Reply from Radio Sheffield.

I suggested they could have commentated on the Newcastle away match without the permission of Barnsley Fc - this is the reply I have just received..</p>

</p><div dir="ltr"><font face="Arial" color="#000000" size="2"><u>I'm afraid not, under Football League rules we need an agreement in place with one of the Clubs. </u></font></div><div dir="ltr"><font face="Arial" size="2"></font></div><div dir="ltr"><font face="Arial" size="2"><u>For example we have an agreement in place with all of the South Yorkshire clubs and Chesterfield. Football League rules mean we can cover these games either at the home club or at Oakwell, so we will be doing the Sheffield Utd and Sheffield Weds v BArnsley games both home and away and if the club was to draw another South Yorkshire club in any cup competitionwe can do these.</u></font></div><div dir="ltr"><font face="Arial" size="2"><div dir="ltr"><font face="Arial" size="2">Believe me if we could have covered the Newcastle game we would and the Club know this.</font></div><div dir="ltr"><font face="Arial" size="2"><div dir="ltr"><font face="Arial" size="2">Gary Keown</font></div></font></div></font></div>

 

Say they couldnt commentate on the Newcastle match..

?

 

What do they mean by "an agreement"?

The commentary fees are already set.

The stumbling block appears to be the "access" fees - which it seems they can't agree on.

Do radio stations in other areas pay these fees?
Are they paying other clubs in our region a fee?
Do they pay ALL the clubs a fee (including Donny; Chesterfield & Rotherham)?
Is the fee we were offered "in line" with the number of commentary games we anticipate getting (it ought to be on a pro-rata basis)?
Does the fee relate to interviews after the game or does it include interview during the week?

It just seems like on big smoke screen - and I don't just blame Radio Sheffield for this...

Stephen

 

Commentary fee's are set when paid match by match but I believe radio sheffield has an agreement with the clubs whereby they pay a set amount per season to commentate on as many or as little games as they wish. It appears that it is this money where barnsley were wanting more than radio sheffield were willing to offer and so radio sheffield offered to cover less games in order to make the amount per game higher but barnsley were still having none of it.

Barnsley also appear to have claimed that radio sheffield have not offered enough money for access to players etc and radio sheffield have in turn said that they never offer money to any club for access to players and neither does anyone else.

At least that's how i understand it.