Saturday 3pm kick offs

[Daaave]

Might upset a few 'purists' on here with this, but came across this article and found myself strongly agreeing.

http://thesetpieces.com/features/pieces-hate-saturday-3/

The gilded impression of the Saturday 3pm kick off is absolute nonsense and so is everything that goes with it. The handwringing. The notion that something about football is lost if a game doesn’t kick off at 3pm on a Saturday. That it means something deeper and more significant. Saturday 3 is sacrosanct, enshrined in law to protect the noble game and the noble time from the ignoble broadcast.

 

Well, I hate Saturday 3. I absolutely hate it. It is rubbish. Saturday 3 is the worst time, of the currently available times, to watch football at Anfield, with the possible exception of the recent Sunday 12 which was horrific.

 

Saturday 3 is nothing. It allows you to neither stick or twist. A laid back post match interlude knocks your Saturday night off course. It’s now 7pm, you’re five post match pints to the good and whatever you were doing that night now seems a long way off. Saturday 1245 is incredible. Go hard and heavy from 11 or ease into the ground terrifyingly sober, but that afternoon opens up. So much room, so many choices. Saturday half 5, wowzer. Town. Match. Town. Dancing. I doff my cap my cap to the half 5. I quietly reckon half six might be better again, give you more afternoon to play with, but whatever. Sunday 1, the extra hour makes a world of difference, an afternoon you can do something with one way or another, a slight morning rush. Sunday 4. A man can build a weekend towards that.

 

It’s tougher for aways. However, almost any kick off time is tougher for aways. I like a Saturday 1245 for the away. Makes it an adventure, means you are home in time for a Saturday night. Better than a Saturday 3 when you aren’t likely to make it back before 9.

 

But, listen, it’s personal preference. I could be wrong. It’s not so much the idea that Saturday 3 is dreadful – it really is – but that it should be sacrosanct. That a kick off time is worth going to the mattresses for. Ticket prices, access questions, safe standing, policing? Forget them mate. We’re kicking off at half 5 and everyone gets to have more fun, but what about the tradition? What tradition are we going to erode next!?

 

I have a theory about Saturday 3 – it’s the issue it is easiest for our gentlemen and women of the press to get behind. Saturday 3 has historically been convenient for them. Imagine football is your job for a second. Imagine filing times and getting there and getting home. Imagine someone now says “Get there for 9am.” Or “You’ll be home after 9pm”. Imagine that in your work. No wonder those blighters stoke it all up.

 

Whenever it kicks off, let’s fight the right battles. Saturday 3 exists because of the way working patterns used to be and football – as an entertainment, something for people who work to go to to take their mind off things – scheduled itself accordingly. Three o’clock on a Saturday was perfect.

 

All the best lads, get on The Kop, they play the top ten (they don’t do that any more which is a greater shame) have a sing and a dance, watch the game and then off you go, have a night on the ale. Enjoy. Be entertained.

 

Great. But working patterns don’t happen like that any more. Instead Britons in their hundreds of thousands go out after work on a Friday night. Let’s stick a few games on for them, then. Tough week in work, Jeanne from accounts doing your head in, quick dart from work, five or six in quick succession, soz gang, got to go the game, taxi, in, couple after, back to town, hit a club, getting off with Jeanne who is all over you before you know what’s going on, because it was all that sexual tension which was causing the issue and The Reds are mustard again and it is Friday night. Swap any genders you like in this because another thing that’s well better than it used to be in football and society is our relationship with women and sexuality. (The latter remains questionable in football. Another battle bigger than kick off times).

 

That there are things wrong with football in modernity doesn't mean everything in modern football is wrong. Yet things just get lashed in. It becomes this catch all basket of grievances, though I will acknowledge scheduling showpiece fixtures at a time when you can’t get trains as per Wembley’s nonsense is ridiculous and gives an easy stick to beat with. But week in, week out inconsistent kick off times mean I can watch more football. I like that there are a ton of games to watch. I often don’t choose to watch them but it is good to know that it is there should I need them.

 

I’d go further though. Want to protect football? Really want to do that? Want the old days? Then let’s say the Premier League doesn't get a look in from 2 – 6 Saturday. Leave that to the lower leagues. No games whatsoever. Instead let’s have a Friday 8, a Saturday 12, a Saturday 6, a Saturday 8 and then flog the Sundays and have the Monday night. Let’s all go and watch Dulwich or Prescot or FC United or AFC Wimbledon or Southend or whatever and then go and watch our side either on the telly or in the ground. Or watch two of our rivals and be together, have a drink, a chat. Make a day of it. Just make a day of it.

 

The end of this is this though: The biggest issue football has from the point of view of those going through the turnstile is its price. The price of being in the ground. That and the impact it has in terms of pricing people out is by far the biggest problem the game faces. It’s television and shifted kickoff times which can save us.

 

These companies are paying far more money than we collectively manage. Let’s embrace them and win the next argument rather than chunnering on that things aren’t what they used to be.

 

Saturday 3. We don’t get many Saturday 3s anymore. Good. Because we don’t get tickets for twenty quid either and I know which one I want sorting first.

 

[MuespachRam]

I think......typical Scousers moaning about everything...... and what would they know about "work patterns"......?

 

Saturday 3 pm is football time....end of story....if we do manage to get up, you can forget them though.

[Wolfie]

Fine if all that football is about is how pissed you can get before & after the game.

[Day]

Didn't read the full article as it just seemed to be a bloke ranting how football ruins his drinking plans.

But, I will agree I'm not all for Saturday 3pm kick offs, I love how it's spread out throughout the week now, Premier League football on the box Monday night, Derby on a Tuesday/Wednesday, or Champions League games on the box, Friday a Championship match on the box, Saturday still the main day, the day I have a bet, Match of the Day, FLS. Super Sunday, back to back Prem games on the box.

I get that midweek games can play havoc with the real football fans (season ticket holders) and we're all plastics for not being able to afford to attend as many games as the real fans, you won't get no sympathy from me when I sit down on my sofa on Friday night, beer in hand watching Derby batter Wolves loving every minute of it and Sky for making football more accessible for those that can't get to games due to financial, working and family commitments.

[MuespachRam]

And I was surprised to read that scousers like a beer before the game, i thought they were all angels, turning up with plenty of time to go, all sober and all with tickets....no?

[rsmini]

Total garbage, all he is bothered about is getting pissed after the game. The majority of people go to watch football and don't bother with having a drink.

He has no idea how incredibly hard it is to get a 12:15/12:45 kick off after completing a night shift. He needs to get back to reality.

A 3pm kick of is perfect for most and it should be left alone. 

[ladyram]

And I was surprised to read that scousers like a beer before the game, i thought they were all angels, turning up with plenty of time to go, all sober and all with tickets....no?

[MuespachRam]

You following the inquest Muespach+ Dukinfield has just got out of the hot seat.

Oh dear.

Read it and weep. 

 

Anyway, 3pm KO for me.

[ketteringram]

As far as I know, our last 3pm Saturday home game of the season, was the Birmingham one. 

[ketteringram]

Didn't read the full article as it just seemed to be a bloke ranting how football ruins his drinking plans.

But, I will agree I'm not all for Saturday 3pm kick offs, I love how it's spread out throughout the week now, Premier League football on the box Monday night, Derby on a Tuesday/Wednesday, or Champions League games on the box, Friday a Championship match on the box, Saturday still the main day, the day I have a bet, Match of the Day, FLS. Super Sunday, back to back Prem games on the box.

I get that midweek games can play havoc with the real football fans (season ticket holders) and we're all plastics for not being able to afford to attend as many games as the real fans, you won't get no sympathy from me when I sit down on my sofa on Friday night, beer in hand watching Derby batter Wolves loving every minute of it and Sky for making football more accessible for those that can't get to games due to financial, working and family commitments.

[ketteringram]

Oh and the opening post scouser clearly just has a problem with drink. 

[Inglorius]

I salute those who took time that they will never get back in their lives to read that abomination 

[Daaave]

To be honest, I can agree that the author really harms his own point with his obsession with his drinking plans. Personally I rarely drink before, during or after a game but I still find Saturday 3pm to be about the worst kickoff time, although I do say that as a Derby local rarely doing long away days.

 

I like an early kickoff or a late kickoff as it gives me a full afternoon for other things. I like a Friday night or Sunday game for similar reasons, my whole Saturday free. Saturday 3pm just always seems so inconvenient, maybe it's just me though!

 

Of course I can accept my circumstances are quite fortunate, I don't work nights or have to travel far. However a lot of the arguments against leaving behind 3pm are seem to focus on tradition and that definitely isn't a valid argument against change (in any context) as far as I'm concerned. 

[Tombo]

Even if we're talking drinking, Saturday 3 is the perfect time. Ample time for both pre match and post match beers. Any earlier and you're drinking a pint with your cornflakes to prepare for the game. Any later and a quiet post match pint isn't an option because all the pubs have people on a night out, plus it kills your evening plans even worse than Saturday 3 does. You spend all morning and afternoon waiting for the bloody game when it's a 5:15 or whenever kick off.

Another case of "look at me, i'm being different". Saturday 3 is glorified for good bloody reason, stop looking for reasons to seem edgy or cynical. Popular consensus does NOT always automatically equal overrated.

Have to say though, I'm not really against any of the kick off times we've had this season.

[Tombo]

Whoever wrote this has obviously not had to get on the early train for an away game. 

[archram]

3pm kick offs are a leftover from when football was a working man's sport. When I was a kid my dad worked Saturday mornings as part of a normal working week. He finished at 12 , time for a bit of lunch and off to BBG - on the times we could afford it! Tickets were a lot cheaper but added to travel it still made a bit of a hole in the family budget!

[Dimmu]

When I played, I used to love the night games. During the week was those were fine but weekend ...oh boy! Lights, the atmosphere on and off the pitch... everything was better!

And now watching them, I still somehow prefer night games. Maybe it's just a warm memory...

[JoetheRam]

3pm on a Saturday is not only a sacrosanct tradition but the best time.

The article gives various reasons for different times being better but they just aren't.

Anything before 2pm is a ballache for away fans.

Anything before 1pm is a nightmare for anyone who likes a drink but doesn't like it on their cereal.

5pm is too late. Rubbish for away fans getting back.

Sunday is for doing non-football related things and trying to forget/remember the night before.

Monday is f**king retarded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RLACML]

If I could pick a time, it would be around 12. Possible to get there in time and means you aren't too late in getting back. 

[maydrakin]

3pm is perfect from my perspective - enough time to have the morning and lunch with my family and be back home for dinner.  Not much disruption to the wife and kids.  Midday games just take your whole day away...

7.45 on a Tuesday night has always felt special, the atmosphere feels better at night games for some reason.  Away travel is always a pain though.