| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 07:25 - Mar 28 with 2057 views | stowmarketrange |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 00:06 - Mar 28 by NewBee |
@VancouverHoop
"The end-game for (most) Prem clubs though is never having to play the likes of Rotherham again. They're looking for a closed league with club parity to satisfy the international football tourist who care nothing about club history."
Whilst I agree completely with the gist of your overall post, and accept that some of the owners would like a closed shop, they're never going to get it (imo).
Remember, it was fans of the so-called Big Six who killed the last such proposal (European Super League) stone dead. And that was only a part of the shop - the rest (i.e. PL) was meant to carry on as before, if with reduced "importance".
Add to that the opposition from the all the other clubs (PL/EFL/NL), the FA, UEFA and the new Regulator etc, and I really can't see it applying in England.
(Aside from that, some great comments generally on this thread) |
Can’t you see a time when all 20 premier league clubs vote unanimously for a closed shop and £millions coming in every season with no prospect of relegation?Why would any of the 20 vote against it?Sure there would be opposition from the 72 clubs not able to board the gravy train,but I can see it happening one day.
Or maybe they’d reduce the relegation places to one and possibly another in a playoff with the 2nd best championship team.
Does the FA have enough power to stop it happening? |  | |  |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 07:51 - Mar 28 with 2001 views | thame_hoops |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 06:50 - Mar 28 by Konk |
I think the vast majority of Fulham fans are really fu cked-off with the club. We knew prices would be ridiculous in the new stand, and I think most of us grudgingly accepted that the stand wasn't intended for "people like us" , but I think there was a naive belief that the revenue from the Riverside would be used to keep prices elsewhere, relatively reasonable. Instead, we have big increases in season tickets prices and match by match prices have gone from taking the pi ss to absolutely taking the pi ss. The club have also said that as far as they're concerned, they will get the maximum they can for a seat and they're not interested in who buys the ticket. Insult to injury - the restricted access to the riverside area means that the Hammersmith concourse is absolute chaos now.
I'm on a boycott - I've done one game this season - Rotherham in the cup because it cost us £21 or something, rather than the £110+ it would now cost for me to take my son to a PL game and sit in the Hammersmith or Putney.
We will go down again, and as others have said, let's see what happens to gates /prices then because the club are really alienating a chunk of support that has been through all the divisions.
On the tourist front, I'm taking my son to the Rome derby next week. I ended up paying €163 and €50 for our tickets, when they went on general sale, and could have paid a lot more. They're all at it. My wife loves football, but at that price decided to give it a miss as she's already seen Fulham there. So, the cu nts are even pricing out tourists! |
In Rome, make sure you take ID with you, your son will need it to, like his passport. They won’t let you in otherwise. |  | | |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 07:56 - Mar 28 with 1994 views | Konk |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 07:51 - Mar 28 by thame_hoops |
In Rome, make sure you take ID with you, your son will need it to, like his passport. They won’t let you in otherwise. |
Thanks for the reminder, mate. Appreciated. |  |
| Fulham FC: It's the taking part that counts |
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| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 09:09 - Mar 28 with 1875 views | TheChef |
Well yeah, we now have a Premier League "Hall of Fame" FFS. So I think you can see the direction of travel. |  |
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| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 09:13 - Mar 28 with 1869 views | TheChef |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 07:25 - Mar 28 by stowmarketrange |
Can’t you see a time when all 20 premier league clubs vote unanimously for a closed shop and £millions coming in every season with no prospect of relegation?Why would any of the 20 vote against it?Sure there would be opposition from the 72 clubs not able to board the gravy train,but I can see it happening one day.
Or maybe they’d reduce the relegation places to one and possibly another in a playoff with the 2nd best championship team.
Does the FA have enough power to stop it happening? |
This also is only a matter of time.
All these US businessmen looking to invest in the Premier League, and they're presented with the concept of relegation. That's no way to protect an investment! | |
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| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 09:30 - Mar 28 with 1806 views | gazza1 |
My mate has been a season ticket holder for many years.....moved to the Riverside from Putney Road end. Gone up from 515 to 1200, 50 off for being a pensioner.
As for the swimming pool and all the other stuff they are doing.....sounds very nice indeed as far as I am concerned.
I wonder how much it would cost us if we ever get back to the Premiership..... |  | | |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 09:46 - Mar 28 with 1753 views | ted_hendrix |
If you ever get into the Europa League or whatever It's called now and your playing against a
bloody German side make sure you get to the game early with your towels and grab as many sunbeds as possible, German fans are notorious for nicking all the sunbeds at football grounds. |  |
| My Father had a profound influence on me, he was a lunatic. |
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| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 11:32 - Mar 28 with 1636 views | stowmarketrange |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 09:30 - Mar 28 by gazza1 |
My mate has been a season ticket holder for many years.....moved to the Riverside from Putney Road end. Gone up from 515 to 1200, 50 off for being a pensioner.
As for the swimming pool and all the other stuff they are doing.....sounds very nice indeed as far as I am concerned.
I wonder how much it would cost us if we ever get back to the Premiership..... |
Is that £50 or 50% for being an oap? | | | |
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| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 11:33 - Mar 28 with 1632 views | switchingcode |
The new stand is obviously there to create income from non match days as well.I saw it at the start of the season and thought it looked impressive even though not completely finished.Still one of my favourite away days. | | | |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 11:38 - Mar 28 with 1595 views | W4Hoop |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 17:37 - Mar 27 by thame_hoops |
The Jacksonville Jaguars have a similar thing, I think it’s the same owner isn’t it. However, temperatures are a bit nicer there..In Jacksonville, it looks quite good fun as you can sit in the pool and watch the game. |
And yet since the NFL started playing fixtures in London the team that has played here most often is the Jaguars. Apparently they get more fans attending their games in London than they do in Jacksonville!  | | | |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 12:13 - Mar 28 with 1523 views | Rs_Holy |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 11:33 - Mar 28 by switchingcode |
The new stand is obviously there to create income from non match days as well.I saw it at the start of the season and thought it looked impressive even though not completely finished.Still one of my favourite away days. |
yes ... a trip to the cottage has always been a very pleasant experience for me ... until the match kicks off :( [Post edited 28 Mar 12:18]
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| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 12:16 - Mar 28 with 1514 views | Rs_Holy |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 06:50 - Mar 28 by Konk |
I think the vast majority of Fulham fans are really fu cked-off with the club. We knew prices would be ridiculous in the new stand, and I think most of us grudgingly accepted that the stand wasn't intended for "people like us" , but I think there was a naive belief that the revenue from the Riverside would be used to keep prices elsewhere, relatively reasonable. Instead, we have big increases in season tickets prices and match by match prices have gone from taking the pi ss to absolutely taking the pi ss. The club have also said that as far as they're concerned, they will get the maximum they can for a seat and they're not interested in who buys the ticket. Insult to injury - the restricted access to the riverside area means that the Hammersmith concourse is absolute chaos now.
I'm on a boycott - I've done one game this season - Rotherham in the cup because it cost us £21 or something, rather than the £110+ it would now cost for me to take my son to a PL game and sit in the Hammersmith or Putney.
We will go down again, and as others have said, let's see what happens to gates /prices then because the club are really alienating a chunk of support that has been through all the divisions.
On the tourist front, I'm taking my son to the Rome derby next week. I ended up paying €163 and €50 for our tickets, when they went on general sale, and could have paid a lot more. They're all at it. My wife loves football, but at that price decided to give it a miss as she's already seen Fulham there. So, the cu nts are even pricing out tourists! |
scary stuff!... QPR have to find a way of being self sustaining in the Championship... I'd settle for being a top half of the table club with (don't laugh) a decent cup run every 4-5 years... Every year that goes by the Prem becomes less and less attractive! | | | |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 12:58 - Mar 28 with 1391 views | Juzzie |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 06:50 - Mar 28 by Konk |
I think the vast majority of Fulham fans are really fu cked-off with the club. We knew prices would be ridiculous in the new stand, and I think most of us grudgingly accepted that the stand wasn't intended for "people like us" , but I think there was a naive belief that the revenue from the Riverside would be used to keep prices elsewhere, relatively reasonable. Instead, we have big increases in season tickets prices and match by match prices have gone from taking the pi ss to absolutely taking the pi ss. The club have also said that as far as they're concerned, they will get the maximum they can for a seat and they're not interested in who buys the ticket. Insult to injury - the restricted access to the riverside area means that the Hammersmith concourse is absolute chaos now.
I'm on a boycott - I've done one game this season - Rotherham in the cup because it cost us £21 or something, rather than the £110+ it would now cost for me to take my son to a PL game and sit in the Hammersmith or Putney.
We will go down again, and as others have said, let's see what happens to gates /prices then because the club are really alienating a chunk of support that has been through all the divisions.
On the tourist front, I'm taking my son to the Rome derby next week. I ended up paying €163 and €50 for our tickets, when they went on general sale, and could have paid a lot more. They're all at it. My wife loves football, but at that price decided to give it a miss as she's already seen Fulham there. So, the cu nts are even pricing out tourists! |
Got to admit I did the tourist visit to Barcelona in August '22 as part of an incursion from the hotel I stayed at.
However, my son and I are football fans. We were there because we love football and wanted to watch Barca at the Nou Camp (and I'm glad I did just before it got demolished but boy did it need demolishing).
I know you shouldn't judge books by covers but walking around before the game it just felt the majority of people were there were just football tourists. All lapping up the merchandise etc. Really didn't feel like a football game/atmosphere and there were 91,000 there.
The whole trip cost €220 (inc coach from the hotel & back). That's want they want, thousands of people doing that.
That's where football is at today and all the clubs are clamouring for it. |  | | |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 13:02 - Mar 28 with 1371 views | PlanetHonneywood |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 09:46 - Mar 28 by ted_hendrix |
If you ever get into the Europa League or whatever It's called now and your playing against a
bloody German side make sure you get to the game early with your towels and grab as many sunbeds as possible, German fans are notorious for nicking all the sunbeds at football grounds. |
 |  |
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| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 13:42 - Mar 28 with 1252 views | Hanwellianhoop |
Yep then they'll get beaten with birch twigs.Ruperts love that. | | | |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 14:26 - Mar 28 with 1180 views | QPunkR |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 00:06 - Mar 28 by NewBee |
@VancouverHoop
"The end-game for (most) Prem clubs though is never having to play the likes of Rotherham again. They're looking for a closed league with club parity to satisfy the international football tourist who care nothing about club history."
Whilst I agree completely with the gist of your overall post, and accept that some of the owners would like a closed shop, they're never going to get it (imo).
Remember, it was fans of the so-called Big Six who killed the last such proposal (European Super League) stone dead. And that was only a part of the shop - the rest (i.e. PL) was meant to carry on as before, if with reduced "importance".
Add to that the opposition from the all the other clubs (PL/EFL/NL), the FA, UEFA and the new Regulator etc, and I really can't see it applying in England.
(Aside from that, some great comments generally on this thread) |
Sorry to report but the ESL is far from stone dead. The European Court of Justice ruling in December has breathed new life into it with legitimacy.
Fair enough, there still remain only two and a half clubs still officially involved, but they have been talking with many other clubs - all it takes is for the first 3-4 to come out officially in support then the rest will fall in, just like the opposite of the English clubs folding and leaving the projects with their tails between their legs when the fans made their feelings known.
And although it might seem tough to think of Premier League clubs trying again after facing their fans’ wrath over the last time, consider that a few of them have had new owners since then. And it’s no surprise that most of the PL owners who were and remain for the idea are American |  |
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| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 14:29 - Mar 28 with 1177 views | Northernr |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 14:26 - Mar 28 by QPunkR |
Sorry to report but the ESL is far from stone dead. The European Court of Justice ruling in December has breathed new life into it with legitimacy.
Fair enough, there still remain only two and a half clubs still officially involved, but they have been talking with many other clubs - all it takes is for the first 3-4 to come out officially in support then the rest will fall in, just like the opposite of the English clubs folding and leaving the projects with their tails between their legs when the fans made their feelings known.
And although it might seem tough to think of Premier League clubs trying again after facing their fans’ wrath over the last time, consider that a few of them have had new owners since then. And it’s no surprise that most of the PL owners who were and remain for the idea are American |
You look at the big, new, stodgy structure for the Champions League and you could be forgiven for thinking they've basically already done it, or at least taken the first step towards doing it, while everybody was distracted with the supposed evil threat over there. |  | | |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 14:45 - Mar 28 with 1154 views | NorthantsHoop |
Long gone are the days when people actually go for the football so to speak, it's all about the match day experience, whatever that means. Although I love football dearly it's all a giant ponzi scheme financed by debt and we are now seeing the ramifications of this at the top level of the game to such an extent that the poor little guy football club is not allowed to dine at the top table for fear of upsetting the elite. |  | | |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 14:57 - Mar 28 with 1091 views | switchingcode |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 12:16 - Mar 28 by Rs_Holy |
scary stuff!... QPR have to find a way of being self sustaining in the Championship... I'd settle for being a top half of the table club with (don't laugh) a decent cup run every 4-5 years... Every year that goes by the Prem becomes less and less attractive! |
Agree especially the last bit | | | |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 15:25 - Mar 28 with 994 views | Esox_Lucius |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 15:46 - Mar 27 by hubble |
"a premium experience that will be unlike anything in football” said Fulham FC chairman Shahid Khan."
Do they actually expect people to come to watch a football match and go for a swim at half time? I guess they do.
Reality, as we knew it, is unravelling. |
I once went for a swim in the pool next to Uxbridge CC during the lunch break of a Middlesex vs Northants match one stinking hot summers day. |  |
| The grass is always greener. |
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| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 15:56 - Mar 28 with 935 views | NewBee |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 07:25 - Mar 28 by stowmarketrange |
Can’t you see a time when all 20 premier league clubs vote unanimously for a closed shop and £millions coming in every season with no prospect of relegation?Why would any of the 20 vote against it?Sure there would be opposition from the 72 clubs not able to board the gravy train,but I can see it happening one day.
Or maybe they’d reduce the relegation places to one and possibly another in a playoff with the 2nd best championship team.
Does the FA have enough power to stop it happening? |
"Does the FA have enough power to stop it happening? "
When the original "Big Five" (and their 17 little chums, including Luton ha ha) originally went to break away from the EFL, they wanted complete autonomy to do whatever they liked. Yet in the end, they were forced to get the say-so from the FA, who insisted inter alia that P & R be included in the scheme.
And the new PL had to go along with that, since without the FA's approval, they were never going to get UEFA's approval. And all that's before you consider the new Government Regulator. Faced with the anger of thousands of fans (i.e. voters) of half the 72 EFL clubs who reckon they could make the PL one day, what way do you reckon he/she will go?
And as for these owners, esp American, who would undoubtedly love to scrap relegation, think back to the likes of Kronke, Henry and the Glazers when the ESL fell apart.
Not only did they back off, but they all released a grovelling public apology to boot, something which those billionaire bastards have never done before, at least since they became filthy rich.
And if they were forced to learn that hard lesson, we may expect that the others following in their trail will have taken note, too. | | | |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 16:15 - Mar 28 with 870 views | NewBee |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 14:26 - Mar 28 by QPunkR |
Sorry to report but the ESL is far from stone dead. The European Court of Justice ruling in December has breathed new life into it with legitimacy.
Fair enough, there still remain only two and a half clubs still officially involved, but they have been talking with many other clubs - all it takes is for the first 3-4 to come out officially in support then the rest will fall in, just like the opposite of the English clubs folding and leaving the projects with their tails between their legs when the fans made their feelings known.
And although it might seem tough to think of Premier League clubs trying again after facing their fans’ wrath over the last time, consider that a few of them have had new owners since then. And it’s no surprise that most of the PL owners who were and remain for the idea are American |
The ECJ has merely said that they may carry on, not that it will carry on.
Think about it. Where is the money supposed to come from?
Answer: from massive American venture capitalists (who, incidentally, must be a lot more cautious now than when they calculated the initial figures).
And where were they going to get it back, with profit?
Answer, from TV, media, streaming rights and sponsorship etc.
Which probably looked a safe bet when they were offering the cream of European football to viewers and subscribers. But now you're talking Real, Barca, Juve and a supporting cast of eg Ajax, Benfica, Copenhagen and Celtic/Rangers etc, how many people are going to tune into that? Every. Bloody. Season.
All of which is before you consider the counter attractions of UEFA's latest revamped competitions, the Bundesliga, Serie A and La Liga etc, not to mention the ever more dominant EPL.
And look too, to the failure of the Chinese Super League, plus the present struggles of the Saudis. That is, even with all their money and resources, they couldn't challenge the existing football establishment.
If I thought I'd live long enough, I'd be willing to make a 50 year bet that the ESL as envisaged, whether Version 1.0, 2.0 or whatever, won't ever see the light of day, | | | |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 17:29 - Mar 28 with 768 views | stowmarketrange |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 15:56 - Mar 28 by NewBee |
"Does the FA have enough power to stop it happening? "
When the original "Big Five" (and their 17 little chums, including Luton ha ha) originally went to break away from the EFL, they wanted complete autonomy to do whatever they liked. Yet in the end, they were forced to get the say-so from the FA, who insisted inter alia that P & R be included in the scheme.
And the new PL had to go along with that, since without the FA's approval, they were never going to get UEFA's approval. And all that's before you consider the new Government Regulator. Faced with the anger of thousands of fans (i.e. voters) of half the 72 EFL clubs who reckon they could make the PL one day, what way do you reckon he/she will go?
And as for these owners, esp American, who would undoubtedly love to scrap relegation, think back to the likes of Kronke, Henry and the Glazers when the ESL fell apart.
Not only did they back off, but they all released a grovelling public apology to boot, something which those billionaire bastards have never done before, at least since they became filthy rich.
And if they were forced to learn that hard lesson, we may expect that the others following in their trail will have taken note, too. |
The power wielded by the premier league and its clubs are in a vastly different sphere to what they had at the start of the premier league in 92-93.And the champions league was a much smaller competition then too.
Back then there was a gulf between those 24 and the rest,but it wasn’t like the chasm between those 20 and most of the rest of the EFL now. | | | |
| Swimming pool at Craven Cottage on 17:57 - Mar 28 with 722 views | Benny_the_Ball |
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