Quote:
Originally Posted by harry_hitch
Great post sir, great post  Just out of interest, who is your club? I will look out for their scores next season with a bit more fondness (sorry if thats a bit too soft for you all) - as long as it is not Peterborough Utd, as a Cambridge Utd fan, that would never work 
P.S, money is killing football, you are spot on! |
My team is St Johnstone, we'll be playing either Crusaders or Rosenborg on the 18th July, if it's the latter I expect a humping. We are one of the few clubs in the country to not have any debt and have money in the bank and the only senior team with a J in their name. In short we are the best team in the UK :-)
I have to confess that I have been in the home end at London Road cheering on the Posh and the away end at your Abbey Stadium (or whatever the hell you're calling it these days) so I am probably not your best friend ;-)
---------- Post added at 10:01 ---------- Previous post was at 09:32 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by colin25
Mike (hope you don't mind the personally address)
I disagree. I don't argue with the sentiments (who doesn't want things cheaper)
But it isn't sky who causes this.
There is no reason why FA can't sell the rights for a lower price, or arrange for certain games to be broadcast on tv for free. Or indeed, use the money to reduce the ticket price
Sky does things for sky...but they do not put greed into people or companies, that is there. If it wasn't sky, the owners would think of some other way.
And the issue isn't the cost of tv...fans can always watch a match, by buying a season ticket. The issue is that despite all the money from sky, owners still think that raising ticket prices is correct.
But what would happen if sky quit paying?
For some clubs, debt would become unsustainable.
That isn't likely to happen, but I suspect sky etc won't pay the same money, if subscribers aren't taking the product.
Problem there is that it is a world game...someone is always willing to pay...but no guarantee who gets to see it.
Ok..tired of typing..haircut day
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To be fair I never solely said Sky were to blame, the problem goes right back to the formation of the Premier League and the various companies who have tried to get a foothold by offering stupid amounts which their competitors have to match e.g. ITV Digital, Setanta, ESPN and now BT.
The FA (and SFA) don't really come into it as they only sell the rights to international games. Each of the English and Scottish leagues (with the ageerement of member clubs) sell their content themselves (not so sure about Wales , NI and Ireland). All the league members want the best price and that is gained by exclusivity which TV companies will almost certainly have stipulated as prerequisite before negotiating. This was the mistake, there should have been no exclusivity so that 2 companies to give less money and the consumer could decide who to watch.
However where we are now is that, as you point out, if someone stops paying clubs go bust so the TV men have a stranglehold on clubs which is why we have Friday night, Monday night and lunchtime football, no domestic games on the same night as European football (unless you are a big club then it doesn't matter), predictions of Armageddon because one club looses it top flight status etc....
We are at the stage where the men/women with the money (and this isn't just Sky, as you say this is a global thing) can dictate when and how things are done. Wages have gone crazy, players move for money rather than ambition (see majority of the Motherwell team), you can't blame them but the only reason teams in England are paying more is because the market is distorted by the madness going on the top flight.
I'd quite happy see the TV money being capped or taken away completely but this is probably because when I started watching my team we were at the bottom of the pile with no money, a crumbling stadium and were getting beat every week. But in spite of all of this I fell in love with it all so going back to being a team with no money would make no difference to clubs like mine.
So I can no longer justify subsidising the companies that I see as the cause rather than the solution to the problems in UK football....and going to a game is much better anyway :-)