If You Had The Choice--live at home v live at SoL..

With the illegal showing of games in pubs, our game with Stoke on Saturday on sky, looking forward to watching it without the hassle of travel, can we have an HONEST discussion.

I am and have for years been a season ticket holder, I love live games, but, if I’m honest getting there and back, the cold and wet can all sometimes be a right drag, maybe I’m getting old.

We have sky now but what if you could have a decoder in your house. What it would cost less than a season card and you could watch every Sunderland game, home and away, live and at home?

I know that right now you could find a pub but let’s make it legal to add this extra service at home, the way you can in many countries.

Your choice..

Live at the SoL, Travel there, park up, meet your mates, drink in the atmosphere, enjoy the shouting and cheering, enjoy the shared emotion a win brings, enjoy the occasion.

Stay at home, enjoy every game without leaving home, minimum disruption to your life, warm and safe, less agro from her in doors, instant replay, good view with close up of goals, food and drink at will, beer if desired without worry about driving, record if cant watch live.

I can see the temptation if I’m honest, how about you?

 

Aye Syd, I can see the arguement for both sides - except less grief from her indoors.... the only way to avoid that while the game is on is to be at the SOL!!!! Away days are mint but haven't been able to get to many but there is no way I could watch a home game from anywhere but the North stand! Live at the SOL everytime!!!!

 

If my back was a wee bit better I would still go to the games as there is nothing like being "there" the atmosphere is electric.
The future is the younger ones we have to get them into the ground to feel that atmosphere.
I did it with my two sons paying for their season tickets, the older one has very little interest in football (just as well he has a girlfriend or I'd be getting worried. ).
The younger 16 just started work now pays for his own ticket and has dragged along 3 of his mates (interestingly they are sons of single mothers ! ) my son has paid for tickets for two of them as neither has a job. (One has now took a paper round so he has the money to go)
End of the transfer window I was texting my son at work all the latest info, he was still texting me back asking if anything had changed .
We need to get back to when everyone in the ground was singing, not just sitting giving polite applause as if watching an opera.

Lets not price out these young ones lets not forget after 16 they pay full price!
Most kids don't start making reasonable money till they are in their twenties.

 

I would love to get my Saturday pilgrimage back but too far and expensive at the moment.

To be honest forcing yourself to go when you don't really want to are often when the best matches are. Ever noticed how that happens with nights out as well?

I could probably just about afford the ticket but petrol/train from Manc is the killer.
If a decoder was on offer and affordable I would probably get one like. I would prefer sort the games online so they are above board and I was still supporting the club


Just read that and not sure it made sense. Meant live everytime where possible but lets get real some can't/ won't go to the stadium but would still pay to watch the match.

 

If both choices cost the same it's a no briner to me. Live Football every time.

The problem is live Football costs. Especially for those of us who live away.
I couldn't even think of lining very high earning footballer's pockets at the expense of my family.
These days the only football I see is on TV.
Do I miss going? yeah. Is football worth the price? No.

 

I have to say, i still get the same schoolboy excitement every time i approach the turnstile as i got 23 years ago when i went to my first match at Roker Park.

Nothing can replace being at the match, nothing.

Balti pies and strange tasting cider, a load of lads who you've known for years but don't know there names, the freedom to be 30years old and jump around and shout and sing in public without reproach, i adore going to the match and nothing short of ill health will stop me from going, i hope to be sat there in my 80's watching the lads, reminiscing about the 'great Steve Bruce team'.

I used to get away 10-12 times a season, that's impossible now, i think maybe clubs should look at selling an 'away game' tv package, i'd GLADLY pay a couple of hundred a year for it, and i'd still go to the away games when i could.

They could make it unavailable within say a 30 mile radius of the home side, and then the club(s) wouldn't miss out on a massive amount of match day revenue, and would make a few bob extra to boot.

Every Premier League match is recorded live, this can't be too difficult to implement, surely?

 

And that brucey leads me in nicely. If the illeagal games in pubs becomes leagal.it could well do, then you have the answer. Clubs set up their own live games so that if you do decide to stay at home at least the club profit. I would do like you, buy it, still go to home games and watch away on TV. I cant afford away games now so watching at home would be great.

 

This is very true, there should be a 16-20 bracket in my opinion, as this is when the 'purse strings' are cut, generally, and if young un's get out of the habit of going they may well end up never going back.

When i was 16, last season at Roker, my season ticket cost £120, first season at the SOL was something like £280, purely because i was a day older.

I had a couple of years when paying for it was very difficult indeed, despite always having reasonable jobs.

I never had the money to not worry about the cost of my season card till i was 24-25, and if i ever have kids, i can totally appreciate the cost i will have for 2 maybe 3 season cards.

£1500 for 3 season cards is the best part of a years grocery shop to most, i imagine(my lass does all that, i blow my stack in supermarkets!)

 

Away games for me will always cost the thick end of £300, as i generally go down the night before, and come back the morning after, so that's a hotel, a night out, and travel/petrol.

I can fully appreciate why people just can't shell that out for away games, even if it's bus/train/petrol/tickets and food and drink, your looking at close to £100, minimum.

 

no contest for me, i might only manage about a ten home games and half a dozen away per season now, but you can't beat the atmosphere of a live game. i even go to watch mansfield on odd occasions.

 

We have fun here watching games (legal) on TV but you can' t replace the atmophere of a live game at the Sol

 

If I were back home, there would have to be something very serious to make me miss a match. Walking to the ground, passing all these pubs showing it live, I wouldn't even be tempted.
Why can't we get the matches live on SAFC.com, the way we get the radio commentary live? I can't remember how much the Gary Rowell commentary costs but it's certainly worth it .
Do you think those who go to the match, foregoing pub transmission, would also go to the ground, even if they could have it live on SAFC.com?
I can watch the matches live on internet (listening to Gary Rowell's commentary) but I'd be very happy to be a SAFC.com "season-ticket holder", watching a good-quality feed (but still listening to Gary Rowell), feeling I was contributing to the finances of the club. And nothing would stop my annual pilgrimage to the SOL (which was the Blackpool match this year!).
Or am I naive and/or totally out of touch with the economic realities of life in England?

 

Love it, chatsN

 

It's a no-brainer for me Syd....Going to home games is in my blood, and I couldn't even imagine not attending them...TV is just a poor substitute , and in my opinion could never replace the buzz of the real thing...

 

Nothing can compare to the atmosphere of being at a live game, nothing.

Was at Spoons at 09:00 on Derby day eating breakfast washed down with a couple (canny few) beers with the lads, set off for the game from there and walked across the bridge with what seemed like thousands of fellow mackems and the metro had just pulled in, full of barcodes. The taunting was relentless and the atmosphere electric, no Sky subscription can buy you that, never. The game turned out to be ****e but i ended up hugging some complete stranger when we equalised so late on, fantastic.

There's nothing like the SOL when it's full to the gunnels so for me it's got be a live game any day.

 

If I lived in or near Sunderland, I would go to every home match, but I can only watch the illegal streams from here, unless it is our 3-4 live games on Sky.

 

The worst thing for me about tv, is you can't see the whole game.

I sit in the North, and as well as watching the ball, you can track the movement all over the park, they'll never be able to show that on tv, in the same way that they'll never replicate the atmosphere.

I love the people around me going bonkers, cuddling my pals and shaking hands and high 5ing lads, nothing will ever substitute live fotball.

I feel for lads who live away, like i say, when i lived in Manchester, if i couldn't get to the Sunderland game i went elsewhere, the Stockport and Oldham lads were great craic.

 

I would always prefer live football - if I could get to every home game I would be there - nothing beats the atmosphere of a live game (especially after a few real ales in the pub beforehand). However, as I cant make home games very often an internet stream I could pay for would be great as I would feel I am doing my bit for the club - though I would much prefer shouting the lads on at the match.

 

allready said my bit in the illeagle t v thread but the sol every time for me i can give or take a match on the telly to be honest and it will be a sad day when i cant get down anymore i like the whole day experience of being at the match and allways will even used to go to a lot of local games when i was younger and enjoyed them just the same, thats why people still go and watch there local teams because they enjoy being there a pint and a pie a bit canny crack not everyone needs to support big clubs to like football true football fans are the ones that go to games if they can ,weather it be a top team or bottom team ,what im trying to say is football games are there for people to attend first and foremost

 

nowt beats being in the stadium itself, The roars of ecstacy, the groans of despair and the occasional laughs as a ref falls flat on his arse....


OOOOOO yeah at the SoL is the way forward