Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Not the time for all S-league games to be on weekend

Recently there are section of the fans who are pushing for all S-league matches to be on weekend however I do not believe it is the time yet.

They are not wrong to push for it but I have always believed the corporate side also have to be taken into account.

Especially, as the corporate side has been willing to fork out the needed money the S-league clubs had wanted and which, in all honestly, the clubs are unlikely to find elsewhere.

In addition, pushing all the games to weekend will not be the miracle cure some believed; just like when sections of the fans wanted games to be on weekend afternoon as they told us it could work by giving us local games and then foreign ones.

Now, almost three months into the test, some are expressing doubts with what looked good on paper (although I never liked it) not translated into reality with the weather just one of the main bugger for talks that the BPL fans will turn up is not happening.

The reality is Singapore is not a sport nation thus fans (especially those foreign clubs ones) are not willing to bear with 'hardship' other than the local hardcore.

It will not changed in the near future so any changes to the S-league have to be practical for that moment in time in my view.

ISL is a good example, there were a number of changes three years, back in 2009, when the league was reformed but now it is cracking up with clubs unable to feed itself - even the rich ones like Persija Jakarta.

We have to note that ASEAN football is still in the stone age when we are talking sport business and even  the Asian top dog in sport business, J-league, have not attracted the corporate fans or as Roy Keane called them - prawn sandwich brigade.

They are the cash cow in sport business for when somebody spend - what many have to earn over many years - for a VIP box which seat just a few people, we can see how much they add to the revenue.

The Suzuki Cup Final second leg last year in Indonesia was a showcase as the Indonesian VIPs scoop up the tickets despite it being priced much higher than regular and they (those VIP fans) did not feel the pinch.  

Is S-league at that stage?

No, and one cannot find them in ASEAN for honestly take away the corporate help in even the booming TPL, as the Thai Port case showed, and it will take years to rebuild - if it is even possible to rebuild in the first place as whether we like it or not, the modern age of football need money, and tons of it, to have a beginning now.

And there have been a compromise (Let remember just a few years ago not a single S-league match was scheduled for weekend no matter what) by the corporate side for more weekend games have been scheduled than previous seasons.

I am willing to accept that as looking at the fixtures, I only hoped that in coming seasons, baring a few weekend, all weekend should at least have one game as this season, there were still certain weekend when I feel S-league should have scheduled games.

But it is a step in the right direction and the changes is at a pace where it would not cause a collapse for it have been as fair as possible to all parties.

We should not rush things for A-league try to caught up with J-league in five years and is now backtracking as they admitted they overextended themselves.

That is why I constant looked at changes in term of decades and not years.

2 comments:

happy said...

Here a comment from Bigsoccer from druryfire

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I think the problem with the S-League is that games are on every single day. It's just to much.

It would be better to play on a Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon principle in my opinion. Spread the weeks games over these four days. We have 12 teams, thats 6 matches over 4 days. You could have a prime TV games on Friday and pushing Monday night and then possibly look at tweaking the weekend fixtures. One 6pm kickoff, one 8pm kickoff dual headers if need be.

happy said...

My own view

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I always prefer this format for the near future

Wed - 1 game
Thur - 1 game
Fri - 1 games
Sat - 2 games
Sun - 1 game

It is based much like the Aussies schedule as also seek to please both fans & corporate (Fox channel)