Hearts chief hails club's support, 3.5k waiting list and reveals £3k Hamilton donation after 'needless scenes'

Hearts chief executive Andrew McKinlay has hailed the club’s support but revealed a donation of £3,000 has been made to Hamilton Accies youth academy following “needless scenes” from the recent Scottish Cup match at the ZLX Stadium.

Robbie Neilson's men were backed by 3,727 fans – the biggest ever away attendance at the ground – for the fifth round clash. Supporters were praised for the atmosphere they created throughout the 90 minutes and beyond but the game was stopped on two occasions due to flares thrown onto the artificial surface.

McKinaly issued a statement on the club's "phenomenal fanbase” confirming “demand to watch Heart of Midlothian is outstripping supply” and “it could be argued that there has never been a better time to be a Hearts fan”. There is currently a waiting list for season tickets in excess of 3,500, while the total attendance of home matches “could hit around the 450,000 mark come the end of the season” with it currently over 315,000.

‘Continued commitment’

"On Tuesday, our allocation of 2,200 for this Sunday’s cinch Premiership match at Motherwell sold out,” he said. “Our hosts have opened up two more sections, so we can expect to see in excess of 3,000 Hearts fans at Fir Park. This is our second away match in a row and comes off the back of last week’s Scottish Cup win at Hamilton Academical. There were 3,727 Jambos in South Lanarkshire, which is the biggest ever away attendance recorded at Accies’ stadium.

“Those are the supporters who have watched us, then there are those fans who want to watch us. Currently, the season ticket waiting list stands at more than 3,500. With more than 15,500 season ticket holders already in place, I cannot think of another club in Scotland outside of Celtic and Rangers that has such demand.

“These figures simply point to the continued commitment of Hearts supporters to travel near and far – by bus and car, some may say – to back this club to the hilt and it is greatly appreciated. The players regularly comment on how much of a help the atmosphere is at Tynecastle and the huge numbers of fans that journey to away games often make visiting grounds feel like home and this is of huge benefit to Robbie Neilson and his first team.

“To take last week’s game at Hamilton into isolation, the atmosphere created by our fans on Friday night was incredible. There were, unfortunately, some needless scenes created by the throwing of pyrotechnics onto the pitch. It would be remiss of me not to point out that this is unacceptable, and these incidents caused considerable damage to Accies’ synthetic surface. Such was the damage to the pitch and to some seats in the away section, the club has donated £3,000 to Hamilton’s youth academy both by way of apology and as a gesture of goodwill. The use of pyro has also seen us fined by UEFA this season and as such, I must implore fans not to bring these dangerous items to any Hearts game.”

He added: “On behalf of everyone at Hearts, I thank you for your support and we all look forward to experiencing a sea of maroon at every game from now until the end of the season.”