HIBS today declared their plan to sell tickets directly to Rangers fans for this month's Easter Road clash between the clubs a success with more than half of the 4000 allocation sold within 24 hours, writes DAVID HARDIE.
The Edinburgh outfit decided to take a stance against a bid by both Rangers and Celtic to impose a five per cent levy on other clubs for selling tickets for their away matches
Rather than hand an allocation of tickets to Rangers for the SPL match
in the Capital on Sunday, September 28, Hibs told the Ibrox club they'd sell the briefs themselves.
The Rangers Supporters' Association agreed to work with Hibs on the distribution of tickets to its members and the Easter Road club invited applications for a maximum of four tickets on Monday.
Today chief executive Scott Lindsay revealed: "On day one we had applications for more than 2000 tickets and there was another huge pile of applications the following day.
"We've been very pleased with the response and it gives us confidence we will be able to sell out the entire section. It means a bit of extra work for the ticket office but our staff are more than capable of coping, having handled cup finals and semi-finals when they've dealt with tens of thousands of tickets rather than 4000."
Lindsay also claimed Hibs' move, one he insisted was based on principle, could see more family groups attend the match than in the past, saying: "There are no restrictions on the number of concessions, whereas in previous years it's been a very small number."
And he also moved to allay any worries over safety, revealing that, despite their differences over this particular issue, Hibs and Rangers were working closely to fulfil their obligations under SPL rules.
He said: "Both clubs recognise they have responsibilities under the SPL's unacceptable conduct rules. We are working closely with Rangers and Lothian and Borders Police and an example is that Rangers, as they did last year, will be bringing their own stewards to augment the stewarding requirements."
Rangers fans will have until noon on Monday to apply for tickets for the match, which will be shown live on Setanta Television.
The full article contains 380 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
