Premier League Ticket Probe
The Premier League have today announced their intention to probe the slump in attendances at Premiership matches so far this season. Instead of waiting until October for the final report, I'd like to do their job for them. The writing has been so clearly on the wall for well over 18 months that I, an absolute nobody in terms of football administration, have penned published articles over this period warning of this very problem (cf.British Institute Newsletters 2003-5 ad infinitum and this blog entry from last month.
The issue for the Premier League is now complex, as their report will require extreme neutrality. Equally, they have their own interests at heart, and therefore many of the pertinent points will be missed, such as:
• Chelsea's monopolisation of the transfer market.
• The overpriced tickets.
• The ridiculous (over)hype football has received since the advent of the Premiership.
• The moribund 4-5-1 formation employed by so many teams.
• The voodoo economics employed by many teams with the money brought in by the Sky Sports television deal (cf. Leeds United, Bradford City).
• Fans actually realising that paying £25+ every other week for 90 minutes of football - and for pretty much every club in the Premiership, chances of them actually winning anything are minimal - is just no longer worth their time, money, and effort.
• A lack of meaningful action at 1500 on most Saturdays makes scheduling Real Life increasingly tricky.
The lack of these almost makes any such report utterly useless, as politics will - once again - get in the way of the restructuring that English football desperately needs. With the EU aiming to break Sky's stranglehold on the complete rights to televise live Premiership football, it is already clear that the next deal for Premiership rights is going to be significantly less than the current one. This leaves clubs with a quandary - invest now and hope to reap the rewards and become a viable match for Chelsea (or Championship rival to Leeds United), or stand still, stagnate, and remain financially viable. Doesn't sound like much fun to me.
There was a letter in the new look Guardian last week which I think summed up football's problems very succinctly. (I am unable to find the letter in the Guardian archive, so excuse my potentially false recollection of the exact words):
Last week I paid for renewals of both my annual golf club membership and my season ticket at my local Football League club. For the first time, the football was more expensive than the golf.
How times change.
Indeed so.