The Sky's The Limit
Kick-off time is a kicker for traveling Blues fans

28 March 2002

Walter Smith's reign of terror is over; the future is bright, the future is Moyes.  However, has this sudden change in fortunes come at a price for the Blues?  No, not at the cost of the compensation sent to Mr Smith's healthy bank account, or Preston North End's bounty, but in the sudden new interest in Everton from the media.  In particular, Sky.

In the next month, Everton will be featured on Sky three times.  For the first time this season, we will be featured in an away match on Sky, when we take on Newcastle on Good Friday.  That's not too much of a hassle in my opinion; a 2pm kick-off gives the fans plenty of time to trek up all those steps at St James' Park.

That's where things start to go wrong.  On the 20th April, Everton travel to St Mary's Stadium in Southampton for the first time and, to mark the occasion, Sky has graced us with our first away appearance on pay-per-view.  But remarkably, they have set a 5.15pm kick off time.  Now, admittedly, I thought 'Great, Blues on TV,' when I heard this news.  I'm an impoverished student, and cannot afford to travel to many away fixtures, and I hadn't planned on going to this game.  It's a good job as well, because I tried to check just how I might be best able to get there.

Getting to Southampton, although a hassle, isn't that difficult.  There are two decently timed trains from Lime Street to Southampton Central (20 mins from the ground) leaving at 9:13am getting in at 2:43pm or at 9:49am getting in at 3:03pm.  Not too bad so far?  Try getting home.

You see, I put a simple request into the search engine for Southampton — Lime Street, and I was shocked to find that my computer was telling me off for asking such a simple, yet obviously stupid question.  It is possible to get home from Southampton just after midnight.  But that does mean that you can only watch the first half.  Not really worth it, is it?

Alternatively, Railtrack advised me to get a train at midnight to London Waterloo, walk to the tube station (approx 18 mins if you're interested), sleep rough in the tube station, catch a tube to Euston, and then wait around for another hour, before traveling back to Liverpool.  That's just a minute less than 11 hours for the whole trip, although Railtrack do kindly advise that it may involve a prolonged stop.  Either that or wait until 6 in the morning, and take a bus through London up to Clapham and then another two trains on the way, in a 7 hour journey.

Stats aside, it isn't the rail network's fault, and you never know, they may surprise us all by putting a special train on.  If they don't, then pump out some more cash for one of Southampton's bed and breakfasts.  Which will put their prices up for all visiting supporters.

So, Sky brings a sour note to proceedings.  Surely that's where they'll leave things, what more could they do to annoy us, we only have another two games after that.  Both of which will now almost certainly be televised on Sky.  The Arsenal game you can understand, they will win the league that day.  But Blackburn?

Now I'm sure that we all hope that the result against Blackburn becomes immaterial.  But, there's every chance that, while it may or may not matter to us, it will matter to Blackburn.  So, the game has been moved to Sunday at 4pm.  Not that much of a problem...  

Except that, on Sunday 28th April, Everton FC had given permission to Football Aid to use Goodison Park for their charity event, whereby 30 Evertonians were to be given the opportunity to play at Goodison Park, alongside Graham Sharp and Ian Snodin, managed by Howard Kendall and Joe Royle.  Football Aid, it appears, were shocked to discover this news this morning, despite the fact that they have raised considerable amounts of money for charity by auctioning off all 30 places to fans, the proceeds primarily going to children's diabetes charities, with other charities to benefit as well.

Once again, Sky has decided that money comes considerably ahead of fans.  Except on this occasion, Sky has decided that money comes ahead of charities as well.  This is not just me being bitter because I was due to be playing at Goodison Park.  This is not me being bitter because it may not be as easy to book the Everton legends as mentioned above to appear on a new date.  Nor is this a rant because there's every chance that a new date would be set at a time that myself, or the other 29, would not be available for.

This is me ranting, because Sky has been messing fans around for years.  Sunday games are inconvenient, Monday night matches not much better, especially if you have to travel to matches.  Saturday evening games are just stupid.  If Sky were desperate to see us play on a Saturday night, then why not move the Blackburn game to that time?  It's not far for away fans to travel, because we're close.  Oh, hang on, Blackburn don't have fans, there, no problem at all.  But that would make far too much sense for Sky. 

If those responsible for chopping and changing fixtures at will could stop counting their money for just five minutes, and pick up a map, they might just realize what an inconvenience their actions are.  Or better still, why doesn't someone from Sky travel down to Southampton from Liverpool on the route that I suggested above, and then see if they agree that their decisions are at best ridiculous.  

I have sent an e-mail to Sky to see if they dare admit their stupidity but, to be honest, I don't expect to hear anything from them.  Maybe its about time that the governing body of The Premiership (the FA, not the ITV show) decided to stand up for themselves, and not to sell their souls for as many pennies as they can find.  But I wouldn't bet on it.

Yet, we are still considerably better off than those clubs lumped with ITV Digital…

Tom O'Brien

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