fan came up with the novel suggestion of a crowdfunder with ONE MILLION Celtic fans all stumping up the minimum of £100 each to foot the bill.
The fan said: “I suppose you would be open to suggestions about how to raise capital about how to reach that £100m goal.
“One idea I had was a crowd funder.
“When a season ticket renewal form comes in, you could be asked if you want to pledge a minimum of £100 for a crowdfunder which could be ring fenced put towards redevelopment of the south stand.
“If you think about it, one million Celtic fans contributing £100 and you are going to reach your target. Anything is worth a try.”
While it is an outlandish suggestion – not least because of the logistics involved – there was logic behind it, with the chance to sell more high end seats at the biggest games in the newly expanded Champions League.
And chief executive Michael Nicholson gave it a fair hearing, even if he gave little suggestion of any significant expansion to the stadium any time soon.
He said: “Its an area we’ve thought long and hard about.
“Some parts of the stadium are approaching 100 years old.
“If we were in the SPFL it would be a much easier decision to make.
“We need to think about the long term consequences of investing in infrastructure – which you need to do at a minimum just to maintain the environment versus the expansion rate versus environment, capital expenditure and there’s a lot of challenges round that.
“Balancing football success as well, especially if you are in the Europa League year on year.
“So that’s our kind of thinking medium to long term but we’d never rule anything out in the future.
“The debt markets are very difficult as you might imagine. But we will take that on board and figure it in our thinking.”
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