Where do they go from here ?

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The SOS judge has ruled that the injunction applies to only the seats of those who took the club to court.

There now seems to me to be absolutely no future in this case going any further. If they keep going and lose, the people involved could end up paying for it for the rest of their lives.

So, with this and the new telly deals that are coming up, shouldn't we face the fact that live footy will soon be available to only a selected few, and most of us will eventually be forced to settle for paying through the nose for the pleasure of Andy Gray and his mates driving us up the wall ?

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2000

Answers

I'm a little confused by all of this - confused about most money/business/football issues. Nevermind, I was discussing telly season tickets in the boozer the other night. Am I correct in thinking that footy fans of whatever club will be able to pay for a pay-for-view telly season ticket? For your money you get to see every game played by your team both home and away live. We agreed - more or less - that a figure of around #200 would be about the going rate, if you pay up front of course. If this is so how easy will it be to get into St Jimmy's in the future?

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2000

If the pay-per-view season ticket thingy comes about, then I'd pay it gladly. At the moment I pay an arm and a leg for Sky, and use it almost exclusively for footy watching. Consequently I'm paying for 50 odd channels of total shite I'm not interested in at all.

If NTL tell me I can have a telly season ticket for 200 quid per annum I'd pay.

At the moment the routine I have to go through to see us live is ludicrous. To get into SJP, I have to wait until my brother is ill, or has a sniff of a ticket from somewhere else. This usually (albeit almost never) happens on a Friday. I get the train at 6 in the morning from Bristol, arriving just in time to head straight to the ground. Stay over at me brothers and the all day on a shite train on Sunday.

Typically including train costs, tickets, eating etc, to see Newcastle play at home costs me 150quid *per game*. Some away games used to be more manageable, but the prices for away support are astounding; 31 quid for West Ham. Again a simple trip to the hammers would cost me around 80-100 quid.

200 quid for pay-per-view season ticket? Bargain.

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2000


The Dodger raises a very interesting point, and I just wonder how much consideration has been given to it - if every game was available on pay-per-view, how many people who currently go to the game would just pay for a season ticket for the guarantee of being able to watch every game on TV? I'll bet the assumption being made is zero, but I just wonder about this.

With regard to the cost, I'd be very surprised if you could watch 38 or 40 games, or whatever the hell it is now, for #200. I would suspect they'd be charging at least #10 a game - less than 50% of the cost of going to the game. If I'm right, that means the thick end of #400.

IMO the PL this season has been poor, and I've watched very few really good games. I actually believe the new CL format is adversely affecting the domestic game, and wonder just how long they can continue filling the PL stadia to capacity if/when pay-per-view comes about?

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2000


Interesting situation. The US for several years, has had ppv packages for major sports league games. Generally they only seem to be available to satellite dish owners, and a very few cable companies. Also we've always had(or at least as long as I can remember) extensive free telecasts of major sports. Usually with a local channel(s) tending to carry most of the local team's away games. With NFL a home game can only be broadcast locally if the game sells out no later than 72hrs prior. Not sure about how other leagues handle things. Though the Boston stations seem swamped with coverage of the local basketball and hockey teams no matter the live turnout. And ALL New England Revolution games are televised even though they don't come anywhere near selling out. I'm sure it has some effect on the gates at the grounds. Personally, I went to very few games last season because it's a hassle getting down there, it's expensive to get in/park/eat, the stadium is uncovered so rather unpleasant in bad weather, and just not much fun alone. And of course I could see all the games in the comfort of my own living room. This season I expect to get to all the games because I'll be working at them so get free tickets/parking/food..and plenty of companionship...and we get very comfy seats too!

What am I babbling about? Yes, ppv will affect the gates. On the other hand, the people that do turn out really want to be there, so it could actually improve the atmosphere. I don't think it will affect the premier league teams all that much. People will always want to see most of those teams. The real problems will probably be the lower division teams. That would be more equivalent to MLS in this country. You know you're not likely to get very entertaining football, so why sit out freezing to death or melting in the heat when you can watch at home?

PPV is inevitable, and I think ultimately a good thing if it got to the point where people could literally only pay for what they really want to see, and not be forced into taking a bunch of dross as part of a "package".

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2000


Ciara
What makes me a bit wary about PPV is this image I have of the way American TV works so please correct me if I'm wrong. I have this idea that if we go wholly along that road, how long will it be before we have to put up with this "and now a word from our sponsors" crap? Will the game end up as 4 quarters, or worse still, something like nine 10 minute periods, because some sponsor wants it. It's bad enough the way Sky and ITV do it here. Again though, that's based on my very limited experience of how US tv works, so I realise me bum could be right out the window on this.

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2000


Certainly a valid fear. The NFL has certainly been affected by sponsors and tv people. So far 'soccer' is still shown commercial free. On ppv events there are far fewer commercials and sponsorship messages. During 'free' broadcasts we do have small (usually) graphics in one corner of the screen flashing various sponsors names, and the annoucers babbling about the sponsor during slower moments. We also have commercial sponsorship of just about everything that goes on so you constantly hear "and so-and-so's shot measured 55mph on the Pepsi shot clock" and the "Snickers half time show" etc. Nauseating, but you learn to mostly tune it out. Commercialism seems unavoidable(mo' money, mo' money, mo' money), but as long as it's kept relatively unobtrusive shouldn't be a big deal. I'm still waiting for the day advertisers realize people ARE tuning them out due to the overload.

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2000

I seem to remember a few weeks ago an announcement that Sony or somebody were about to introduce either a TV set or a video recorder that could be programmed to cut out all the adverts.
Haven't seen anything else about it since, so it could just be part of my alzheimer persona.
It would be great if it was true though - they might even go the whole hog and introduce something that could blot out Andy Gray and the other dorks who know all there is to know about footy. Roll on.

-- Anonymous, April 07, 2000

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