Coronavirus and the Scottish Championship

[jagster]

Was listening to Jason  Leitch on radio in car earlier. He was saying championship league 1 and 2 might not happen unless testing procedures like prem are in place. Sounds like no chance of many fans this season 

[The Master]

If a circuit breaker has a leak, it's not a very good circuit breaker. 

[TxRover]

3 hours ago, The Master said:

If a circuit breaker has a leek, it's not a very good circuit breaker. 

Unless it’s Welsh. Anyway, not looking very bright:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-54235608

[BIGdavieT]

After hearing Ms sturgeon's reply to the so called Leaked document i would be shocked if there was any Football started in October of this year Any thoughts??

I would be amazed if football doesn’t start in October! But there is a risk, (if infections keep increasing,) of consistent call offs which could make a bit of a mockery of the season.

Unfortunately I would also be amazed if we see fans in stadiums this year. Perfectly possible there are none or very limited fans in the stadiums all season.

[vikingTON]

If there is no prospect of fans at games then there is no point in starting games at this level next month. All you are doing is giving the government an excuse to not include your business in any future support package for industries that will be significantly impacted for the next nine months as well. If you play, you can operate. 

Clubs lolloping ahead under the delusion that guilt-tripping fans into watching some shitey stream will see them through until they waltz back into grounds is going to send football at this level into a far bigger hole than would otherwise prove the case. 

[TheGoon]

The whole idea of the move to October was giving as much of a chance as possible for fans to return fully, around the turn of the year. That is not going to happen, and PPV streams are not going to come close to bridging the gap.

[renton]

1 hour ago, virginton said:

If there is no prospect of fans at games then there is no point in starting games at this level next month. All you are doing is giving the government an excuse to not include your business in any future support package for industries that will be significantly impacted for the next nine months as well. If you play, you can operate. 

Clubs lolloping ahead under the delusion that guilt-tripping fans into watching some shitey stream will see them through until they waltz back into grounds is going to send football at this level into a far bigger hole than would otherwise prove the case. 

So what are the alternatives? An 18 game season starting in January? Or can the whole season?

[vikingTON]

1 hour ago, renton said:

So what are the alternatives? An 18 game season starting in January? Or can the whole season?

1) Postpone the start of the season and reschedule 27 games in 2021 on a Saturday/Tuesday basis

2) Extend the season for the lower leagues into the summer of 2021

3) Reduce the schedule to 18 games from 2021 if the above isn't going to happen either or 

4) Can the season entirely

If clubs start next month under the current conditions instead then they can have no complaints about being obliged to complete the rest of the season without crowds or government support, which is a financially disastrous scenario.

Edited September 22, 2020 by vikingTON

[Paco]

1) Postpone the start of the season and reschedule 27 games in 2021 on a Saturday/Tuesday basis.

2) Extend the season for the lower leagues into the summer of 2021

3) Reduce the schedule to 18 games from 2021 if the above isn't going to happen either or 

4) Can the season entirely

If clubs start next month under the current conditions instead then they can have no complaints about being obliged to complete the rest of the season without crowds or government support, which is a financially disastrous scenario.

 

Yep. This was all abundantly clear in June and July when barely a soul in Scotland had the virus, but we all sat on our hands in case we missed a furlough cheque.

 

Wonder how confident we’re all feeling about the magic wand in January that was meant to give us unrestricted crowds.

[renton]

25 minutes ago, virginton said:

1) Postpone the start of the season and reschedule 27 games in 2021 on a Saturday/Tuesday basis.

2) Extend the season for the lower leagues into the summer of 2021

3) Reduce the schedule to 18 games from 2021 if the above isn't going to happen either or 

4) Can the season entirely

If clubs start next month under the current conditions instead then they can have no complaints about being obliged to complete the rest of the season without crowds or government support, which is a financially disastrous scenario.

I imagine option 2 would be the least favoured in terms of having to keep squads under contract longer, option 1 would likely be favoured in terms of both competition and generating revenue, but dependent on how the public health situation is looking then, might be seen as riskier in terms of overall exposure vs. An 18 game season as in option 3.

As for option 4, how viable is that in terms of paying back season ticket money and getting players and staff off a wage bill? Would be the nuclear button.

[Thereisalight..]

23 minutes ago, Paco said:

 

Yep. This was all abundantly clear in June and July when barely a soul in Scotland had the virus, but we all sat on our hands in case we missed a furlough cheque.

 

Wonder how confident we’re all feeling about the magic wand in January that was meant to give us unrestricted crowds.

I said at the time we should have been starting the season late July. I knew come October the usual cold and flu season would be ramping up as well as Covid, and that the Government would prohibit fans attending 

[Finlay21]

6 minutes ago, Thereisalight.. said:

I said at the time we should have been starting the season late July. I knew come October the usual cold and flu season would be ramping up as well as Covid, and that the Government would prohibit fans attending 

Starting in July would have made no difference , as we had absolutely no chance of fans being in attendance , starting in October was the best case scenario at the time to allow any chance of fans , I feel we will start season on time and play without fans until around February , hopefully I am wrong and we get in earlier 

[vikingTON]

1 hour ago, renton said:

As for option 4, how viable is that in terms of paying back season ticket money and getting players and staff off a wage bill? Would be the nuclear button.

That depends entirely on the level of government assistance to affected industries (i.e. the live entertainment sector as well). But the current plan going ahead without fans would require clubs to either sack players and staff while the season is ongoing or plugging a black hole in their accounts.

[Skyline Drifter]

3 hours ago, renton said:

So what are the alternatives? An 18 game season starting in January? Or can the whole season?

Yes, those were the alternatives. Both are more sensible than what we did vote for. 

1 hour ago, Paco said:

 

Yep. This was all abundantly clear in June and July when barely a soul in Scotland had the virus, but we all sat on our hands in case we missed a furlough cheque.

 

Wonder how confident we’re all feeling about the magic wand in January that was meant to give us unrestricted crowds.

It was very clear to anybody who listened to every credible expert warn of exactly what would happen, yes. 

I wouldnt be remotely confident of crowds in January but I never was. Nothing has changed in that respect.

1 hour ago, renton said:

As for option 4, how viable is that in terms of paying back season ticket money and getting players and staff off a wage bill? Would be the nuclear button.

Its not viable now. They have made their bed, they will have to lie in it. Its what they should have done in the first place, or at least defer to half season. Too late now to cry about it though.

1 hour ago, Thereisalight.. said:

I said at the time we should have been starting the season late July. I knew come October the usual cold and flu season would be ramping up as well as Covid, and that the Government would prohibit fans attending 

And you would have been entirely wrong. You are right about October but quite how that leads you to think starting earlier with no crowds would have helped things is beyond me. We should have been starting later or not at all.

1 hour ago, Robbo63 said:

Starting in July would have made no difference , as we had absolutely no chance of fans being in attendance , starting in October was the best case scenario at the time to allow any chance of fans , I feel we will start season on time and play without fans until around February , hopefully I am wrong and we get in earlier 

This, other than the fact that realistically they should have deferred further. We will start on time because we are committed to it now and it wont be banned (IMO). But we wont see attendances for some time and any club who gambled we would wants shooting. Some will likely go under. 

Edited September 22, 2020 by Skyline Drifter

[The Ghost of B A R P]

Completely agree with SD: season has to start as scheduled, basically because none of the alternatives relieve the financial pressures. We are where we are and need to accept it: i.e. plug as much of the gap through streaming in the short term and hope for crowds of some description as soon as possible. A pretty miserable prospect, but there is no credible alternative.

Mystified as to why canning the season entirely is seen as any kind of option: better to have SG money support clubs to actually play than keep them in existence while not playing (which is what would have to happen if there was no season at all, otherwise the majority of clubs in Scotland would go out of business).

[Skyline Drifter]

4 minutes ago, The Ghost of B A R P said:

Mystified as to why canning the season entirely is seen as any kind of option: better to have SG money support clubs to actually play than keep them in existence while not playing (which is what would have to happen if there was no season at all, otherwise the majority of clubs in Scotland would go out of business).

I presume because it opens up the option of making playing / management staff redundant to slash the wages, maybe? 

I dont think its especially viable at this stage though. 

[The Ghost of B A R P]

11 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

I presume because it opens up the option of making playing / management staff redundant to slash the wages, maybe? 

I dont think its especially viable at this stage though. 

Yeah, but coming back from that kind of moth-balling would require outside financial support... otherwise many might just not come back. It really is a doomsday scenario...

If there’s going to be SG money - and it’s a big if - it only makes sense to spend it keeping the show on the road.

[Skyline Drifter]

1 minute ago, The Ghost of B A R P said:

Yeah, but coming back from that kind of moth-balling would require outside financial support... otherwise many might just not come back. It really is a doomsday scenario...

Why? Its no diffetent to what happens every May/ June really. We have three players who were with us last season and one of those just rejoined this month. Clubs hire entire new playing squads and management every other year. Doing so in 2021 after sitting out a year would be no different.

[The Ghost of B A R P]

2 minutes ago, Skyline Drifter said:

Why? Its no diffetent to what happens every May/ June really. We have three players who were with us last season and one of those just rejoined this month. Clubs hire entire new playing squads and management every other year. Doing so in 2021 after sitting out a year would be no different.

Clubs would go a full year having to meet their fixed costs with no income. Some wouldn’t even survive that. Then there’s the cost of mothballing and restarting the operation (safety certificates, etc).

When clubs start building squads in a normal summer, they do so on the basis of a (more or less) balanced budget; they know what they have to spend on the basis of the season just past. If there’s no season, and no income, every team in the lower leagues would be starting from scratch on the basis of some level of deficit. Some might be able to do that through directors putting their hands in their pocket, most would need some kind of additional financial support.

Better to put a package in place to prevent that happening than to have to come up with something to revive a zombie.

I don’t think the SG are particularly clued up on football in general, and lower-league football in particular, but if anyone in the SG shares the view that ‘there are too many clubs in Scotland’... well, you can see how that might pan out.

Overall, not having a season at all is a huge risk.

[The Ghost of B A R P]

Separate point is that QoS running down their squad in isolation as a one-off protective measure in a market that continues to function normally is a totally different thing from three leagues going into deep freeze and then trying to haul themselves out again. The possible unintended consequences are multiple, but one example is that you might see decent Scottish players signing for teams in the fifth and sixth tiers in England... and not coming back for the peanuts that might be on offer here post-mothball.