This is a phrase that is used time and time again by the modern day football fan, but it is wrong. Sky itself has not ruined football, but it has reduced the importance of the modern day fan.
Lets start with the economics (pay attention at the back). Football is a lucrative business, due to how bloody popular it is. Fans across the world are willing to pay quite large sums of money to watch football on the Tele - be it £45 a month here in Blighty for Sky Sports, or the enormous growing market of Asia (where India in particular are just starting to wake up to the fact that sports other than cricket exist). Hence the money trickles through, with TV companies paying vast amounts for the rights to screen the games, and the Premier League passing this on to the clubs themselves.
Attendance revenue contributes less and less relatively to clubs. The team finishing bottom of the Premier League next season will pocket a cool £99m. If that is, for example Watford, how much will they get from bums on seats that season? Well, in year ended 2014, when admittedly they were in the Championship, they got £4m from matchday revenue. Let's say that in the Premier League this - let's go crazy here - doubles. Or even trebles. £12m. That's less than an eighth of the prize money they'll receive for finishing bottom next season.
If anything, Sky may have saved football. Attendance revenue is so small relatively, clubs can keep fairly reasonable prices to keep fans on board. Fans are no longer the thing that keep clubs going, in the upper divisions at least. It means, that the old broad adage of the larger the attendance, the higher the league position starts to fall - particularly in the Premiership. Teams such as Newcastle, who always relied on their relatively large crowds will no longer have that great an advantage, compared to say, Swansea. An extra £10m, whoop de do.
I think this helps cause the 'apathy' as described by Deadbat on the other thread. We're no longer the heartbeat - the 2 way deal that the club needs us, just as much as we need them on a Saturday afternoon to keep us away from Meadowhell has gone. In the league we're in, then yes, the fans numbers do make a difference, and a couple million should be enough to buy some considerable clout, perhaps even esteemed household names such as Paul Coutts, and Dean Hammond. We've certainly fucked up on that front, but in general the bigger clubs don't hang around here often.
Drawing back to the main point - the money hasn't killed the game. The 5:30 FA Cup final hurts, but listening to Greg Dyke, he said it was something like £30m difference in TV revenue. That's a lot of grassroots (a word I personally hate, but seems be the buzzword now) football that can be started - or conversely a lot of FA suits that can be paid. I don't mind games on a Sunday. If I had a choice, I'd have 8 PL games on Saturday afternoon, and then 2 on a Sunday. I like nothing better to either swing by the boozer and watch a match, or swig a beer at home watching it on the box.
So what is 'ruining' football? Well, collecting from the above paragraph, no consideration paid to fans, when TV games are stupidly re-scheduled. Yes, top idea, let's have Southampton V Newcastle on at 12 o'clock, who cares about those Geordie types leaving at 5am. That's no good for anyone. That probably is Sky, I give you. But the PL should be able to veto such ridiculous occurrences.
Secondly, lack of TV replays. That's not Sky - that's the faggots at FIFA. They're a different tale. There, money is corrupting, and anyone who starts to complain gets more money thrown down their throats to shut up (hello Irish FA). I know 'in the good old days' we didn't use replays, and just played on. But then, you didn't have 56 cameras clearly showing how the referee missed a blatant penalty. Now we do. I think cricket and tennis have (broadly) led the way here - let teams have 2 challenges each, or maybe even 1. If they fuck it up on some dive, it's their fault. When so much rides on these decisions, let's make sure we're getting it right.
Third - Crooks running clubs. I don't mean clowns, like we enjoy, I mean proper crooks, like the fellow up the M1, or any of the previous 300 chaps down on the South Coast. More must be done to stop clear thugs like Cellino coming on board. How he passed any fit and proper when he's barely avoiding jail back home puts the whole thing to shame - and instead of laughing at how it couldn't have happened to a nicer club, there should be some serious anger in how a guy so rotten even Berlusconi would say he was a rascal has managed to own the club, and still own it after God knows how many controversies.
I think the Sky money has helped football beyond belief. Shit management of these new riches, and the authorities being too happy to take cash themselves, rather than look at wider consequences, has damaged football more than anything. Sky (and other TV companies) are offering the large sums, but the authorities should also have the balls to say 'here are some restrictions'. Until then, fans will be shafted. But for every Newcastle fan losing his Sunday travelling down to the South Coast, there'll be millions watching at home, in pubs, and paying good money to do so...
