The Lemon Fool

Am I the only one who has loved the fact that since lockdown, every single Premier League game has been televised?

My days of going to matches are over now unless I get a Corporate ticket. I’m at the age where I prefer the comforts in life.

HYD

Watching football on Sky Sports is good but you can't beat seeing matches live.

Mike88 wrote:Watching football on Sky Sports is good but you can't beat seeing matches live.

I think that’s fair. But not sustainable the way that ticket prices are going.

For every person that wants to pay to go and watch the game at the ground, there are 40 that want to pay to watch it at home.

With category A tickets near £100 per game for going to the ground, its likely that people will move to legal and illegal means of watching at home. Something has to give.

HYD

As the matchday Covid officer for a football club I know how much work goes in to putting on matches at the moment. It will be even harder when fans return - nobody is expecting a return to the old normal for quite some time.

For what it is worth we are operating on the expectation of a limited number of fans in the stadium in May.

Howyoudoin wrote:

Mike88 wrote:Watching football on Sky Sports is good but you can't beat seeing matches live.

I think that’s fair. But not sustainable the way that ticket prices are going.

For every person that wants to pay to go and watch the game at the ground, there are 40 that want to pay to watch it at home.

With category A tickets near £100 per game for going to the ground, its likely that people will move to legal and illegal means of watching at home. Something has to give.

HYD

That's what happens if you support a Premier league team. Even when my team was in the Premier League 2 years ago the cost per ticket averaged out at less than £20 per match on a season ticket. However, I much prefer the Championship where the football is more entertaining and the results less predictable.

I must admit if I supported a club like [expletive deleted] with exorbitant ticket prices I would opt to watch my football on TV.

Mike88 wrote:
I must admit if I supported a club like [expletive deleted] with exorbitant ticket prices I would opt to watch my football on TV.

Yet tens of thousands wouldn't, which is how live event pricing works. 50,000 seats vs 50 million televisions.

TV will never be quite as good as being there BUT - with the picture and sound quality of the modern telly, it's got close. I was impressed seeing part of a match on a 44" UHD TV.

Who knows clubs may even have to reduce prices with the move to TV.

Leothebear wrote:TV will never be quite as good as being there BUT - with the picture and sound quality of the modern telly, it's got close. I was impressed seeing part of a match on a 44" UHD TV.

Who knows clubs may even have to reduce prices with the move to TV.

Well you need to have a broadcast agreement that allowed TV viewing at 3pm Saturday for that really to have a major effect. But you are right TV matches often induce reduced demand for physical attendance, and often such matches have lower prices as a result.

From a commercial perspective it is part of the match pricing policy of clubs - although this year things have been significantly different, understandably.