Surely, whoever we face the fairest neutral venue has to be Pittodrie. If United, it is a bit closer for their fans than ours and has more than adequate capacity. If Celtic, their fans have a slightly longer journey than ours but on a route that is dual carriageway all the way and very well served by public transport. A few Celtic fans might miss out on tickets but there would be a full house and a cracking atmosphere. Above all,it would,for once be fair to our club and our fans.

 

That said,what's the betting we get shafted again and have to play Celtic at Hampden in their home city or United at Dens or,worse still,with 10,000 fans virtually lost in the vast spaces of Hampden or possibly even Ibrox if the SFA want to give the Govan basket case another hand out.

My one concern would the re-laying of the pitch. I assume this happened recently as they promised it in time for league cup. The turf is unlikely to have rooted fully so there's every chance it will lift in the LC final. It will then be used for Queens next home game and an international before the SC semi's. I'm no expert in turf management but is seems an awful short period to let it all settle down

https://www.pitchcare.com/magazine/hampden-staff-pitch-in-ahead-of-final.html

I'd be very surprised if we took more than 7000. Hampden I think will easily have enough tickets to cope with demand, with the remaining given to Celtic if they progress.

I don't think we will take anywhere near 7000 unfortunately

Edited March 12, 201511 yr by shakey

We struggled to sell 7,000 to the League Cup final last season. Being realistic and based on past experience, we will take about half of that to a semi final in Glasgow.

Any idea when we will know the date and time??  Why aren't these things fixed?  Are they waiting for the result of the Celtic/Dundee Utd. replay?  Why are the SFA so useless?

If we face Celtic then I think we may pick up a few 'neutrals' but if we make the final then I think we can make it past the 10K mark.

If we face Celtic then I think we may pick up a few 'neutrals' but if we make the final then I think we can make it past the 10K mark.

'Neutrals' I, for one, would rather do without...

Seen as the attendance chat has started already, I'd be happy with 4k.

Suppose it all depends on the day and time of kick off. If its another sunday ko at 12pm i reckon we'll be taking around 2000 again. If however the ko is at 3pm on either day we should hopefully be able to take 4000

When we were in SC semi's before we took over 6k which is odd when u think we struggled to take oy 7k to last yeas final.

Also Dundee United wont take anymore than 12,000 to a semi and i doubt celtic will take anymore than 25000 tbh

I'm with Fraz here, in a way doesn't matter what size of a crowd we take, we are at the national stadium on merit and that will attract considerably more than our core support through interest created by the venue. I'm happy if "neutrals" want to swell our numbers - it's just more income for the club. I don't share your unspoken viewpoint that these will be rangers fans, I think our brand of football will attract more than that to watch us. BTW, we didn't "struggle" to take 7K people to the LC final, that's just the number we got in what was a lesser competition than the SC. Maximising our semi final crowd might be best achieved by remembering how long it is since we have been to hampden and remembering that Celtic are chasing a treble. If we get them in the semi (and I hope we don't) that might be some people's only chance to see ICTFC at hampden. They need to be there.

I'm not disputing the fact that neutrals may want to pick up this game - without a doubt they are more than welcome. I'm just stressing the point that should we get paired with Celtic then we may see a few more neutrals than in a normal tie who may be Rangers fans wishing to take in a game where Celtic could get a beat because of the rivalry etc.

It's no different to our fans sitting in the Dundee United end back in 2010 at C*unty's SC final.

Edited March 12, 201511 yr by ICTRoughi

Any idea when we will know the date and time??  Why aren't these things fixed?  Are they waiting for the result of the Celtic/Dundee Utd. replay?  Why are the SFA so useless?

Possibly TV companies and not SFA to blame

It's the SFA who have sold to the TV companies the right to dictate the kick off date and time.

 

If we face Celtic then I think we may pick up a few 'neutrals' but if we make the final then I think we can make it past the 10K mark.

'Neutrals' I, for one, would rather do without...

 

 

 

Neutrals can be converted into staunch supporters..... I would welcome them ! and I'm sure many others would too.

I'm not disputing the fact that neutrals may want to pick up this game - without a doubt they are more than welcome. I'm just stressing the point that should we get paired with Celtic then we may see a few more neutrals than in a normal tie who may be Rangers fans wishing to take in a game where Celtic could get a beat because of the rivalry etc.

It's no different to our fans sitting in the Dundee United end back in 2010 at C*unty's SC final.

I didn't. I bought ticket for County end

 

I'm not disputing the fact that neutrals may want to pick up this game - without a doubt they are more than welcome. I'm just stressing the point that should we get paired with Celtic then we may see a few more neutrals than in a normal tie who may be Rangers fans wishing to take in a game where Celtic could get a beat because of the rivalry etc.

It's no different to our fans sitting in the Dundee United end back in 2010 at C*unty's SC final.

I didn't. I bought ticket for County end

 

......and me......

Is every moderator on this site a closet County fan? Disgusting behaviour.

Personally, I make no apologies for supporting our fellow Highlanders except when they play us.

I think we will take a decent crowd I think County had about 5-5500 in their Semi final against Celtic in 2010 so I would be happy with that but if we could aim for the smae numbers we took in our last semi final in 04 and last seasons LC final then I would be delighted. If we get to the final I think we could defo take over 10,000 and as people have said County got a brilliant final crowd which had some of us and other neutrals swelling the crowd. Yes we would all like to fill out the Longman every week and comfortably taking 20,000 and above to these occasions but we don't so whatever the number is I am sure they will be loud in their backing to give this team the support it deserves to become sucessful  

Tbh I rally don't care how many we take to semi. We will be slated for however many we take whether it's the usual 3000 at most games or 10000 it would be a case of glory hunters or Inverness doesn't deserve such a poor support As long as we all get behind The team and give them all we've got then the numbers are irrelevant. Wr will be harangued whatever we do by the press other fans etc. Let's just all do our best and support our team

Although it would be good to get as many as possible as Davie says to swell the coffers I think a smaller crowd can be just a loud and effective as a larger crowd with less people getting involved in the atmosphere.

I have to agree with those saying that a smaller crowd is actually more preferable for general atmosphere and things of that nature.  I didn't notice it quite so much at the League Cup Final, because it wasn't *that* big a crowd as finals go, but I do recollect a Ross County fan talking about their experience of their crowd the time they got to the Scottish Cup Final.  Seemingly the whole experience was very disappointing.  The crowd was full of Big Time Billys constantly asking things like "Who's that number 5?" etc. and who promptly left en masse as soon as Dundee United took the lead.

 

To be quite honest, should we get to the final, I'd like some way of keeping the seasonal ticket holders/regular fans together and give them priority to the ticketing, so that they at least can bellow out as one, as opposed to being broken up across the stand.  We - the people reading this and those who have season tickets and/or attend games regularly should be given priority.  Not the big game dandies. 

Edited March 12, 201511 yr by Renegade

Every ticket sold contributes to the pot which is shared among the participating clubs - as an honest treasurerer I'll take anyone's legitimate money.

 

To be quite honest, should we get to the final, I'd like some way of keeping the seasonal ticket holders/regular fans together and give them priority to the ticketing, so that they at least can bellow out as one, as opposed to being broken up across the stand.  We - the people reading this and those who have season tickets and/or attend games regularly should be given priority.  Not the big game dandies.

^This but undoubtedly the ticket office staff will most likely achieve this so it shouldn't be a worry IMO.

Just on the point of neutrals, I recall seeing Gavin Gunning (Ex-Dundee United) in our section at the league cup final last year.