The Voice - Match preview Crawley Town vs Bradford City Friday 7th April @ 3:00pm

You honestly believe the game being live on TV has zero effect on the attendance?

You don't think anyone chooses, especially in this climate, to save the extra money and stay at home to watch instead?

Fair enough if you do. It's a very strange outlook but you're welcome to your view, however wrong it might be.

 

You're being extremely disingenuous if you think that

 

If you're concerned about trousering the extra money, then you'd surely attend a home game over paying a second time to watch at home? Depending on where you're travelling from, you can easily attend a pre-paid game of football for less than a tenner. So season tickets aren't likely to be swayed for financial reasons in most cases, at least it doesn't make sense for them to be influenced.

As for away games, the decision to attend is usually made at least a couple of weeks in advance. The decision to attend an away game is unlikely to hinge on being able to watch at home on TV. If you can't afford to go, you've already decided not to go. If you don't want to travel, again, you'll have already decided not to go.

Will there be some people in the 'swing' bracket, unsure of whether to go? Yeah, but I can't see iFollow playing a significant part in the decision-making for either home or away games in most cases (and I do stress most, as I concede your point there will be some).

This argument sort of reminds me of the "if they stick with Hughes next season, we'll lose thousands of supporters"-type arguments.

It never actually happens, but it could, in theory.

It would be a more valid argument, IMO, if the games were free to watch on SKY (ie, in a pub). That would be far more attractive than watching at home.

 

Totally with you there J. I miss the game day atmosphere big style, but still get the great sense of anticipation even though I’m mostly watching on the Silver Screen.
Saturday after Cookie scored… “ Time waste now ….you bar stewards”

 

That was me too, I know things can't always be as good as we'd like sometimes but I sincerely hope that we never sink as low as some of these type of teams do, it's criminal sometimes ...

 

No idea what your point is. You'll have to elaborate.

 

I think you're confused.

Somehow you've limited the whole discussion to Bradford City fans and only those that own a season ticket.

 

It was over 2 minutes between each of Grimsby’s goals and the restart, one of which was only an equaliser and neither in front of their own fans so we know what they were doing. The ref stood there and gave a timid point to the half way line to get on with it, pathetic. When that happens it’s time the ref either booked the captain who I believe scored their first so that’s easy enough or tell the other team to kick off, there is no reason for there to be more than 60 seconds between a goal and restart, no other sport do players over celebrate like in football.

As fans we pay to watch a game, not 40 minutes every week of slow throws, set pieces, rolling on the floor, slow substitutions and goal celebrations.

 

Same with free kicks, why does the ref need to Check where every player is on the pitch before he blows his whistle to allow the kick to be taken ..? gerronwithit .......

 

That's because the majority of fans in the stadium are season ticket holders.

Would someone who doesn't want a season ticket, but can readily go to games, really pay a tenner to watch on telly?

If they do, they probably weren't going to go in the first place.

I'm sure there's a relevant demographic that are heavily influenced by iFollow, but I'm not sure they're that big of a group?

 

Honestly, I'm not sure many people do.

The benefits of iFollow definitely outweigh the negatives imho

 

Again, I'm not sure you're fully reading my posts before replying.

 

Goal celebration are getting ott, by all means enjoy the moment and celebrate with your team mates as you say but don't let it drift on and on.
As has been suggested should we go with an independent timekeeper to stop the clock and restart when the referee blows for the game to stop and restart.

 

Ifollow or the game being shown live on TV will make very little difference to crowd sizes, certainly not enough to be of any significance to be worrying. All it does is make the game open to a new audience for varying reasons, usually folk who would watch live if they could but circumstances dictate that they can't.

 

Exactly. I would normally be buying a ticket for Crawley away on a bank holiday - it makes a change from it being a Tuesday night. However we have a long standing commitment to have our grandson for the day and overnight whilst his parents have a fairly rare overnight away. Ifollow will be on.
I can't make the new Crewe date due to a prior arrangement, but am going to Rochdale. Would like to go to Northampton but suspect I won't have enough loyalty points.

 

I had this discussion with my brother on Saturday and it's cropped up before. He suggested that once a goal goes in there should be a set time, say 45-60 seconds and providing the team who conceded are all set up and ready to go they should be able to take the kick off, regardless of how many opposition are still celebrating in the corner.

Problem is, as with any change in the laws, all that would happen is a couple of the opposition would hang around on the centre spot or in the centre circle and prevent the other team taking the quick kick off.

 

Just book them, that annoys me about free kicks as well someone stands there and the ref doesn’t bother to do anything. They need to be stricter imo with poor sportsmanship.

 

Completely agree. It annoys me even more when they smash the ball away and the referee decides to warn them and have a chat about it, especially early in the game.

The laws are clear and if the referees were stronger, earlier in the game I think time wasting would be a lot more difficult for teams.

Look at Grimsby, time wasting from the moment they got the equaliser yet the only one booked for time wasting was a City player, late on. I've absolutely no idea why referees only punish time wasting late in games but it seems a very common theme.