Stuart Bathgate: Clubs and fans being messed about by the power of TV

But, over the past couple of years, there has been a growing feeling among supporters that TV takes them too much for granted – and now more clubs are beginning to take up the cudgels on behalf of their fans.

The received wisdom, as espoused by SPL chairman Ralph Topping among others, is that Scottish football’s TV deal is dependent on Rangers and Celtic, and that the other clubs in the top flight should knuckle under and recognise that. Some clubs are now openly willing to contest that analysis and, even among those with a more conciliatory attitude towards the Old Firm, there is a feeling that enough is enough. While every director in the top flight welcomes regular payments from ESPN and Sky, they are at least as keen to attract more paying spectators through the turnstiles. And the more kick-off times are varied, the harder it is for clubs to hold on to their existing fan base, never mind start building their support up again.

Hibs’ experience this season is a classic example of how TV companies have messed clubs about. This has not been the most successful of seasons at Easter Road, with a run to the Scottish Cup semi-final providing some much-needed relief from a dour struggle to avoid relegation. So there has been nothing extraordinary about Hibs’ year which might have earned them special attention from TV companies desperate to fit more of their games into crowded schedules – and yet the Edinburgh club has already had 11 different kick-off times this season.

And it’s going to get worse, as over the next couple of weeks they will add three more different starting times. Their match at Inverness this Sunday is a 3pm kick-off, next Sunday’s game against Motherwell is a 12.30pm, and then the cup semi-final six days later starts at 12.15pm.

There are minor variations between some of the times in that total of 14 but even a quarter-hour here or there can make a difference to some fans as they try to make childcare or travel arrangements. And, perhaps more importantly, the fact is that they often do not know until a relatively short time before the game when the kick-off will be.

There are probably not too many other industries which sell customers a product while refusing to let them know when they can use it, but that is what football clubs are essentially doing these days when they put their season tickets up for sale. When you buy a ticket you know it will entitle you to a seat for most if not all of your team’s home games – but you don’t know when those games will be. And often, once kick-off times are announced, they get changed nearer the time.

Hibs reckon they get close to four times as much money from matchday receipts as they do from TV. It is therefore easy to understand why Hibs managing director Fife Hyland insists that supporters, not TV, are the lifeblood of the game.

What is more, while more successful league seasons mean more TV revenue, they are not the only way of producing bigger crowds. Hibs obviously hope they do not go down to the First Division, but at least the last time they were relegated they found compensation of a sort in the shape of bigger crowds. A winning team was one factor in that rise in attendances, while many parents felt happier taken their children to games which were played in a significantly friendlier atmosphere than is the case in some big SPL fixtures.

Across Edinburgh at Tynecastle, Hearts’ accounts for the year to July 2010 revealed that their matchday revenues were more than two and a half times greater than their income from broadcasting. Acording to one Hearts source, the club believes that, even if the Old Firm were out of the equation, a TV deal would provide sufficient revenue – and that in any case, any shortfall could be more than offset by higher crowds.

“The TV deal is not the be all and end all,” the source said. “For a start, even if the Old Firm left the SPL and the current TV deal was reduced or disappeared, there would still be a lot of potential avenues to explore. We could look at establishing an SPL TV, as has been done previously, or it might be possible to negotiate a new, smaller Sky deal. A new TV deal would still be workable if it was around £8-10m per annum, given that the Old Firm’s current share of 35 per cent would not be included. Also, we are convinced that the public would respond very positively to a league which did not include the Old Firm. If Hearts were challenging for the title, the increased attendances that produced could easily outweigh the loss of revenue from Rangers and Celtic games.”

The importance of gate receipts – and the threat to clubs if they drop unexpectedly – was demonstrated at the start of this month when Dunfermline revealed that lower gates had been a factor in their inability to pay their players’ full salaries on time. It was Rangers’ withholding of ticket money which was the cause of the acute financial problem but, if attendance figures had been what the Fife club had budgeted for, they would have had some spare cash to tide them over.

Jim Leishman, the club’s director of football, explained that problem, and suggested that varying kick-off times had also had an effect. “You can prepare a budget at the start of the season and then things crop up that you don’t expect,” he said. “Our attendances are down more than we expected this year, whether it’s [because of] the team’s performance or early afternoon TV games at 12. We budgeted for 6,000 against Hibs and we got 4,100.

“There are 1,900 people that we thought would be through the gate on average from the last two or three games we played against Hibs. It was not a false figure we came up with, it was a genuine expectation, so that’s something you can’t recoup.”

Once the TV deal is signed, teams know how much money they will be getting from that source. Matchday income is the great variable, one which too many clubs are finding is being adversely affected by the dictates of TV.