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As a number of Scottish Premier League clubs hit serious financial trouble, one of the most bizarre casualties has been the free pie offer for season ticket holders that was withdrawn by Livingston after they went into administration. Three clubs are now in administration (Motherwell and Dundee in addition to Livingston), but it could rise to four soon if Dunfermline players refuse to take a pay cut. The collective debt of the league is £190m, largely the result of excessive wages paid on the back of a television deal that no longer exists. In the case of Motherwell, which had run up losses of £11m, wages had reached 97 per cent of turnover. Dundee's debts amounted to £20m. Those at Livingston were much smaller and in many ways the club, whose neat ground can often be seen as one flies in to Edinburgh, were well run. Elsewhere, Kilmarnock owe £10m on turnover of £5m, although they have built a hotel on their training pitch. Hibernian sold their car park for £10m to reduce a debt of £14.5m. Even Rangers has record debt of £68m. The smallest debt is at Glasgow's third club, Partick Thistle, but after an earlier financial crisis they have cut their weekly wage bill to a miserly £500.
One of the biggest crises is at Hearts, the much vaunted 'third force' of Scottish football. Despite getting rid of high earning players and some astute transfer sales, the club owes £17.6m. The board claims that the only way out is to sell the club's Tynecastle ground and move into the rugby stadium at Murrayfield with a capacity of 67,000 that is far too big for the needs of the club. There is strong opposition to the move from fans.
The league's sponsorship agreement with the Bank of Scotland will also come to an end soon. However, the underlying problem is the structure of the league which is dominated each year by Celtic and Rangers. No wonder attendances are falling and the television rights are worth only £18m over two years. There are those on both sides of the border who would like to see Celtic and Rangers in the Premiership, but it could endanger the status of the Scottish national team and would not be welcomed by smaller Premiership clubs.
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