BT should make games available to the fans
As Premiership rugby fans we’ve been spoiled during the pandemic with BT Sport showing every Premiership match, but we’re now suffering withdrawal symptoms as the broadcaster has reverted to showing its regular three games each weekend.
From reading the supporters’ websites it seems some are even resorting to dodgy illegal streaming services in a desperate attempt to see their team play. Some of the online betting sites used to show games to their customers, but that seems to have stopped too. All the Premiership games are available to view later on PRTV, but it’s hard to keep away from the result until the game is uploaded!
In the first two rounds of this season, attendances were a bit down, but ironically I’m pretty sure that interest in the Premiership was as high, or higher, than before. If, as we’re told, the punters want tries, then there were a record number in the first two weeks. The major reason for attendances being down is, I’m sure, that a lot of people are still about attending a match in person, and being in a crowd where masks aren’t worn and everyone is shouting. The technology exists to allow BT Sport viewers to buy a ‘passport’ that would allow them access to a game that isn’t one of the three being shown, and it would be great if that could be launched.
The fear would perhaps be that this would damage attendance figures, but the evidence suggests that wouldn’t be the case. Fans go to games for all the traditional reasons: to see their mates, to enjoy a few beers, as a release from the rigours of the working week and so on, and I doubt that would substantially change.
Attendances at games that start at 15:00 on a Saturday don’t seem to be much affected by being televised, but Friday evenings and Sunday matches remain less popular because of travel issues and clashing with family time.
There are plenty of local derbies in the Premiership, but there are also lots where the distance involved deters fans. This weekend Newcastle travnervous elled to Coventry to play Wasps, and today Exeter are away at Sale – long trips, and when you add in the shenanigans about fuel, not too many will make the trip. If they were offered the chance to buy a viewing ticket for the game I reckon there would be plenty of takers.
I bet that when they were added to the attendance, it would be an increase on previous years. What we want is as many people as possible watching Premiership rugby, and this seems like a really good way to increase those numbers.
Last weekend Sara Cox refereed her first Premiership match, and it was great that by and large it was simply accepted without comment. Not so long ago there would have been a misogynist element moaning that a woman wouldn’t be up to the job, but, in fact, the comments on supporters’ websites seemed to be exactly in line with what male referees get – that none of them know what they’re doing!
Joe Marler discussed this on his podcast with a former football referee, Mark Clattenburg, who illustrated how far behind the round-ball game is, when saying that women “have to make this choice: do they want to be pregnant or do they want to be referees?”
Marler described Clattenburg’s comments as “disrespectful and archaic”, saying that Sara Cox was leading the way, and that it was how the world should be.
By and large, the standard of refereeing in the Premiership is the best in world rugby, and I don’t think fans give two hoots about the gender of the ref – it’s a simple case of whether she or he is up to the job, and Sara Cox showed that she is. Hopefully more female referees will follow in her footsteps.