The 3pm Blackout & Women's Football

[edcraw]

Does anyone actually go to a live match because they can’t watch another match on telly?

If this was the case wouldn’t the fact a match is on telly effect the attendance of that match which doesn’t seem to be the case.

Scrap the blackout and have all matches available on telly.

Regarding the women’s team - why not try alternating Saturday 3pm kick off with the men’s team?

 

[Roger D]

Sorry but have you seen what happens to attendances on Champions League days at many clubs? There's a very noticeable impact at numerous clubs, compared to their usual Tuesday attendance.

I now live elsewhere but Hamlet very obviously suffered from.tbis when I was a regular. As previously mentioned, the hit depended on the weather and who was playing. Arsenal + bad weather was the worst combination for Hamlet. I suspect a similar placed Hamlet would now fear Chelsea + bad weather too.

 

[scousedom]

Anyone remember when Five Live (or predecessor) couldn’t announce its 3pm radio commentary until 245pm in case people stayed in to listen to that rather than go to games?

The idea being people would stay in to listen to Game A on the radio instead of go to Game B

Mad what people can convince themselves is logical or likely…

 

[scousedom]

Sorry but have you seen what happens to attendances on Champions League days at many clubs? There's a very noticeable impact at numerous clubs, compared to their usual Tuesday attendance.

I now live elsewhere but Hamlet very obviously suffered from.tbis when I was a regular. As previously mentioned, the hit depended on the weather and who was playing. Arsenal + bad weather was the worst combination for Hamlet. I suspect a similar placed Hamlet would now fear Chelsea + bad weather too.

No but I’m happy for you to show me the data.

 

[Roger D]

Feel free to Google DHFC attendances in the 1990's. I was behind the goal and witnessed the effect. Check who has liked my comments, they saw it too. Having moved three times since then I don't have the programmes to hand as I have thrown them out, including the ones I edited. (See X yesterday.)

As for evidence where I live now, feel free to speak to Farnham or Badshot Lea, the two sides I cited. And many more teams, including Aldershot. I:m completely relaxed, they will back me up. Feel free to show me your evidence there is no impact on gates. If you can, fair play. I have been very careful not to mention any impact on Hamlet now as frankly I have no idea. Do you disagree with my comment Petersfield may struggle? I have more idea about them these days.
,
Edited to say I did say that a club of Hamlets size could cut their wage bill and I was more concerned about clubs lower down. I stand by that comment.

 

[scousedom]

Feel free to Google DHFC attendances in the 1990's. I was behind the goal and witnessed the effect. Check who has liked my comments, they saw it too. Having moved three times since then I don't have the programmes to hand as I have thrown them out, including the ones I edited. (See X yesterday.)

As for evidence where I live now, feel free to speak to Farnham or Badshot Lea, the two sides I cited. And many more teams, including Aldershot. I:m completely relaxed, they will back me up. Feel free to show me your evidence there is no impact on gates. If you can, fair play. I have been very careful not to mention any impact on Hamlet now as frankly I have no idea. Do you disagree with my comment Petersfield may struggle? I have more idea about them these days.
,
Edited to say I did say that a club of Hamlets size could cut their wage bill and I was more concerned about clubs lower down. I stand by that comment.

Nah I’m bored trawling for data to support other peoples theses…

Accepting for the purposes of this that there is a drop off when Tuesday CL games are on, do you not also accept:

• Saturdays are different to Tuesdays, and people are far more likely to have a reason to stay in midweek - work, it’s colder/darker, transport etc etc - than at weekend.
• Mens CL is literally the highest form of football, the best players in the best competition; whereas with respect the womens PL isn’t.

So just maybe all those hundreds of people not going to Dulwich games were doing so for reasons other than CL (which might just have been an aggravating factor), and maybe a women’s PL game won’t have the same draw as a men’s CL game, and maybe it’s completely irrelevant because Tuesday nights aren’t Saturday afternoons.

I think there’s a lot of spurious logic and reaching here to cover up for the simple fact that a lot of people wouldn’t try something that might boost women’s attendances/participation by 100 if it risked a drop off of 1 on the men’s side. I can’t for the life of me think why that might be.

 

[darryl]

A jumble of unrelated and possibly contradictory thoughts:

- I'd imagine that the hit on Dulwich attendances in years gone by would have had a lot to do with the Champions League being on ITV. I'm not sure it has the same effect now it's tucked away on TNT. (Me, I love a midweek match, but I'm hardly representative).

- What really drives me up the wall about the coverage of women's football in general is the lack of coverage beyond the WSL - during Euro 2022, BBC presenters were telling viewers to "go to your local WSL side" (for me, that's Tottenham!) rather than to find their nearest women's side at whatever level. Never mind Dulwich's fifth-tier league, the Women's Championship may as well not exist if you look at most outlets. With the WSL so skewed towards the the same names that dominate men's football, I don't think that's healthy. The best fun I've had at football in the past couple of seasons has been watching Dulwich women, the top of the Championship's really exciting at the moment, but the depth of the game is just invisible in the media.

- WSL coverage seems to have elbowed out the EFL in some places too, particularly the BBC. Expect rights reasons have a lot to do with this - and it's inevitable that men's football will take a hit in coverage - but weekends are now double helpings of the same old big clubs hogging the space. (Or, um, new big clubs in respect of Man City women...) Again, I don't think that's healthy in the long run - we need broad coverage of both men's and women's football in places that are as easy to access as possible.

- I like the 3pm blackout because it pisses off whining, entitled big-club fans and because it does provide a bit of space for the rest of the (men's) game to breathe. That said, I think the genie slipped out of the bottle when 12.30/5.30 kick-offs came into the PL, and if you're a fan of an EFL club with a VPN and a spare £10 then the blackout's effectively meaningless (and that's before we get to dodgy firesticks).

- There really should be some thought in finding slots so each strand of football has its places in the TV schedule - Premier League, EFL, WSL, even the SPFL. Obviously there'll be clashes - though the WSL can more than hold its own on the BBC - but it all seems a bit of a mess at the moment.

 

[darryl]

...and related to the blackout, this says a lot about the arrogance/incompetence/naivety (pick according to your level of cynicism) in the highest level of the women's game: Error prevents WSL game from being shown live

 

[scousedom]

...and related to the blackout, this says a lot about the arrogance/incompetence/naivety (pick according to your level of cynicism) in the highest level of the women's game: Error prevents WSL game from being shown live

Blessing in disguise. No one wants to see Everton.