The Life of Pie

I didn’t manage to get to a game this weekend, and won’t for the next two as I’m moving flats (how on earth does one accumulate so much stuff?), however my interest was piqued by an article in Friday’s New York Times about a new arena opening in Brooklyn this week. I’m a big fan of American sports and they lead the way in terms of innovation in the way they package and present sport. You might not have a clue what’s going on inside the arena/ballpark/stadium but you sure as hell will have a good time.

The Barclays Center can host 18,000 people for basketball games and the new arena will host 37 different Brooklyn restaurateurs. The owners of the arena scouted 130 Brooklyn businesses to find the best products for their paying customers. A one-size-fits-all approach this ain’t.

I’m sure at this point you’ll be asking “well what’s that got to do with Scottish football?” and you’d be right, there isn’t a clear link, but my thinking over the past few weeks has been about the contrast between Scottish football and other ‘normal’ businesses. Just last week I had a conversation with a colleague at work about catering at football games and he said to me: “I mean, why should I bother? If you don’t want to queue, you have to leave during the first half of the game. If you don’t want to miss the game, you’ve to wait in a queue with no guarantee you’ll see the start of the second half. You queue, get served by some young lad or girl with no customer service training, you’re not guaranteed to get the food you want (especially the later you go) and then you’re paying for overpriced rubbish. No other business would accept that many inefficiencies in the system and no right thinking customer would put up with it.” And you know what? You can’t really argue with that.

What I’ve discovered about Scottish football is you can tell if a club has been in the SPL purely on the price of their catering. I’ve trialled this hypothesis and yet to be proven wrong.

In fairness, the lower league clubs have got something right – the service is very personable and the food, most tellingly, is fresh (and tends to be local). But once you get to the SPL (or former SPL clubs) you just feel you are being exploited, and in fairness to the clubs, you’ve got a captive market so it’s slightly understandable. However, why not pit local businesses against each other? Why not diversify the menu? Why not have concession sellers in different parts of the concourse? Why not a la ballparks and arena, have people selling popcorn or hot dogs or drinks in the aisles being delivered to seats? I’ve yet to see a reason why this could not work aside from Scottish football’s inherent conservatism.

Currently, most Scottish football fans pay over the odds for everything: for season tickets, for parking at the grounds, for programmes, for replica shirts, for catering. This is a wholly reductive way of working, slowly squeezing the loyal until they can attend no more.

This is meant to be Scottish football’s annus horribilis, then things can only get better – but only once there is a recognition that Scottish clubs can grow the game. There are things that chairman and owners cannot control: the product on the park, the weather etc but there are many factors they can  and they should be making every effort to ensure that everyone’s visit to a Scottish football ground is a pleasurable experience. For too many clubs, that’s not the case.

Now I’m not at all suggesting that we need cheesecakes, cupcakes and crab sandwiches at Celtic Park or Cappielow but we do need recognition from both clubs and supporters that we deserve better. The clubs need to do better and we, as fans must demand better.

Ground 5: Easter Road

Easter Road witnessing the most tedious of SPL initiatives: the pre-game handshake

Game: Hibernian 2 v 1 Kilmarnock

Date: 16^th September 2012

Competition: Scottish Premier League

Attendance: 9, 723

Admission: Nil (but usually £22)

Programme: n/a

In all honesty, I didn’t think I’d be writing a post about a game this weekend or for the next few weeks. Having returned from holiday to discover I’d spent more than I thought, coupled with the fact that I’m moving flat soon meant that I would be soon chasing my tail in attempting to get to all 42 Grounds by the end of the season. Therefore it was of great relief that my friend Mark offered me a spare ticket to Kilmarnock’s visit to Easter Road.

You will have probably gathered from reading this blog that I’m a Hibs fan. It had been my intention to avoid Easter Road all season, save for my final ground. There were several reasons for this. Firstly, Easter Road is the ground where I do most of my football watching and it would have been a nice return to go at the end of the season and secondly because last season I found myself falling out of love with Easter Road. Perhaps not the ground, but certainly a section of the people inside the ground. There is no denying that last season Hibs were atrocious but I found myself on more than one occasion moving seats at half time to avoid supporters who were relentlessly negative and abusive towards their own team. Having paid £22 for a ticket, I can understand expectations may be high but I could not abide the personal abuse that young players such as David Wotherspoon were receiving from the crowd. Last season, Easter Road was not a good place to watch football.

Easter Road is the closest ground to where I live, so it was pleasant to leave my flat at 2.15pm and still arrive at a ground with time to spare. Perhaps I’m hyper critical of the way my club runs things off the field but this week’s game was the first time that I wasn’t able to find a programme seller to take my money off me for a piece of club propaganda. It’s not the end of the world, and if it had been any other ground I would have taken off in search of a programme, but for me, it was indicative of how affairs have been run at the club for a few years now. In an era where people are financially hard-up but willing to spend money on your product, you could at least ensure that programme sellers, club shops etc are available and open to business.

The Famous Five Stand, built in 1995

We were sitting in the West Stand at Easter Road, and as we took our seats just a few rows behind the Hibs’ dugout I started to reflect on how much the ground has changed over the years. My first visit to the ground was on 25^th January 1992 when Hibs took on Partick Thistle in the Scottish Cup (highlights below). It’s strange how everything about the stadium has changed – four new stands and the pitch levelled out - it still feels like home.

Since I last saw Hibs play a month ago, they’ve recorded a home win against St Johnstone and came away from Celtic Park with a credible draw. Last season’s League Cup winners Kilmarnock have stumbled into the new season with one win (against the much fancied Dundee United) and three draws. Both clubs have also been dumped out of the League Cup by lower league teams, so the league will be the main focus for both sides over the next few months. Both Hibs (historically) and Kilmarnock (recently) have had a good reputation for playing passing, attractive football so any clash between the teams tend to be entertaining counters.

As I may have mentioned, being a Hibernian supporter recently hasn’t been particularly easy. Since Tony Mowbray left the club as manager in 2006, the club has seen John Collins, Mixu Paatelainen, John Hughes and Colin Calderwood in charge before Pat Fenlon took charge midway through 2011/12 shocking season where Hibs only avoided relegation on the penultimate day of the league season before succumbing to a 5-1 humiliation in the Scottish Cup final against city rivals Hearts (and yes, I was there for all 90 minutes of it. For the last 40 I sat in stunned silence. What a horrible, horrible day). The summer has seen Pat Fenlon rebuild the squad. He has signed last year’s loan sensation James McPake and made him captain. A new goalkeeper, right back, left back, two midfielders also made the starting XI for Saturday’s game as well as Leigh Griffiths, who has returned for a second loan spell with the team he supported as a boy.

The most recent addition to Easter Road, the new single tired East Stand

Hibs started strongly with Griffiths’ having a shot from outside the box saved by Kyle Letheren. From the resulting corner, once again taken by Griffiths, the ball somehow ended up in the goal with Letheren punching the ball behind him and off the bar, off Rory McKeown’s head and into the net. It was a bizarre goal, but one that no Hibees around me were complaining about. The gentleman who sits next to Mark has a tradition of giving out sweets when Hibs score. It’s fair to say that last season he didn’t have to buy too many bags of chocolate éclairs.

Kilmarnock had the opportunity to equalise soon after when Borja Perez was put through one on one but his hesitation led to Ben Williams, impressive in the Hibs net deflecting the ball wide. Williams then made another fine save from the resulting corner. Hibs have had a stream of dodgy goalkeepers over the past decade so as a fan it’s nice to see a safe pair of hands in the goalmouth. Williams is not without fault though, as everyone in the ground discovered several minutes later when an everyday cross from McKeown was floated into the box – Williams, Hanlon and McPake all went for the ball and not one of them came away with it, allowing Danny Racchi to slot the ball home from ten yards out.

From there until half time, Hibs dominated the play and were rewarded on the cusp of halftime with a penalty after Ryan O’Leary downed Paul Cairney in the box. Cairney has been a bundle of energy since his arrival in the summer from Partick Thistle in the summer and his movement saw him take the ball past O’Leary who lunged in. From our position, it looked like a penalty as O’Leary had lunged recklessly, but this was not a position shared by Kilmarnock manager Kenny Shiels (who was further away than us!) and Killie keeper Letheren who protested that Cairney had dived and pushed him twice. Letheren found himself in the referee’s book for his protest (others may have set him off), whilst Griffiths duly dispatched the penalty.

The South Stand hosting the visiting Kilmarnock fans

Griffiths almost had his hat-trick early in the second half when a cross-field ball found him in plenty of spare, but Letheren parried the ball effectively. It was to be Griffith’s last effective contribution to the game as he left the feel with a knock. I have to confess that when Hibs signed Griffiths initially I was sceptical as to his talents. I had watched him play in Jocky Scott’s underwhelming Dundee side of 2009/10 and didn’t see much to his game beyond pace. I am happy to be proved wrong as he’s certainly starting to fulfil the potential that saw him earn his move to Wolverhampton Wanderers. Yes, he is tempestuous and immature, but he’s also hugely exciting and to quote the song “one of our own.” When he scores, you know how much it means to him and it’s always hugely satisfying to watch a lifelong Hibs fan wear the green. I should also note that when Griffiths was substituted, he left the pitch on the far side and walked around the pitch. He took time to shake hands with all the kids along the perimeter of the Famous Five Stand. Although it’s a small gesture, I’d imagine it will be ingrained in the minds of those Hibs Kids.

From that point on, Hibs started to sit further and further back, inviting Kilmarnock pressure. David Wotherspoon, who frustrates and delights in equal measure, was replaced by Lewis Stevenson and Kilmarnock brought the game onto Hibs, chasing an equaliser. Jorge Claros, the Honduran midfielder who has been shot in the head had another impressive performance whilst his central midfield partner Gary Deegan looked fatigued and continually gave the ball away. Perhaps it speaks of the paucity of SPL benches that there wasn’t a suitable replacement for him sitting on the Hibs bench. Kilmarnock had new signing Cillian Sheridan upfront, who is always capable of scoring and his header from six yards out just sailed wide. Kilmarnock substitutes Gary Harkins and the diminutive Chris Johnston started to pile the pressure on. Hibs countered and Eoin Doyle had the ball in the net only for it to be ruled offside. And in stoppage time Kilmarnock came close with Ben Williams making a tremendous point-blank save.

At full-time I reflected with Mark, that if that game had taken place last season, Hibs would have thrown away their lead and drawn that game, if not lost it. That’s progress that the fans have been looking for, and this looks like a team that the fans can take pride in. When might not be winning but playing pretty, but after last season, I think we’re glad they’re just winning.