Hearts chief reveals huge rise in club's waiting list for season tickets

The waiting list for Hearts season tickets has risen to a whopping 7,000, club’s chief executive Andrew McKinlay has revealed.

The Tynecastle club have hit 15,500 season-ticket holders for the second campaign in succession. But instead of the waiting list coming down from its previously reported total of 3,500 back in February, it has instead almost doubled despite the Jambos missing out on guaranteed group-stage European football at the conclusion of last term.

McKinlay revealed the figure while defending the club’s decision to slash away allocations for every club, except Hibs, to just one section of the Roseburn Stand.

"We're very much focused on, as you would expect, our own fans and the home fans,” he told Sky Sports News.

Hearts fans in the main stand at Tynecastle Park. Picture: SNS

"We're in a really great position at the moment, thanks to those fans, that we have 15,500 season ticket holders and we actually have a waiting list now close to 7000.

"Huge demand from our fans means we already have a large number of season ticket holders in the Roseburn Stand, the traditional away part of the ground, and those season tickets apply for every game other than Hibernian.

"We've taken the decision that all teams other than Hibs will get the one section at the end of the stand, and we've come to an agreement with Hibs, which is great, to keep the derby as it should be and to make the atmosphere, which we all think is fantastic.

"Hibs will still get the whole end and I think that's a very important thing for our fans, the Edinburgh derby and for football."