Rod Petrie seeks cash boost from Hibs support

Published on 01/11/2012 00:00

Hibernian chairman Rod Petrie has urged supporters to help fund Pat Fenlon’s continuing attempts to improve the team.

Hibs sit second in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League after their first round of fixtures
following two-and-a-half years of major under-achievement which culminated in a William Hill Scottish Cup final thrashing by Hearts.

The club sold about 8,000 season tickets – up on last term but only one-third of the way to getting the extra 3,000 they had appealed for to offset the loss of Rangers from the SPL. And Petrie has asked for supporters to dig deeper. He said on the club’s website: “The unprecedented events of this summer created high levels of uncertainty in Scottish football, adding to the commercial difficulties faced by clubs at a time of economic recession. The uncertainty was created by the actions of those people running one club, but the financial impact has been felt by every club.

“In our own case, this added to the difficulties presented by two years of under-performance on the pitch. A great deal of work has been done to address that, both on the pitch and off. Progress has been made, but we are still some distance short of where we need to be.”

Petrie added: “We would like to do more to help Pat sustain that improvement again in the January transfer window. That will depend on our core source of income – receipts from attendances at home games 
between now and the turn of the year. There is no magic wand, everyone needs to do what they can, but only if they can, in these times of economic hardship.”