Preseason

[Exiled Bob]

Why so may BCD friendlies these days? Is it because it's not cost effective to have fans? Or some other reason?

[UTR]

Why so may BCD friendlies these days? Is it because it's not cost effective to have fans? Or some other reason?

Seems immensely easier for clubs to organise. They can have them at what time they want, at their training grounds etc with minimal cost.

Some even stream them for a small price for some income

[Batch]

Why so may BCD friendlies these days? Is it because it's not cost effective to have fans? Or some other reason?

Harris take : financial

https://southwarknews.co.uk/sport/football/millwall/behind-closed-doors-harris/

It's a massive shame, and many clubs seem to do it now.

[DV]

Harris take : financial

https://southwarknews.co.uk/sport/football/millwall/behind-closed-doors-harris/

It's a massive shame, and many clubs seem to do it now.

I’ve said this before but I can for see a day when match attending fans & stadiums are obsolete.

Then clubs would just need an all weather 5G pitch. If it’s decent enough you can use it for training & all associate teams like the women and the youth. You could even put it indoors so you’ll never have a game called off  - a camera & then people can pay to stream it like they do on iFollow.

No stadium overheads. No match day overheads. Policing, stewards zero.

Maybe not so much for Swindon but for example Manchester United - Old Trafford can hold 75k. How many match day passes do you think they could sell globally? Waaaay more.

You could also potentially increase number of away fans because there would be no need or expense for them to travel. Let’s say Accrington have 1k season ticket holders. We play them at our home on a Tuesday night they are brining what? 100 fans. You stream it & potentially all 1k could watch it.

At the other end of the scale you play Leeds and at the CG they’d be limited to 3k fans at most. You could get 20k streaming it.

Only income you’d lose is food & drink sales. Would have to work out how it works exactly for both regards to home & away teams…

Will it happen? Maybe some day…

[Nemo]

The games during Covid were basically an accidental test run of that, and the general feeling was that it wasn't as bad as people feared, but that it was better with a crowd.

I can see the financial argument, but I do think live events are more popular now - it's interesting that the price charged for music gigs has gone through the roof (and people are still paying it) but sports events not so much. The worry for a lower league club like ours though is that Man Utd or Arsenal probably can charge any amount and still sell out or get close to it. Swindon is probably quite a lot more price elastic - much like all the mid-tier festivals going bankrupt.

[THE FLASH]

I’ve said this before but I can for see a day when match attending fans & stadiums are obsolete.

Then clubs would just need an all weather 5G pitch. If it’s decent enough you can use it for training & all associate teams like the women and the youth. You could even put it indoors so you’ll never have a game called off  - a camera & then people can pay to stream it like they do on iFollow.

No stadium overheads. No match day overheads. Policing, stewards zero.

Maybe not so much for Swindon but for example Manchester United - Old Trafford can hold 75k. How many match day passes do you think they could sell globally? Waaaay more.

You could also potentially increase number of away fans because there would be no need or expense for them to travel. Let’s say Accrington have 1k season ticket holders. We play them at our home on a Tuesday night they are brining what? 100 fans. You stream it & potentially all 1k could watch it.

At the other end of the scale you play Leeds and at the CG they’d be limited to 3k fans at most. You could get 20k streaming it.

Only income you’d lose is food & drink sales. Would have to work out how it works exactly for both regards to home & away teams…

Will it happen? Maybe some day…

Maybe!

I think i would of walked away alot sooner before then.

[No Longer Posh Red]

I’ve said this before but I can for see a day when match attending fans & stadiums are obsolete.

Then clubs would just need an all weather 5G pitch. If it’s decent enough you can use it for training & all associate teams like the women and the youth. You could even put it indoors so you’ll never have a game called off  - a camera & then people can pay to stream it like they do on iFollow.

No stadium overheads. No match day overheads. Policing, stewards zero.

Maybe not so much for Swindon but for example Manchester United - Old Trafford can hold 75k. How many match day passes do you think they could sell globally? Waaaay more.

You could also potentially increase number of away fans because there would be no need or expense for them to travel. Let’s say Accrington have 1k season ticket holders. We play them at our home on a Tuesday night they are brining what? 100 fans. You stream it & potentially all 1k could watch it.

At the other end of the scale you play Leeds and at the CG they’d be limited to 3k fans at most. You could get 20k streaming it.

Only income you’d lose is food & drink sales. Would have to work out how it works exactly for both regards to home & away teams…

Will it happen? Maybe some day…

I think they work out that not having away fans is much cheaper so they try a mixture of the two, stream only for away fans & then you still get a crowd, albeit being a bit sterile

[chalkies shorts]

I think the near future for the top division is to reduce the number of season tickets each season and increasingly sell tourist packages ie air travel, coach, hotel and car to and from stadium with extras like corporate tickets, meals, meet the players, stadium tours etc. Its already happening but will be the norm soon while the loyal fan can fuck themselves. Not needed any more. They can still contribute to the coffers by streaming. Add in a European league and in a few years a word league with franchises in America, Japan, Africa, Asia and job done. Money rolling in. Man U can still play City and Liverpool to keep the derbies going. Fuck the rest.
Football is already increasingly outside the means of the working person. It will soon be the preserve of rich tourists, of which there will be sufficient all year round to fill the biggest of grounds. The previous lifeblood of the clubs are now nothing but peasants.
Not sure what it means for Town. Theres already a drift from professional football to non league and I can see this continuing.

[GTXMagnatec]

I miss the old days of Pre-Season.  It would all start in the first week of July, you'd get a snippet of some trialists, some you would have heard of before and would provide a tinge of excitement, other ones you'd never heard of before but they 'looked' good.  I remember seeing Philippe Cuervo against Manchester United in Fraser Digby's testimonial and was convinced we had a global superstar on our hands.
We would play a select bunch of local teams like Bath City, Hungerford, Chippenham Town and Salisbury City before going off on a tour to Finland, Ireland, Ibiza, Austria, Italy, Devon where we would either play Fenerbahce or a local pub team.  We would then return, get a smattering of signings that would further build excitement like a Wayne Allison, a Chris Hay or an exotic Antoine Van Der Linden, before playing a couple of Premiership teams at home ahead of the big season curtain raiser.  I think the last time we had that was in the summer of 2001 when we played Tottenham, Southampton and Derby in that white 3rd kit.  The glory days.

[Ƭ̵̬̊: The Artist Formerly Known as CWIG]

Don't forget pumping little non league Yeovil by 6 or 7 to nil or 1 every single season. 

Yeovil who during the interim then become a solid football league club, surpassed us as one stage with a season in the championship and then completely imploded back to being a non league club again.

[Batch]

I can't see that happening.

You need fans in the premier League for the TV cameras, if not the financials.

Lower league income is still massively dependent on fans through gates. Streaming wouldn't maintain crowds. TV money for an empty league 2 game would be close to zero.

[GTXMagnatec]

Don't forget pumping little non league Yeovil by 6 or 7 to nil or 1 every single season. 

Yeovil who during the interim then become a solid football league club, surpassed us as one stage with a season in the championship and then completely imploded back to being a non league club again.

And I stupidly forgot that we always used to have a good morale boosting victory over that mob at the top of the hill in Nailsworth every July.

[No Longer Posh Red]

And I stupidly forgot that we always used to have a good morale boosting victory over that mob at the top of the hill in Nailsworth every July.

Remember seeing Duncan Shearer’s first game there, think he scored four.
A goal with either foot & at least one header (can’t remember how he scored the other one) and thinking we’ve got a player here. Took him a while to score his first in a proper game but then scored a boat load

[Wobbly Bob]

Took him a while to score his first in a proper game but then scored a boat load

First league goal was the left foot floaty rocket away at Watford. Assist from Fraser!

[No Longer Posh Red]

First league goal was the left foot floaty rocket away at Watford. Assist from Fraser!

Yeah, we were there and I bought the match video, which is available on swindon-town-fc.co.uk