That isn't a fact at all, in fact it's the complete opposite of fact. Take a look at the [url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/fixtures/default.stmPremiership fixture list[/url for the rest of this season, and below that division only a very small number of games are played at other times over the weekend.

If you prefer Saturdays, fine. If Quins was the only sports team I followed I would too, but at 3pm. Saturday late kick offs don't suit me at all. I don't awant to have to spend all afternoon clockwatching because I need to be somewhere for a late kick off with little time for socialising afterwards.

Seems to work for the RU.

Yes, but that is because their season does not clash with the soccer season as much as the league one. Surely.

Michael.

Errr no, their season goes from September to May !!

With respect they fill the stadium and when you are filling your stadium frankly you have no need to worry about any other sport

Quins Rl are getting pitiful crowds and therefore HAVE to worry about other attractions

Its the least relevant comparison of all

Your point was that there was no evidence Saturday pm could work. All I pointed out was that is does for Quins RU.

Spot the bitter fan who can't make Saturday matches because of his bizzare preference for soccer.

ahemChrisBrownahem

Very good point.

Interesting thread this, I think by the end of the season we will be able to evaluate how well everything as worked. The season is still young, fingers crossed that things go well on and off the pitch.

Fans who pay to watch soccer will generally stick with their teams. We should be targetting the lapsed fans. The ones who have been priced out of the game. The ones who watch it on telly. When do sky show most of is big games? Sunday 4pm. We should avoid this time. When I was a kid I played for my local team on sat mornings then went and watched Celtic at three. How and why the amatuer RL players can't manage that is beyond me. Probably one too many headshots.

Re hangovers on a Monday, of course. Why waste your own time being hungover when work can pay for your recovery. Thursdays and Fridays are generally write offs too.

I am not bitter. My love affair with Oxford United spans 38 of my 43 years and has seen me watch them on over 70 different grounds

Sadly for me (and of course I am disappointed about it) I have been forced to make a choice between the two and I am sure its understandable why I have made the choice I have

Alll I have ever said from a personal perspective is that its a shame I had to make that choice when I could be doing both



No, the point I was making was related to Quins RL, the fact that it works for Quins RU is entirely irrelevant. The could play on any day of the week and probably fill the stadium, sadly Quins RL get crap crowds. That is the fact in all this

I know, I was using sarcasm to make a point.

Michael.

My philosophy exactly! It a bit like footballers in bygone days running a few laps of the pitch at morning training - just work off your hangover, you don't have to sleep it off! If I fancy a few beers I don't care what day tomorrow is - just set the alarm clock and get on with it. A big mug of strong black coffee with my breakfast before leaving home, a pint or two of water after I arrive at work and I'm ready to go.

Feeling hungover really is the lamest excuse of the lot for complaining about Sunday fixtures. If it's that much of an issue just drink less.

Sorry, pressed the wrong button.

They haven't always had big crowds but consistently stuck to Saturdays as traditionally Sat afternoon is when sport is played/watched, including Rugby and Football.

Fairly certain that you'll find that pro RL was for 100 years a Sunday 3pm sport until Sky's money came along.

Quins RU put together a brilliant strategy based around having circa 700 rugby union teams within a fairly small radius of their ground playing Saturday mornings, as well as 100+ years of heritage of playing out of the same ground, in the same colours, under the same name. Go figure.

Also, imo, soccer fans have far more in common with RL fans than with RU fans. So whatever you say, Quins RU are not fishing in the soccer pond. We should fish in every pond avaialable to us and I would welcome soccer fans with open arms, particularly those looking for a summer sport outlet (and those that are family oriented)

No, only for about 40-50 years. Professional sports on Sundays were not legal until sometime in the 1960-s. When RL first switched to Sundays, to avoid clashes with soccer, it was initially illegal to charge for admission. The get-around was to allow entry only to those who bought a programme first.

And there were floodlit mid-week evening games.

Spot on. This is how the 'of Erith' clan got into RL .Now its at the point where RL takes precedence to football. Must be lots of other football fans looking for an exciting, cheap and family friendly sport in the capital during the summer. Who knows, some of them might even be fully converted in the way us lot were. Football season's nearly over so surely its time to start some new promotions to get folks in? We've waited 3 seasons now and apart from a very few the RU fans seem to be either indifferent or hostile to the presence of RL at the Stoop.

cheers for the accuracy BO, but I'd still say that 50 years of practically every team playing on a Sunday up until 1995 (and most teams preference for it now) makes that tradition.

Somehow offering the QPR, Fulham, Chelsea, Reading etc fanbases an offer on the rest of the season once football ends would be a good place to start - the soccer clubs would be seen to be getting their season ticket holders a deal/favour....the only problem I foresee is the soccer clubs fearing losing their fans to us? But if Quins can come up with a good enough reason and a contra deal.....

Which school did you go to where 1967 to 1995 is a gap of 50 years?

Michael.

Tiresomely pedantic mate - BO wrote this {BroncOnIon wrote: No, only for about 40-50 years} so I am taking his words at face value. What does it matter - whether it's 30 odd from 1967 to SL or 40 odd to today (when Sunday is still more prevalent) it's a long time and most people supporting the game now (other than Quins/Broncos/Fulham fans) grew up watching on Sundays. So that is our tradition. Not Saturday as WQ suggests.

Even Religion got it's house in order

Muslims on Friday
Jews on Saturday
Christians on Sunday

Seeing as Sky own (almost all) British Sport surely it's them we should be badgering
7 fixtures a week
1 Friday night ( a random team not just St Helens)
6 Sunday games

And make football with their 10 fixtures
9 on Saturday afternoon
1 on Monday night

Union
Who cares make it
Saturday night (it belongs to the beeb anyway)

Great point made by Stevo tonight after the game in saying how important the kids playing RL in the London area are because its their parents that will come and wathc the game

He clearly forgot that the kids play on the same day as Quins so can't

There are still clashes though - I used to work for an Israeli bank and all the Jews used to bugger off early on a Friday to be home before dusk, leaving mugs like me to hold the fort!

He didn't forget anything. What he knew, as does anyone connected with the "local" game, is that kids play at 10, 11 and 12(under 12's, 14 and 16's) thus offering them and there fathers the opportunity to go to the Stoop for 3.

Its the open age games that clash