[HerefordBull]

Unfortunately football is now geared towards couch potato fans with many games on Sky, BT and Alba. Youngsters growing up have a first experience of football by sitting at home with Dad cheering at the tv and then get brain washed into believing that one of these successful sides is the one to support and up in Scotland being told that Scottish football is c**p with only 2 sides Celtic and Rangers. Before Sky they may choose to support one of these 2 but now with access to games all round the World they are more likely to follow Man U. Inter Milan or Barcelona etc. especially with the demise of these former forces in Euro football.

Bums on seats is now a fairly minor part of a clubs income and often when I glimpse Match of the Day will see top club games with many empty seats.  ( when I first went to live football at a young age to Villa Park this would be unheard of and I expect Hillsborough was the same........I remember going to a League Cup Final replay there and to say it was packed to the rafters was an understatement. )  Many top clubs also rely on their World wide appeal to fill their stadia......on my recent trip to Anfield I lost count of the numbers obviously visiting from the Far East and on our hospitality table it was mainly filled with fans from Australia. Money from TV deals with Sky and BT play a big part in managing to balance the books along with all the merry go round of transfers and wages with the daft money involved. A Club I watched for years Hereford United went out of business owing the same amount of money Wayne Rooney earns in one week!  ( the fans have bought the rights to the club and now have them playing again under a different name....Hereford FC....real grass roots stuff)

So having said all this where does this leave Scottish Football........without more exposure on Sky etc with their money to invest in the club from their stadia and playing staff etc the fans are not going to suddenly return even for a new end of season Cup competition.......so in conclusion things are fairly dire and change has to be tried and if that is Summer football so be it. Sky are more likely to increase their coverage as there will be no EPL etc and then we only have the problem of the World Cup and Euros. but has been said before it works in Sweden and Norway etc.

Its like any change, many people will be scared of it and need to be convinced before taking it to the next stage.