Should 3pm Saturday games have been kept sacrosanct?

Duffman

Duffman

Well-known member
Next year our fixtures are going to be more than ever ‘all over the place’ timing wise but should the coverage of 3pm Saturday afternoon football have remained protected from tv coverage? Sky’s scheduling will look to reduce the Saturday 3pm games in the top 2 divisions down to below 11 games which means the previous bar on Saturday 3pm screening will not apply. Sad to see a final ‘tradition’ lose its protection to the God that is Sky money.

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/s...-change-will-affect-middlesbrough-sunderland/
 
Saturday at 3 pm is perfect for me.
No early starts, plenty of time to eat before away games, and home for tea time at home games.
Not that I'm greedy b****d or anything.
😃
 
I can appreciate the arguments for and against.

I don't mind Boro matches being moved unless it's to a Monday night, but I don't have kids or a job that it interferes with, and I can't afford to go to away matches, so it's easy for me to say that.

I'd sooner they just removed the blackout entirely and televise matches at 3pm rather than have them move enough matches to be able to circumvent it though.
I'd be at the home matches anyway.
 
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I don't mind that much these days, but I have to say I really hate the early slots for any match.

Don't think any games should be on before 14:00.

Ok the recent end of season game when all final matches were played at 12:30 wasn't so bad but for one off games, it's a terrible slot.
 
The blackout still applies. It's just an oddity of the opening weekend when there are no Prem Games that allows this . Any normal Sat will have 7 3pm champ games and at least 5 prem games , thereby enforcing the blackout.
 
It's the later Saturday slots that are bugging me. Midweek night games are OK because you're at work anyway. But on a Saturday you're just sort of...hanging about. Can't really do a proper Saturday before the game.
 
speckyget said:
It's the later Saturday slots that are bugging me. Midweek night games are OK because you're at work anyway. But on a Saturday you're just sort of...hanging about. Can't really do a proper Saturday before the game.
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I can't be the only one that will skip going to games after 3PM on a Saturday - I have other things to do on a Saturday night.
 
the blackout could be gone in a few years anyway as the premier league are already discussing scrapping it for the next rights auction for 2027
 
It's going to make a big difference to ST sales next season imo...
People will just pick and choose their games.
Sunday/early kick offs will be very quiet....
Unless if course we get promoted 😜
 
I know it’s a big tradition in our country but times are changing.
I can watch any 3pm kick off in Germany from the Premier League on a Saturday with my sport subscription as I’m sure most other countries can other than in the UK.
As mentioned, Sport Networks are god and probably look on with envious eyes to other countries making TV money out of 3pm KOs so will send them to other slots as to not miss out.
 
What I would like to see and think that it would help the planet.

This coming season would be the last time in its current format.
Friday Night KO 7.30 pm Aug to Oct.
Saturdays 3 pm only after October.
Midweek Tuesday at home Nov to March 7.30 KO, no Wednesdays.

25/26 Season.

We shouldn't be going to games in big humongous industrial coats, gloves and scarves.

Season begins in April ends in October, Friday evening games 7.30 KO only.

Cricket, Rugby, or any Hooray Henry sport etc, are no longer considered important enough to give them the privilege for only them to have the more clement weather months.

I realised that now I'm older instead of getting a Tea or coffee I would rather have fruit juice and an ice cream.
Spring/ Summer football only
 
The black out could be managed by area or based on ticket sales.

if we’re playing Plymouth away, have anywhere within say 50 miles of the Riverside able to watch. Block live stream in Devon.

Or

If game is a ticket sell out, put it on red button.
 
The 3pm Saturday tradition is attributable to 3 things that applied in the early years of professional football but no longer apply. That most people worked a half shift on Saturday mornings, that it was illegal to charge admission to a sporting event on a Sunday and that nobody had floodlights.

It’s curious how we are to it as a traditional time when none of these still apply. Is it really because, coincidentally, it’s still works for the way we now watch football, or is it just because we don’t like change? I like 3pm for an away day where you are writing the whole day off anyway, but for a home game, it can be quite intrusive.
 
The 3pm black out is there to ‘protect’ lower league/none league clubs, the theory being if Man U, Liverpool etc were on the tv at 3pm the casual fan would sit in their armchair & watch that rather than go & watch their local team, thus costing them vital revenue
The world has moved on, I’m sure that attendances at smaller clubs will fall if the 3pm ban is lifted, particularly away numbers would drop significantly. But if the PL actually did what they have always promised to do and distribute monies more evenly down they pyramid then it would more than make up for lower attendance revenue. But it’s Turkey’s voting for Christmas they constantly promise to do it and never deliver. The independent regulator I think will change the playing field and we might see it lifted in 2/3 years time, with a big compensation package put in place for the pyramid.
 
Things change, and the league desperately needs the money. I don’t see any issues with it personally

It will allow far more fans to see the games, it can’t be a bad thing
 
The PL has been like this for years. We were even in it when it all started. People moaned but it was largely accepted.

This is not a “new” thing it’s only new in the Championship. If we got promoted it would have been exactly the same scenario at any point in the last 20 or so years. Ever since Premier League Plus.
 
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