der Berliner 3,747 Posted March 15, 2020 Share Posted March 15, 2020 14 hours ago, RANGERRAB said: SPFL rules clearly states clubs SHALL play 38 games Roughly one QUARTER of the season has still to be played. The SPFL would do well to keep to the suspension for some time to come, so the expected calls from the dark side peter out and sanity comes in. Regarding the small clubs ... Union Berlin yesterday screened a video of the promotion winning game and the content of the 2018/2019 DVD on their site, with supporters being asked to buy "virtual" beer and bratwurst, thus easing some of the financial shortfalls. Without any other return than watching the video. https://www.union-zeughaus.de/union-berlin/shop/580d2028-3392-45d6-a918-72ca41dcbf63/Virtuelles_Catering.html 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott7 6,013 Posted March 15, 2020 Share Posted March 15, 2020 Broadcasters would be foolish to attempt to recover their money but if they did, they would only be entitled to a proportion of the fee for the number of matches they could not show. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnMc 2,754 Posted March 15, 2020 Share Posted March 15, 2020 1 hour ago, Gaffer said: When this season is formally cancelled I wonder how many clubs will collapse. Perhaps this will be the final nail in the coffin for those who rely on our supporters to keep them afloat. Maybe this will finally be the end of a lot of those horrid clubs that wanted to cut off their nose to spit even their face when they voted to send us down. I don't want any of them saved, unless their own supporters bail them out themselves. What is much more worrying however is the thousands of businesses that will collapse if this panic continues. It could end up with us facing a much bigger economic and social problem. The media has a lot to answer for here, and of course it may then contribute to their collapse too. I also wonder what is happening with the legal teams at the likes of BTsport, Sky, etc. They've paid for a product that hasn't been delivered so will they attempt to recoup the money they've paid to the various leagues? It wouldn't take much of a swing to cause collapse of some huge clubs in England, Spain, Italy, France and Germany. Maybe the lack of television based funding could be a blessing in disguise for our league. BT Sport and Sky (and their continental equivalents) will want to stay 'onside' with the bigger leagues and clubs and aim to help them as much as they can, expecting something back in return in the future, but they'll have some serious scheduling issues. With no football (or rugby, cricket etc) their channels will be forced to show reruns and while that will draw an audience it will be less than normal. I suspect subscription numbers will remain steady at first, particularly if thousands of people are forced to stay at home for long periods, however advertising revenue will fall without a doubt. That will be compounded by advertisers reviewing when they advertise. Food stuffs and weekly household staples are doing very well just now, but new cars, holidays and gambling, the staples of sport's advertising are in rapid meltdown so expect them to pull budgets and reduce costs in the coming weeks. As such the TV stations can't give money to clubs they simply don't have. The other big unknown for the subscription TV channels is a short term economic hit to the general public. A company I know well just put all of its staff on a compulsory 4 day week, in real terms everyone is taking a 20% pay cut. That forces people to review domestic spending and so things like Sky TV subscription get chopped, particularly if there's no sport to watch anyway. I suspect we'll start to see lots of this in the coming weeks. While it feels callous to speak about the economic impact of coronavirus when people are dying, the reality is a 2 or 3 month virtual shutdown will have a catastrophic impact on many businesses. That will affect all of us, directly or indirectly. In my opinion, Scottish football is in for a very challenging few months. Most clubs, with the arguable exception of Rangers and Celtic, rely on gate money to survive. Rangers and Celtic have a far higher percentage of season ticket holders who have already paid, so they have the bulk of their cash already, although if people start to demand it back, and that might happen if you lose your job, then they'll be just as affected. So for your standard SPFL club like St Johnstone or Kilmarnock, the loss of fortnightly gate receipts, programme sales, catering and hospitality will mean their only source of income is TV money and merchandise. So if the TV companies can't or won't pay, those clubs are in serious difficulties. It's not unrealistic to predict they'll be forced to release players because they simply can't pay them, backroom staff, groundstaff and so on might be forced to leave or work for no salary. We could see good sized, otherwise well run, Scottish SPFL sides forced to play youths when the league starts again. Or, footballers, like everyone else, might accept we're living in exceptional times, and take a short term hit, in the hope of picking up where they left off in a few months time. I'm becoming less bothered about this season now. If the decision is taken to end the season now and award Celtic the title and relegate Hearts then so be it. We've only ourselves to blame for being 13 points behind them after all. I still think the season should simply be scrapped, no one is promoted or relegated, no one is Champions, use the current places to award European places (if that resumes in time) and whatever prize money is being awarded. I'd be open to having a 2019/20/21 season, simply keep playing come September or whenever it all starts again (I can't see things returning to normal before then, but what do I know about anything) and have a 60 game season finishing in April 2021. I mean in the end it doesn't really matter, what we want are meaningful matches to return, so if it's one long but truncated season, or one shorter season I'm relaxed, just bring it back as soon as possible. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill 13,717 Posted March 15, 2020 Share Posted March 15, 2020 How many people will be prepared to renew season tickets this year? Most will want to, some won't be able to, many will have other priorities. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Briton 314 Posted March 15, 2020 Share Posted March 15, 2020 11 minutes ago, JohnMc said: BT Sport and Sky (and their continental equivalents) will want to stay 'onside' with the bigger leagues and clubs and aim to help them as much as they can, expecting something back in return in the future, but they'll have some serious scheduling issues. With no football (or rugby, cricket etc) their channels will be forced to show reruns and while that will draw an audience it will be less than normal. I suspect subscription numbers will remain steady... Coincidentally I have been thinking about dropping my TV subscription and subscribing to an IPTV service. Will probably continue with the former but the latter is pretty pointless now. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian1964 10,724 Posted March 15, 2020 Share Posted March 15, 2020 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaffer 1,665 Posted March 15, 2020 Share Posted March 15, 2020 Most football clubs are in the proverbial house of cards at the moment. It doesn't matter how 'rich' the league appears to be, the margins between sustainability and collapse are tiny. I just reread both the Deloitte and KPMG reports on the financials at the English Premier League. It suggests that a small downturn in TV revenues (my rough calculations show less than 10%) could spell disaster for at least 14 of the 20 clubs. This is quite possible so unless the TV companies prop up that league in particular (as @JohnMc suggests), some major football clubs could potentially collapse. Of course football clubs are relatively unimportant in comparison with the wider social and economic challenges we will face, but it all has a knock on effect. I can't remember who said it (possibly @Bill) but I too suspect that there will be very little transfer activity in the summer. I can't see how clubs can afford to take the risk. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
compo 7,050 Posted March 15, 2020 Share Posted March 15, 2020 3 hours ago, Bill said: How many people will be prepared to renew season tickets this year? Most will want to, some won't be able to, many will have other priorities. If the season is over and we get back to normal come August which is questionable I wonder if we will get a discount on the new tickets , I wont hold my breath 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian1964 10,724 Posted March 15, 2020 Share Posted March 15, 2020 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ranger_syntax 4,330 Posted March 15, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted March 15, 2020 3 hours ago, compo said: If the season is over and we get back to normal come August which is questionable I wonder if we will get a discount on the new tickets , I wont hold my breath I don't want a discount. 5 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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