St Mirren Park, Ferguslie
Scottish Football has always been lucky to have very well-supported teams at all levels of the game. From the ‘big two’ in Celtic and Rangers where the fans travel home and away and all over Europe in their tens of thousands, to smaller teams such as St Mirren and Motherwell. These teams will always have their hardcore fanbases that will support their teams throughout their whole life. More can be done however to push Scottish football to be the best that it can be, progress into a bigger more established league, and create more revenue for the game in Scotland and this will all come down to the supporters.
One of the best and perhaps most obvious ways to develop the Scottish game is to get more fans into the stadiums. Within the Scottish premiership, average attendance has risen since the return of fans to stadiums since the Covid-19 pandemic put a stop to fans getting to games for a full competitive season. but more can be done to ensure that the game develops, and more fans can make it to the games.
Dave MacDonald ‘Div’ runner of the Scottish football website Pie and Bovril, and a very successful social media presence with over 100k followers on Twitter said: “Obviously gate prices are the main thing that put people off going to the games. I think in Scotland we are quite lucky in terms of the number of supporters that go to the games considering the size of the country we have. Most clubs are now doing things to encourage younger fans to come along. I am a St Mirren fan, and we do lots of things to encourage the youngsters to come along and we give tickets out to local schools. The best way to grow your fanbase is to get the younger fans to go to the games and not get dragged away to Celtic and Rangers.”
Fan ownership of football clubs has become much more prominent in the game within the past decade with lots of supporters falling out with ownership and the boards that run their clubs. It seems that Fan owned clubs will be a success story for years to come. In Scotland, Motherwell Football Club has been fan-owned since 2016. The Well Society took more than 76 percent of majority shareholder Les Hutchinson's shares in the club. The takeover led to Motherwell becoming the first top-flight club in the UK to be owned by fans. Since then, St Mirren, Clyde FC, Stirling Albion, Annan Athletic, and even Heart of Midlothian have all become fan-owned clubs and for those in the Topflight, there has been nothing but success since their conversion.
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Hearts have seen major domestic success since their return to the top division in 2021. Motherwell have continued to be a consistent force in the Premiership and St Mirren are having their best season in years as they currently sit joint fifth in the league after a great start to the season.
Div said: “I am a big fan of fan ownership in football clubs and as a St Mirren fan we are fan owned but it does bring its own challenges. behind-the-scenes politics takes over from the football which is not great. For clubs such as St Mirren fan ownership is the right model and it can work, and it has been demonstrated but the right structure has to be in place.”
Leon Russell is a lifelong St Mirren fan and follows the team home and away. He said: “Since we became a fan-owned club we have a much more community-based outlook on things. On matchday, there is so much that is being done for those less fortunate, and for all the kids to be able to see their team is a great thing. The ticket prices are now really cheap for the younger supporters and there are schemes set up where fans can help out the community by donating match tickets. I didn’t really see that kind of stuff before we became fan owned so I think it’s great and I’ve never been happier going to the games than this season.”
Football fans are more involved than ever. With technology advancing it is easier than ever to make your voice heard through social media platforms, YouTube, and podcasts. Fan media platforms have transformed the game in recent years with podcasts becoming one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the world, not just within football. The Open Goal podcast is leading the way in Scotland as fan entertainment is as popular as ever.
There are also countless Celtic and Rangers podcasts and many more scattered around Scottish football fanbases. With social media being so prominent in everyday life it is easy to see why there are successful platforms for fan media and it looks like this will only continue to grow.
Div said: “These platforms are brilliant for progressing the game, I listen to the St Mirren Misery Hunters podcast. I take my hat off to the guys that run these platforms and spend so much time on them. It engages with supporters, gets people talking, and anything that promotes the game is good. I think it will just continue to grow. lots of younger supporters love to hear about their club and the mainstream media only focus on the ‘big two’ and hearing guys that know your club inside out will only make fans want to be more involved in the Scottish game.”
There are many ways that fans can become more involved in Scottish football. They just need a bit of help from their clubs and the game will see some real progression in Scotland. We are on the right road to becoming a major footballing nation again the only problem is we are driving very slowly.
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