I absolutely reject- David Low states the financial case for Celtic to rebuild the South Stand

David Low has rejected the suggestion that Celtic can’t afford to rebuild their Main (South) Stand.

The existing structure, including foundations, was built in 1929, in 1971 the current seating arrangement was installed which consists of two areas with hospitality boxes installed in 1988.

Effectively the structure is getting close to 100 years old, the 1987/88 rebuild provided a restaurant, corporate facilities and increased office space but remains effectively an add-on that is badly out of date.

On Champions League nights when corporate UEFA drops in, the interior of Celtic Park is either quaint or dated. Players squeeze into the tunnel area while elsewhere it is single file along the corridors, elsewhere the media has a small working area and a not so glorified tent to conduct post match interviews in. The tent has been in use for Champions League matches since 2001, in that time a new generation of stadiums has sprung up across Europe,  leaving Celtic further behind the times.

Since Fergus McCann delivered new stands on three sides of the stadium questions have been asked about bringing the South Stand upto date, from being a wish in the past it is fast becoming a necessity with hot water unavailable in the toilets with a lot of other basic facilities lacking.

A new construction wouldn’t need to be at the same height as the remainder of the ground but it could contain a Club Store, Ticket Office, a Museum and cafe/bar/restaurant facilities that could be earning for the club every day of the year.

At the 2023 AGM Michael Nicholson claimed that a new South Stand was out of the question because of a £100m price tag with no detail given. Over time the price won’t drop.

Any feasibility project would put forward at least three options but like most matters it is one that the Celtic board don’t want to discuss in public.

In their most recent Interim Report Celtic announced that they had £67.3m in the bank at the end of December, equivalent to over 50% of turnover.

Low has been in and around Celtic finances for over 30 years, speaking with the Celtic Exchange he made it clear that a rebuilt South Stand should be a priority.

22 minutes

David Low: There were four big share issues between 1994 and 2005 but nothing since so there is an untapped market for ownership in Celtic. So a share issue is a source of capital

Tino: How does that work?

DL: It would work the same way as previous issues worked. You could, at its most simple level you would have a share issue to all of the existing shareholders in proportion to their shares. That would mean that everybody, every existing shareholder would have the ability to retain their existing percentage in the club. So if everybody doubled their holding they would still have the same percentage but percentages are only for the big guys who care for the percentage of Celtic that they own.

And then there is that whole market that doesn’t have any shares at all because none have been issued in the 20 years.

So there’s a demand from a new generation of Celtic supporters for shares, Celtic could certainly raise money, you could speculate to how much through a new share issue.

They have the cash in the bank as well, they could introduce some modest debt if they had to, the same way as we did back in the day for the refurb (in 1987) that is now old so I absolutely reject any suggestion whatsoever that Celtic cannot afford to reconfigure the main stand. I think that is the case.

When McCann came up with his staged plan to take the capacity of Celtic Park to 60,000 very few people saw the logic in it, a 45-50,000 seater stadium would have been adequate based on crowds of the early 90s but McCann created a 10,000 seater advantage for generations to come. Celtic outdo their Glasgow rivals by a distance on every income stream.

Building on that seems to be the logical move, creating a legacy from recent successes on the pitch and commercially with a new Adidas deal expected to be announced at any time.

A complete rebuild may take a year, it may take nine months but there is little evidence of forward planning.

Anyone looking in at Celtic Park on a typical matchday seems plenty of empty seats despite the Sold Out signs.

Existing South Stand Season Ticket holders could be catered for through the current excess capacity while another 8-10,000 Season Tickets could be sold opening up further matchday income streams with the capacity for thousands more corporate seats helping to fund the new look structure.

Season Tickets haven’t gone on general sale since 2015, since then they have only been allocated to those who have paid a fee to go on a Waiting List.

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