Something for the Romanovs to consider

It was a full Tynecastle that watched Hearts fail once again to rise to the occasion on Saturday. Falkirk were worth their point in a grim nil-nil but, as so often this season, the home side did little more than turn up. In a week when it has become clear that the club has racked up record debts - more than that of both Rangers and Celtic combined, apparently - the Romanovs must be wondering what sort of crowds can be expected at Tynecastle next season.

Gordon Strachan raised the issue of attendances and the low quality of the SPL ‘product’ a week or so ago and it is a surprise that so little is done to try to boost crowds. Hearts may very well be the third best supported team in Scotland but with an average gate of 16,280, they fall behind all 20 English Premier League clubs, 12 in the Championship and even two in League One. An extra few thousand squeezed in when the new stadium is completed will make no impact on this dreary performance. The fact that even Scotland’s national stadium has had its capacity almost halved since my boyhood days says something about the decline in support overall but when 23 people and two small dogs make up the crowd for a game in our top league, it must be time to ask where Scottish football is headed.

There are no easy answers, of course, but a club like Hearts - proud history or not - cannot afford debt on the current scale, however much it may be protected by the peculiar situation of its owner also running the institution that owns the debt. That can only ever be a short term protection. Boredom, illness, changing business fortunes can all strike quickly - witness Gretna’s painful demise - and Hearts would become simply another asset to be disposed of.

A city the size of Edinburgh should surely be able to support two football teams. But Hibs got 12,000 for their game against Kilmarnock. Neither Hearts nor Hibs can remain financially viable with crowds like that with a wage bill in the millions.

Romanov - Major or Minor - should be involving himself in schemes to raise the profile not just of Hearts but of the SPL and trying to make heading off to the game on a Saturday afternoon (remember when games were played on Saturday afternoons?) part of a good week-end. If crowds remain at these levels across the SPL, Hearts will guarantee themselves a top three finish in a few years as the SPL will only have three clubs.

Category: Hearts

Tags: Hearts, small crowds, SPL, Tynecastle

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