WE WILL NOT BE INTIMIDATED:
Killie chairman Bowie gives his reason for stadium changes
BILLY BOWIE has been taken way beyond the end of his tether.
He has had enough of the sectarian chanting that stung the sensibilities of his own miracle-working manager earlier this season during an away day at Ibrox.
Enough of the coin-throwing yobs who put the health and safety of his club captain in harm’s way during the last visit from Celtic.
And enough of the epidemic of appallingly bad behaviour inside football grounds up and down the land which appears to be dragging our national game back towards the dark ages.
So yesterday the Kilmarnock chairman chose to do something about it.
When Bowie announced that Rangers’ customary ticket allocation will be sliced in half to just 4,000 for the final game of the season at Rugby Park, he applied some sugar coating by adding that this particular day is to be a celebration of the club’s 150th year.
But the truth is, this was also a glimpse into the vision Bowie has for Kilmarnock’s future.
A modern, welcoming, all inclusive club which aims to create the kind of environment that parents would wish to usher their children into.
Not one which has to ask its own players to coax an eightyear-old child into coming back to Rugby Park because of the trauma caused by the last visitation from Glasgow, when Celtic fans crossed all manner of lines as their side effectively tied up this season’s title.
Kris Boyd had to make that phone-call the other day which is what Bowie was getting at yesterday in his statement when he said: “Kilmarnock FC is a family club and we want to make sure Rugby Park is an enjoyable and safe environment for people to enjoy football.”
Later, in an exclusive interview with Record Sport Bowie said: “We have spoken to our own supporters about it and there is a feeling that they
We want Rugby Park to be a safe environment to enjoy football
BILLY BOWIE ON HIS PROPOSAL FOR KILLIE
are intimidated when the Old Firm sides come to Rugby Park.
“So we’ve decided what we want is to create an environment for them on match days where they feel absolutely safe. We want them to feel comfortable bringing their families to any Kilmarnock game and that has not always been the case.
“After the last game against one of the Old Firm, we realised this was something we had to discuss. We have had a lot of talks about it and this is the way we have decided to handle things going forward.
“We are creating a fan zone behind the Moffat Stand with a nine-a-side football pitch and we want Kilmarnock supporters and their families to come along and enjoy the whole matchday experience.
“We won’t be able to do that if we are giving that stand away to visiting supporters. So this is the decision we have made. We want to celebrate what our own club has achieved on the last day of the season but this is the model we plan to use going forward.”
There’s much to be admired in what Bowie and Kilmarnock are doing here, at a time when Scottish football feels like it has already gone to the dogs.
And the accusatory finger should not be jabbed only in the direction of Glasgow either.
This has been a season of jaw-slackening idiocy which has seen a linesman’s head cut open by a coin, Celtic winger Scott Sinclair narrowly missed by a flying bottle of Buckfast, Rangers captain James Tavernier confronted by one fan at Easter Road after dodging a lighter and a Scotch pie at Fir Park, pyrotechnics being thrown like confetti and even a coconut launched on to the field during the Edinburgh derby.
This juggernaut of loutish behaviour is hurtling out of control and yesterday Kilmarnock chose to slam on the brakes
Bowie added: “We want people to come back to football for all the right reasons.
“Obviously as directors, we sit in the middle of the main stand on match days so we do not have the same experience as those supporters who sit closer to the away fans.
“We don’t really come into contact with them before or after the game either.
“But what we want to do is make Kilmarnock’s supporters feel as if this is their stadium.”
Rangers responded yesterday with a thinly-veiled threat of refusing tickets for future trips down the M77.
Perhaps in more testing financial times for Kilmarnock in the not so distant past they have been more than happy to roll out the carpet for these bumper visiting crowds. But Bowie insists not only are these changed days for his club – which is closing in on the possibility of European football and a third-placed finish in the top flight – but that they are here to stay.
When told of the statement from Ibrox yesterday and of the warning that such a stand-off could cost Kilmarnock somewhere of the region of a quarter of a million pounds per season, Bowie said: “That doesn’t really bother us as this is something we want to do for our own fans.
“If we can attract more Kilmarnock fans to Rugby Park then we will offset any loss from matches against the Old Firm.
“We have 18 home games a season. If we can add another 1,000 Killie fans to our average home crowds then that will more than cover the cost of losing 16,000 Old Firm fans.”