An evening with Ben and Martin.

[uttoxbrewer]

Mar 10, 2024 9:21:38 GMT bennyboy said:

"For all of Ben's financial ability; it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out the problems associated with getting people into the ground"

I know we've had fixtures postponed lately but for March, out of 6 matches only 2 at home, yesterday was one of them.
April, yes ones a rearrangement, 4 at home 2 away.
The fixture planning needs a shake up, one month sparce income for the club another month a good deal better but will the fans attend all of the those matches close together?
It used to be more or less home then away patterns, no longer any consistency with these fixtures and too many cup competitions.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, how many times in a season does it happen that, not just for the Brewers, but when the fixtures are arranged a club is at home Saturday, Tuesday then not at home for another two and a half weeks? Some people can’t afford to go twice in four days, more so if say Dad and two or three kids,ref attendances for recent home matches vs Northampton (3.9k) and Carlisle (2.2k) appreciate more Northampton fans travelled on Saturday than Carlisle on Tuesday.

I know this isn’t the clubs fault but I’m sure it’s not just an issue for the Brewers. Could the Chairmen of L1 and L2 clubs get together and express to this to the EFL? Apologies as don’t really know the communication mechanism for this but surely would help clubs cash flow if fixture planning was better in the first instance? Appreciate clubs can’t really do much when matches are postponed and lead to a fixture backlog towards the end of the season and then a case of having to arrange matches as and when availability arises.

[cbh1]

Mar 10, 2024 13:18:49 GMT uttoxbrewer said:

Mar 10, 2024 9:21:38 GMT bennyboy said:

"For all of Ben's financial ability; it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out the problems associated with getting people into the ground"

I know we've had fixtures postponed lately but for March, out of 6 matches only 2 at home, yesterday was one of them.
April, yes ones a rearrangement, 4 at home 2 away.
The fixture planning needs a shake up, one month sparce income for the club another month a good deal better but will the fans attend all of the those matches close together?
It used to be more or less home then away patterns, no longer any consistency with these fixtures and too many cup competitions.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, how many times in a season does it happen that, not just for the Brewers, but when the fixtures are arranged a club is at home Saturday, Tuesday then not at home for another two and a half weeks? Some people can’t afford to go twice in four days, more so if say Dad and two or three kids,ref attendances for recent home matches vs Northampton (3.9k) and Carlisle (2.2k) appreciate more Northampton fans travelled on Saturday than Carlisle on Tuesday.

I know this isn’t the clubs fault but I’m sure it’s not just an issue for the Brewers. Could the Chairmen of L1 and L2 clubs get together and express to this to the EFL? Apologies as don’t really know the communication mechanism for this but surely would help clubs cash flow if fixture planning was better in the first instance? Appreciate clubs can’t really do much when matches are postponed and lead to a fixture backlog towards the end of the season and then a case of having to arrange matches as and when availability arises.

There have been a number of articles published over the years trying to explain various elements of the fixture planning. Not that I can remember them all but a few that I picked up on.

When the original list is published they ensure that a team never has three away games in a row. I think they pay careful attention to scheduled to cup dates as well to try and ensure that irrespective of cup draw this still works out.

There will inevitably be a number of midweek fixtures, probably eight to ten over the course of the season, half of which should be home and half away, the average travelling distance for those should never be more that the overall average for all 23 games (Given we have had Carlisle and Portsmouth this season, not sure what apart from Port Vale makes up for that!). Inevitably when you have midweek schedules if you have home one Saturday and away the nest, a midweek schedule is going to mean you have either two home or two away games in a row.

Obviously clubs can request to be paired with another club to avoid being at home on the same day as them. Eg us and Derby. Police and Safety teams will also have views on which clubs cannot be at home on the same day. I think one example I saw from a few years ago was something like Dagenham & Redbridge could not be at home same time as West Ham. Southend could not be at home on same day as D&R, Southend and Colchester could not be at home at the same time and Colchester and Ipswich were the same.

How often do we see that we end up with back to back home games on a Saturday and Tuesday when it is the end of the month and supporters may not have been paid yet?

A number of fixtures we get tend to be pretty much the same each season in terms of roughly when we play sides. I dont envy them having to come up with the algorithms to manage fixtures for 72 teams.

[uttoxbrewer]

Thanks for the clarification cbh, using the West Ham, Dagenham, Southend, Colchester situation you’ve described this could be repeated across the country with other bigger regions and cities. If so we go back to the Saturday, Tuesday no home game for two and a half weeks situation, this might never change then? It’s certainly been an issue for a fair few years now.

In which case then I guess clubs accept there will be times during the season they know when this happens and there will be fluctuations in attendance figures for two games in four days and no further income for two and a half weeks they’ll budget for this and cut their cloth accordingly? At least we know the responsible ones will.