Reasons to hate football #132

Glen Johnson is on £120k per week. And it costs how much for a matchday ticket? And it costs how much for Sky Sports? And it costs how much for a replica shirt?

You wonder whether this is ever going to stop. We keep getting told we're going through a recession and yet footballers' wages just keep getting higher and higher, with the costs to the supporters simultaneously going through the roof. What has to happen before the donkey's back is finally broken? I'm pretty sure that Johnson and all his peers could live quite comfortably on £2k or £3k per week, particularly as they have a lot of time on their hands to study for their next career after football. They're in the entertainment industry, so I don't begrudge them making more than the man on the street, but £120k per week for a mediocre full back is plain ridiculous.

As the bottom has pretty much fallen out of the music recording industry (hence you have to take out a second mortgage to go to concerts these days) have we got to a stage where pop stars dream of being footballers?

 

It will only stop mate when people stop going..and subscribing to Sky. Like owt else, stop feeding it, and it die's

 

Therein lies the problem. I subscribe to Sky Sports for the boxing and thanks to football it costs me a fortune. Then again, if Hearn carries on with the stunt of putting fights like this weekend's on pay per view I'll be binning it and looking for dodgy internet channels to watch the fights anyway.

 

Does now tv have sports? That way you don't have to pay subscription

 

it's 17 quid in't it ?..Sky earn 3 times then, subscription, pay per view and adverts.

People want change, but without changing....Never happen sorry. you must be the change you want to see..

 

Thing is, if you really like your sport, a couple of quid a day for your subscription is reasonable value to a lot of people.

my main reason for subscribing is test match cricket, so not a lot of choice really.

 

People have to stop subscribing to Sky but as others have said the way they package the Sports channel makes it impossible to have cricket but not football for example. I stopped with Sky years ago but its no good just a few calling it a day.

 

I understand your point re the boxing, subscription and then PPV on top, but £17 for a top card of fights is great value.

 

I've been holding firm, hoping it would fall through due to poor sales and be moved to a regular channel like they tried to do with Khan's fight with McCloskey, but there's no sign of that. I'm definitely not paying an extra £17 though...right up to the point that I do! It would be worth £17 just to see Bellew knocked out. He's the archetypal gobby playground bully and I'd love to see him get made a fool after all the mouthing off he's been doing for the past few years. Not that I'm particularly a fan of Cleverley either.

 

I'am not totally slagging it off mate. It does provide some excellent sports coverage. Golf and Cricket to name but two. I have had Sky but not for over 5 years now. And personally I would never, and have never used Pay per view. The OP was making his feelings known of his disgust of footballers wages. Which are fed by the supporters...directly or none directly.

 

Agree but, as others have said, while ever there are people who are prepared to pay, the problems will get worse with no end in sight.

If you were selling beer at £10 a pint and your pub was packed, why would you reduce the price? You may be ripping people off but if they are daft enough to keep piling in to your pub, good luck to you.

The problem with the above analogy is that there are other pubs to choose from. There's only one Premier League and only one Sky. That's the crux of the problem.

 

Im by no means defending the stupid amounts that some of the useless *******o's get, but id rather they get the money than it going directly into some dodgy foreign "Business mans" pockets...

I think its a bit naive to think that if Rooney and co. "only" earn say, £10k a week, that ticket prices and tv subs would be loads cheaper....I think that they would still be as expensive as they are today.

At least the people who actually do the entertaining(well, most of em anyway) get the lions share of the coin, just like in say Pro Wrestlng, and to some extent the Movie business...

 

Yeh, you can't argue with the quality of the coverage certainly, it is superb. And it has to be funded somehow. Of course we would all like a lot less to go in the pockets of players and agents but it seems unlikely to happen.

i remember watching test cricket on the bbc and they'd **** off to the 3.40 at Haydock Park when Botham was about to get his 100!

 

I cancelled my Sky sports about 6 months ago. Was pissed off with them sending me letters apologising for having to raise the monthly subs...... again.
I now watch all my footy, and cricket when it's on, via Wiziwig or Vipbox.
It occasionally buffers and the picture is quite fuzzy BUT I keep telling myself "it's free and Sky can get stuffed", so I put up with it.
I get all the Sky footy, and BT sports footy so it's all a bonus !
Make sure you have AdBlockPlus installed and it is so easy. Just click on the appropriate link and it's pretty much instant.

 

I use Wiziwig sometimes as well, particularly for England cricket matches. I find it a bit hit and miss, in that you go down the list one by one, and they either work or don't. When I find one that does though it is brilliant. I've got high speed broadband and a good PC so the quality is fine.

One question though Mr Badger - about this AdBlockPlus? Does that knock out those adverts that appear in the middle of the screen on some of the broadcasts? Is it a simple download and install that works every time?

 

Yes, it's really quite wonderful !
Without ABP there are all those infuriating ads with very tiny x's to cancel them, which doesn't seem to work as they open up anyway.
ABP takes care of them all.
Once you install ABP it knocks off all the ads instantly. You may be left with a couple of x's in the middle of the screen but you can get rid of them without trouble.
ABP puts an icon in the top right hand corner of your pc screen, a red octagon with ABP in it, and as the adverts are knocked off it shows how many it has got rid of. Typically mine gets rid of over 20 ads...... and I don't have to do a thing !
Use the ADBLOCKPLUS.ORG one, I find it does the job perfectly. It's a very quick download. And it stays on your pc all the time so no need to reload.
It gets rid of the annoying ads on other websites as well.
Let us know how you go on.

 

While you were writing your reply I tried it out on Wiziwig. You're right, it does work! Sometimes I've gone through many attempts to get into sports broadcasts before finally closing the central ad box. Hopefully this makes things better. Presume there is no security risk with this though? I hope it isn't a trojan that is going to mess about with my system

 

Cricfree. All sports channels, never seems to be off

 

I can't answer that for certain of course.... I haven't had any problems whilst I've been using it so I'll keep on using it.
The one thing it ensures is that you don't accidentally open sites that then load **** on to your pc if you click an x yourself.
It just chucks them away by itself.
There is a Google adblock programme... type it into your browser. whether this one is better than the one I use well I don't know. You may feel it is a safer bet. But like I say, I've had no probs with ABP.