Football used to be played at 3.00 on a Saturday afternoon, with midweek games on Tues or Wed at 19.45 there was not much deviation from that until live televised football arrived in the 80s
I dont recall fa cup games played on Friday's or Mondays, bank holiday games were often a local derby , sat ko was 3.00
Yes, I know. But that demonstrably wasn't in the fans full interest as many people can't attend Saturday afternoon matches. I consider the move to different kick off times and televised matches to be massively influential in widening the fan base which is a good thing.
It wasn't the same outcome as now but Saturday ko times all being the same is NOT in the fans interest and never was
This is simply not true PS. Football became popular because Industrialisation produced 'free' Saturday afternoons for many workers. They took up football and pro football followed by playing on those accessible Saturday afternoons. The whole Saturday afternoon schedule was fan driven. In fact it was the 1850 factory act giving workers Saturday afternoon free.
That's not inconsistent with what I said. Cartels always make rules that stop others being able to participate. Making Sat afternoons compulsory cannot be in the interest of the whole potential fan base, even if it suits some of it well.
Was it not also the case that at one time most midweek matches were played on a Wednesday because of half day closing?
Game schedule for teams X and Y : X : O1 <-- T11 --> O2 <-- T12 ---> Y. Y : O1 <-- T21--> O2 <-- T22 ---> X If the time interval T11 is less than T21, then X is already more fatigued than Y. As fatigue injuries are cumulative, there comes a point where unless T12 is significantly greater than T22, then team X gains no material advantage over Y. Which means your claim the game before is not relevant, is untrue.
I don't like Friday FA Cup games for a variety of reasons, most of which don't affect me. The one that does is the atmosphere, which tends to be both poor and edgy. I don't know why, possibly time in the pub after work, but there's generally a dodgy feeling about them. It's **** for away fans, a number of which won't be the usual hardcore group. City have taken their full allocation of 9,000, but I've no idea how a lot of them will get home. The club will probably put on loads of coaches and some will stay for the weekend. I expect travel around the area to be an absolute bloody nightmare. There'll be plenty of pissed up people around on the way back, too.
The ones that did attend were probably happy with the status quo. The ones that couldn't didn't have a say. That's my whole point....monopolies always try to organise things so that things don't change and threaten their comfortable existence.
Most of those things would apply whatever the kick off time. But for the travelling point of view it would indeed be better if the TV companies had to choose local derbies for evening kick offs...but that would probably be opposed by the police.
I don't think there is no effect of the game before, just that it is always less than the effect of the nearest game (because fatigue reduces as time passes). There will certainly be occasions when team Y will be better off than Team X because T11 is less than T21 but moving X's match forward alleviates that rather than making it worse.
I do find it strange that fans on here who are very far from being politically conservative are very happy to oppose changes in the way the game is organised because of a long history of doing it another way. None of you would write that it was wrong to give women the vote because men with the vote were happy with the status quo. I look round stadia today and notice that the crowd is more multicultural and more even in gender than when I first went in the sixties. I think that is at least partly because the televising of matches and different kick-off times attracted different sorts of people to football. Surely that is good not bad.
I don't think that you're addressing me here, but I'm not opposed to changes because of tradition. My objections tend to be opposition to negatives for match-going fans, especially away fans. There's a balance to be had and I don't think that it's even being attempted.
Some traditions are good so I'm favour of them. Workers being in unions and fighting oppression are two examples. Public services to support the less well off in society being funded by taxing those with wealth is another. They are worth keeping no matter how many complain that these are "out of date concepts". Other ideas (as you mentioned) should be ditched. Seating at stadiums, all ticket matches, clamping down on anti social behaviour, better stewarding and the open opposition to racism, sexism and homophones have all contributed to more children, women, non white people and openly gay people going to games. So has TV showing live games. However some traditions in football are changing for the worse IMHO. And I include Friday night football, playing the fa cup final before the league season is finished, getting rid of cup replays cos the top European teams would rather play more matches in Europe cos they make more money, ticket prices and putting matches on at a time that makes it impossible for away fans to get home by public transport in this category.
