Cost of attending away games

[CosbehFox]

2 minutes ago, taupe said:

I wonder when clubs will look to stream their own games. Cut out the middle man as it were. I've no idea how much investment would be required, and the contractual obligations etc, but I wouldn't be surprised if some clubs have looked at the numbers and legalities etc.

I have always questioned how successful it would be. 

 

People would expect broadcast quality - the Football League has a service which costs approx £15 a game but its very much one camera, limited replays set-up. People during lockdown got annoyed with its reliability and quality. 

 

How many subscribers do they need to make it financially work? My gut is probably not enough for a club of Leicester's size. The big six could do it because they'd be enough interest abroad and floaters. Sponsorship is within that too - needs a decent audience for advertisers to make their worth. 

 

The sport needs some medicine as as annoying frustrating as it is - what's happening at LCFC the moment is part of that. 

[Saxondale]

The trains cost a ruddy fortune too. 

[Saxondale]

6 minutes ago, taupe said:

I wonder when clubs will look to stream their own games. Cut out the middle man as it were. I've no idea how much investment would be required, and the contractual obligations etc, but I wouldn't be surprised if some clubs have looked at the numbers and legalities etc.

This is where I’d like us to get to.

 

I got absolutely blasted on here a couple of years ago for suggesting that all games should be available on a pay-per-view basis for about five quid. I’d buy the away games.

 

As things stand currently, you need to spend something daft like £80 a month for Sky and BT, to still only be able to watch a small handful of Leicester games. Sod all that; it’s the massive TV deals that have knackered the football economy anyway.

[Winchesterfox]

A good thread this.  I'm really starting to notice the cost of fuel, although for me it's home games.

 

Lift sharing could be part of the solution for supporters who don't have mates going, through Foxestalk or sites like liftshare.com.  

 

 

[grobyfox1990]

16 minutes ago, taupe said:

I wonder when clubs will look to stream their own games. Cut out the middle man as it were. I've no idea how much investment would be required, and the contractual obligations etc, but I wouldn't be surprised if some clubs have looked at the numbers and legalities etc.

I would never pay for sky or Bt sports, but people take their incredible and world class broadcast quality for granted. I can’t see how it would be worth the clubs putting that in place themselves. Armchair fans demand a certain level which would take the clubs years and billions to put into place. As a comparison, try watching a game on ifollow (efl in house streaming service) so many things wrong with it…

[Sol thewall Bamba]

Travel far outweighs tickets costs for some. 

 

Just means you have to do less. 

[grobyfox1990]

21 minutes ago, jim5000 said:

Yeah it would, it’s just that driving up from Kent by the time I get there usually (especially for evening matches), all the road parking is full and I’m not that familiar with the City centre roads to start driving about - I’d probably make a wrong turn and end up in Enderby or something!

 

Also, I like to have time to get to the soar point and have a pint 🤣

Highcross car park is £2.50 odd after 6pm I think. 

[jim5000]

14 minutes ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

I have always questioned how successful it would be. 

 

People would expect broadcast quality - the Football League has a service which costs approx £15 a game but its very much one camera, limited replays set-up. People during lockdown got annoyed with its reliability and quality. 

 

How many subscribers do they need to make it financially work? My gut is probably not enough for a club of Leicester's size. The big six could do it because they'd be enough interest abroad and floaters. Sponsorship is within that too - needs a decent audience for advertisers to make their worth. 

 

The sport needs some medicine as as annoying frustrating as it is - what's happening at LCFC the moment is part of that. 

The matches are all broadcast anyway. They could just purchase the rights to stream the existing production via LCFC.com with a club appointed commentator.

It’s only blocked because of licensing and the law, no technical reason why it couldn’t be done.

[Jimbo]

3 minutes ago, Saxondale said:

This is where I’d like us to get to.

 

I got absolutely blasted on here a couple of years ago for suggesting that all games should be available on a pay-per-view basis for about five quid. I’d buy the away games.

 

As things stand currently, you need to spend something daft like £80 a month for Sky and BT, to still only be able to watch a small handful of Leicester games. Sod all that; it’s the massive TV deals that have knackered the football economy anyway.

Clubs would and definitely should not be in charge of streaming their own games, all that would do is create a huge divide on where the money goes.

 

Take us for example, imagine our revenue put up against United or Liverpool? 

 

I heard the other day that Man UTD v Liverpool is the most watched, single league game around the world.

 

Simon Jordan (for all his faults) actually has a better idea, and has been harping on about it for a while now.

 

The premier league is that huge around the world, why doesn't it set up it's own Netflix style subscription service? No need for Sky sports or BT subscriptions and charge £19.99 per month to watch live games, full replays, interviews, extended highlights etc etc etc

Pulling figures out of thin air here, but 100000000 subscriptions, yearly would give just short of 2 billion a year to the premier league. 

The NFL in America already has something similar and there are certain criteria to meet as to whether a game is shown or not (I'm sure if there are less than around 90% of tickets sold for a game then there's a blackout of the coverage to still encourage fans to go)

 

When you take away subscriptions that many people have in this country, then £19.99 isn't the greatest amount to pay and it takes away foreign tv companies bidding for rights. I'm sure 2 billion per year works out better than the revenue they already get 

 

[taupe]

I've watched games on LCFC TV (I suspect we all have!) and whilst there's some distance to go (particularly on commentary!) I wouldn't say it's a million miles away on quality. Basic praps but sufficient. Scaling that up though is another matter. 

[RowlattsFox]

It will be interesting to see if away followings drop this year across the country. Surely its a cost many people can't justify. Either that or people will just get into debt because they can't give it up. 

[UniFox21]

41 minutes ago, Lako42 said:

I kind of hope that they do. 

 

Football needs a massive reality check and I hope people do the right thing and actually cut it out before more essential things.

 

This also goes for people cancelling their Sky contracts. 

 

 

Agreed. These last few years have really felt like a turning point from fan to customer. 

 

The charging for individual games during lockdown, food and drink prices rocketing etc really doesn't leave a good taste. 

Especially with a reluctance to lower or cap ticket prices. 

Edited 12 August 2022 by UniFox21

[Fox92]

7 minutes ago, RowlattsFox said:

It will be interesting to see if away followings drop this year across the country. Surely its a cost many people can't justify. Either that or people will just get into debt because they can't give it up. 

Cant see it happening myself. Fan bases are just too big so the demand is always there.

[Out Foxed]

well, wtf are we going to do about it. capitulate as usual or actually hold someone accountable?

[CosbehFox]

10 minutes ago, jim5000 said:

The matches are all broadcast anyway. They could just purchase the rights to stream the existing production via LCFC.com with a club appointed commentator.

It’s only blocked because of licensing and the law, no technical reason why it couldn’t be done.

Valid point but the broadcasters would expect a decent sum of money for it because you are taking their exclusivity.

 

I just doubt the actual demand is there for a club of LCFC's size to make that affordable.  

[UniFox21]

2 minutes ago, Out Foxed said:

well, wtf are we going to do about it. capitulate as usual or actually hold someone accountable?

Would be something fairly simple to coordinate in theory. Every team in the top flight has a supporters group/prominent group of fans.

 

We utilise those groups to find out where fans stand and what we want to achieve (twenty's plenty for instance). Just like the Prem captains did the other year. 

[CosbehFox]

16 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

The premier league is that huge around the world, why doesn't it set up it's own Netflix style subscription service? No need for Sky sports or BT subscriptions and charge £19.99 per month to watch live games, full replays, interviews, extended highlights etc etc etc

Pulling figures out of thin air here, but 100000000 subscriptions, yearly would give just short of 2 billion a year to the premier league. 

The NFL in America already has something similar and there are certain criteria to meet as to whether a game is shown or not (I'm sure if there are less than around 90% of tickets sold for a game then there's a blackout of the coverage to still encourage fans to go)

 

When you take away subscriptions that many people have in this country, then £19.99 isn't the greatest amount to pay and it takes away foreign tv companies bidding for rights. I'm sure 2 billion per year works out better than the revenue they already get 

 

They get in region of £3 Billion a year in combined TV rights currently. Roughly split half and half btw domestic/international. 

 

I think it's underestimated how much actually costs to put all that in place alongside the internet infrastructure, so your 2 billion is reduced somewhat. The gamepass in NFL is reliant on the American broadcasters providing the feeds and therefore it works but US is slightly different how its broadcasters work. 

 

The average PL game gets an audience of about 450k watching on TV. 

[Guest itude]

1 hour ago, kingcarr21 said:

It really doesn't have to be that expensive. All comes down to what's more important, watching the football or going on the piss.

 

Do your research on parking and it really doesn't have to break the bank to go to away games. If there's a group of you just swap driver for the next away game and split the fuel cost.

Doesn't any more, comes down to being able to pay your energy bills and the cost of the petrol and so on. You seen how much gas and leccie will be going up to ??? crazy stuff

[Leicester_Loyal]

Got to remember last season we were playing on mostly Sundays and had European football expenses as well, and we still sold out most games.

 

This season they're on Saturdays so you'd expect demand to be massive and the tickets to sell out fast, but they're not, they're still making it to all STHs or members. It'll hit harder in the 2nd part of the season, once winter comes, utility bills go up anyway, but with this massive rise coming then it'll hit people twice as hard. Add in mortgages/rent going up, food going up, travel going up, it's looking pretty grim, but people will make choices about where to prioritise thier money, that'll either be on football or other social events, time will tell which one.

 

The price of beers and food at the ground is madness now as well, I can't believe people will queue for 15 mins to pay those prices.

[HankMarvin]

1 hour ago, Saxondale said:

This is where I’d like us to get to.

 

I got absolutely blasted on here a couple of years ago for suggesting that all games should be available on a pay-per-view basis for about five quid. I’d buy the away games.

 

As things stand currently, you need to spend something daft like £80 a month for Sky and BT, to still only be able to watch a small handful of Leicester games. Sod all that; it’s the massive TV deals that have knackered the football economy anyway.

Or watch them all for free without Sky or BT anyway and any game live for that matter.

[Voll Blau]

1 hour ago, Winchesterfox said:

A good thread this.  I'm really starting to notice the cost of fuel, although for me it's home games.

 

Lift sharing could be part of the solution for supporters who don't have mates going, through Foxestalk or sites like liftshare.com.  

 

 

 

This is something I've suggested to the club that they should promote themselves on numerous occasions. Seems madness to me how many drive in ones or twos to games, home and away.

[Sol thewall Bamba]

1 hour ago, UniFox21 said:

Would be something fairly simple to coordinate in theory. Every team in the top flight has a supporters group/prominent group of fans.

 

We utilise those groups to find out where fans stand and what we want to achieve (twenty's plenty for instance). Just like the Prem captains did the other year. 

Won't be long until the Foxestalk economists jump all over this shouting "supply and demand" whilst we're not selling games out.

[Saxondale]

1 hour ago, Jimbo said:

The premier league is that huge around the world, why doesn't it set up it's own Netflix style subscription service? No need for Sky sports or BT subscriptions and charge £19.99 per month to watch live games, full replays, interviews, extended highlights etc etc etc

 

To be fair, yes, something like this is more realistic than the clubs doing it themselves. 

 

I’m most concerned with removing the ridiculous situation we have in this country where many games are simply not televised for a UK audience, and we’re at the whim of Sky, BT etc. and which games they choose to show.

 

These broadcasters simply need to be taken out of the equation. I believe the actual TV production is done by a third party and syndicated anyway?

[CosbehFox]

23 minutes ago, Saxondale said:

To be fair, yes, something like this is more realistic than the clubs doing it themselves. 

 

I’m most concerned with removing the ridiculous situation we have in this country where many games are simply not televised for a UK audience, and we’re at the whim of Sky, BT etc. and which games they choose to show.

 

These broadcasters simply need to be taken out of the equation. I believe the actual TV production is done by a third party and syndicated anyway?

What's your thoughts on the clubs that the UK blackout protects? 

[UniFox21]

1 minute ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

What's your thoughts on the clubs that the UK blackout protects? 

Does it truly protect clubs anymore? If anyone wants to watch a game online it's easy enough to find.