St Johnstone chairman Steve Brown has acknowledged supporters’ ‘frustration’ and ‘disappointment’ over ticketing plans for Saturday’s clash with Rangers.
Perth fans have been up in arms since plans to charge £30 and £20 for the Scottish Cup tie were announced on December 30, along with handing over three out of four stands to Gers fans.
Saints supporters appear to have been voting with their feet, leaving the possibility of a lowest ever home attendance at McDiarmid Park open.
Now, however, the club’s chairman has intervened with a statement that acknowledges supporters’ anger, assures fans that lessons will be learned and offers respect to those who will not be attending.
The following is a statement from the Chairman regarding our home tie against Rangers in the Scottish Cup.
Read here 👇#SJFC | @spfl | @RangersFC
— St. Johnstone FC (@StJohnstone) January 18, 2023
Brown said: “The seating arrangements and pricing for the forthcoming Scottish Cup tie against Rangers has been met with a huge amount of negativity and hostility from a number of our valued fans.
“The club has endeavoured to respond to the various communications sent to the club both by way of email and telephone over the last fortnight, and the club is aware of the views of various sections of fans both from social media activity and press reports.
“The decisions made in respect of this Cup tie were taken with the best interests of the club at heart.
“However, we totally understand the frustration our supporters feel and their level of disappointment.
“On reflection, the club accepts that certain criticisms levelled against the decisions have merit and going forward the club will take this feedback into account in considering both pricing and seating arrangements in future fixtures. Our supporters can be absolutely assured of this.
“Whilst we hope to see as many of our supporters as possible inside McDiarmid Park on Saturday to support Callum and the players in this important Cup tie against Rangers, we understand and respect our supporters who choose not to attend on this occasion.”
Supporter Lee Kelman quickly took to Twitter to say he was on board with the club’s response, saying: “Finally a good response from the board. Tickets purchased.”
Finally a good response from the board. Tickets purchased. https://t.co/mfApWIrdle
— Lee kelman (@kelman2627) January 18, 2023
However, some supporters seemed to feel an important element was missing from Wednesday’s statement.
Namely, a direct apology.
Not even a simple ‘sorry’…
— Blair Kaylor (@BlairKaylor) January 18, 2023
Saints fan Blair Kaylor was to the point with his response, saying: “Not even a simple ‘sorry’…”
Colin Barnett went further on Twitter, saying: “Nothing about the reasons for the decisions taken and no apologies for (1) the terrible decisions being made or (2) the horrendous amount of time this has been allowed to rumble on before this “statement” was issued.”
Nothing about the reasons for the decisions taken and no apologies for (1) the terrible decisions being made or (2) the horrendous amount of time this has been allowed to rumble on before this "statement" was issued 🙄
— Colin Barnett 🏴 (@ColinB_1983) January 18, 2023
Meanwhile, fan account @blueheavenSJFC, was measured, seeing both positives and negatives.
They said: “Not quite sure what to make of this, but the fan response will be interesting.
Not quite sure what to make of this, but the fan response will be interesting. At least there's some acknowledgement of mistakes being made… but no apology, no offer to make amends, and still no public explanation. It took 18 days to come up with *this*? So much damage done.☹️ https://t.co/X8wUdeFRWW
— blueheaven (@blueheavenSJFC) January 18, 2023
“At least there’s some acknowledgement of mistakes being made, but no apology, no offer to make amends, and still no public explanation.
“It took 18 days to come up with this? So much damage done.”
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