BrianW
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 6 Mar 2006
- Messages
- 5,225
- Team supported
- There's Only One City
You have to bear in mind how the smaller clubs used to be. At one time, not that long ago, people worked until around midday on Saturday. Most had neither the time nor the money to travel to watch a "big club" in a city some miles away, and there was no TV or local radio. So they went to watch their local team instead.
Those days are dead and gone. Bury used to get over 10,000 in the ground of a regular basis, but never will again. I'll practically guarantee that the great majority of young kids in the catchment area support either City or the Rags (or in odd cases Liverpool or Everton, or maybe Burnley) and wouldn't dream of going to Gigg Lane. Of course. there's still a niche market for Bury FC as there is for Radcliffe Borough, or Prestwich Heys, or the lads who hone their skills on Hillock Playing Fields. You could say the fans of such teams are connoisseurs of a certain type of football, one that's perhaps more "real" than the Premier League.
But the restrictions of televising the Premier League are equivalent to banning the sale of Cheddar Cheese at certain times in an attempt to protect Stinking Bishop. It's a totally different market.
Those days are dead and gone. Bury used to get over 10,000 in the ground of a regular basis, but never will again. I'll practically guarantee that the great majority of young kids in the catchment area support either City or the Rags (or in odd cases Liverpool or Everton, or maybe Burnley) and wouldn't dream of going to Gigg Lane. Of course. there's still a niche market for Bury FC as there is for Radcliffe Borough, or Prestwich Heys, or the lads who hone their skills on Hillock Playing Fields. You could say the fans of such teams are connoisseurs of a certain type of football, one that's perhaps more "real" than the Premier League.
But the restrictions of televising the Premier League are equivalent to banning the sale of Cheddar Cheese at certain times in an attempt to protect Stinking Bishop. It's a totally different market.