Should TV dictate the Premier League schedule?
should TV dictate football's agenda?
It seems to be a distant memory now… back in the days when a football weekend consisted of every team in the English league kicking off at 3pm and finishing at 4:45pm on a Saturday afternoon. To the younger readers, there was no Super Sunday, Setanta was a non existent word and Match of Day was watched every week by most males in the UK.
The FA cup final was a family day to have the rare opportunity of watching a full football match on TV. People actually went to football games in there area. Manchester United fans were actually from Manchester! (Ed: They still are, contrary to popular misconceptions…)
There is no point dwindling on the past, we are now in a Rupert Murdoch era, the era where Sky Sports rules the roost and tells teams when they are going to play.
The main sufferers of this are the Big 4. And more interesting facts are upcoming to prove this:
Consistent 3 PM kick offs at home are a distant memory for the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea. Now with Setanta in the running, things are only set to get worse as time goes on. Here are some facts to prove how television is affecting top clubs…
- Manchester United have only had one game at 3′O clock kick off this season so far. (Yes the one with THAT penalty) They will have to wait until November for there second.
- Arsenal have only had one home kick of on A Saturday at the traditional time and will have to wait until mid-November for another.
- Liverpool have been the lucky team of the big 4. They have had the luxury of two home league games on a Saturday. That is double the rest of the Premiership contenders!
- Chelsea’s last Saturday game at 3 PM was a 2-0 win against Tottenham on the 12th January 2008! Their next one will be in November against Sunderland which will be one of the three games at home in the whole year, the other being Newcastle later in the month!
As a season ticket holder at Chelsea football club, I have attended games that have kicked off at 1:30, 2, 3 and 7:45 pm this season and none of them have been on a Saturday. A lot of Premiership teams have suffered with the constant movement of matches due to Sky and Setanta sports. If it isn’t Sunday afternoon, its Monday night, Wednesday night or even as I learnt last year, Thursday night as well.
Now to those who have never attended a football game in their lives, this is luxury. Instead of waiting until match of the day to see what the stadium of the team they support actually looks like, they can watch all of the games live from their living room.
There was fear last year that the ‘blanket TV coverage’ of games would ruin attendances. Stadiums like the JJB and the Riverside are half empty every single week. While the TV coverage increases, prices for the tickets also increase as well. With Season Tickets at a premium, there isn’t much chance for the Carling cup which is at extra cost to fans as it is not covered in the season ticket plan.
But with so much money being put in to the game, how can we stop the likes of the Sky Sports juggernaut? Someone once said, ‘fans are no longer at grounds to support, they are there to make it look good on TV’ and as time has gone on, I genuinely am starting to believe that. You obviously now have the opinion of someone whose club has transformed in to a top 4 team. The opinion of fans outside the ‘Big 4′ would be appreciated.
Football is no longer a sport, it is a business. As much as football fans love the likes of Jeff Stelling on a Saturday afternoon, they are still not showing live matches at 3 om which in the long run is a good thing. But how long will it be until this as well as other ongoing traditions are broken. When will we be watching Saturday afternoon games ‘Live on Sky Sports 1′ or ‘Live on Setanta Sports’? When will the TV domination stop?
Well if us fans want to see our clubs buying top players and play compete with the best in Europe we have to make sacrifices such as watching our teams play at erratic time-schedules. We can’t have it all right….
Who do you support? There is erratic, then there is only one three o’clock kick off on Saturday in 2008. There is then having a ticket to watch Chelsea at home on one Saturday and go away to everton the following Saturday. Until Sky move the Saturday game to Monday and the Everton game to the Thursday night of the same week. When I am getting home at 5 in the morning from Liverpool, the revenue interest of the club is not the first thing in my mind.
“When will the TV domination stop?”
You’ve answered your own question – television revenues make more money than gate receipts, so unless that changes (which presumably is not likely) this will always be the case.
Other sports are now waking up to the idea as well – F1, for example, recently held its first night race in Singapore so it could have both the benefit of appearing in a new market without having the race on at a time when its core (European) television audience is in bed.
It’s not going to stop…it’s going to get a lot worse.
The bigger clubs are always gonna have more fans who want to watch the game live then they can actually fit in the stadium, hence the growing importance of live football on TV is always going to continue.
I think everyone would benefit if they lifted the surely now defunct rule of not broadcasting Saturday 3PM games on TV. That’s one already sold out game back at the traditional time every week. Where’s the downside?
Im sorry, but I take it you are a fan who watches from home only. Lifting the three o’clock kick off TV ban would be awful. Of course, United fans from London can watch ‘there’ team on TV. The one shred of football that Sky can’t touch and we have fans who want them to break in to it. Do you think Upton park and the riverside are sold out every week?
Now if you are talking about the big 4 being sold out… If you were a fan of a team before the ‘big 4′ even existed, then you would have been there every week any way..
The only decent comment in this article is recognising that football is a business.
The growth and domination of the EPL is driven by TV revenues. The expansion into Asia and Africa has increased the income hugely and the time variations for the top 4 are everything to do with demand and coverage in other geographies.
The increase in ticket prices and TV subscriptions is fuelled by the massive demand for the product.
With the global expansion of the game and the fan base there is unprecedented demand for TV access, which is the only way millions of fans can see their team. Equally, it is what puts the Top 4 where they are and fuels their growth. In the case of Chelsea, feeding off this is the ONLY way they will ever become profitable and be able to stay at the top, with or without Abramovich.
Some weeks ago a Chelsea fan wrote an article on this blog criticising Peter Kenyon. The only thing remarkable about the article was a comment berating the choice to play pre season games in Asia in order to “bring a few stragglers to the fan base”. The naiiviety of this comment is astounding and I believe the writer of this article suffers from the same problem.
If you’ve never been in a bar in Jakarta, Bejing, Bombay or Manilia or if we move to Africa, in the cities of Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa etc., then you will of course have no idea of the how fanatical and committed the Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool fans are.
Have you ever been to the docks in Liverpool at 6am on a Saturday morning to witness the hoardes of fans disembarking from a slepless night to travel onwards to watch their team play and return the same night on the same ferry?
No you haven’t and you still think that because you live near the ground and attend home matches you are somehow priviliged and it makes you a better fan.
Here’s the reality check, geography doesn’t determine anyones right to claim loyalty or privilage,nor any right to claim ‘ownership’ of a club.
Understand what drives the EPL as the biggest football product on the planet and what that means to the big clubs in terms of sustaining their positions.
As for: “Manchester United fans were actually from Manchester!”
Bollocks! I’m a Utd fan of over 40 years, lived in Dublin until 6 years ago when I moved to Australia. I became a Utd fan in the mid 60’s when my cousins from London visited and got me addicted. I travelled to Old Trafford countless times but on average only a handful of times a season, with much hardship, when I lived in Dublin and even went to cup finals without a ticket but in the vain hope that I might get one on the black market. Fans of Spurs, Liverpool, Everton, Leeds etc. made those journeys with me and were as devoted as any fans I’ve met as are the ‘new’ fans in Asia and Africa who fuel the domination of the EPL.
Either pine for the good old days, which will never return, and walk away, or educate yourself on what the modern game is about.
Based in Australia these days I rely totally on TV and the internet to follow my team. If you think that makes me a lesser fan then you you’re deluding yourself. I got up at 3am to watch the CL final and stayed up to watch it a second time, drank a bottle of wine and took the day off work! Sweet as a nut. Gotta love John Terry!
The empire ended a long time ago my friend. Get over it.
Im sorry, but I said ‘United fans were from Manchester.’ you have taken offence to that before proclamiming you are from Dublin now living in Australia!… If I need an argument to back up my comment, u have certainly made it. I admit I haven’t been at a Liverpool port at 6am and am not disputing the point. I am from Ireland and know the strong bakcing of United over there.
Because of my Irish background, I respected what you said, before you started putting people in bars around the world before those who go to the games. Do you think I turned up after Abramovich and just picked up a season ticket? I was a Chelsea fan before Abramovich and all im sayin is that TV is harming the league. I don’t like the idea of 3 o’clock kick off’s being broadcast in England. I know it is done around the world and I have no problem with that as people outisde the UK have no choice but to watch it on TV.
Now you live abroad, you rely on Live broadcast and are berating me for going against it. Well done for getting up early to watch the final. After spending over £1000 to get to Russia myself, I dont think someone who lives in Australia should be insultig me because I am protecting the English Premiership, so you can’t sit comfortbaly watching saturday kick offs at home?
You miss my point Anthony. You stated that in the good old days Utd fans were actually from Manchester. Far from making your point I am pointing out the many fans, including myself, who weren’t. My examples relate to the 70’s and 80’s in case I didn’t make that clear. I related how I became a Utd fan in the 60’s as a result of my cousins from London, who were avid Utd fans. So the point is, you misrepresent the good old days with that assertion.
I’ve no doubt that you have been a loyal Chelsea fan for years but in my football following career I have also come across ‘local’ fans who are uncommitted, only go to games occassionally. Equally in relation to the ‘bars around the world’ comment I have encountered fans who travel miles to watch the match on TV, wear their colours and show as much emotion as I’ve ever seen. The point is that they are as committed as any fans I have ever seen and, although they can’t attend matches, they (as a whole, and the whole equals many millions in Africa and Asia) contribute the money that has fuelled the huge finacial growth of the EPL and in particular the success of the top 4.
The point is that you seem to believe that you are a better fan than them and that is not acceptable. As I said, geography does not define privilige or commitment.
I’ve no problem with there being a hold on 3pm live coverage at all.
It is the presumption that the ‘non local’ fans are something inferior and the failure to recognise the importance of their commitment in bringing the EPL to where it is and how essential that is to Chelsea in particular that I take issue with.
Anthony, yes as you guessed, i’m a Liverpool fan, who can only watch from home these days, previously i’d make it to a few games a season, but I simply can’t afford it these days. Hopefully in the future that will change.
Perhaps the Riverside or Upton Park aren’t sold out every week, but that’s not the point is it, you’ve not actually answered my question, what is the specific down side of the today’s 5:30 game of Man Utd V West Brom being played at 3pm and still being televised?
I admit it might not be a perfect idea, but I think we’ve gotten here by just ignoring the situation and letting it happen, why not look at policies which atleast try to balance business with football. Just trying to get some open debate going.
“Now if you are talking about the big 4 being sold out… If you were a fan of a team before the ‘big 4′ even existed, then you would have been there every week any way..”
I’m not quite sure what your point is, are you blasting me once for not “knowing” that not all premiership games aren’t sold out, and then blasting me again for them not being sold out??
For the record, been a Liverpool fan since I knew what football was, but really started watching in the mid Evans years when a run in the Cup was the best we seemed capable of.
Ok, I can see both of your points now. I apologise if any offence was caused through the article itself. To be honest the Man United fans comment was only supposed to be a little joke in the article that carries on with a stereotype. i didnt know that it would be a main talking point of the article.
Thank you for all your responces. Yes even the passionate ones, and the lack of swearing although we had disagreed on points.
Anthony,
That happens sometimes, people pick up on a minor point and argue to death, mainly because they agree with the rest of what you say
Usually I try to take such points out of my articles before making them live but some get through and we’re then inundated by arguments that have little relevance in the grand scheme of the article…