If figures just released are to be believed, Scottish football has striven successfully to remain within the financial reach of the ordinary fan.
 
A survey released by the BBC appears to show that, certainly compared to the rest of the UK, the Scottish game has affordable match-pricing, even if the tab for a pie or a cup of tea remains ridiculous.
 
Of course, any reference to “the ordinary fan” immediately opens a can of worms. Who is this mythical figure? How do you ever measure “the norm” in these situations?
 
There are some starting points. For instance, there are football supporters today in Scotland, earning in the region of £17,000 to £20,000 a year, who still want to shell out around £300 on a season ticket to watch their Premiership team.
 
In some cases that income figure can be placed even lower. Other life-factors must always be noted but, the fact remains, fans opt to make their football a priority and therefore affordable.
 
From the BBC survey it also appears that, all things considered, you can get pretty good deals to watch football in Scotland.
 
If you buy Motherwell’s cheapest-price season ticket you can watch a home game at Fir Park for around £15.50.
 
If you buy the same ticket for Dundee United you are paying around £16 per game.
 
The equivalent ticket at Ross County gets you your Premiership football for £16 per match. At Hearts the cheapest season ticket actually comes in at £14.70 per game.
 
Broken down, these are by no means exorbitant prices in 2015. On the contrary, Scottish clubs are fighting tooth and claw to peg prices back and keep their fans happy and coming through the turnstiles.
 
In fact, of the 42 Scottish clubs surveyed, 27 of them this season did not increase either their cheapest or most expensive season ticket prices.
 
In an age of austerity, most Scottish clubs are desperate for any cash-flow they can find, but they also appear determined not to rip-off supporters.
 
Even at Celtic and Rangers, where prices inevitably are shaped by greater market demand, there is a hint of trying to keep the punter happy.
 
Celtic’s current cheapest season ticket comes in at £337 – that is (roughly) £17.70 per home league game.
 
Rangers are even more impressive, albeit they play in the Championship. If you buy the cheapest Ibrox season ticket available at £263 you get the equivalent of £14.60 per league match over the season.
 
The fact is, football supporters on not very large incomes are willing to shell out for their season tickets – it is essential to their love of going to the football. And what they get, in terms of value, should not be fashionably trashed.
 
On average it seems that prices in Scottish football remain vastly lower than in England’s Premier League – stating the obvious – but also lower than in the English Championship and in England’s League One.
 
You might argue – in some cases justifiably – that the standard of football you are getting is on a par with the third tier in England, and so the pricing is fair enough.
 
That’s fine. Scotland is a small country with a quality of football in keeping with its size, and fans love going to see their team. No-one should get hung up about it.
 
The aspects of rip-off that do remain are in other areas – food and drink, in merchandising, etc.
 
On this score I doff my cap to Hamilton Accies - the cheapest cup of tea in the Premiership, at £1.60 a relative snip.
 
At a mere £1.70 Kilmarnock also offer the cheapest pie in the Premiership – though I doubt this is the famed Killie Pie, which actually has bits of meat in it and is delicious.
 
Congrats, too, to Elgin City – at £1 and 60p they offer the cheapest pie and cup of tea by some distance in senior Scottish football.
 
On this score the ever fan-conscious Rangers need to pipe down a bit. Charging £2.50 for a cup of char - if this is indeed accurate - looks steep.
 
Have to say, it is fashionable to trash the pricing of football these days, but Scottish football comes out of this survey pretty well. In these findings I do not see rampant extortion taking place.
 
The game in our country in many cases remains community-minded, with the club, where once it was the church, being the focal point of a town. Scottish football would do well to remember this and respect it.