Radford Posted July 22, 2016 Share Posted July 22, 2016 Was the Arbroath game not one they needed to win to guarantee the play-offs, as Annan were only a point behind in fifth? Hardly meaningless. Average is surely a better indicator than individual games as an indicator in any case? If we are looking at single games, their last home League Cup tie had a crowd of 563. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1320Lichtie Posted July 22, 2016 Share Posted July 22, 2016 Was the Arbroath game not one they needed to win to guarantee the play-offs, as Annan were only a point behind in fifth? Hardly meaningless. Average is surely a better indicator than individual games as an indicator in any case? If we are looking at single games, their last home League Cup tie had a crowd of 563. Hadn't realised that. They still pulled in decent crowds all last season though. I wouldn't be surprised if they had 800-900 or whatever for a game against a premiership team Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monkey Tennis Posted July 22, 2016 Share Posted July 22, 2016 58 minutes ago, Jaggy Snake said: There are other more fundamental issues with the set up. It’s difficult to promote a cup as being a top level competition when your top teams (those who qualified for Europe) don’t enter until a later stage. But that was also the case when it was a straight knock-out competition too. Indeed, it's the case in the Scottish Cup and probably always has been, that the top teams come in later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaggy Snake Posted July 22, 2016 Share Posted July 22, 2016 2 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said: But that was also the case when it was a straight knock-out competition too. Indeed, it's the case in the Scottish Cup and probably always has been, that the top teams come in later. You're correct of course but, there was no TV deal for those stages nor would people sit and analyse the low crowds at these games. What I should have said was, it's hard to describe the group stages as being top level when some teams aren't in them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monkey Tennis Posted July 22, 2016 Share Posted July 22, 2016 4 minutes ago, Jaggy Snake said: You're correct of course but, there was no TV deal for those stages nor would people sit and analyse the low crowds at these games. What I should have said was, it's hard to describe the group stages as being top level when some teams aren't in them. Are you sure there was no TV deal? Did the BBC not show Hibs v Hearts a couple of years ago, before the European qualifiers had joined in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaggy Snake Posted July 22, 2016 Share Posted July 22, 2016 The only recent Hibs/Hearts fixture I can see was the 2013/14 quarter-final. Even if the BBC chose to show a third round game (I can't remember if they ever did or not) it's not equivalent to BT Sport showing a specific number of games per year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monkey Tennis Posted July 22, 2016 Share Posted July 22, 2016 9 minutes ago, Jaggy Snake said: The only recent Hibs/Hearts fixture I can see was the 2013/14 quarter-final. Even if the BBC chose to show a third round game (I can't remember if they ever did or not) it's not equivalent to BT Sport showing a specific number of games per year. You're probably right. I'd thought it was earlier in the competition than that. The BBC have definitely had Sportscene programmes that concentrate on early rounds of the Scottish Cup though. Again, such broadcasts must result from a contract with the competition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikingTON Posted July 22, 2016 Share Posted July 22, 2016 10 hours ago, HibeeJibee said: With the new competition format, good weather, a weekend slot, plus Euro 2016 having ended the week before, you might have expected a decent crowd bounce. Certainly don't recall that at wind tunnel Cliftonhill last Saturday. Weather is a bit of a double-edged sword anyway - if it's a particularly nice day like Tuesday then football will fall well down the list of activities for all but the diehard support of a team. Not a problem that any theoretical summer football campaign would have to deal with too often though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7-2 Posted July 22, 2016 Share Posted July 22, 2016 3 hours ago, Radford said: Perhaps? The crowd of 1,046 at Elgin was up 40% on their average last season! I wouldn't rise to it. He loves having a go at Saints. The whole Euro 2016 effect is a load of nonsense. 'I've loved sitting at home being spoon fed the top nations and players in Europe for the last month so I'll go and see Annan v Stranraer this weekend and, hey, wait, it's Stenhousemuir v Queens Park on Tuesday. Hud me back,' Over analysing a new style competition after 5 days is ridiculous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David W Posted July 22, 2016 Share Posted July 22, 2016 21 hours ago, vikingTON said: I seem to recall East Fife being a part-time side, without boasting a huge squad to choose from. And yet they took five points from the equivalent fixtures as yourselves - your outfit got zero. It's almost as if your thick manager trades in bullshit excuses for his own failure. You are absolutely clutching at straws here. I'm not even convinced you know what you're arguing about. I've got no idea what East Fife's pre-season plan is and neither do you; whether they prepared specially for the Dundee match, or if it's a part of their bigger preparations for the league season. Naysmith was actually on Radio Scotland last Sunday talking about it but all I really heard was him mentioning that he's arranged an extra friendly for the final Saturday of league cup matches as he wants his team to not lose any momentum going into the league. I could pick out full-time Airdrie losing two similar matches (and they DID start pre-season early), or Championship Dumbarton who have got one point from games against lower division sides East Fife/Forfar. I'm not really sure what your example has got anything to do with Clyde's preparation. BF made comments about using the league cup matches as pre-season preparation as far back as April so claiming it's merely an excuse is also incorrect. His actual excuse for losing on Tuesday was that the players didn't play well enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowdenbeath Posted July 22, 2016 Share Posted July 22, 2016 22 hours ago, HibeeJibee said: With the exception of the Arbroath-Dundee Utd crowd on the Friday night - and perhaps the Clyde-Kilmarnock and Elgin-St Johnstone games which got above 1,000 from teams who do not usually carry huge travelling supports - I though the opening weekend crowds were surprisingly low. With the new competition format, good weather, a weekend slot, plus Euro 2016 having ended the week before, you might have expected a decent crowd bounce. Various games had low-price admission, too. By chance there wasn't much else on TV either. Some of the crowds this midweek have been very low. As others have noted the odds are they'll continue to fall: as some clubs are effectively out, and many will go out this weekend. However, to analyse their significance depends on context - and should really wait until July 31st. So far they're below league/knockout cups and regular season - but they're perhaps above friendlies? Its still the height of the holiday season people will be away. Perhaps summer football is'nt all it was cracked up to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikedafc Posted July 22, 2016 Share Posted July 22, 2016 the SPFL should have started season with the Challenge Cup so we could have treated that game as a glorified friendly before the real games started Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dee_62 Posted July 22, 2016 Share Posted July 22, 2016 the SPFL should have started season with the Challenge Cup so we could have treated that game as a glorified friendly before the real games started Apparently they deliberately delayed the start of the challenge cup by a week to let Hibs get knocked out of Europe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lionel hutz Posted July 23, 2016 Author Share Posted July 23, 2016 The crowds from today's matches Friday 22nd July: East Stirlingshire 0-3 Rangers - 2,246 Saturday 23rd July: Airdrieonians 2-1 Stenhousemuir - 532 Annan Athletic 1-3 Motherwell - 956 Ayr United 1-0 Edinburgh City - 862 Clyde 1-1 Berwick Rangers (7-6 pens) - 397 Cowdenbeath 0-3 Dunfermline - 1,481 Dundee 6-2 Dumbarton - 2,319 East Fife 2-1 Peterhead - 532 Elgin City 4-2 Brechin City - 502 Hamilton Accies 3-0 St Mirren - 1,379 Inverness CT 1-1 Dundee United (1-4 pens) - 1,839 Kilmarnock 0-2 Greenock Morton - 3,020 Montrose 0-2 Alloa Athletic - 358 Partick Thistle 2-1 Queen of the South - 2,358 Ross County 1-1 Raith Rovers (3-4 pens) - 1173 St Johnstone 3-0 Falkirk - 2,725 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owsley Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 On 20/07/2016 at 09:25, Gaz FFC said: 2 hours ago, Marr1 said: The crowds from today's matches Friday 22nd July: East Stirlingshire 0-3 Rangers - 2,246 Saturday 23rd July: Airdrieonians 2-1 Stenhousemuir - 532 Annan Athletic 1-3 Motherwell - 956 Ayr United 1-0 Edinburgh City - 862 Clyde 1-1 Berwick Rangers (7-6 pens) - 397 Cowdenbeath 0-3 Dunfermline - 1,481 Dundee 6-2 Dumbarton - 2,319 East Fife 2-1 Peterhead - 532 Elgin City 4-2 Brechin City - 502 Hamilton Accies 3-0 St Mirren - 1,379 Inverness CT 1-1 Dundee United (1-4 pens) - 1,839 Kilmarnock 0-2 Greenock Morton - 3,020 Montrose 0-2 Alloa Athletic - 358 Partick Thistle 2-1 Queen of the South - 2,358 Ross County 1-1 Raith Rovers (3-4 pens) - ??? St Johnstone 3-0 Falkirk - 2,725 Safe to say that fans don't give a shit about this new cup format. I've a feeling all games could've been £5 for adults and crowds still would've been shit. A lot of punters need the game to be unmissable to turn up. Surprised crowds at Airdrie, Clyde and Elgin weren't even worse, all meaningless matches. Cannot be bothered with this new format, certainly won't ever go to any round 1 matches. Last season Accies entered in round 2, four round 1 matches, and they wonder why folk stay away. Why didn't sponsors and TV get behind the old format, where you knew on the night that you were either through or out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sydney Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 1 hour ago, Owsley said: Surprised crowds at Airdrie, Clyde and Elgin weren't even worse, all meaningless matches. Cannot be bothered with this new format, certainly won't ever go to any round 1 matches. Last season Accies entered in round 2, four round 1 matches, and they wonder why folk stay away. Why didn't sponsors and TV get behind the old format, where you knew on the night that you were either through or out? Thing is Owsley, it's not even a new format. It's a reintroduction of a format used in the late 70s/ early 80s (can't be bothered checking the exact dates). Ok, they've introduced penalty shoot outs but it's basically the same. It was crap then and it's crap now, for the very reason you mention. Loads of pointless games. Total waste of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Have some faith in Magic Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 34 minutes ago, sydney said: Thing is Owsley, it's not even a new format. It's a reintroduction of a format used in the late 70s/ early 80s (can't be bothered checking the exact dates). Ok, they've introduced penalty shoot outs but it's basically the same. It was crap then and it's crap now, for the very reason you mention. Loads of pointless games. Total waste of time. It's either this or pre season friendlies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1320Lichtie Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 It's either this or pre season friendlies. It's both!!! 9 games we have this month. Choking for the league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Have some faith in Magic Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 Thinking about it though, what this tournament format is making the b&q cup even more or a waste of time. To me that's a good thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welldaft Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 3 minutes ago, Have some faith in Magic said: It's either this or pre season friendlies. Exactly this. To many miserable gifts as per. Much prefer this league cup league to pre-season friendlies. Ask yourself what the corresponding crowds would have been if all the same fixtures took place as pre-season friendlies. Probably half again. Went to Annan today. Tidy wee ground and decent game. Hamilton fan in not going to game shocker..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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