Premier League Thread

I don't suppose it would be a problem if they showed the least attractive game live at 3pm.

 

I think attendance at the actual game being televised might affect a few fair weather fans but I think that the real concern was how attendances at lower league games (where even a few less can be important) might suffer.

 

On the other hand, there's a lot of supporters with spending money who wouldn't watch the game broadcast at 3pm because they are at a match. Advertisers wouldn't be as keen.

 

I was wondering about this the other day. Nowadays, it is possible to watch 99% of all top flight games in Europe live via a stream, because they are all broadcast live somewhere in the world by Sky, BT, BeIn, NBC, or Setanta. What we don't know is the viewing figures of the various games via streams. If it was possible to estimate the numbers watching, say, Saints playing Leicester at 3pm on Saturday via streams, it might go some way to showing whether showing that game live in the UK on TV would have had any effect on what was a sell out match. I've no idea how you would go about gathering data like that without intruding on people's privacy but it would be an interesting exercise.

 

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/saints/news/11609857.Injured_Tadic_misses_Serbia_game/?ref=mac

DON'T PANIC

 

Arrrggghhhh!!!

 

Daniel Sturridge suffers a new injury setback.

 

A guy on a Liverpool forum said Sturridge has played 52 games for Liverpool and had 13 injuries. Haven't a clue if he is right.

 

Is that true? Heard it was a fake report?

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30109077

 

Oh dear

 

They're rushing him back because they believe they desperately need him. I almost feel sorry for the player. Almost.

 

But Rodgers will say it's just down to awful luck when they inevitably lose again. Tosser.

 

But if the 3pm games are shown on TV in England, surely the TV companies would have to stump up more money which would solve the couple of hundred fans that decide to stay at home. Surely most clubs have a high % of season ticket holders, so they have the cost of the seat anyway

 

But that won't cover the few hundred fans that don't go to each of their local lower league game because there is a 'big' game on the television.....

 

It is designed to protect lower league sides and to encourage people to play the game. The idea was that a large audience would be there for post-5.00 pm matches on TV as other matches would have finished and those who play or watch would be free to watch.

 

Now this is where the PL are truly missing a trick. Like many on here, I use streaming to watch Saints. Until I switched to a certain provider that charges, the quality was awful. In addition, the PL are constantly chasing their tails to get the streaming sites shut down. Surely, rather than attempt to shut these guys down the PL should simply embrace streaming by doing it themselves. As it is already happening, the effect of streaming is already known - attendances are what they are. There is hardly any overhead in setting up a website, the feeds are already in place and so is the demand. Why not just make it official and charge a small monthly subscription for the service? The alternative would be for the league clubs to incorporate this into the rights contract so that each could do it themselves and earn an extra few quid that way.

 

di Maria and Shaw reported to have injuries...extent unknown. You can't prevent injuries that happen from kicks and falls in matches, but to have so many out at one club may suggest something wrong with their training methods. Arsenal are another team that have frequent injuries.

 

It would be incroporated into an initial rights contract so that the league clubs would not see a shortfall however, we know the PL and its greed and they would gradually (probably pretty quickly) whittle that down to a minimal amount.

You have to think of lower league clubs. Forget the Pompeys that are in the lower divisions and think of smaller clubs such as York, Burton, Carlisle. These clubs already had low enough attendances before the PL. 5000 was a good gate for this type of club. These days they are struggling to top 2500 weekly in stadia that hold 10,000 or so. That is not helped either that as the older generation(s) reduce in numbers they are not replaced as the younger the fan the less likely that they support their local club. So year on year these clubs are losing fans as it is because the kids support the 'glory boys'.

Can you imagine if Saints had got stuck in L1 and attendances had reduced down to 7,500-10,000. That is what the lower league clubs face. Empty stadia that cost a lot to run and having to fight to get people through the door.

If 3pm PL games were shown on TV these attendances would halve again. The older demographic of 60+ would still go to the local club, half of the middle demographic of 30 - 60 would watch the PL and most of the under 30s would watch the PL. Doesn't matter if the PL makes up the difference in a kind of subsidy. You will have the local club playing in front of tiny crowds, the atmosphere will be ridiculously poor and that will affect the decisions of those who are going to the point that some of them would now not go because of the reduced crowds and 'matchday experience'.

Gone are the days of my teenage years (I'm 40 next year) when Lincoln would average 5k in the league in a middling season (regular gates of 9,000+ in the conference the first time we went down) with some games a sell out (although not officially ) and a great atmosphere with beers in the pub first, followed by snacks/meal, followed by the match and then back to beers, meal and nightlife. It was a whole Saturday out. Are the PL going to subsidise the lost revenue to the local economy and businesses too?

They already have f**ed up football as it is wiping out most of the local teams and therefore the benefit towns / cities used to get from having a football club. IT has to stop somewhere or there will just be a PL and a championship with all the teams below it inconsequential.

 

I'm not sure I understand you Imp. My point was that whilst we don't know how many people are using streams for PL games, we do know the impact of them doing so because the attendances are what they are today with those streams in use.

As for attendances dying in the lower leagues, people always supported the "glory boys". The big clubs were big clubs before the PL was formed so I'm not sure that I subscribe to your view that the PL has damaged attendances and the associated benefits to towns. The fact is that the pub-meal-match-pub-nightlife experience that you fondly recollect would cost you best part of £200 wherever you live these days, whoever you support and there aren't too many folk that splash that cash every weekend. In fact, attendances across all divisions have increased by 60% since the formation of the PL. Obviously certain clubs are just getting things wrong all on their own.