Morning everyone.
Let’s start today with the rumour, which I have heard from multiple sources and which seems likely to become fact later today, that our game against Burnley will be moved to the Monday Night Football slot on Sky Sports. Currently, with the FA Cup final on the Saturday, all the Premier League games are scheduled for Sunday, but the broadcast times have yet to be decided. It now seems as we’re going to be in that Monday night slot, with Sky making the decision to move our game.
First, whatever happens with what remains of this season, Monday night is a crap time for the final home game of the season. I know people can take or leave the ‘lap of appreciation’ and all that, but it is a moment for the supporters and players which will clearly be impacted by this kick-off time. Even in normal circumstances the fact it’s a work/school night means people won’t be able to stick around, they have trains to catch, many will have significant distance to travel even if they’re relatively ‘local’. Let’s not forget the visiting fans too, who have a long distance to get home afterwards – it’ll be a very late night/early morning for them.
Then there are those who will have already booked travel from much further afield. Already, I’ve spoken to people who will be stymied by this change. One man bringing his son to his first game simply can’t change travel plans to include Monday (school and work etc); there are countless people I’ve heard from who have booked to be in London for the weekend with flights, long-distance and otherwise, returning on Monday. Changing flights is an inconvenience and an extra expense at best, but impossible at worst.
And I know, until such time as a game is 100% definitively scheduled you put yourself at risk of being f*cked by the broadcasters, but at a time when everything is so expensive – not least flights and accommodation – you can understand why people book in advance. For many it will be the only way they can afford to make a trip like this, because the closer you get to the time, the higher the prices. And that applies to people who will be taking flights from afar, or even trains to go back home to whatever part of the UK they live in.
Of course this is just the latest example of how the broadcasters simply do not care about the fans who go to games. It’s not unique to Arsenal by any means, fans of every club can give you examples of how Sky or TNT have made their lives more difficult and certainly more expensive by the decisions they make, and in particular the timing of those decisions. Clubs are happy to take the money, and that makes them complicit in the treatment of their own supporters. Regardless of how people are inconvenienced, regardless of any measure of solidarity between fans and their representative groups, Sky etc just shrug it off and do what they like.
I think we all know when they do stuff like that TV show where they get a load of fans to answer questions for Jamie Carragher and Paul Scholes, it’s not that they really care about what those people think. They might dress it up like that, but in the end it’s about generating #content for their channels and various social platforms, and it’s good for them if that floppy haired Chelsea wanker has a beef with some other lad so the clips can go viral. Lowest common denominator stuff, like that Man City idiot with the bottle they gave so much air-time to the other week. For me that’s another way in which they demonstrate their contempt for football fans, because they hold up some dickhead with his dickhead behaviour as representative of the majority, when in fact they’re just using a simpleton to bait people.
There’s also a more pernicious element too, as we saw with Gary Neville’s company buying the YouTube channels of Mark Goldbridge (United Stand). They want the digital real estate, of course, but – whether you think Goldbridge is genuine or not with his fake name and all the rest – let’s not be blind to the fact that it’s a way of consolidating fan spaces under a Sky adjacent umbrella. And then there’ll be things you can’t say anymore, issues quietly but conspicuously ignored by him and the others they’ll inevitably bring in, and messaging being controlled on some of the biggest ‘fan’ platforms.
I think they’ve recognised that as a ‘traditional’ broadcaster, the shifting sands of the media landscape mean they have to diversify. If the next inevitable step in how we view football is linked more and more with streaming rather than satellite dishes/cable, how do they remain part of that? Acquisitions ahoy, mark my words.
Just finally on this, I can’t imagine this is something Mikel Arteta will be particularly keen on either. As someone who has consistently referenced the impact of fans, I think a nice sunny Sunday in May would be far preferable than a Monday night in terms of atmosphere for what could be a pivotal game. It will impact both the build-up and what happens after the final whistle. I guess it will be another challenge for him and his team, but one I’m certain he’ll be unhappy about.
Anyway, I think we’ll get official confirmation at some point today, although clarity won’t be useful at all for many who will be impacted by this change. I feel really bad for those who now won’t be able to go, or who will be out of pocket.
But Sky don’t.
