Is the Football bubble about to implode

To be honest I don't see how an alcohol sponsor isn't allowed on a kit and a betting company is. To me having a brewery sponsor means at least there's some people actually working to produce something and a community around that brewery being employed. A lot of these betting companies are just autonomous and empty money making machines, the moneys too good to turn down I know and that's why football is stuck with them at the moment. Imagine a world where we've got camerons/strongarm on the shirts again, I'd happily walk around with that on me shirt.
 
Latest attendance data that I can find:

Highest League attendances for 70 years as nearly 22 million attend EFL competitions​


EFL attendances

I can't find a similar article for the premier league but total attendances were just under 14M 10 years ago, just over 15M last season.

The premier league also seems to be getting more popular globally. Aren't the non-UK TV rights as now as high as domestic? Which themselves are at an all time high.

That doesn't address THE finance problems in other divisions, but this doesn't look like a spectator sport, or business, in decline.
 
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I moved away some time ago. Changes to make life easier for the clubs and life harder for the fans started to put me off. The escalating cost of the game at a time when the quality was going through the floor finished me off. When I venture to the Riverside now it bears little resemblance to the games I first attended there, that was after 30 years watching at Ayresome. Now very much an armchair Boro fan but going to more grounds than I ever have.
 
snowman1962a said:
Seems to me the current football cycle is about to implode. I find myself losing interest in the game more and more. I'm not the only one. The costs of tickets, merchandise, tv subscriptions, the amount of money these greedy players and their agents demand. The over saturation of live games. It is out of control. When I read the pending walk-out at the Riverside, Arsenal fans furious about their already high ticket prices going up another 10%. It seems there is more fans becoming disgruntled about the whole thing. Once upon a time football was for the working class. I don't believe that is the case anymore. I would be really curious the average age of a season ticket holder is now.

I really believe real fans are fed up. What would happen if fans stopped paying for sky and the rest. What would happen if fans actually did what they say they and voted with their feet and stopped going. Easy to say well it would hurt the club but the clubs don't seem to care they are hurting their own fans with their high ticket prices and stupid money for a shirt.

I really fear for the game in its current format. Football is not about money. Seems to me that FIFA in their thirst of money have ruined the game that it was and clubs have jumped in with two feet to be part of the corruption. The game is no longer the same game it use to be IMHO. I believe the day of reckoning is close.

Curious what others think of the state of football these days?
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The quick answer is NO. The death of football has been falsely prophesised for 30 years.

Foreign interest is still there, global TV revenue is enormous. I know you say football isn't about money, and on one level I agree, but on another level it is a business and a hyper successful one for revenue generation, sports washing and PR. Crowds are still up across all 4 tiers of the league compared to 2, 3 or 4 decades ago. It's a different clientele agreed, it's more expensive agreed, but the appetite is still there.
 
BoroMart said:
The quick answer is NO. The death of football has been falsely prophesised for 30 years.

Foreign interest is still there, global TV revenue is enormous. I know you say football isn't about money, and on one level I agree, but on another level it is a business and a hyper successful one for revenue generation, sports washing and PR. Crowds are still up across all 4 tiers of the league compared to 2, 3 or 4 decades ago. It's a different clientele agreed, it's more expensive agreed, but the appetite is still there.
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This is spot on. Fans may be forced away from grounds due to ridiculous demands made of them but they'll be replaced, as we're seeing, by corporate money and the more wealthy taking a temporary interest.

Football is very fashionable, the increased broadcasting is advertising, after all. Watching the top sides weekly attracts younger people to the game.

A problem will only arise if the south stand and north stand regulars turn their back on the game. You'll find others following them, watching football in the quiet night not suit them, it's not how the game is advertised.

If the lads behind the goal sat down in silence for 90 minutes until the end of the season it will have more of an impact than walking out for one match.
 
I feel I'm at a crossroads. I have supported Boro all my life, and had a season ticket for the last 37 years of it. None of my kids are really that interested in going to watch us, despite my best efforts and I feel now might be the time for me to focus on other things and not spend every other Saturday afternoon going to watch Boro, something I've started to enjoy less and less, if I'm being honest. It's not really about what's being served up on the pitch, as I've been through it all with this club, but I don't really enjoy the matchday experience like I used to. I could never understand why my dad never kept his season ticket going when we moved from Ayresome to the Riverside, but I think I might be at the same point that he was all of those years ago. I will still go to games, home and away, and take my kids if they ever ask to go, but the state of the game currently, as per the OP, and the current season ticket situation at the Boro has kind of made my mind up for me.
 
This question has been posted on here regularly for as long as I can remember. There may well come a time when the football bubble bursts, but I doubt that will be any time soon. I'd also suggest that when the bubble does eventually burst, it will be a slow puncture rather than any major implosion.
 
WilliamMunny said:
This question has been posted on here regularly for as long as I can remember. There may well come a time when the football bubble bursts, but I doubt that will be any time soon. I'd also suggest that when the bubble does eventually burst, it will be a slow puncture rather than any major implosion.
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Yes 100%. The idea that overnight a billion football fans around the world, or even 30m in the UK, suddenly stop showing an interest (no matter how prohibitively expensive it gets), is a false prophecy in my opinion.

But of course, in 200 years time there might be other stuff to do. If we haven't all been incinerated in some way.
 
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I remember when the FA Cup final was the biggest sporting event in the calender. BBC and ITV showed continuous coverage throughout the day including the build up from about 9am. The whole country watched it. I havent watched a cup final for several years now. The same is true of Match of the Day, another must watch institution once. I just cant connect with footballers who earn £1m per week.

Ahh....jumpers for goals
 
Sky - and the other broadcasters - would love it if there were no fans
As happened during the pandemic they'd stagger the kick-off times to get blanket coverage of every match
It wouldn't be long before teams would be expected to play at midnight or six in the morning to cater for the far-eastern or American market
Perhaps divide the match into 15 minute chunks to allow more advertising breaks

The money that Sky (and the rest) pump into football dwarfs the income that the fans generate - and the latter require a police presence, stewards and stadium staff generally - clubs could save a fortune and pay the players even more. Fans just get in the way and demand things like entertainment and Saturday afternoon kick-offs.

Many clubs are now just status symbols for the mega wealthy - the Rolex watch, the super yacht, the Bugatti and the Premier League football team - none of the owners have the slightest interest in football. - once a year they get to walk onto the pitch, with their trophy wife, to bask in the reflected glory of a (hopefully) successful season and congratulating players none of whom they actually know.
 
row_7 said:
Sky - and the other broadcasters - would love it if there were no fans
As happened during the pandemic they'd stagger the kick-off times to get blanket coverage of every match
It wouldn't be long before teams would be expected to play at midnight or six in the morning to cater for the far-eastern or American market
Perhaps divide the match into 15 minute chunks to allow more advertising breaks

The money that Sky (and the rest) pump into football dwarfs the income that the fans generate - and the latter require a police presence, stewards and stadium staff generally - clubs could save a fortune and pay the players even more. Fans just get in the way and demand things like entertainment and Saturday afternoon kick-offs.

Many clubs are now just status symbols for the mega wealthy - the Rolex watch, the super yacht, the Bugatti and the Premier League football team - none of the owners have the slightest interest in football. - once a year they get to walk onto the pitch, with their trophy wife, to bask in the reflected glory of a (hopefully) successful season and congratulating players none of whom they actually know.
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I don’t agree with your first paragraph. Fan reactions and noise are an integral key of the viewing experience for most fans, I think. Watching matches during Covid was abysmal, like watching a pub game.
Just my opinion, of course.
 
iamborome said:
I remember when the FA Cup final was the biggest sporting event in the calender. BBC and ITV showed continuous coverage throughout the day including the build up from about 9am. The whole country watched it. I havent watched a cup final for several years now. The same is true of Match of the Day, another must watch institution once. I just cant connect with footballers who earn £1m per week.

Ahh....jumpers for goals
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It's a Cup Final Knockout? Hmmm? Stuart Hall isn't it? Marvellous.
 
People overseas seem to be queuing up buy English/Welsh clubs - every week there is news on new overseas owner and its generally putting money into the game. Many players overseas want to play in England and many do.

Look at the stadiums - half seem to be new i.e built in the last 30 years. In 1987 there were no new stadiums in England.

Attendances are up in all the professional leagues compared with 35 years ago - we were absolutely flying under Rioch won promotion in 1988 with average crowds of 16,500? at Ayresome and it only cost £3 to stand and £5 to sit (so prices were not a barrier to attending, and ICI and British Steel employed tens of thousands of people on Teesside). But now its close to 27,000 for mid table - £30 a match football.

The negative for me is how corporate and increasingly predictable it is becoming, which does price out low income supporters for attending games and can kill atmospheres. Look at Everton last night - a tight stadium, full, traditionally working class club with loud home supporters. For half the match it sounded like it was a Covid game i.e. with the players and managment making the match sounds.
 
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iamborome said:
I remember when the FA Cup final was the biggest sporting event in the calender. BBC and ITV showed continuous coverage throughout the day including the build up from about 9am. The whole country watched it. I havent watched a cup final for several years now. The same is true of Match of the Day, another must watch institution once. I just cant connect with footballers who earn £1m per week.

Ahh....jumpers for goals
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True - but its like cup final day - every day now, certainly every weekend.

Does it really matter to connect with players? All I want is for the Boro ones to win football matches.
 
I'm anti modern football but like and support those clubs that offer something different (I think we are one of those clubs despite our season ticket prices).

I (loosely) support clubs like Freiburg, Osasuna, Trabzonspor, teams that stand for something different when compared to those that epitomise modern football like RB Leipzig, Real Madrid and Fernabache (cheats).

There's more to football than money and winning, but if you can win against the odds and money it's all the better, but it's becoming too hard.
 
On holiday I met an Arsenal fan, he has had his name down for a season ticket for a number of years and he claimed he was over 100,000 in front of him on the list. Going by this you could suggest that Arsenal are under selling the tickets and the 10% rise is to low.

If every fan in the ground give up there ticket due to this increase they would still be able to sell it out to new season ticket holders and still have a substantial waiting list.

Not sure it’s imploding at the top, but the lower down the pyramid we go the health and sustainability of the game is eroding due to the big clubs but they just don’t care
 
I had a few years break from the Riverside as a season card holder, I still went to games but was more picky. This was down to my job at the time plus I was coaching mens footy on a Saturday afternoon. In between I got into Northern league and watched Thornaby a lot. At one point I went to 16 games on the spin home and away it was brilliant. You could have a beer a few hundred fans together and it was a good std of football. I started going to more Boro matches again and realised how much I was missing it. This year I got a season card as an early bird New application still paid a fortune though. I have really enjoyed it, in a new part of the stadium got a lil group around me who have all known each other years. The crowds are up again which is great, and I am looking forward to next year as I think we will do really well. I don't get this we don't have a lot of disposable income. People always have money for booze or fags and takeaways. The increase in attendees shows that we are building a good fan base. I have done a fair few away days too, and they have been loads better in fact we have won every away game I have been too probably a fluke. I have got rid of sky sports though and movies the savings alone cover the cost of my match days and beers it's all about choices.
 
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