Quote: Hopie "A second fixture against a "big" club (the definition of big varies) draws more fans through the gate than the first fixture against a "small" club, that is a good reason to have them. Clubs should get themselves in a position where they can sell out a decent number of tickets no matter who the away team is, but that isn't the way most people in our game think unfortunately.'"
Although on the face of it, what you say is correct,
However, the loop fixtures tend to be against a mixture of clubs and they can be against the so called smaller clubs or, Catalan, where the away support is somewhat smaller.
I know that "we" have tinkered with the top half of the league playing last seasons higher placed clubs and with playing odd numbers (in terms of league finish) and even numbers but, it's just fixture overload.
The ideal would be to have a balanced fixture program.
It seems crazy that top spot (or second) and with that, home advantage in the semis, could be decided by having an "easier" set of loop fixtures.