Red Kite Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 For my teenage fan apprenticeship in the mid to late 80s, I could watch Tranmere Rovers on a Friday night and Liverpool on a Saturday afternoon. Plus, midweek cup games at both clubs and some away games. You got to understand what was involved in going to matches and work things out for yourself. It is easy to have a bit of a laugh at the "Tourist League" now, but when you are taking to your Dad about a family friend who says his club don't want him anymore then it is not so amusing. In the Scottish top flight, your attendance matters. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DreamOakTree1 Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 On 12/02/2024 at 23:42, madton said: After all the moaning you do, you don't even go to games because it's the same team twice in 10 months?? We are lucky to have you. Sorry you're missing me so much since I was barred from the Morton Forum that you found me on page 2 of the Premiership form on P&B, then sifted through my post to find something to dig me up for. Have you anything to contribute to the debate? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eatmygoal Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 It's been said before and never going to happen, but the best thing that could happen to Scottish is if the OF leave. Then set up equal share of revenue streams instead of hording it at the top. Imagine how competitive the top flight would be, potentially 6 or 7 teams could compete for the title. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madton Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 43 minutes ago, DreamOakTree1 said: Sorry you're missing me so much since I was barred from the Morton Forum that you found me on page 2 of the Premiership form on P&B, then sifted through my post to find something to dig me up for. Have you anything to contribute to the debate? Certainly not looking for your pish, dont think anyone would put themselves through that. A simple search of the word Morton on the forum and there it was, all of 3 seconds! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod1877 Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 On 12/02/2024 at 18:34, DreamOakTree1 said: I think the reasoning given for the top 12 wanting to continue the status quo has now outlived it’s relevance. They want the crowds and/or TV money that the 4 games v the OF bring, but this is no longer a valid argument when balanced against the product available, or the atmosphere at the matches For example, the most recent St Mirren v Celtic premiership match drew a crowd of 5,500, on the same day that an under performing Dunfermline v Raith drew 8,500. St Mirren v Celtic in the Scottish Cup drew 4,400, whilst Morton v Motherwell drew over 5,000. Hibs v Celtic had a massive number of empty seats, yet they regularly have crowds of 18,000 plus. They say the EPL is the best league in the world, but they’re mainly talking about the quality on show. I actually feel it’s the fact that every match is unique for the particular season. Liverpool v Man City for instance only occurs once a year, and generates incredible interest in the build-up, live match and aftermath. We’ve lost that in Scotland with the familiarity of playing other teams four times a season. Fear of relegation and losing those perceived big crowds has teams playing a horrible style of football which would make you cry with boredom. The top 4 to 6 clubs in the Championship are investing in the dream of promotion, and the stakes are completely rigged against them achieving that goal. If Morton play, say Arbroath at home, I refuse to pay to watch the same match twice a season, and have stopped purchasing a season ticket. If the Premiership was extended to 18 teams, meaning 17 different matches at Cappielow, I would immediately buy a season ticket. Teams could also return to playing with a bit of freedom and giving their youth players a game. What do we need to do to make this happen? For accuracy, the attendance at the most recent St Mirren v Celtic premiership fixture was 6,943. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheScarf Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 On 12/02/2024 at 22:24, KirkieRR said: Bigger leagues don't necessarily lead to more meaningless mid-table games. But you have to increase the number of relegation/promotion/play-off places. And no top-level teams will vote for that. Plus there’s prize money to play for. No game is meaningless when a couple of wins in the last 2 games give you 2/3 hundred grand more for the budget next season. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paisley Ton Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 This is a mini version of do you find the Champions League a bit stale. Like every league where success is heavily related to the cash you take in, the only solution is to address worsening the situation. So I propose all teams get the save dividend from the SPFA income streams. We should also reverse the decision that home teams keep the gate money a 60/40 split would help even things. I think that decision was the end of any real competition in the top league. I suspect the bunnet and the steel man concocted this proposal prior to investing in their stadiums and seen it as a means to distance themselves from everyone else. -1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomGuy. Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 3 hours ago, Eatmygoal said: potentially 6 or 7 teams could compete for the title. For a couple of years, maybe. Then European money would f**k it all again no doubt. The best solution is punt the OF, then all European prize money is simply added to the overall prize pot rather than given to one team, but literally nobody would vote for that. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomGuy. Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 Dunno if this is the right place for it, but sure theres been talk about good youth products etc., being snapped up before getting near a first team? A company (Eyeball) has started up that covers U12 to U19 level football, and is built like WyScout. They claim to cover Scottish football at all youth levels and will provide stats/video on them all. Zero idea how genuine they are, but if its legitimate then the youth systems will be raided even more in future. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightmare Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 On 10/02/2024 at 11:58, RandomGuy. said: With Rangers now approaching similar levels to before they died, how often is it that Celtic/Rangers dont actually win the Scottish Cup? Youd rip up the entire league system, enforce a system that likely sees you playing the same teams constantly as youd presumably want it similar to the NFL? For a team other than Celtic/Rangers winning once every decade. European money has killed domestic football at virtually every level in every country. Its not unique to us, its just worse here because the clubs who could challenge them are absolutely shite at capitalising on things. We really need Aberdeen/Hearts types to make European stages every year to close the gap, and IMO your system would harm them doing that more than it would harm the OF. It’s more frequent that they don’t win the Scottish Cup than they don’t win the league anyway. I’ve no idea why you’ve presumed that I want Scottish football to become similar to the NFL. I haven’t said that or even come remotely close to suggesting it. If anything, my argument any time that it comes to league reconstruction chat is that we need bigger leagues to allow for more variety of opponents in Scottish football. I have never and would never suggest a move to some kind of geographical split of lots of smaller divisions within the overall league like you get in the NFL and other American sports. That would be asinine in Scottish football. I proposed two ‘alternatives’ to the current setup, neither of which I realistically expect to happen but would give someone, anyone else a better chance of winning the title. The first was for a simple playoff at the top of the table (top 4 possibly) which would generate a cup-style format at the end of the season where the teams outside the bigots would have a better chance of winning in one-off games. The other suggestion was a South American ‘opening & closing’ type of system where the league is essentially split into two seasons, meaning you’ve got more chance of someone else putting together a run of games over a shorter league format. Neither will happen, and the OF would still win the majority of times anyway - but my point was we would at least have a rare different winner, which our league really needs. As to your last point, I’m not sure where to even begin with arguing it so I won’t bother. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Jean King Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 7 hours ago, Rod1877 said: For accuracy, the attendance at the most recent St Mirren v Celtic premiership fixture was 6,943. And the cup crowd was a total piss take. Here's your share of a couple of thousand and fuk off back to Darkheid. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergeant Wilson Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 12 hours ago, RandomGuy. said: Dunno if this is the right place for it, but sure theres been talk about good youth products etc., being snapped up before getting near a first team? A company (Eyeball) has started up that covers U12 to U19 level football, and is built like WyScout. They claim to cover Scottish football at all youth levels and will provide stats/video on them all. Zero idea how genuine they are, but if its legitimate then the youth systems will be raided even more in future. Nonceball. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomGuy. Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 10 hours ago, Nightmare said: I proposed two ‘alternatives’ to the current setup, neither of which I realistically expect to happen but would give someone, anyone else a better chance of winning the title. The first was for a simple playoff at the top of the table (top 4 possibly) which would generate a cup-style format at the end of the season where the teams outside the bigots would have a better chance of winning in one-off games. The other suggestion was a South American ‘opening & closing’ type of system where the league is essentially split into two seasons, meaning you’ve got more chance of someone else putting together a run of games over a shorter league format. Neither will happen, and the OF would still win the majority of times anyway - but my point was we would at least have a rare different winner, which our league really needs. Yeah, neither of those would make the slightest bitbof difference and ive no idea why you think they would. Your only chance is having the OF play as many one chance knockout games as possible, which is why i thought you were thinking of an NFL style play off system rather than just 2 games. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightmare Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 1 hour ago, RandomGuy. said: Yeah, neither of those would make the slightest bitbof difference and ive no idea why you think they would. Your only chance is having the OF play as many one chance knockout games as possible, which is why i thought you were thinking of an NFL style play off system rather than just 2 games. Of course they would. If you don’t think the OF have more chance of losing to Hearts, Aberdeen or whoever in a one-off playoff SF/final than they do over a full 38 game league season, I’m not sure how else I can help you. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigkillie Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 Killie won more points than Rangers or Celtic in 2018, so it's not even true to say that it's impossible to string together a good enough run to be ahead of those clubs over a shorter timeframe. I don't like the idea of these Apertura and Clausura things in general, because I don't think winning them would actually feel like winning a league anyway, thus defeating the purpose of their introduction, but I think it's reasonable to suggest that sometimes other clubs would come top of those over an 18/22 game run. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Molotov Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 Just now, craigkillie said: Killie won more points than Rangers or Celtic in 2018 Full calendar year (across two seasons) or from January 2018 to May 2018? Can you show your calculations please as that is tremendous if true. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigkillie Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 Across the full year. Here's a BBC article below. We did play in the top six in the 2017/18 season too, so it's not as though the quality of opposition was any easier. Obviously the games in hand have to be factored in. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46715038 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KirkieRR Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 Arguably, this weekend showed Scottish football at its best, starting with a huge crowd at Starks watching a terrific top-of-the-Championship match. Then on Saturday, 18k at Pittodrie and Tynie, Killie giving the Old Firm a taste of their own medicine with a late goal earning a point, a 6-goal thriller at Caley Stadium and big crowds at East End at the wrong end of the Championship and Falkirk for a League 1 promotion tussle. Great stuff all round. And then Ranjurs go and ruin it today. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rustybadge Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 I'm not sure if this would be a business model attractive enough for investors ... BUT... the Ugly Sisters are both being left behind the Tier 1 European Teams because of the financial gulf; this means they are only able to sign 2nd and 3rd rate talent these days.... ... with that in mind, I don't think it would take tooooo much investment to bring a Hearts or Aberdeen up to a standard where they could win the Scottish Premier League. If that resulted in a few sustained European tours then they might be able to consistently compete with Rangers / Celtic levels fairly soon. Ah dunno. Don't get me wrong, I'm not really a fan of the idea of uber-rich profiles (sheiks et al) taking over clubs, but it might be a profitable venture quite quickly for the modest investment speculator. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GNU_Linux Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 Go full sicko mode & do whatever the hell Argentina is doing: (the league is downsizing in 2026 albeit only to 22) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.