Knowing I would be driving to a football match on New Year's Day I suspect I was not alone in treating Hogmanay with greater caution than ever before.

A friend had told me in mid-December about a bloke he knew who acquired a personal breathalyser because of the new legislation and discovered that after having had three bottles (not pints) of admittedly strong beer and a couple of stiff whiskies he was not fit, under the old legislation, to drive his car until 11.30 am, while it was 2.30 pm before he could do so under the new rules.

So much for sleeping off a big night... Food for thought, indeed, regarding the prospect of getting into a car while still feeling a tad hungover.

All the moreso when on a day when there was a full SPFL card and no public transport.

We have learned a great deal about alcohol misuse since those such as a distant memory of an early, parentally-unsupervised trip to a match when standing on the long disused corner of Dens Park my schoolpal Kev Rattray and I were invited by East Fife supporters to share in the half bottle of whisky they had brought along. We both played rugby, so knew enough to give it a sniff and check that the contents bore no resemblance to Max Boyce's bottle that 'once held bitter ale.'

With segregation and booze bans such camaraderie is long gone and, for all that we, collectively, brought that upon ourselves our sporting landscape is the poorer for it.

A quick check of attendance averages during the past decade supported that view with average gates of more than 16,000 at Scottish top tier matches in 2005/06 having declined pretty steadily ever since.

As well as covering a vast array of Winter Olympic, Commonwealth Games and other sports, 2014 also allowed me to return to covering football for the first time since the eighties and my own experience bore that out.

Fewer than 3000 watching St Johnstone, in arguably the club's greatest ever year, take on Inverness the month after the Highlanders topped the Premiership table; fewer than 4000 watching Dundee United seeking to extend their then lead at the top of the Premiership table on an autumn Friday night in Kilmarnock; Falkirk playing a Scottish Cup tie in front of a crowd of 1237...

This past week or so has evoked much fond reflection of what was considered a great sporting year for Scotland and, having always covered a wide variety of sports, the attention paid to those other than football and rugby union has been welcome.

There has, though, also been a dangerously ignorant trend among the eulogists to dismiss any critical scrutiny as curmudgeonly nay-saying.

Yet what is evident in the success of those gatherings is the development of what we have seen in Scottish rugby for many years where attendance at matches is less about supporting a team and more about - to borrow from old Max once more - an "I was there," mentality.

A key lesson seems to be that decades of under-investment in participation has produced a population that is much less involved in sport itself and has been conditioned towards event-going.

Much longer term issues must be addressed if Scottish sport is to recover properly, but meantime our football clubs must be prepared and, indeed, allowed to create events that people will enjoy regardless of the sporting fare itself.

A priority is ticket price reduction. No way would I pay £20 week-in, week-out for the current quality of experience, even allowing for having witnessed Mikael Antoine Curier's "van Basten" strike against Dundee last month, Stevie Mallan's wonder goal against the same opponents and Hamilton's magnificent Ne'er Day derby performance.

However as well as getting more people through the gate clubs ought to be allowed to find ways of generating more income and atmosphere by enhancing the mood and reducing inhibition, rather than merely being hubs around which local pubs can cash in.

To that end St Mirren's fan zone was a step in the right direction and such initiatives need to be encouraged, initially on a case by case basis. These are not the eighties and it is wrong for this generation to continue to pay the price for the misbehaviour of their elders.

Of course that needs monitoring and of course the police will opposed such changes, because, as with their recommendation that all drivers now abstain from drink completely to comply with the new laws, policing will always be easier if alcohol is completely removed from the equation.

Properly partaken of, however, it can, as at Six Nations Championship matches, big golf tournaments and other major sporting events, add to the sense of fun and help enjoyment levels.

All the best for 2015 then... Here's to a happier and more prosperous year for our beleaguered national sport and all the others.