Premier league profit without fans. | Page 3 | Vital Football

Premier league profit without fans.

Concerts? Since when did Beyoncé play fornightly at the same arena for 9 months?

Demand? Why am I currently watching the Champions League winners vs the Europa League winners at a small stadium in Estonia?

Why do clubs in different countries (Germany!) charge far less to watch football in a league that’s not a huge drop in quality from the Premier League?
 
I don't follow the premiership, not so much out of principle, but because I'm just not interested in it any more. It's quite simply a foreign league, in the sense that it that has absolutely no connection to the team I support.

Back in the day, before they pulled the ladder up, there was at least a theoretical chance of Gillingham getting to the top division. It was highly unlikely, sure, but with a combination of good players, good management and good luck, the possibility was there, however slight it might have been. After all, teams like Northampton and Carlisle had got up there (if only briefly), and other clubs like QPR, Coventry and Norwich had gradually progressed from bog-standard Division 3(S) fodder to First Division regulars.

It just can't be done nowadays without a sugar daddy or serious financial cheating. Even looking back on the only two times I've been remotely bothered who won the Premiership - Blackburn right at the beginning and Leicester the other year - the underdogs who I wanted to win were doped to the gills, financially speaking.

I haven't been following the Bournemouth story, so I'd genuinely like to know how they got up there when they had the arse out of their trousers ten years ago. Surely it wasn't all down to Eddie Howe.

To be honest, top level club football is dead to me. I couldn't give a toss about the Premiership or the Champions League. I'm not proud of that - I used to follow the First Division and the European Cup religiously - it's just that I hate nearly all of the teams in those competitions and it's quite frankly a different planet.

It's all very well congratulating them on their excellent business nous, but it's all done directly at the expense of those clubs who are lower down the pecking order.

LIke many things in this world (and this is where I suspect I'll lose most of you now) football could do with a good old-fashioned dose of socialism.

If it was up to me, I'd nationalise football. All sponsorship and gate money from every senior club and every match would go into a central fund. At the end of the season, it would all get shared out according to a strict formula of where the clubs finshed, right down to the bottom of the pyramid. No club can have more than a certain number of players, no clubs can have owners, only members, and no club is allowed to accumulate debts. Every town with a football club in it is given funds from the kitty to provide a decent stadium. No club pisses about with its colours and no shirt will have sponsors on it.

Sponsorship will take the form solely of pitch-side hoardings, allocated proportionately to the amount of the sponsorship. No company will sponsor a single club, but only football as a whole. If that means a drop in revenue, so be it. The money sloshing around at the top is obscene as it is. If it's fairly distributed, those who need it will still be better off.

You may think I'm mad, but at the end of the day, Brian, football is infrastructure. It's not vital infrastructure like the railways or the waterworks that should be paid for out of taxes, but it's social and cultural infrastructure and as such, also has to be protected from untrammeled market forces.

So there you have it, my blueprint for the future of football. The only reward I ask for is the power to round up all kit designers, have them shot, and do the job myself.
 
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Concerts? Since when did Beyoncé play fornightly at the same arena for 9 months?

Demand? Why am I currently watching the Champions League winners vs the Europa League winners at a small stadium in Estonia?

Why do clubs in different countries (Germany!) charge far less to watch football in a league that’s not a huge drop in quality from the Premier League?

1 - Beyonce No but other artists play that venue every week or more and sell out and some concert tickets are £150 plus and £40 tickets are so far back you have to watch it on screen, I dont see the point in that but hey people are prepared to pay

2 - Why are you, is your choice - or are you being forced. TV will buy all matches and show all (more than once) and get supporters to believe they are watching 40 top class matches every month when actually you are watching match for the sake of it - you wont be watching the team you support

3 - Football in Germany is heavily sponsored by businesses who subsidize tickets -
 
About point 3: in Germany there's the 50+1 rule that ensures that no single individual can have more control than the club members. That is a huge factor in stopping prices getting out of hand.
 
About point 3: in Germany there's the 50+1 rule that ensures that no single individual can have more control than the club members. That is a huge factor in stopping prices getting out of hand.

yes and it works well - i also dont think they have sold out to TV like we have in this country.

Tickets to matches around the world do vary but on the whole the UK is about average for the standard of football and the number of "top" teams
 
yes and it works well - i also dont think they have sold out to TV like we have in this country.

It does, by (largely) preventing football clubs from becoming personal fiefdoms, which is precisely why certain big shareholders, most vocably Martin Kind at Hannover 96, are lobbying to get rid of it, under the pretence of making German teams more successful internationally. (As if Hannover would be among them.)

They haven't sold out quite as much to TV , and there are boycotts of Monday night matches. There is resistance, but also a huge lobby among the football establishment calling for people to get hip with modernisation and not get in the way of Germany from competing on the international stage (by which they really mean everyone mucking in for the benefit of Bayern Munich, or failing that the execrable Red Bull Leipzig).
 
I've never heard the German ticket price thing explained before so thanks. I'm fast becoming a big fan of German football, .specifically Hertha Berlin, and much prefer their match day experience to that of the PL
Last match I went to was €15 and that includes the train ticket from central Berlin
Overall, I saw the match, including flights and cheap accommodation for the price of a slightly above average ticket at Arsenal so
It's a no brainer for me.

My analogy with Bournemouth wasn't to say that I think they should lower their prices, I was just stating how peeved they would be to see their prices rise so sharply so quickly
If we ever got to the PL, how many on here would pay £50-£60 per match? Not me, I couldn't justify it to myself with living expenses the way they are especially as the only difference would be the teams we were playing against. It would still be the pokey little ground in the middle of a built up housing estate. The experience itself would be no different (as much as I love it now at this level and price)
 
I've never heard the German ticket price thing explained before so thanks. I'm fast becoming a big fan of German football, .specifically Hertha Berlin, and much prefer their match day experience to that of the PL
Last match I went to was €15 and that includes the train ticket from central Berlin
Overall, I saw the match, including flights and cheap accommodation for the price of a slightly above average ticket at Arsenal so
It's a no brainer for me.
)



I was hoping for these famous cheap tickets when took in match with Hertha home to Bayern Munich a couple of years ago when I was over but tickets cost £50 each. I was told prices fluctuate depending on opposition. good atmosphere though, if slightly too orchestrated
 
I was hoping for these famous cheap tickets when took in match with Hertha home to Bayern Munich a couple of years ago when I was over but tickets cost £50 each. I was told prices fluctuate depending on opposition. good atmosphere though, if slightly too orchestrated

That's true - Bayern is always a sell-out, so they whack up the prices for that.
 
I was hoping for these famous cheap tickets when took in match with Hertha home to Bayern Munich a couple of years ago when I was over but tickets cost £50 each. I was told prices fluctuate depending on opposition. good atmosphere though, if slightly too orchestrated

Possibly but the game I mentioned was against RB Leipzig. At that time effectively a Champions League qualifying decider so I would consider that a "big" game. Almost 70,000 present and as you say, great atmosphere.
Also agreed that it is a bit orchestrated but IMO that's better than the flat atmosphere and constant moaning that's been prevalent at some Gills home matches in recent years. Love being able to drink a beer whilst watching too ???
 
Nearest I got was Melbourne Hearts! Not a bad side, but it was obvious back then that money was the 'key'.