[BFC SITE] Sky Sports Selections made until February 2025

I hate 12:30 kickoffs, the last one I went to was in the Championship 2 years ago (Luton I think) and the ground was emptying as I cycled up Pontifract Road towards Oakwell

 

Out of interest do you have any idea roughly how many people cycle to Oakwell?

 

I look forward to Saturday fixtures kicking off at 3pm when I meet up with my two mates in an alehouse for a couple of pints before walking up to Oakwell. 12:30 kick offs rule out pre-match pints and depending on the performance we might not fancy drowning our sorrows after the match.

 

Have we really only had two 3pm home kickoffs so far?

That's bobbins if so

 

Sadly have to agree, I don't know what the general consensus is within other League One clubs but imagine it's similar, was or has anything been discussed with the club and the supporters trust or the last fans forum?
I know the club are at the mercy of Sky but with hindsight now I bet they all wished they'd rejected the increase in games, equally I'm not sure if the club are aware of the impact its having already on supporters feelings/desire to buy next years season tickets already at this stage.

 

I think it's been engineered by Sky so that the EFL will agree to the screening of 3pm kick offs. This would then mean everything can revert to 3pm kick offs on Saturdays with the exception of the occasional Championship fixture.

 

Like most of the people I've talked to about this, I've found the roulette wheel of kick off times this season to be an absolute pain. I went on holiday and missed the Bristol Rovers game, so I've seen just one 3pm Saturday KO so far. Whilst I've been lucky enough to attend the other home games due to living close enough, all of them have been an inconvenience of some sort or another.

These 12:30's in Feb present another problem for me, because my daughter plays football and the local league rules dictate her games take kick off between 10-12 on a Saturday morning. At best a 10am KO means we might just get to Oakwell on time for KO, but any later means missing the game. We're already seeing teams turn up light on players because some of them are choosing to go to the game (Sheff and Rovrum teams affected just the same as ours). Of course people affected by this are a minority and there are loads of other reasons why a 12:30 KO on Saturday is less than ideal, but for a game that claims to want to promote the future of the women's and girls game, it's another factor they've really not thought through (or given a f*** about).

The weird thing is, with around 20 years holding a ST and on these various forums, I've witnessed all manner of folk with their reasons not to renew season tickets or not to go to games. The team's *****, the manager's *****, the board's *****, the game's *****, the ground's *****, they've 'fallen out of love,' there's no loyalty any more, the refs are *****, there's no attachment to players - and so on. And fair enough, there have been loads of reasons to feel that way. But me, I've always been pretty steadfast in thinking I'm lucky enough to be able to afford a ticket, I love spending time with my dad and my daughter, and I want to be there to support the team through thick and (mainly) thin.

It never occurred to me for a second that they could actually come up with a way that would genuinely test my resolve to buy a season ticket, if none of those other reasons would do it. But here we are.

 

I can’t believe this extra sky money is going to compensate clubs for reduction in season ticket sales in year 2, which is inevitable

compounded also by these ridiculous international breaks at the start of the season