Sky and the slow death of Midweek football

[sheff_blade90]

this is why i am for the 3pm blackout, although with the amount of rearrangements. that will go soon. because 1 of biggest lies people tell themselves is laziness. this new deal is going to all but kill off away fans midweek.

because like last night who is going to take the day off work travel 3 hours up here. stand in the freezing cold & get home at 2am. all when you can watch it on tv, & in Oxford position switch it off at 3-0.

 

[anglian blade]

I am with Wilder and his complaint about this weeks schedule. Saturday, Tuesday, Friday is a piss take. I know we will have over week off before the away game at WBA but still. As Wilder said last night we have the shortest period of time between these round of fixtures than anyone else and its all to accommodate Sky Sports.

The atmosphere will have been a bit flat last night because a fair number of fans will be saving themselves for Friday night.

To be pedantic Sunderland have the shortest period of time between fixtures by a couple of hours.

 

[Dkc]

What puts me off is having to wait around 25 mins for a tram. But when wendy play they put more trams on. Didnt get home till 10.45 last night. Cant be arsed with that when i can watch it on tv

Piggy council favouring the pork again

 

[CrookesBlade]

I agree and Disagree in equal measure, if i was still living in Sheffield and not down south i would have gone, but i am glad to have the option to watch on the box midweek and Weekends, as i can only get up to Sheffield now and again as it is not something my wages allow with the cost of living so paying the now TV @ £22 pounds a month to be able to watch the blades is a life saver and means i can still feel like i get my fill of the blades.

But nothing beats being there live and having a couple of jars on route and making a night of it, its the one thing i miss most from Sheffield, but life is life and takes you where it takes you.

For listening to the radio commentary of away games trying to work out what was happening, where the ball is etc I used to wonder why there was no way they couldn’t televise games that people want to watch but can’t get to (work, family, money reasons etc). Whilst many will make the sacrifices to take a trip down to Millwall/Bristol/Plymouth on a Tuesday night it’s just not feasible for the vast majority. Likewise some games sell out and those who couldn’t get a ticket will want to have the opportunity to see the game if they can’t be there.

So from that perspective finally being able to see games that were effectively “off limits” for years is seemingly a good thing on one hand.

But on the other hand when ticket prices are sky high and kick off times are all over the place plenty will just give up if they can catch the game on the box instead.

I honestly believe when people are writing about the demise of the 72 team EFL in 30 years time this will be the moment people point at, alongside the formation of the PL.

The Championship is a far more fun way to watch football than the Premier League and you’d think the league as a whole would try and capitalise on this by encouraging better atmospheres and new support. There is a massive appetite for football within the general population and EFL clubs don’t seem to be able to tap into it. The only way you’ll encourage kids who follow Man City/Arsneal etc to support Blades, Derby, Sunderland, etc is to get them coming to the games rather than sticking the games on the TV at the same time as PL or CL games.

As has been discussed SUFC seem to do little to nothing to encourage new support these days. Tried getting somebody a ticket for Derby at home without 500 loyalty points and had to write a begging email to the ticket office before they relented.

 

[loyalblade95]

Midweek games being on Sky does have a slightly negative effect on attendances, not just with us but all across the leagues.

But there would have been other factors behind the lower attendance and subsequent atmosphere on Tuesday, the cold for one, and there seemed to be more traffic around the city centre than usual, which might have made some people choose to miss the game.

 

[Rodley]

Always remember night matches 20-30 years ago being the better atmospheres, but these days unless it is a Friday night the atmospheres seem far worse.

Maybe I’m misremembering!?

 

[Pintor75]

When you look at some teams in the Championship like Stoke, Preston, Coventry, Bristol, Cardiff & Swansea amongst others it hardly motivates you to turn out on a cold January night when they're in town and there aren't many in league one either, so it's understandable people stay in and watch on sky

 

[steve26272]

Always remember night matches 20-30 years ago being the better atmospheres, but these days unless it is a Friday night the atmospheres seem far worse.

Maybe I’m misremembering!?

Your not mate, some of my best memories are under the floodlights

I think it’s also a cultural problem

People just don’t go out

Socialise in boozer-stay at home drinking
Weekly shop - get it delivered
Saturday afternoon on the Moor - Amazon
No food in - deliveroo
Footie match- 48 camera view in HD on tele

No wonder obesity is crippling NHS

 

[N20 Blade]

I'm not sure of your age, but many Blades will remember the remarkable 5-4 win over Brighton in 1989 (3-0 up, then 3-4 down finally getting a last-minute winner). The attendance that day (in the same division as we're in now) was 12,653. It wasn't on TV, ticket prices were low, and we were a club very much on the up. Yet we still only managed twelve-and-a-bit thousand.

As you say, it's about opinions, but I don't agree that it's a slow death. There will be ups and downs over the decades, but a small (possibly temporary) drop to 25,000 (or even 22,000) doesn't signify a slow death.

Ironically, it's gone from one extreme to the other. Nowadays, the official attendance is 5-10% out on average - higher than the actual numbers in the ground. Back in the day it was always lower than the real number. Sometimes ridiculously so.