Hearts fans show generosity with ticket initiative for Rangers game

The Hearts support are well known for their generosity. As a fan base they have pumped nearly £13million into the club via the Foundation of Hearts.

Hearts fans have rallied to donate tickets to families for the Rangers clash later this month. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

More than that, on personal level, there is a desire to help fellow supporters.

That can be seen through an initiative by Hearts podcast This is my Story.

On Tuesday, the group put out an appeal on social media as they sought to give a family of four “a wee Christmas treat” with tickets to the Rangers game at Tynecastle Park a week on Sunday.

It said: “Christmas can be a tough time for loads of families. December hits most families hard in the pocket so we wanted to do our bit”.

Host of the podcast Liam Corbett didn’t expect to be inundated with fans donating tickets, money and even Hearts training gear and the club have responded by blocking off two rows in the Roseburn Stand.

"It started going mental and literally within a half hour Big Hearts had messaged me to say ‘we’ve had people show a desire to donate tickets’ so they put them in our direction,” he told The Scotsman.

"It snowballed from there.

"As it stands now we have given away 12 tickets, we’ve got 15 tickets to collect on Sunday at the Livingston game from various fans and we’ve got about £350 to buy tickets.

"We’re going to end up giving away between 30 and 45 tickets which is just mental.”

The inspiration to give away tickets came from other Hearts fans on Twitter who had done likewise.

This is my Story used their platform to reach more fans with former players, including Allan Preston and Ryan McGowan, donating.

‘Not prepared for the emotion’

"Normally before Covid if you weren’t going to the game you wouldn’t really care if nobody used your season ticket or nobody went," Corbett said. “Now there seems to be a bit of a move for people to be like ‘right, I’m not going to the game this week but who wants me season ticket?

"I’ve been seeing it more and more coming into prevalence with the fanbase that folk are looking out for each other.

“Hearts fans are brilliant for this. We looked to raise £400 for a Marius Zaliukas flag. We raised £2,500. When it comes to supporting the club, financially or helping people out, the fans are second to none.

"Motherwell fans are great, they’ve got great initiatives. So do Celtic and Rangers, foodbank collections and that sort of stuff. But when it comes to this, Hearts fans are brilliant.

"In a sense I’m not totally shocked by it but the scope of it has been mental.”

For Corbett and the rest of the guys at This is my Story, they knew they were doing something positive, but they weren't quite prepared for when a woman got in contact looking to get tickets for her husband and son who haven't been to a game since the Covid pandemic.

“You come up with the idea and think that would be amazing but you are not ready for how emotional it makes you," he said.

"The husband messaged me and said ‘mate, you have no idea how much this means to us. It’s been a terrible 18 months. This is amazing. My boy will be over the moon’.”

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