West Ham v Swansea City has been the only Hammers home to kick off at the traditional 3pm Saturday this season with Newcastle the only other Saturday 3 pm kick-off scheduled this year!
This week Premier League chairmen voted unanimously for a new package of a minimum of 190 Premier League games will be televised live in the UK from the start of the 2019-20 season with the rights set to go out to auction before Christmas.
A new package of Saturday night games will be offered to UK broadcasters, along with more midweek and Bank Holiday matches. There will be a minimum of 22 additional live games on offer. The new contracts will replace the record £5.136bn deal struck with Sky and BT Sport in 2015.
That three-season agreement represented a 70% increase on the previous £3bn deal, and involved 168 games being shown each season at an average cost to the broadcasters of £10.2m per match. Sky paid £4.176bn to show 126 matches, including the first Friday evening games and both Sunday packages, and BT paid £960m for 42 games.
The Football Supporters’ Federation says it is “firmly opposed” to any increase beyond 190 live games – half the Premier League’s total fixtures.
A statement read: “Any additional broadcast games would mean even more changes to kick-off times away from 3pm on Saturdays, with an impact of both uncertainty and inconvenience to the match-going fans, especially away fans, whose passion is a huge component of the ‘product’ that broadcasters want to buy and sell.
“Particularly in the event of a new Saturday evening TV slot being created, we urge clubs and broadcasters to give due consideration to issues of geography and travel, and to invest some of the huge broadcast revenues into supporting the attendance and contribution of match-going fans, especially away fans.”
This is the reason I will eventually hand in my season ticket. I don’t do Sundays (nothing religious I just don’t); Friday nights and Monday nights are a pain to get to from Work. The “improved” travel to Stratford has been ****ing disaster for anyone on the Liv St to Southend Vic Line due to engineering work; it is quicker for me to drive from Rochford/Hockley to Ebbsfleet and catch the fast train in than use any other method when the direct services are out. A total pain in the backside and an embarrassment to all concerned; except of course not delivering a public service is not seen as embarrassing anymore!
The traditional 3pm Saturday kick off went out the window years ago . It’s gotten out of control now due to huge TV rights and it will never be the same again . The fun of watching/listening to the Saturday results as they filter through the stands has gone . The match day experience has been choked by Money .
+1
If they take more money from tv rights then the games got to be more affordable at the gates? ie season tickets match tickets ? Or people will stay at home and watch it on the box or in the pub and that’s the very thing that will choke live game’s in the end?? Televised live game’s with out a crowd of supporters shouting from the terraces looks quite bleek from watching lower league sides on the box with masses of empty seats ??? In the end greed will kill our century old beloved game ???? If it ain’t already????