Spring News

Could be big for Argyle in the next two days....because.....

Div 2 are holding a video conference today and tomorrow and will be discussing amongst other things about finishing the season now.

If finishing the season means playing behind closed doors....surely a majority of clubs would prefer to finish now....cutting their cost from all the expenses entailed in playing behind closed doors....staff required....travelling expenses etc..... relegation for Stevenage is assured.....just need to sort out who goes up with the automatic three.....but of course it all needs to link up with promotion and relegation from the Championship and Div 1.....plus Div 1 being only a twenty three team league this year......I wonder how it will pan out.....if the season ends up null and void only Stevenage benefits.

 

Players' contracts seem to be a much bigger issue than you'd think.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52360266

 

They do seem to be clinging on to the notion they can finish the season don't they. My personal view......give it up and just call it a day. The problems seeing it through far outweigh the not seeing it through so why prolong the agony. As far as the final matches me not getting to see even though I've paid, well they can just keep the money and I will write it off as a bad job that couldn't be avoided. Trying to sort out refunds etc is just more than the club could probably bear and would harm it. Rather that than the club hitting the buffers again.

 

Well it seems that Div 2 clubs are committed to finishing the season.....the problem is they don't know how they will achieve that at the moment ?......

 

Simon Hallett has written a comprehensive article about the present situation regarding Argyle and the end season situation.....good to be kept informed.

 

Really decent read that was. He talks a lot of sense and have to say I trust him a whole lot more than I would Brent in these scary times.

 

Lots of rubbish in the press at the moment ( they obviously need to fill the void left by the lack of football) . There are a few stories that say 'League 2 clubs , or league 1 clubs believe such and such....' when it is just one person's opinion being passed off as the collective view. L1 & L2 clubs haven't voted on anything yet and neither have they agreed a collective view. Our Chairman has set out our position quite clearly, some clubs agree with us and some very definitely do not. It is a strange industry to be working in at the moment but ultimately it doesn't matter what we think/decide , the government's social distancing policy will determine what happens to football- clubs and the football authorities just need to work out a way of minimising the financial pain.

 

Good to hear from you Lyndy.....are you working from home... or making that long walk to work......

 

The football authorities from the EPL down clearly need to work with the Government to agree what's safe. Once that's done, they need to decide what's practicable which best preserves fairness and the credibility of a season in which a lot of sweat and treasure has been expended by all concerned, including the fans, in getting to the 80% complete stage.

Thereafter, heads need to be knocked together to make that happen in a financially responsible way. We can't have special interests, whether it be clubs facing relegation or the PFA blocking the best way forward.

 

Good to hear from you Lyndie. Hope you and yours are well.

The fact is there will be special interests though notdistant. Any club that could dip out will be against either wrapping up the season or allowing it to stand. Fairness will be the last thing on their minds as always. Even Argyle will be one of those when the vote on promotions/relegations is taken. My overriding concern is that we avoid financial ruin. The promotion, even though I'd bite their hand off for it, is secondary to that.

 

Working from home at the moment , but spending at least 4 hours a day on Zoom in various meetings. Fortunately Home Park is on my daily exercise route

so pop in most days to say hello to the NHS staff and make sure all is okay. The safety of players staff and officials and the need to avoid financial ruin will determine how this season finishes, and how/when the next season starts. We will be okay, but are not immune from the huge losses that are already being felt through not generating any revenue. Not surprisingly we have modelled all sorts of scenarios,

and in our opinion the least painful is to abandon the season now, and not start again until it is safe to do in front of spectators.​

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Under normal circumstances today's home match against Port Vale would have been game No 46....last game of the 2019/20 season......unless we only made the play-offs and were dreaming of a Wembley trip again.

I still can't see how we can play a contact sport under the governments social distancing rules.....which could be in place until next year....let alone next season.

Unless this season continues into the autumn and season 2020/21 is completely re-jigged....such as clubs only play each other once.....meaning you would be depending on the luck of the draw.....getting home game's against the stronger teams....whoever they might be next season.

Finishing this season after a long lay-off would be the equivalent of the normal summer break.....and who would be hitting the ground running....the league could end up topsy-turvy compared with league positions at the moment.....everyone would be rather nervous I would think....would players still be tied to their present clubs ? beyond the end of contracts in June for many ?

PS....I wrote this before Lyndy posted the above with his on the spot know-how....but I'll still post it un-changed anyway.

 

This is all about relative risk and today's paper is full of who might be released from lockdown, where and when. Before distancing can be relaxed, testing needs to be ramped up so that anyone who does become ill can be isolated immediately.

One thing's for sure: ultra fit young men with huge lung capacities are at very low risk. The same's not true of fans of course or non playing staff.

With wages being the largest slug of football's cost base, the only way costs can be cut is to take people off the payroll, either by furloughing or more traditional and more brutal means. There must a brief period every summer when the playing staff shrinks as last season's players go and the new ones haven't arrived. That's a contractual problem here as well as a financial one if players are kept on the books who otherwise would have left if all they are going to do is play in empty stadia. Televising League 2 games isn't likely to be an option. Who'd carry it? But there is IFollow. For PAFC, chasing promotion, we'd get what, 12k at least at each remaining home game at , I don't know, an average of £10 a pop including non ticket spending.

If the games are behind closed doors, you don't have the policing, stewarding and other costs of letting spectators in. How much would we fans pay to watch on IFollow though? I'd happily pay at least double the usual £10, bearing in mind several would watch at home and the fact I'd be buying tickets anyway, maybe treble or more. And I'd pay to watch the away games too.

I have to defer to Lyndy's inside knowledge but surely there is some way of making it work, at least for a club with support like ours.

 

To be fair any money the club could generate at all would be good. Not sure you'd get 12000 though. There is then the season ticket people who I doubt you could charge for the privilege. Unless they made a voluntary donation of course. At £10 a go you might get a couple of thousand non season ticket holders. That's £20k a game. Better than nothing.

 

Am I right in thinking yesterday would have been our last home game? If we'd gone into that needing say a point to go up, the ground would be crammed full.

We can get 40,000 to pay to go all the way to Wembley to watch a play off L2 final, so 12k may be an underestimate of those who'd want to watch that sort of game, and in lock down, there couldn't be too many gathering around the same screen to watch the same feed. Also, as I said, it would give many the chance to watch away games who don't usually travel, so there's extra money there too.

I may be a bit on the optimistic side but "a few thousand" is way too low I think, given where we are in the table.

 

I mentioned above that yesterday (25th) was our last game....at home to Port Vale......by the way I think we got nearer 34,000 at Wembley to watch the mighty Wimbledon.
16,000 odd is roughly our max and quite a few of those would be ST holders who of course already paid......we do allow a ridiculously large dividing gap between home and away fans in the Barn Park end.....but it's all elementary dear Watson.....the Dutch have erased their season....it could still happen here.....must try and keep a straight face if Liverpool are denied the title.

 

As a football fan I think it would be a travesty if Liverpool didn't get their title after the season they have produced. That has nothing to do with liking Liverpool or not liking Liverpool. There is some doubt about a couple of things in the leagues but them winning the Prem is not one of them virtually the same as Stevenage going out.

 

No possible football at Home Park for a few weeks at present.....re-grassing the pitch....so no grass at all for the moment.....reminds me of some of the pitches I played on in the Bromley and District League back in the late 1950's....but without the quagmire in front of the goal....plus the soggy lump of lead we used to use for a ball.

 

There was a Tweet 2 (?) weeks ago from the ground staff saying the pitch was almost back to its best after the heavy rain. A picture confirmed in is looking beautiful.

The police helicopter was hovering over the Jennycliff sort of area yesterday afternoon. Surely not out spotting rogue dog walkers was it?

 

I must correct myself. What I said was true 2 weeks ago but it is wrong now. The pitch has now been dug up for drainage repairs and reseeding. The statement does say though that the pitch will be playable for the 4 remaining home games in the 19/20 season from the beginning of June, if they do take place at all.