A lot has been made this week of the English FA's insistance that the FA Cup semi finals be played at Wembley, despite the fact they involved two teams from Manchester, one from Stoke and one from Bolton.
The FA say it provides a rare opportunity for fans to visit the stadium, especially considering it might be a long time before Bolton or Stoke reach another cup semi.
The cynics say that it's all about squeezing as much cash as possible out of the £767 million white elephant (I've been there, and it is an unbelievable venue, but it's still a horrific waste of money), not least as a third of the tickets go to corporate sponsors at the like.
You could make a similar argument for the situation of the Scottish cup semis, both of which are played at Hampden.
But at least in England one match sold out, whilst the other had an attendance of over 75,000. North of the border, Hampden Park played host to 11,920 folk on Saturday, as Motherwell played St. Johnstone, and 30,381 on Sunday for Aberdeen-Celtic.
Hampden has 52,103 seats. This means that all the fans who went to the two games could have been accomodated at the same time, whilst still leaving nearly 10,000 seats empty.
Disturbingly, it appears even Celtic couldn't sell all their tickets for the match. At least they had a support in five figures though; the empty seats were horrendously obvious on Sky's coverage of both matches, but particularly the first.
But Hampden has a contract to host both of those games along with the final, so year after year we see two semi finals in a quarter-full stadium. Those who have been to the ground will be aware that the gently sloped stands, miles away from the pitch, produce an atmosphere equal to that found in a mortuary. Even when it is full.
The teams have a little bit of an incentive to play the games there - the total gate money from both semis is split four ways, so if an Old Firm team is playing (or both are) then you want to squeeze as much cash out of them as possible. But the attendance for the first semi would not have sold out Pittodrie, or Tannadice, or Easter Road, or Tynecastle. In fact, it would not even have sold out Motherwell's own Fir Park. And the supporters know it - the atmosphere is rubbish, the stadium's rubbish and, in the case of Aberdeen and St. Johnstone fans, it's a bit of a drive.
And it's on telly.
So why on earth would you pay £35 for a ticket when, like at Wembley, all the decent seats at the half way line go to sponsors anyway?
It doesn't take someone with the intellectual capacity of a boiled potato (the entrance qualification for a referee in Scotland incidentally, don't get me started on the officials at Caley-Hearts this weekend) to see the solution; if one or both semis involve the Gruesome Twosome, play them at Hampden. If not, pick a geographic location which suits, with a capacity of no more than 20,000, and at least guarantee a proper cup-tie atmosphere. And don't charge ridiculous prices. Then, maybe, supporters will make the effort.
Sadly, it's a sign of the times that this is nowhere near the daftest thing happening in Scottish football at the moment. Nowhere near.
L.
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