I just turn on the TV and get all matches lol, there again it does cost me for foxtel and an extra 22 dollars a month for setanta where I get all the cup, lower league and other matches from Germany, Scotland etc
We are not forced to go to games Dai - it is a choice and, to be honest, I find that the £459 I pay for my season ticket is excellent value. And watching on the internet is nothing like actually being at a game; I would happily pay more for the privilege of watching my team week in, week out - nothing compares to the anticipation pre kick off and the adrenaline rush when we score is the best legal high you can get! And also have an issue with your assertion that the players are greedy - the game is a form of entertainment and the players are entertainers; no-one bats an eyelid when a Hollywood 'star' gets paid multi-millions for 'pretending' in a film - it's all about market forces - where should the money go if not to the players? They bring the crowds in, and the viewers whether on TV or the internet, and it is their talent that that makes football such a lucrative product - because that is what it is - a product. It will be marketed in a way that will maximize returns. It is a business and the players are entrepreneurs whose agents will negotiate the best deal for their services! I will admit that some of the money paid to the top players will seem obscene, but it is those players that generate the money in the first place! Football is big business and it is somewhat naive to consider it as a pure 'sport' - it hasn't been that for quite a while; it is entertainment, it is pantomime with hero's and villains and those (myself included) who pay their money each week to watch buy into it completely! I could save my money and choose to stay in on a Saturday to watch Columbo re-runs but that would bore me to tears. I love my football, I love the adrenaline rush it gives me, I love talking about the game in the pub after the final whistle has been blown, I love slagging off the referees who seem hell bent on giving every 50 50 against us, I love castigating players who don't seem to be trying, and hero worshiping those who do, I love talking tactics and criticising managerial decisions whilst acknowledging that I really don't have any qualification for doing so - and those lucky souls I go to the game with do exactly the same - football is a big part of all our lives and long may it remain so. I would pay double my season ticket price for the privilege of watching my beloved Swans and don't begrudge the players a penny of their wages and would say the same if we were back in the lower divisions. Like you said at the start of your diatribe, football is a hobby and it is one that I will continue with for as long as I am able because I absolutely love it! So good luck with following the Swans at a distance but it aint for me - I prefer my hobbies to be ones that excite and energise me and believe that at just over £20 a game my season ticket is excellent value for the pleasure it gives me, but it saddens me that a supposed true SCAFC fan such as yourself couldn't care less if they went out of business: I am NOT gullible and I don't believe I am being treated as a mug - I am fully aware of where my ticket money is going and am totally OK with it! Football is my hobby and I get full value out of the money I spend on it! Well done for recognising greed as one of the 7 deadly sins - will give you another one - Envy; think you will be suffering from that one whilst watching the super swans on a little square screen whilst the rest of us are at the game enjoying the atmosphere, banter, excitement, buzz and everything else that makes Saturday at 3pm the only place to be! I will continue to pursue football as my hobby and good luck to you Dai in your search for a new hobby! It wont compare to your last one but at least you'll have a nice line in woolly jumpers!
you say the players are not greedy ? the players dont even know what fans pay and are only concerned about what they can earn. they dont care two f**s about the fans so they are greedy and i hope more teams go bust and will put more players without a job.
dai, if you sold your house, would you try to get the highest, market driven price you could, or would you be preoccupied with whether prospective buyers were earning and whether could truly afford it?
Who says they don't know what fans pay? And to be honest what is so wrong with being concerned about what you earn - that applies to most people in all jobs. I love the place I work at but would leave in a flash if someone offered to double my salary! Players are constantly getting sniped at for earning big money, what are they meant to do - turn it down? And why don't similar high earners in other parts of the entertainment industry get the continuous slagging that footballers do? It's a much harder job than 'pretending' for a living, but actors are not given the hard time that footballers are. At least footballers have to have some talent to earn big money unlike some of the reality show 'celebrities' that would attend the opening of an envelope if they were offered enough. Football is an entertainment business, and as a business it is ruled by market forces. It is quite popular, meaning that a lot of people want to watch it and will pay for the privilege, either live or by subscription services. Advertisers will then pay big bucks to have their products seen at, or linked to, the big football clubs. The big clubs want to stay big clubs so they want to buy the best players, all of the big clubs want to do the same - so the price of the best players go's up. Aint nothing we can do about it - it's just capitalism at work and no end of sniping or moaning will change that. So rather than get hot and bothered by the injustice of it all, I just prefer to relax and enjoy the football.
Know where your coming from, it has always been the same for me too, played until 45, and was always in a bad mood if a game was called off, the week was not the same without footy!.........
A little different for me Dragon - was never skillful enough for football, but was a big fast nasty bastard suited to rugby! So played that into my forties although football was the game I loved and supported all my life. Did play in goal for a season in the Sunday league after breaking the same three ribs for a third time playing rugby and being told by my doctor that if I broke them again they might not heal! Played in goal the same way I played rugby and got a reputation, in the space of one season, of being a centre forward killer! Watched several strikers stretchered off following 50 50 (ish) challenges in my penalty area! Also got sent off one game for picking a striker up and throwing him off the pitch - arse over tit! Enjoyed playing rugby but it didn't compare to the feeling I got from football - lived just around the corner from the Vetch (Oystermouth Road - same row of houses as the Swansea Jack pub) and as a kiddie remember hanging about outside of the gates until they opened them with ten minutes to go - would then sneak in with Bro to watch the end of the game. When I got a little older Mam gave us the money to get in from the start of a game and I was hooked! Have so many fond memories of the Vetch; Molby was manager when I started to go regularly with Bro - he was always football first - hated rugby, and he was a decent little player! But the Liberty has taken it to a different level for me - bought tickets on the day of the match for the first couple of years, and enjoyed sitting in different seats, but eventually decided that the investment of a season ticket was the only way to go! Best thing I ever did! Favourite game, bar none, was the Forest play off semi final home leg! The East stand was literally bouncing and Leon's goal, with that magnificent Cruyff turn, was only bettered by Pratley's audacious shot! Have played rugby from the age of ten but football is the game I love - I was very good at rugby, **** at football - but football is the game I love!
I hated Rugby because I was always played on the wing, and I can see myself now as a kid standing in the sodden wet muddy field, with rain pouring down, wishing the fat kids in the scrum would at least once get the ball out to me so I could run and get warm, I even went to the Headmaster to get Soccer started, gave him my list of kids that wanted to play and was only to be told we don't play girls games at this school........ I was at that Forest second leg game, sitting in the West stand lower tier on the corner of the North stand, had some great banter with the Forest fans, but Britton's wonder goal I will never forget, Pratley's I couldn't stop laughing at, and what about the fan's reaction after final whistle, what an atmosphere that day aye!...................
the older one gets the longer the injury takes to heal, I can attest to this with my cracked ribs, but yes I retired to young. used to love the Friday night games then still having the weekend free however if I had have been caught playing football whilst on Workcover I would have been in big poopoo
Season tickets have never covered Cup matches, well not to my knowledge could be wrong though..................
