As ever, there are straightforward choices between looking after supporters and making a few pounds and, sadly, it seems the underdog in that combination is not about to have its day.
Away fans in the Cooper
Firstly the game has been moved from the Saturday to the Sunday to accommodate television. While this is no longer too objectionable in itself, giving just over a month's notice is not really acceptable for a game at the end of the festive period. While many will find any Sunday game tricky to attend, several fans will have already made travelling arrangements to be around for Hogmanay before staying on for the match. Moving it to the Sunday now is liable to cause buses, trains and planes to be cancelled.
A more serious problem though concerns the ticketing arrangements. Motherwell fans have been critical of the board allocating the Davie Cooper Stand to the Old Firm but the club gave the home crowd a chance to win it back against Rangers in the CIS quarter final. There was a suggestion that this game, on Halloween, would be some sort of measure of the financial feasibility of reverting to the traditional seating plan.
Although the stand was not packed out that day, a very respectable number took their seats. It was midweek, season tickets were not valid and there was live football on the box. The attendance was around 750 less than had turned up for the previous game against Rangers. Surely the test had been passed?
It is a shame that the club has chosen not repeat the experiment for this league game against an Old Firm team. The board needs to recognise that its supporters will still be contributing financially week in week out, long after television is gone.
The club has arranged an open meeting at