Let's have TV games at 3pm on Saturday - Gary Silke's Leicester City fanzone
I can still remember the first step on the long path we have now walked down. Although I can't recall what game it was, there were two teams lined up ready to go and the referee was poised to blow his whistle.
It was kick-off time, but we waited – and waited. And then the ref got a signal from the sidelines to say that the advert break had finished and we could now kick off.
-
The football match had become a TV programme.
In the intervening years, television's influence on the game has become more and more powerful until no-one can be in any doubt who is really running the game.
Business Cards From Only £10.95 Delivered www.myprint-247.co.uk
View detailsOur heavyweight cards have FREE UV silk coating, FREE next day delivery & VAT included. Choose from 1000's of pre-designed templates or upload your own artwork. Orders dispatched within 24hrs.
Terms: Visit our site for more products: Business Cards, Compliment Slips, Letterheads, Leaflets, Postcards, Posters & much more. All items are free next day delivery. www.myprint-247.co.uk
Contact: 01858 468192
Valid until: Sunday, June 30 2013
There probably isn't a club in the league who could manage without TV money these days, so when TV says jump, football jumps.
In the Premier League, the compensation for having all your fixtures thrown up in the air rather cushions the blow.
Wolves earned the least television money of all the top flight clubs last season – pocketing just short of £40 million.
Championship clubs, however, rarely get paid a six-figure sum for their TV appearances.
There was a certain sickening inevitability about City's last remaining Saturday home game, against Watford, being shifted to the Friday night.
Having had one Saturday 3pm kick off at the King Power Stadium in the second half of the season, you might think someone at Sky would say perhaps we have messed this lot around enough this season, let's pick another game... but no.
There are no rules or guidelines or appeal systems in place to say that Sky can't move too many fixtures from one club, and they are answerable only to their shareholders, so Friday it is.
At a time when thoughts are turning to next year's season tickets, City's marketing department now have an unenviable task selling them to people who live outside the county, or who bring children to games, or who can't make midweek games due to work.
They must have despaired at this latest fixture change, which means that our last Saturday home game has already been and gone.
An announcement on the City website stated: "The club empathises with supporters that have been frustrated by the unprecedented changes to the schedule. With this in mind, the club has offered season-ticket holders a complimentary ticket for one of their next home games."
There is one possible solution to this, something that football has always resisted.
How about a trial period where some Saturday 3pm games are televised live?
It has always been thought that this would hit crowds, but Championship gates are falling anyway.
If it means more games at the traditional kick-off time then surely it is worth a try?
Comments
by enderbyfox
Friday, March 15 2013, 8:50AM
“They can put a game on live at 3pm on a Saturday , But don't say what game until that day .”