Peter Lawwell releases statement about virtual season ticket

The Celtic chief executive has released a statement regarding the SPFL’s announcement of a virtual season ticket with games set to be played behind closed doors.

The Scottish Premiership has arranged a deal with Sky Sports for supporters to view home games as the Hoops look to secure their 10th straight League Title.

A deal between the Scottish Premiership and Sky Sports was announced today that will offer Scottish football supporters the opportunity to watch home game broadcasts when the league resumes play in August. 48 games will be broadcast next season, with hopes that these virtual season tickets can pump some revenue into clubs while play is resumed in empty stadiums next season amid the ongoing global crisis.

With the Hoops looking to make history by hoisting their tenth-straight league trophy this season, fans can rest assured with this new deal in place to be able to watch their team’s victories in Celtic Park.

Clubs will sell the virtual season tickets themselves, setting their own costs to their fanbases, and they will remain available until fans are able to return to stadiums. The deal also settled a financial return for fixtures that were unable to be broadcast during the shortened 2019-2020 season. With clubs having had eight or nine fixtures left on the books at the time of the season’s cancellation, the new deal includes a settlement from cancelled games across five years, minimizing its impact on clubs.

As reported by Insider Sport, the Scottish Premiership’s head executive Neil Doncaster said:

"“This is an innovative and pragmatic solution to the challenges posed by COVID-19 and I’m grateful for the flexibility shown by our clubs and by Sky Sports”."

This new deal shows Sky Sports’ commitment to Scottish Football for the years to come.

Peter Lawwell also had his say on the situation on Celtic’s club website:

"“The current crisis has had huge implications for the club and our supporters. Once again, I would like to thank our fans for their patience, understanding and support during these unprecedented times.“I have already said, our priority has been to look at ways in which can resume football and ultimately get our supporters back safely to Celtic Park as soon as possible.“Until we can welcome our fans back, we want our fans to stay as close to the Club and be part of everything we do. It is imperative we cater for the needs of our supporters. These proposals are great news.“The access will be available while social distancing measures prevent fans from attending matches and will mean that our season ticket holders, exclusively, will be part of every SPFL home game.”"

The virtual season ticket will give the clubs a chance to make back some of the match day revenue that they will be losing out on next season. But it will be really interesting to see whether the fans will pay the same amount of money for a service that is nowhere near the experience of being in a football stadium.