Post by JoeLatics on Jan 15, 2010 22:10:31 GMT
Whilst nearly every team in the country has been inconvienienced by the cold snap, the impact of this on smaller clubs can be startling.
Take for instance Latics.
We've played just one game since the 19th December, and, with the Stockport game scheuled for tomorrow now off, that'll have been a whole month with just the one game.
Now whilst in playing terms, that may be seen as good news, with Chris Taylor and Pav Abbott, (our equivelent of Stephen Gerrard and Fernando Torres) returning from injury during the month, we've lost a lot in financial terms.
Whereas a local Boxing-Day derby against Tranmere may have pulled 6,000 fans (worth approx £105,000 in gate reciepts alone, worth a good £115,000 including programmes and pies), the rescheduled Wednesday night game will be lucky to pull 4,000 (worth about £85,000 in gate reciepts, £88,000 with programmes and pies), which represents a £27,000 loss from the fan side of things alone - much more considering the programmes and food that had to be thrown away - that the Latics' owners can ill afford.
There's a similar story with the Leyton Orient match, moved from a Saturday to a Tuesday, and, with Oldham v Orient not exactly a mouth-watering tie, especially if we perform poorly against Tranmere, we could be losing a lot of money.
All of this isn't even mentioning the necessity of hiring indoor training, and so on.
Possibly even worse affected, however, are Wrexham, who've not played since 15th December.
This run equated to 8 lost games, of which 4 were supposed to be played at the Racecourse Ground.
Furthermore, to quote their manager, Dean Saunders, "[They] will have to play on Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday then again on Saturday,".
Those games would have mostly been Saturdays, ordinarily, so they could well drop points.
Whilst winning all 5 of their games in hand would push them up to being in contention for the play-offs, this outcome would be unlikely for a side with only 7 wins out of 22 this season.
So (and I'll bet you saw this coming) it all comes down to this: Is it finally time to implement a winter break in English football, and start the season earlier, and finish it later?
Surely this would stop most of the circumstances like those of Oldham, Wrexham, and, I'm sure, many other clubs?
Take for instance Latics.
We've played just one game since the 19th December, and, with the Stockport game scheuled for tomorrow now off, that'll have been a whole month with just the one game.
Now whilst in playing terms, that may be seen as good news, with Chris Taylor and Pav Abbott, (our equivelent of Stephen Gerrard and Fernando Torres) returning from injury during the month, we've lost a lot in financial terms.
Whereas a local Boxing-Day derby against Tranmere may have pulled 6,000 fans (worth approx £105,000 in gate reciepts alone, worth a good £115,000 including programmes and pies), the rescheduled Wednesday night game will be lucky to pull 4,000 (worth about £85,000 in gate reciepts, £88,000 with programmes and pies), which represents a £27,000 loss from the fan side of things alone - much more considering the programmes and food that had to be thrown away - that the Latics' owners can ill afford.
There's a similar story with the Leyton Orient match, moved from a Saturday to a Tuesday, and, with Oldham v Orient not exactly a mouth-watering tie, especially if we perform poorly against Tranmere, we could be losing a lot of money.
All of this isn't even mentioning the necessity of hiring indoor training, and so on.
Possibly even worse affected, however, are Wrexham, who've not played since 15th December.
This run equated to 8 lost games, of which 4 were supposed to be played at the Racecourse Ground.
Furthermore, to quote their manager, Dean Saunders, "[They] will have to play on Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday then again on Saturday,".
Those games would have mostly been Saturdays, ordinarily, so they could well drop points.
Whilst winning all 5 of their games in hand would push them up to being in contention for the play-offs, this outcome would be unlikely for a side with only 7 wins out of 22 this season.
So (and I'll bet you saw this coming) it all comes down to this: Is it finally time to implement a winter break in English football, and start the season earlier, and finish it later?
Surely this would stop most of the circumstances like those of Oldham, Wrexham, and, I'm sure, many other clubs?