Would you change our league?

[Guest JTS98]

1 minute ago, Dons_1988 said:

Aye didn't think so. I'm too young to remember that season but no one that does looks back at 94 as one that got away. 1991 was the real boot in the pie for us.

Although, looking back (you can check the table game by game on the London Hearts website), Rangers seem to have had an arse-collapse late on to let Motherwell and Aberdeen have another punt at it.

Click on the date of the Hearts game on the left column and the page that opens has that the before and after league table for that game.

https://www.londonhearts.com/scores/sea/1993-94.html

[Dunfermline Don]

Was 1991 the last time an other team went into the last game of the season with a chance of winning the league?
It is hard to believe now if it hadn’t been for A Kidd in 1986 the we would have had 3 different winners of the league over 4 seasons and none of them from Glasgow. We seem miles away from those days now.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

2 minutes ago, Dunfermline Don said:

Was 1991 the last time an other team went into the last game of the season with a chance of winning the league?
It is hard to believe now if it hadn’t been for A Kidd in 1986 the we would have had 3 different winners of the league over 4 seasons and none of them from Glasgow. We seem miles away from those days now.

Aye, but after last night, Scottish football is on the up, apparently.

[DukDukGoose]

15 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

What? You can work in those sectors for over 40 years, and if you do get an injury that prevents you working then you'll get compensation. 

The average Scottish footballer probably gets about 10 years of decent pay from the game, at best and is then forgotten about. It's pretty well documented lower league players have to pay for their own operations/etc. too, Rory Loy is an example.

Not strictly true mate.

[craigkillie]

3pm is the ideal kick off, especially when you have to travel for away games.

Why is it any better than 1pm or 5pm? There are only a handful of away fixtures where that would be a problem.

[Guest JTS98]

I dislike 3pm for two reasons.

Firstly, if just out to get steaming for the day with mates, then a 3pm kick-off is just a 2-2.5 hour gap in drinking which leads to tiredness later on. With a 1pm kick off I'll go to the game then drink later. With a 5pm kick-off I'll drink before the game then go home. I accept that as a 35-year old I am now over the drinking hill, but that's how I see it.

Other days there's maybe something else I'd like to do as well as go to the game. A lunchtime kick-off leaves much of my Saturday or Sunday free for other stuff if I like, as does an evening kick off.

3pm means the football dominates the whole day, really. Not always ideal.

[sjc]

2 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

2 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

3pm is the ideal kick off, especially when you have to travel for away games.

Why is it any better than 1pm or 5pm? There are only a handful of away fixtures where that would be a problem.

It would be if you work til 1pm on a Saturday and I'd say a 5pm ko in mid winter isn't ideal if you've got an hours drive home with young kids. 

5pm would be less of an issue it we switched to a summer season imo but everyone on here goes away on holiday for the whole of June, July and August apparently, so that's a non starter.

 

[Guest JTS98]

2 minutes ago, sjc said:

It would be if you work til 1pm on a Saturday and I'd say a 5pm ko in mid winter isn't ideal if you've got an hours drive home with young kids. 

5pm would be less of an issue it we switched to a summer season imo but everyone on here goes away on holiday for the whole of June, July and August apparently, so that's a non starter.

 

I understand that kind of thing is hugely annoying, I've had jobs that got in the way of football before. But whatever time a game of football is on at, there are going to be people who can't go because of work.

The flipside is that it might become easier to take kids to a 1pm home game if they/the family have the rest of the day available. Or the family could do something else, visit granny etc before a 5pm kick-off.

There are ups and downs to everything.

[sjc]

9 hours ago, YassinMoutaouakil said:

I'm not entirely sure how to phrase this, but when did it become apparent to people that it had became a two-horse race? 

I'm 20, so I've obviously only ever known OF/Celtic dominance, but a couple of years before I was born Celtic finished 4th behind Motherwell and Hibs. Did Aberdeen, Hibs, Hearts and Dundee United fans go through the 90s and early 2000s thinking they'd eventually challenge again or did Rangers' 9iar shut the door on that? I've always wondered when the OF managed to accelerate away as well, was it the Champions League restructuring and TV money?

 

I think the biggest factor in them becoming dominant around this time (early 90's for Rangers, mid-late 90's for Celtic) was the change in behaviour patterns of their fans buying season tickets as opposed to pay at the gate. This gave them a huge advantage in terms of having cash to finance summer signings.....SDM also had a fair bit of cash on tick with the BoS as well TBF!

[sjc]

4 minutes ago, JTS98 said:

I understand that kind of thing is hugely annoying, I've had jobs that got in the way of football before. But whatever time a game of football is on at, there are going to be people who can't go because of work.

The flipside is that it might become easier to take kids to a 1pm home game if they/the family have the rest of the day available. Or the family could do something else, visit granny etc before a 5pm kick-off.

There are ups and downs to everything.

Move it to a summer season and the Clubs could set up stalls with food, games etc that the whole family could enjoy like they do here in Japan (you can even enjoy a beer too!).

Very family oriented and friendly..... good day out too!

[Guest JTS98]

8 minutes ago, sjc said:

Move it to a summer season and the Clubs could set up stalls with food, games etc that the whole family could enjoy like they do here in Japan (you can even enjoy a beer too!).

Very family oriented and friendly..... good day out too!

I'm very much on board with that. Used to go and watch a lot of K-League and A-League when living in those countries, going to the game was just a fun thing to do.

Except in the closing weeks of the Korean season. Never felt cold like it. The summer months were tremendous though. Summer evening, a bevvy, easy transport.

[sjc]

2 minutes ago, JTS98 said:

I'm very much on board with that. Used to go and watch a lot of K-League and A-League when living in those countries, going to the game was just a fun thing to do.

Except in the closing weeks of the Korean season. Never felt cold like it. The summer months were tremendous though. Summer evening, a bevvy, easy transport.

It would make a lot of sense in Scotland. A less saturated period for negotiating a TV deal as well as better weather for fans, players and the pitches. The Club's could easily make more revenue if they put on games, music, food etc as long as they didn't boot the arse out of it with the prices.

[DA Baracus]

1 hour ago, sjc said:

Move it to a summer season and the Clubs could set up stalls with food, games etc that the whole family could enjoy like they do here in Japan (you can even enjoy a beer too!).

Very family oriented and friendly..... good day out too!

Would almost certainly fail.

Clubs are terrible at doing anything around games. What sort of events/games etc could clubs do, especially considering the space (or lack of) at and around stadiums that would draw in enough fans?

Attendances would fall quite a bit I think as well.

[sjc]

5 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

Would almost certainly fail.

Clubs are terrible at doing anything around games. What sort of events/games etc could clubs do, especially considering the space (or lack of) at and around stadiums that would draw in enough fans?

Attendances would fall quite a bit I think as well.

I agree that clubs would find a way of fucking it up but there's plenty they could do. Live music, bars, varied food stalls (not just the big standard pie & bovril), funfair rides, small sided games for the kids on the pitch due to the better weather. 

I get your point about space but Clubs could tie up withe the local council to have adjacent streets closed off to traffic for the day just like they do for street markets or the like. Clubs like St Johnstone would have no such issues!

It would be possible but I share your pessimism in their ability to make a success of it. They'd do it half arsed and fail miserably.

[DA Baracus]

39 minutes ago, sjc said:

I agree that clubs would find a way of fucking it up but there's plenty they could do. Live music, bars, varied food stalls (not just the big standard pie & bovril), funfair rides, small sided games for the kids on the pitch due to the better weather. 

I get your point about space but Clubs could tie up withe the local council to have adjacent streets closed off to traffic for the day just like they do for street markets or the like. Clubs like St Johnstone would have no such issues!

It would be possible but I share your pessimism in their ability to make a success of it. They'd do it half arsed and fail miserably.

Bars would immediately be a non starter, as police wouldn't allow it.

Police and the clubs wouldn't allow folk on the pitch before a game.

There's definitely so much more clubs could be doing, and most of them are really quite complacent and even lazy, just expecting folk to turn up to an increasingly expensive product. They think that if they play a popular tune when the team score that will be enough, and think provided wildly inflated (price wise) crappy pies and flat juice is good enough.

[sjc]

15 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

Bars would immediately be a non starter, as police wouldn't allow it.

Police and the clubs wouldn't allow folk on the pitch before a game.

There's definitely so much more clubs could be doing, and most of them are really quite complacent and even lazy, just expecting folk to turn up to an increasingly expensive product. They think that if they play a popular tune when the team score that will be enough, and think provided wildly inflated (price wise) crappy pies and flat juice is good enough.

It's funny how rugby fans get treated so differently to football fans when it comes to allowing alcohol at their games. I agree that it would be an issue with the police sadly.

Clubs currently allow folk on the pitch at HT. Remember the pitches would be a lot firmer because of the weather so wouldn't churn up.

There's a shit-ton more the Clubs should be doing. It's actually quite depressing their lack of foresight!

[Poet of the Macabre]

On 23/10/2019 at 06:02, smeehee said:

You need to thin out the bigots and glory hunters from the ugly sisters. To do this make all matches all ticket with postal applications only. If your postal address is closer to another senior club than the match you are wanting to attend then you don't get a ticket. You choice is go and watch your local team or don't go at all.

Some folk would get around this by giving mates addresses that are closer to the ground but clearly not everyone has that option so it would thin them out and maybe add a few more supporters to everyone else.

Not read the rest of the thread yet but just needed to point out this is one of the most idiotic posts I've ever read on Pie & Bovril and think of the ground that covers.

[Monkey Tennis]

Someone is going to say "matchday experience" soon, sending others among us into a corner of the room to hunch over and rock gently.

[sjc]

2 hours ago, Monkey Tennis said:

Someone is going to say "matchday experience" soon, sending others among us into a corner of the room to hunch over and rock gently.

Whilst I agree it's a terrible term that no genuine football fan should use, the world has moved on from being satisfied with having your whole day revolve around a 90minute match.

If you want more people to attend, especially families, you need to offer them more than a greasy pie and a piss weak bovril at exuberant prices on a freezing cold winter afternoon.

[Guest JTS98]

16 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

Bars would immediately be a non starter, as police wouldn't allow it.

Police and the clubs wouldn't allow folk on the pitch before a game.

There's definitely so much more clubs could be doing, and most of them are really quite complacent and even lazy, just expecting folk to turn up to an increasingly expensive product. They think that if they play a popular tune when the team score that will be enough, and think provided wildly inflated (price wise) crappy pies and flat juice is good enough.

One example I can think of is FC Seoul. There's nothing complicated about what they do, but they have a variety of food stalls outside the stadium and they put on a bit of entertainment. There are small games of football for kids on tiny pitches (basically a mat on the ground) and there'll be some p***k with a microphone doing silly competitions etc.

Families go along ages before the game to hang around and spend money. It's just part of going to the game. If you offer people something worth doing, they'll do it.