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Parental advice
at 18:34 2 Sep 2021

This is a common thing I suspect but thought it might be interesting to get a range of opinions. Sorry if this is more netmum territory :-)

I have a six year old son who is fairly indifferent about football, although he does play at school and separately once a week. He watched the England games over the summer but has a short attention span (30 mins) like most of his age.

He has a Col U shirt and has been nudged in the ways of Col U gently thus far.

I thought I would finally break his Col U duck and take him to the Sutton game on Saturday.

Having broached the subject - initial enthusiasm, then changed his mind, then incentivised with the promise of sweets, burger, fizzy pop etc. I feel like the fact he gets in free minimises my potential losses on the day, and we can bluff our way through this one game.

This raises a few questions though:

1 - Is it bad form for them to use a tablet/phone whilst the game is going on
2 - How to make him feel a bit more invested in Col U so they become "his" Team
3 - If the game is terrible/we lose/cold weather i.e. a fairly depressing experience, have I then broken him and missed the chance of any future repeats

Thoughts welcome!

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Premier League - rant (sorry)
at 19:13 16 Dec 2014

As I started to read about the proposal that the next PL auction will see games on Friday nights as well, primarily I assume as a means of boosting the number of matches to spread between bidders, I started to get angry.

How is getting multiple bidders (two) to bid for a block of different games in any sense competitive and therein beneficial to the consumer by driving down costs - this being the purpose of competitive markets?

If the competition authorities declared that "in a bid to increase competition", supermarkets must bid for, say:
(1) which days of the week they can open, wherein their rivals will not be able to open on said days, or perhaps
(2) which towns they can operate in, wherein their rivals must not have any presence

In either instance, it's just nonsense. This is not competition and in fact it achieves the opposite objectives. You get bidders to pay more for the premium slots (weekend or big population) and the consumer loses in terms of choice (be it days open, or proximity to your home) and, on the basis that bid costs need to be recouped, almost certainly expense.

Yet, unless I am mistaken, this is exactly the scenario with the PL rights, is it not? True competition would only exist if multiple providers show the same matches and compete with each other to 'win' the hard-earned £ or $ of the consumer.

As consumers we equate the quality of production/analysis/pundits/teams with the cost. Andy Townsend/Stoke vs Leicester at the 'value' end and for arguments sake, Gary Neville/Chelsea vs Man City at the other.

I understand why things happen the way they do and I confess, despite my irritation, I don't necessarily have a better option. But conceptually, it's just barmy the way it is.

Thoughts?

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Roy McD doc
at 07:02 7 Dec 2012

I gather this will be on BBC Essex 12-1 on both Boxing Day and NY day if it is of interest to anyone.

It was an interesting period for the club and games were never dull while he was on the pitch (or being sent off it).

I'll stop now before I get all nostalgic about Layer road, Friday night games etc.

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