Coronavirus and the Scottish Championship

[RandomGuy.]

37 minutes ago, johnnydun said:

But they won't be paying their full wage, wages will have to drop or they get no wages at all. Along with no match day security and policing to pay for.

If you had the choice of being paid off with no chance of working in your trade for a year or having the possibility of some form of income by trying a new system out, what would you choose?

It would depend entirely on how much they would take.

Hearts seemed to have a hell of a bother getting players to accept wage cuts, and I'm not entirely sure if you could actually force that on contracted players. Paying them off would require a payment aswell.

[Parttimesupporter]

58 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

I think this is going to have to be considered if we genuinely can't get playing in front of fans by September/October sort of time. The key will be making the format interesting enough that fans watching at home will care about it, even if it's not a "proper" league.

The big issue here is the new TV deal with Sky. It's allegedly worth something like £160m over the next 5 years, so the SPFL will understandably be hoping not to jeopardise that. This might push them towards the idea of running at a loss playing behind closed doors in the Premiership for a few months in order to meet their contractual obligations, rather than scrapping next season entirely and then having to scramble around for a new deal (no doubt for much less money) for the 2021/22 campaign onwards

Hmmm - I'm a wee fat balding guy in his 50s, but I reckon there is more chance of me having a threesome with Rihanna and Taylor Swift than there is of Scottish teams playing in front of fans in September/October.

[ftk]

Putting Championship games on pay tv will never happen. They would never get the subscription figures needed to make it worth while.

Plus the product isnt a high standard and can look terrible on tv. Ever watched our teams on BBC Scotland on a Friday night? Looks awful on TV and that's on a professional (kind off) TV network, not wee tam with his Go Pro.

We all follow our teams with blind love and enjoy the social aspect of going to support our local team but it doesn't always translate well on to tv.

Only the big 5 best supported teams (not Falkirk) in Scotland could make this work and even 3 of them might struggle.

[Parttimesupporter]

2 hours ago, MuckleMoo said:

The championship, without supporters, is just not viable financially in its current state. If there is any possibility of games being played behind closed doors teams are going to need to go part time/amateur and the standard will most likely plummet as a result.

Are supporters going to pay to watch games online on a regular basis for a standard that is significantly lower than the shitshow that it is now? That's before you take into account the unreliability of the streaming services and the economic impact of the virus

When are unrestricted crowds likely going to be allowed back? Proably when we've reached herd immunity, we have a reliable treatment for the virus, or when we have a vaccine. I have no idea when these scenarios are likely to be achieved. I've read predictions ranging from months to never!

I honestly can't see football in the lower leagues starting this year, financially it's just not possible unless we're prepared for a massive drop in quality. If we do go down that road supporters will turn away in there droves plunging teams into even more financial difficulties.
 

To be fair anyone who was at the Pars v Queens game in October 2018 (the one we won 1-0 with a late goal from Todd) might struggle with the concept of the standard plummeting.

There are undoubtedly challenges with the economics of closed doors games.  But the alternative isn't very attractive either.  Do we ask fans to pay money to watch closed doors games, or just hand over cash to cover costs including the wages of players who aren't playing?  I don't pretend to know the answer.  However, I doubt there will be many clubs who can survive until unrestricted crowds are back without significant cash injections from fans.

[Rudolph Hucker]

3 hours ago, virginton said:

The first part is simply your own value judgment rather than an explanation of why it is a terrible idea at all. Be more specific about why it couldn't be replicated sustainably.

Crunch the numbers, after that simple common sense should give you the answer. The cost/return ratio does not stand up to scrutiny in any way.

And if you’re still not convinced, read the two posts immediately below your own.

[MuckleMoo]

To be fair anyone who was at the Pars v Queens game in October 2018 (the one we won 1-0 with a late goal from Todd) might struggle with the concept of the standard plummeting.
There are undoubtedly challenges with the economics of closed doors games.  But the alternative isn't very attractive either.  Do we ask fans to pay money to watch closed doors games, or just hand over cash to cover costs including the wages of players who aren't playing?  I don't pretend to know the answer.  However, I doubt there will be many clubs who can survive until unrestricted crowds are back without significant cash injections from fans.

I agree it's a shite state of affairs but here we are.

Is it possible for clubs to replace the revenue from gate receipts by streaming the games online? In my opinion no. Is there some other magic money tree out there that the clubs can tap into that hasn't been thought of yet? I doubt it.

Unless there's an unexpected development regarding the virus there is going to be no mass gatherings for the remainder of the year at least. I can see no other option than mothballing the teams, releasing players, coaches, and staff although I honestly don't know if this is doable.

My worry is that we start the season behind closed doors with no reliable revenue streams and clubs go to the wall and the league collapses. Better hunkering down for a time and letting the virus do its thing. Hopefully once it all blows over we can get back to some sort of normality

[DA Baracus]

As noted previously, even if folk did pay for games to be streamed in the same numbers as folk who would normally attend games, the numbers still won't add up.

There's still too much revenue lost from other sources, namely hospitality, sponsorship, merchandise, catering and things like programme sales and half time draws.

[Thistle_do_nicely]

3 hours ago, craigkillie said:

The key will be making the format interesting enough that fans watching at home will care about it, even if it's not a "proper" league.

 

TENNENT'S SIXES ARE COMING BACK BABY

GET HYPE

[Derry Alli]

Gerry Britton's Xanax has just kicked in in that photo. 

[rb123!]

With the Bundesliga starting today behind closed doors does anyone know how the clubs are making money from these games?

[Skyline Drifter]

7 minutes ago, rb123! said:

With the Bundesliga starting today behind closed doors does anyone know how the clubs are making money from these games?

Had a Google and couldn't find anything useful but one would assume it's for the same reason the English are considering it, because tv revenues are big enough to make it worthwhile (or tv compensation if they don't play is worse than losses from playing).

[Derry Alli]

45 minutes ago, rb123! said:

With the Bundesliga starting today behind closed doors does anyone know how the clubs are making money from these games?

I'm not sure German clubs make that much money from match day revenues. Are they not mostly fan owned and funded? 

[Sergeant Wilson]

1 minute ago, Dele said:

I'm not sure German clubs make that much money from match day revenues. Are they not mostly fan owned and funded? 

The usual war cry is "it's threepence ha'penny to watch Bayern Munich, but it's £18.00 to watch...insert shite Scottish team here...

[Lebowski]

The usual war cry is "it's threepence ha'penny to watch Bayern Munich, but it's £18.00 to watch...insert shite Scottish team here...

And it's not actually true. The Bundesliga clubs have huge price differentials in entrance prices. The cheapest tickets are much cheaper than here, but the most expensive ones are multiples of our most expensive tickets too.

[RandomGuy.]

1 hour ago, rb123! said:

With the Bundesliga starting today behind closed doors does anyone know how the clubs are making money from these games?

The four Champions League teams (Bayern, Dortmund, Leipzig, Leverkusen) donated £20m to be distributed amongst the other clubs in the league.

They also agreed a deal with Sky for the rest of the season that will "see clubs remain liquid until June 30" but the article doesnt go into detail about it.

[ScottyG]

15 hours ago, craigkillie said:

I think this is going to have to be considered if we genuinely can't get playing in front of fans by September/October sort of time. The key will be making the format interesting enough that fans watching at home will care about it, even if it's not a "proper" league.

The big issue here is the new TV deal with Sky. It's allegedly worth something like £160m over the next 5 years, so the SPFL will understandably be hoping not to jeopardise that. This might push them towards the idea of running at a loss playing behind closed doors in the Premiership for a few months in order to meet their contractual obligations, rather than scrapping next season entirely and then having to scramble around for a new deal (no doubt for much less money) for the 2021/22 campaign onwards

The agreement the SPFL has with Sky will have a huge bearing on whether clubs outwith the premiership will even be allowed to stream games never mind the affordability.

Edited May 16, 2020 by ScottyG

[RandomGuy.]

30 minutes ago, Dele said:

I'm not sure German clubs make that much money from match day revenues. Are they not mostly fan owned and funded? 

They all got their stadiums regenerated/rebuilt, and youth academies built with coaches provided, and it cost them nothing. All this done for the 2006 World Cup.

Combine that with the fan 50+1 rule, that allows fans to veto handing the club to moron owners, a TV deal valued at over 1 billion Euros, and a National economy that allows hefty sponsorship fees for clubs, and it's almost impossible for any German club to not run at a profit.

That's why they can hand out cheap tickets, and why closed door games arent going to be a complete disaster just now.

Edited May 16, 2020 by RandomGuy.

[Highland Capital]

13 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

As noted previously, even if folk did pay for games to be streamed in the same numbers as folk who would normally attend games, the numbers still won't add up.

On top of that, what kind of price would we be talking about to stream the games?  It'd have to be about £20 each to make it even close to breaking even - and there's no way I'd pay that to watch Caley Thistle play Alloa in an empty stadium on my computer.

Edited May 16, 2020 by Highland Capital

[vikingTON]

12 hours ago, Rudolph Hucker said:

Crunch the numbers, after that simple common sense should give you the answer. The cost/return ratio does not stand up to scrutiny in any way.

And if you’re still not convinced, read the two posts immediately below your own.

Well no because we simply don't know what the critical numbers are here at all. Firstly, we don't know the extent of a probable government support package. It's only their shan social distancing requirement that is causing the problem in the first place so it is incumbent on them to at least partly pick up the tab: for professional football as much as every other affected leisure industry going into 20/21. Which is incentivised by the fact that there is also an election in Scotland scheduled for twelve months' time. Today's tabloids also suggest that the SFA might be prepared to back the scheme by taking out a commercial loan; we also don't know the level of additional funds that could be released at FIFA or UEFA level. So you're 'solving' an equation right now despite not knowing several of the most important inputs to make this scheme viable: I don't think any executive thinks that the SPFL clubs can do this scheme off their own backs alone. 

All of these buts, what ifs and howls of protest surrounding these schemes simply underline the fact that the most practical solution is to ditch social distancing in favour of a better alternative such as obligatory mask use. Which the English government is already finding out right now as it tries and fails to reopen schools, so we shouldn't be surprised at all if the government backtracks on this between now and the autumn.  

[craigkillie]

The agreement the SPFL has with Sky will have a huge bearing on whether clubs outwith the premiership will even be allowed to stream games never mind the affordability.

I suspect Sky Sports will not be in the tiniest bit bothered if Queen of the South v Alloa is streamed live.