I'll leave y'all to figure that out...


Srsly, as a long-distance fan, I can't feasibly get to every home game, so of course I'm glad if I can see it down the pub (although it's not so easy down here finding a pub TV that isn't allocated to football or RU), or, at a push, on my lap-top.

Only pointless friendlies

For the more casual fans, it absolutely does affect it. Some fans know they'll go regardless and so go, but it hurts the attendance where it's people who want to go and have difficulty justifying the cost/travel/time off etc when they know they can watch it on the couch.

But do casual fans buy season tickets?

And that was the OP's original point.

I do agree that the walk-up could be affected, but those who were only half intending to go haven't really got as much to complain about.

Loss of attendance is always something to regret, but even from the club's perspective it's a two-sided argument. They can trade off that loss against the TV receipts and the exposure they get on the screen.

On average, about 8% of STH don't turn up on any given game (less for the Derby, obviously). Televised games that figure goes up significantly.

Looking at Thursday games is a bit simplistic, but I can't make the Widnes or Huddersfield games because they're on Thursday, but they're only on Thursday because of TV. I'd bet a lot of money the number of STH who don't turn up on Thursdays is higher than Fridays regardless of whether or not it's on TV, but that's not exactly rocket science.

You won't get me defending Thursday night matches. I think that's a very poor thing.

But what I was really saying earlier was that season ticket holders must know in advance, before they buy, that a lot of games will be available on TV - so I don't sympathise too much with those who buy and then complain.

The OP did make a point I agree with. Namely, that we don't know how many people don't buy STs because of TV. The club possibly loses out there. But as I said before, there are some perks to being on telly.

Personally, I'd rather we were never on telly, if for no other reason than we'd then be less exposed to the uninformed, prejudiced gibberish of Eddie and Stevo.

I always enjoy getting home from the game and watching it on tv again just to see if the ref was as biased as I thought he was!

But our sponsors, who collectively put a lot of money into the club, get the exposure that they want. Not just the shirts, but also all round the ground.
With this number of TV games, you might wonder why we can't/don't have improved sponsorship.

You won't be doing that this season unless you record it. It appears that Sky are no longer repeating whole matches, just 15 min highlights and Boots and All appears to have gone from the schedule as well to be replaced by highlights of Burnley vs Accrington Stanley from 1936 or some other ancient football match no one can be d about.

No, as far as Sky is concerned football started in 1992 and Rugby League started in 1996!!!

I was deciding between SKY and Premier Sports, but after seeing the reduced coverage I am going for the NRL option and its half the price with more NRL shows added the M Johns and P Sterling shows added to the Footy Show

I will make do with my season ticket and get other SL on the radio and BBC highlights

We can 't see the screen from our seats so it just adds an annoying delay to the game.

With the 4 game Flexi ticket Wigan have and with what is on Sky you could see 11 home games for prices between £15 to £83 (depending on age, stand and concessions).

I am not entirely sure that is the idea behind it!