Summer Football

[Toxteth O'Grady]

From yesterday's Herald

 

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/football/state-of-scottish-football-part-iii.119928972?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Scottish+Sports+News

 

 

State of Scottish Football: Part III

Gary Keown

 

Wednesday 4 March 2015ALAN BURROWS is the general manager of Motherwell.

 

Summer football is the only way to improve the image of the SPFL in the eyes of broadcasters, believes Alan Burrows. Picture: SNSHaving served seven years as the club's media and marketing officer, he is now operating at the head of a business that is struggling to pull supporters through the door despite having been through one of the most successful spells in its history.

 

As part of Herald Sport's series on the state of Scottish football, he has provided an insider's view on trading in the present environment and detailed his belief that summer football can prove our salvation by earning a better TV deal and making the product more attractive to supporters.

 

He also suggests that the game must be open to participating in revolutionary new ways of broadcasting football and forget about even attempting to rival bigger and more heavily-financed leagues.

 

Motherwell's place on the influential European Club Association does not offer him any evidence that an escape route to England is going to open up for our leading clubs any time soon. The regeneration of the Scottish game, in his eyes, must come from within.

 

IS SCOTTISH FOOTBALL DOING ENOUGH TO OPEN ITSELF UP TO NEW IDEAS AND ATTRACT FRESH INVESTMENT AND INTEREST?

 

As a result of what happened with Rangers and the downturn it brought, clubs got themselves into the trenches in terms of their mentality. They were just thinking about how to stay afloat rather than attract new people.

 

I admit that it had started to exist at Motherwell before our new owner, Les Hutchinson, came in to lift the burden. As a whole, though, we do not promote and market the game enough.

 

Sometimes, it even comes down to the Scottish psyche. We don't beat the drum about ourselves as much as we maybe should.

 

MOTHERWELL HAVE PUSHED HARD TO BRING IN NEW FANS, THOUGH. IT SIMPLY HASN'T WORKED. IS THERE ANY WAY TO MAKE SCOTTISH FOOTBALL A MORE MARKETABLE PROPOSITION?

 

Last term, we finished second with a record points total and record victories and found ourselves over 1000 spectators down from the season when Maurice Malpas was the manager and we stayed up on the last day.

 

Motherwell is a great case study, actually. Since 2006-07, we have been in the Top Six every season bar one and have been in Europe for six of those seasons as well as reaching cup finals. This will go down as a golden era, but attendances have dropped.

 

I think it less to do with our individual club and more to do with the general malaise around the game.

 

Peter Lawwell of Celtic said at a recent meeting of the European Club Association that we are managing decline here. It is effectively what we have been doing for six or seven years, but I still believe Scottish football can be saved.

 

It just needs a gamechanger. It needs something really big to happen to alter attitudes and show it is not the same thing it was before. You can repackage things all you like and put new logos on them, but the public will not be fooled.

 

For me, summer football would be the biggest gamechanger of all. If we want to move it in a different direction, we should go to a summer calendar. It allows you to market the game as a totally different proposition.

 

For three or four months of the year, you are not competing with the Barclays Premier League. Television companies would have competitive football to fill their schedules from May to August.

 

We cannot maintain the stubborn, traditional approach that we must play through the winter. We need to adapt and change.

 

We know what the weather is like here. If it is blowing a gale and the temperature is minus two, people might not fancy paying £20 to sit outside for a couple of hours. There are so many other things they could now be doing.

 

Put it this way. If you were starting football as a new sport now, when would you play it? Naturally, it would be through the summer.

 

TELEVISION COMPANIES ARE UNDERSTOOD TO BE OPEN TO THE IDEA OF A SUMMER LEAGUE AND MIGHT ACTUALLY PAY MORE FOR IT. WOULD SUMMER FOOTBALL REALLY IMPROVE ATTENDANCES, THOUGH?

 

I think you could sell it to supporters as something new. You would certainly be able to enjoy the game in a different environment.

 

People can come in their short sleeves, we can make a day of it. When I started as chief executive, I spoke about building up the Fan Experience and giving people extra value for money.

 

We spoke about doing what St Mirren have started to do in terms of having a fan tent, games on, comedy, things for kids, beer. That is all great, but it is pointless when it is minus four outside and the wind is blowing the tent all over the place.

 

No-one can give me a valid reason why we can't have summer football.. The holidays people take throughout the year have changed. The Glasgow Fair, for example, has gone.

 

People bring up the international calendar for World Cups. Sadly, we are at a stage where we don't qualify for those while countries who do play through the summer do still get there.

 

Scottish teams should focus on making it to the Champions League and Europa League group stages. Doesn't it improve your chances if you are in mid-season when the qualifiers come up rather than working your way through pre-season?

 

CHARLES BARNETT OF BDO, A LEADING ACCOUNTANCY FIRM, STATED THAT SCOTTISH FOOTBALL'S £15M-A-YEAR TV DEAL IS MUCH LESS THAN IT SHOULD BE. DO WE HAVE TO STRIKE A HARDER BARGAIN WITH TV COMPANIES NO MATTER THE DATES DURING WHICH THE SEASON IS PLAYED?

 

Yes. We are not in a position to demand big bucks from broadcast partners, but I think there has to be more leverage from the centre and a real attempt to increase the value of the broadcast deal.

 

I think we have to look at how we entice these companies through the way we use our product. Our broadcast partners are already flush with high-quality football. They have Champions League, Barclays Premier League, Bundesliga, Primera Liga in Spain.

 

Sadly, we are never going to be able to compete in terms of quality of football, so how can we think outside the box and sell it on something else? Can it be sold on the increased access the companies get to the players?

 

Should it be based on working out ways to increase crowds so that the grounds look full and there is an atmosphere? Germany have tried to do that.

 

I think that is a better way to do it than going to broadcasters almost like some kind of charity case and saying: 'Come on, guys, we are worth more. Give us more.'

 

If I was an executive with Sky or BT, I would ask why. We should seek to avoid being offered 'take it or leave it' ultimatums. We should be doing everything we can to work with broadcast partners and make them feel that they really do get a different level of access and feel they are important when they come to cover a Scottish game.

 

We need to bring fans on board and do things differently in that regard as well. We should make the likes of Sky and BT feel they are stakeholders in the game rather than just a broadcast partner.

 

Look at the things that have worked well on Sky. Darts was on its backside as a sport, but the PDC competitions are now selling out crowds everywhere and getting good viewing figures. You have the Pro12 League in rugby. There are sports that have gone to broadcasts partners with an open book and said: 'What do you want? How do you want to do this?'

 

That is maybe something we should look at. Can we give them things that English Premier League clubs won't give them. I am just throwing ideas around, but that might be access to managers during games, increased tunnel cams, miking up people, maybe putting cameras on the referee.

 

You watch NFL and guys are miked-up, there are interviews being done in the locker-room. It is Access All Areas. You don't see that kind of thing from our sport often and maybe the broadcasters don't want it from football, but Scottish games are up against maybe Chelsea v Manchester United, Barcelona v Valencia and Bayern v Dortmund on any given day.

 

Our games are effectively the garnish on the main course. We must accept and acknowledge that, but we must maximise it and it involves being more organised in the access levels we give to all media. Perhaps being an 'Access All Areas' footballing product would make us unique if that is what the companies want.

 

Motherwell have played in UEFA competition in six of the last seven years. We are given a very chunky media document which tells us what we will do and when we will do it. UEFA have seen the benefit of creating the best platform for viewers and broadcasters and forcing up standards.

 

I believe, in Scotland, we need to have these issues of media access level put into statute. We need new rules.

 

CAN YOU SELL THE SCOTTISH GAME BASED ON THE PLAYERS AND PERSONALITIES INVOLVED?

 

Absolutely. The players are such a marketable asset. Kids love to see heroes such as Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo on TV, but I think we forget that children here are like that with our own players. I felt that way about Motherwell players when I was young. I didn't need Messi or Ronaldo.

 

SHOULD TV COMPANIES BE ALLOWED TO NAME THEIR KICK-OFF TIMES IF THEY PAY THE MONEY?

 

In the race for broadcast television money, it is easy to forget that fans are an intrinsic part of the game. They make it a great, live entertainment sport, but let us not overlook the fact they are an income stream. Our supporters bring in a huge amount of Motherwell's overall turnover, almost as high as broadcast, so it doesn't need to be one without the other.

 

Germany has games kicking off at different times, but they still pack out the grounds. It can be done.

 

It is all about compromise. Everyone has to feel like a stakeholder in the game. Everybody won't get what they want. Maybe we still will have to go to Aberdeen on a Friday night, but would supporters be more open to that if they knew we were getting more money pumped in that would allow us to buy better players and raise the standard of the league again?

 

We should not chase England and Germany, though. We are never going to be that. We won't get close to the money they bring in and part of that is because we are a small country. We need to find our own way.

 

MOTHERWELL ARE MEMBERS OF THE EUROPEAN CLUB ASSOCIATION ALONG WITH CELTIC AND ABERDEEN. IS TALK OF UEFA ALLOWING CROSS-BORDER LEAGUES A PIPE DREAM?

 

We discussed it at our last meeting in Glasgow. The mood I detected is that there is little interest.

 

Clubs from smaller leagues want to get into bigger leagues.

 

The question is: What is in that for the clubs in those bigger leagues? They have a great product anyway.

 

I cannot see UEFA sanctioning inter-divisional leagues in the foreseeable future. There may be a future for some inter-divisional cup competitions.

 

I would rather focus on what we can do, here and now, to improve our own game in Scotland, though. We need to make sure what we are doing at a national, domestic level is the best it can be.

 

HOW DO WE CLOSE THE GAP THAT EXISTS BETWEEN OURSELVES AND ENGLISH FOOTBALL?

 

There are three of four leagues around the world that are growing at a far more rapid rate than any other. It is a by-product of football becoming truly globalised and it means that leagues in Scotland, Scandinavia, Ireland and other countries are never going to be able to compete with that. It is an impossibility.

 

We just need to take ourselves away from that direct competition and ask how we can reposition ourselves within that global framework in the best possible way.

 

IS FAN OWNERSHIP PART OF MAKING THE GAME MORE VIBRANT AND MARKETABLE IN THE SHORT-TERM?

 

You don't need to be fan-owned to have all the right things in place.

 

Where we are, having set up the Well Society, we feel it is the best way forward for us, but it might not suit everyone. Fan participation and fan engagement, though, is something that all clubs would be advised to look at.

 

The premise of the German model is based on making the supporters feel they are a part of it and giving them a product they want to watch. We are never going to be Germany. We don't have the population, for a start, but we could look to adopt parts of what they do on a smaller scale.

 

The majority of their clubs are fan-owned and I am not saying we should go that far, but we need fans to feel part of their club whether that is through fans on the board or fan liaison groups. Clubs cannot continue to think that fans will dance to any tune they play. Supporters must be listened to.

 

[Goggles & Flippers]

Aww man, beat me to it, I saw the link in the BBC Gossip page and then thought I've got a scoop

 

Lot of interesting points, only issue I think is Scottish Football is too fractional with too many self interests and not enough decision makers looking at the bigger picture.

 

Pretty much everything I read in that article makes sense though. especially not competing with the English any longer, but offering an alternative. Summer Football is an easy fix.

[weeyin]

Summer football is an easy fix if you don't look at the leagues that tried it. They didn't increase attendances.

 

So, if that is the aim, there isn't anything to suggest it would work.

 

Pre-season would be fun too given it would be happening around now. If we struggle to find facilities to keep players ticking over Jan/Feb imagine how difficult it would be to get a full preseason in during the height of winter. Unless your team makes it into Europe, in which case you'd be playing in the winter too.

 

And June is pretty much the only summer month without games, so we wouldn't be adding much to the schedule. Especially World Cup and Euro years when you need to shut down for 4 or 5 weeks.

 

Winter break has always made more sense to me.

[Goggles & Flippers]

Summer football is an easy fix if you don't look at the leagues that tried it. They didn't increase attendances.

 

So, if that is the aim, there isn't anything to suggest it would work.

 

Pre-season would be fun too given it would be happening around now. If we struggle to find facilities to keep players ticking over Jan/Feb imagine how difficult it would be to get a full preseason in during the height of winter. Unless your team makes it into Europe, in which case you'd be playing in the winter too.

 

And June is pretty much the only summer month without games, so we wouldn't be adding much to the schedule. Especially World Cup and Euro years when you need to shut down for 4 or 5 weeks.

 

Winter break has always made more sense to me.

 

But if you read the article that would be an aim in the long term but initially it is designed to give the broadcasters something different, therefore increase revenues from TV and immediately make the experience much more pleasant for already attending fans.

 

Scottish football attendances are in decline anyway, not as if winter football is steaming that.

 

Aberdeen are away for some hot weather training this week, we went abroad before this season, I think its safe to say options wouldn't be as limited as you think and with grass pitches not being churned up during the height of winter means there would be alternatives on better conditioned surfaces than we no doubt have at present.

 

Let's not ignore the fact that the only team able to compete past early December has been Celtic. It would take a while for the rest of the SPFL to get to a stage where they can progress past groups stages. One thing is for certain, without a cash injection (that summer football offers) it's not a problem that will ever need to be tackled. A cash injection improves the quality of the product and then makes us more competitive.

 

If you can advise where if we have a winter break the extra revenues will come from, how our teams will improve in quality and buck the falling attendances, I'm willing to listen.

 

However, best case scenario, Celtic get through the CL and 1/2 teams make it into the Europa league of which one makes it past early December, there's plenty of competition in Scandinavia who would be going through their own pre-season and relish semi competitive games. There would be scope to tie in with the MLS too (Celtic especially would love that financially). Also start the Scottish and/or league cup before the SPFL.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but I can't think of any big game billing on Sky of Europa League pre-qualifier 3rd round games in early July.

 

I don't know why you are finding fault, according to you we'd need to start 3 weeks early and finish 3 weeks later every second year, plenty of scope for you to get your layers and bunnet on.

 

Only issue I see is evening games in summer involving Celtic and their "world's greatest fans", plenty of scope for booze fuelled bawbagery.

[Haggischomper]

Summer fitba!!! Well in, flow. Bang the drum.

[Busta Nut]

I am 50/50 on summer fitba. I doubt it would do anything for the game, but I'd have more fun.

[Geedub]

Cross border cup with teams from English league 1 and 2 would be great for away days.

[weeyin]

Aberdeen are away for some hot weather training this week, we went abroad before this season, I think its safe to say options wouldn't be as limited as you think and with grass pitches not being churned up during the height of winter means there would be alternatives on better conditioned surfaces than we no doubt have at present.

 

So clubs are going to have to invest in a few weeks training abroad every season? How does that work for East Stirling or Livingston? Or do they not matter.

 

If you don't want poor pitches in the winter, a winter break would help that.

 

We typically start playing in July and run through until May. So June is the only extra slot on the summer calendar. It will no doubt be warmer then, but not necessarily drier.

 

So if we do 'summer' football we will play from say March - December. Pre-season training then friendlies in mid Feb etc.

 

For me, a bigger league, play each other twice and a winter break makes more sense.

[DEWELL]

I honestly think summer football in Scotland is a must. A 6 week winter stutdown 2nd half of December when everyone's keeping money for Xmas and the whole of January when the weather is awfull. Extend the season to cover last 2 weeks in June and whole of July. It wpould also help our teams in European Qualifiers. We would also have competitive football on at a time when England's leagues are closed down and would hopefully negotiate a better deal with tv companies. We need to seriously consider this as our football is dying in this country.

[Ya Bezzer!]

But if you read the article that would be an aim in the long term but initially it is designed to give the broadcasters something different, therefore increase revenues from TV and immediately make the experience much more pleasant for already attending fans.

 

I just don't understand why changing to summer football makes Scottish football more attractive to broadcasters.

 

For a start there is going to be a European Championship or World Cup on every two years. Even assuming we don't qualify and the schedule isn't upset Scottish football isn't going to get a look in when the entire world media is focused on international football.

 

We'd have all the winter season finals and promotion/relegation playoffs during our regular season that would steal all the limelight then we'd have all the major sporting events of the summer coming in Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, Wimbledon, the golf Majors, the horse racing season, all the Grand Prix races, athletics, rugby world cup and on and on.

 

And of course the winter season and the summer season overlap for 50% of the year so nothing really changes for at least half the time.

 

My interest in Irish football didn't increase from "no interest at all" because they changed to a summer season and I suspect the average English fan would have a similar attitude to Scottish football.

 

The elephant in the room is that Scottish football is completely uncompetitive. Only one team is going to win the Premiership and most of the cups for the foreseeable future. Without competition there is basically not going to be any interest outside of the die hard supporters and if there is no public interest there are no advertisers and therefore no television interest.

[Guest]

Interesting to see some actual ideas for summer football from 'Flow.

 

I've never bought it, as an idea. The main argument for it seems to be 'Short sleeves'/'sunshine'. The flipside of this being that given the choice of doing something in the sunshine, or sitting in the shade in the main stand for an hour and a half on a saturday, I'd probably do something in the sunshine.

 

IDK. I'm not entirely sure its the answer, but then, I don't have the answer. I think there are things you could try before doing something that drastic, namely, stopping the constant insistence that our game is shite, or dying. Start making travel to games easier, cheaper tickets, standing areas, stop making such a bloody fuss about change (see astro pitches) and setting fire to anyone that says that Rangers are 'needed'.

[Busta Nut]

One 52 team league. Play half the teams in a season. On astrograss. In the summer. Whilst standing. With a beer. Only at 3pm on a saturday.

 

Not that much to ask for is it?

 

I like this Idea

[Brazilian]

We typically start playing in July and run through until May. So June is the only extra slot on the summer calendar. It will no doubt be warmer then, but not necessarily drier.

 

So if we do 'summer' football we will play from say March - December. Pre-season training then friendlies in mid Feb etc.

 

Can we please stop with the we start 'playing in July' chat, as its poor masking of the subject, this is talk of the league football season , so the potential is to gain some of May and the Full months of June and July for competitive league fixtures.

 

I quite enjoy the debate on the subject of dwindling crowds and have often argued for the tradtitional Saturday 3pm routine as being the only thing that will stem the decline.

 

A lot of the summer football chat however raises an eyebrow and having attended those games in 2009 at Airdrie and Llanelli it really struck home how much better it was attending in the summer even in the evening.

 

I'm not fully sold on it, still many, many factors to consider, but having a large percentage fo the games played in May June July most years would be more an interesting approach.

 

as the man said, if we were launching a new outdoor sport , when would they schedule it

[Lobey_Dosser]

I used to be behind the idea of summer football until I realised how boring winters would be.

 

Motherwell's drop in attendances is in contrast to a good few premier league teams post Rangers. Think we need to look closer to home if we wish to address that particular problem.

[mio]

Speaking as someone with 2 young boys who struggles to get them out the house and away from the xbox when its pissin down and freezing outside, I firmly believe summer football is a must for the future supporters of our club. Most of their wee mates are exactly the same!! They have too many options in the modern world and sitting Baltic and miserable at Fir Park is not high in their options list.

 

I think summer football would work and would love to see it happen!!

[Shivute]

1425573922[/url]' post='434447']

I just don't understand why changing to summer football makes Scottish football more attractive to broadcasters.

 

For a start there is going to be a European Championship or World Cup on every two years. Even assuming we don't qualify and the schedule isn't upset Scottish football isn't going to get a look in when the entire world media is focused on international football.

 

We'd have all the winter season finals and promotion/relegation playoffs during our regular season that would steal all the limelight then we'd have all the major sporting events of the summer coming in Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, Wimbledon, the golf Majors, the horse racing season, all the Grand Prix races, athletics, rugby world cup and on and on.

 

 

 

The thing is that most of these sport occassions you mentioned are included in the broadcasting "crown jewels" meaning they have to be shown on terrestrial tv.

Sky and BT sport have hours of programming to fill in the summer they might just pay more for a reasonably high profile league to show. Also given they don't have much on they might help market the shit out of it. Given how awful the current marketing is that cannae be a bad thing.

Personally speaking i'm all for a shift to summer fitba, hate the idea of parting with cash to freeze my baws off watching players basically trying to stave of hypothermia

[Goggles & Flippers]

So clubs are going to have to invest in a few weeks training abroad every season? How does that work for East Stirling or Livingston? Or do they not matter.

 

If you don't want poor pitches in the winter, a winter break would help that.

 

We typically start playing in July and run through until May. So June is the only extra slot on the summer calendar. It will no doubt be warmer then, but not necessarily drier.

 

So if we do 'summer' football we will play from say March - December. Pre-season training then friendlies in mid Feb etc.

 

For me, a bigger league, play each other twice and a winter break makes more sense.

 

Oh come on, talk about grasping at straws. I never suggested it would be mandatory, I merely advised that many already do. However I don't understand your stance, you want to maintain football being played at this time of year but the potential of pre-season running up Strathy Park steps inconceivable?

 

With respect to the weather, you cite a downpour? We should look at trends and the trend is that the weather here in winter is much worse than in summer. I'm sure there will be freakish weather phenomenon but you have to counter those to what we expect as standard every winter. Just do a simple litmus test, how many games can you think of called off in April, May, August and September over games played in November, December, January and February? I can think of close to a dozen over the past 5 seasons just involving us.

 

I just don't understand why changing to summer football makes Scottish football more attractive to broadcasters.

 

For a start there is going to be a European Championship or World Cup on every two years. Even assuming we don't qualify and the schedule isn't upset Scottish football isn't going to get a look in when the entire world media is focused on international football.

 

We'd have all the winter season finals and promotion/relegation playoffs during our regular season that would steal all the limelight then we'd have all the major sporting events of the summer coming in Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, Wimbledon, the golf Majors, the horse racing season, all the Grand Prix races, athletics, rugby world cup and on and on.

 

And of course the winter season and the summer season overlap for 50% of the year so nothing really changes for at least half the time.

 

My interest in Irish football didn't increase from "no interest at all" because they changed to a summer season and I suspect the average English fan would have a similar attitude to Scottish football.

 

The elephant in the room is that Scottish football is completely uncompetitive. Only one team is going to win the Premiership and most of the cups for the foreseeable future. Without competition there is basically not going to be any interest outside of the die hard supporters and if there is no public interest there are no advertisers and therefore no television interest.

 

From reading Flow's article I don't think he suggested the summer football in isolation would be the adrenaline shot. It would be in conjunction with offering broadcasters more access and also not competing with the EPL so effectively having a captive market.

 

If games have to be moved for TV surely 6pm game on a Saturday night or 4pm on a Sunday afternoon as currently England has to be better than 12:30? Playing in the summer would allow us to get those slots for a few months anyway.

 

During football finals, there would probably be a 6 week shutdown as I would be surprised if UEFA/FIFA would allow games played when they have games on. League is extended by 3 weeks either side, not too dramatic.

 

As for your list of events, flat or jump racing? 3 of the major golf tournaments and 3 of the tennis slams already take place during a regular season, I'll give you 7 F1 races but Rugby World Cup is generally in Sept/Oct.

 

Surely by giving teams access to a bit more cash will allow a for a degree of more competition, it isn't going to improve with the status quo.

[Haggischomper]

One thing is for sure, if we make the move to summer football we have to be sure that clown Doncaster isn't at the helm

[WishyWell]

The other advantage in summer football is for your youth development. I watched our u17s two Sundays ago playing in driving sleet, freezing rain and howling winds. Every boy came off looking ill and one boy collapsed when the ball hit him in the face and his body was so cold it went into shock. Plus you can imagine the quality of the football. I know these were extreme conditions but you'll have many more occasions over the summer months where the conditions are much more suited to teaching boys at training and letting them try to put it into practice in games, than you will over the winter. I know they have to learn to cope with all sorts of conditions, but at the development stages the betters the conditions they have, whether it be pitch quality, coaching standards or weather, the better and quicker they will learn.

 

Also, if your season spans the summer, your coaches and boys will be around when the kids are on on holiday from school, meaning more opportunities for extra training, either special days where you bring in a visiting coach of some sort or weeks where a club coach could do a lot of intensive work with them.

 

If we want to produce the best players we can, we have to look at all the aspects that will let us do so.

[Well Up For It!]

I think if you want a competitive League summer football may help, but if Celtic are still taking the lion's share of profits then nothing is going to change. Address that balance first or status quo will stay.

 

That's to me is the most underlying reason for decline of Scottish Football. We had opportunity to balance the playing field when Rangers were demoted, but Aberdeen shafted us on that assuming they'd be the 2nd force and reap the rewards - which we then shafted them on that delusion. Twice.

 

As for summer football, I'd be very much for it. Running the league March to November/December would save clubs a fortune on maintenance of parks, etc. A country with unpredictable winters such as ours is cut out for winter being our busiest period. We would benefit from more TV money as we'd be one of the more prominent summer leagues in Europe and could use that to our advantage in negations. Also think it would help our clubs perform in Europe. Also nothing worse than watching mid week football in January in the pissing rain, so punters would be more interested in better weather games.

 

Decent article all in all, he talks a lot of sense. Really need to try and implement some of his ideas.

[gaz7]

1425592332[/url]' post='434455']

Speaking as someone with 2 young boys who struggles to get them out the house and away from the xbox when its pissin down and freezing outside, I firmly believe summer football is a must for the future supporters of our club. Most of their wee mates are exactly the same!! They have too many options in the modern world and sitting Baltic and miserable at Fir Park is not high in their options list.

 

I think summer football would work and would love to see it happen!!

 

 

You've got it in a nutshell mate.Let's forget all the what ifs and mibbys quite simple do we want competitive games in half of May and all June and July or continue with all January February half of March. No contest

 

 

[stv]

I go to all the games have done for the last 40 years. But i wouldn't go to anywhere near that amount in the summer too many other things to do in a short summer,what the feck would we do from October to April if there wasn't football. Summer football would get inconsistant and mostly lower crowd numbers .Keep it as is

[Goggles & Flippers]

Your reasoning for that is?

[stv]

Folks do loads of other things in summer you know ,when the weather is good holidays ,golf ,fishing ,general outdoor stuff ,etc loads of things you cant do in winter.Foot ball would have too much compititon in summer time . Sounds good but i don't think it would work no for me anyway

[StipeIsGod]

I'm willing to bet that we get summer football as part of the league reconstruction if Rangers fuck up promotion. That's going to be how they make the supporters swallow another spoonful of turd.