18/20 Team League

[Debut 4]

Clubs need to reduce prices drastically for a long period of time, not just one-off games here and there. Obviously they will need to reduce costs in order to do so, like pay less in wages, but they can only say it does / doesnt work if they have tried it. But none will be willing to do so. We should be able to fill Tynecastle every home game if we get the pricing right.

i know mate, the one off Mot v Utd game was an example though....I`m sure it was something like a tenner for adults and a fiver for kids......

[kevinmackenzie14]

In my opinion Scottish football should take the Germans ticket prices in to consideration.. 15 euro for an adult for every type of game, inc champions league & major derby's and big games. when I to killie for the game it was 22 quid for a ticket and about 10 quid for travel. im also in favour of a 16/18 or 20 team league, would make it a little more exciting and help some of the smaller teams in scotland financially with teams like celtic,rangers & hearts to look forward to & a reserve league back too many young players that are too old for the u19s and not quite good enough for the first team not playing at all.

[ToadKiller Dog]

I would prefer a bigger league as i think it gives more scope/time to improve other parts of the game .

Starting with a 16 team a minimum of 2 relegated and one or two play off places should keep the relegation

battle competitive .plus fans of those in the play offs as in england would turn out with a chance of a show case

final , At the top of course the Uglies would likely win out more than not but it would be a higher chance that a non Ugly

could win the league with out having to win in Glasgow .

With 4 places avaliable in europe and maybe one day 5 again more teams should be competing for longer .

 

It would allow more scope for experiment with ticket prices , looking at reintroducing standing areas at least for non ugly games .It would take big time (in scottish terms ) football to more areas .

 

It coupled with a proper reserve/u23 league would give more time for player/youth development as survival pressures would be less .

 

Of course it wouldnt be all positives as Scottish football would still have to take a major hair cut , backwards to eventually go forwards.

 

But wont happen as the Uglies will dictate and short term self interest will divide the rest .

Short term self interest has been the killer of scottish football it has destroyed ambition and competativness .

 

Football is no longer the heart beat of local communities we need to look at ways of getting that back . Germany never lost it ,The times i have been is germany just about every 2nd car has a football club stiker on it . Can that be brought back ?

[Except Today]

In my opinion Scottish football should take the Germans ticket prices in to consideration.. 15 euro for an adult for every type of game, inc champions league & major derby's and big games. when I to killie for the game it was 22 quid for a ticket and about 10 quid for travel. im also in favour of a 16/18 or 20 team league, would make it a little more exciting and help some of the smaller teams in scotland financially with teams like celtic,rangers & hearts to look forward to & a reserve league back too many young players that are too old for the u19s and not quite good enough for the first team not playing at all.

 

 

ask sky/espn to give us ?60 million a season then. and expand scotland to have a population of 80 million

 

scottish football is dead, it died 30 years ago & the SFA refuse to switch off the life support machine, for a nation of only 5 million we have finally found our level after over 100 years at the forefront of the game & 20 years chasing the pot of gold from sky to be like our counterparts down south.

 

it all catches up with us at the end.

 

RIP

[sarissa]

18 might be too many teams.

There would probably be too many meaningless matches in the second half of the season for the mid-table teams, unless there was 'something' for the to play for. It's not too bad in England due to the number of Euro places they get, so the team in 12th for example who is safe from relegation at Christmas still has a chance of getting into Europe by coming 8th (or whatever) whereas in an 18 team SPL with potentially only the top 4 getting into Europe then a similar 12th place team will have virtually no chance of making Europe etc and will be safe from relegation.

 

Maybe something radical like a 14 team league playing each other 3 times (one home, one away, one TBC?? ) would maybe liven things up.

Could we also look at awarding an extra point for scoring more than 2 goals for example?....

 

14 teams with an 6/8 top/bottom split with home and away matches in each part always made sense to me - 18 home matches for the top teams who would probably be involved in the latter stages of the cups and 40 for the lower performing teams. No gripes about awkard splits favouring teams either. I would also have one automatic relegation place and one decided by a play-off.

[Swanyl]

I think we should move to a South American style format.

 

10 teams in SPL 1, 10 teams in SPL2 and then regional leagues made up of the rest of the teams and juniors etc.

 

Each team plays each other home and away, then at Christmas have relegation and promotion between SPL 1 and SPL 2 (1 team automatically promoted/relegated and a playoff in a neutral venue between 2nd in SPL 2 and 9th in SPL 1).

 

Play each other home and away again and then have playoffs between the top placed teams in each season for euro places and again 1 team automatically promoted/relegated with playoffs between 2nd in SPL 2 and 9th in SPL 1.

 

The team with the most points over the 2 "seasons" is declared the champion and goes into the champions league.

 

Playoffs between the bottom of spl 2 and regional leagues for entry to SPL 2.

 

Old firm/Sky get their 4 games a season.

The league isn't as stale as before with 1 team getting promoted / relegated at Christmas and a possibility of another.

5-6 money making playoff games.

With only 20 games it would be possible for a smaller team to go on a run and actually win the "Winter championship".

Relegation from the SPL 1 wouldn't be such a disaster as you could be back up in half a year.

Its the right number of games a season too.

It doesn't have any complex splits with an uneven number of home/away games.

[Charlie-Brown]

Somebody needs to work out wtf was working between 1948 and 1965 and then again between 1980 and 1985. Then we can pick the best bits.

 

That's easy Eldar

 

1. Salary capping (first by the maximum wage then later by clubs only being able to spend what they'd earned)

2. Shared gate receipts

3. more even split of league & cup revenues

4. much lower ticket prices (in real terms)

5. A bigger league (1948-65 only)

 

These economic factors meant there wasn't as much of a financial gulf between teams as there is now - yes Rangers & Celtic still dominated overall but the percentage of trophies won by other teams and finishing 1st or 2nd in the League was far far higher.

 

Scottish football needs to think the unthinkable and given the owners of the biggest clubs systematically dismantled each of these items 1-5 listed above I guess for them that must mean they are the 'unthinkable' actions needed to restore some health to our game.

[Charlie-Brown]

People say that high ticket prices are necessary to pay players their much higher salary demands nowadays.

 

This is bunkum - much higher ticket prices & more money coming into the game ENABLES the players to ask for & get more money.

 

Reduce the ticket prices = less money for players = lower average wages

 

Of course some players will move to England or abroad chasing higher wages on offer elsewhere but that's been true of some players since professional fitba first began.

 

Football first and foremost is about the fans. It's not about funding millionaire lifestyles for relatively rich young men who play the game and their wives & girlfriends and agents.

[Charlie-Brown]

Another idea I thought of to spice up the league cup in the absence of a european place for the winners would be to regionalise the tournamount and split the draw into east & west sections all the way to the final. Ie this would mean Hearts, Hibs, Aberdeen, Dundee Utd, Dundee, Raith, Dunfermline, East Fife, Cowdenbeath, the Angus clubs etc were in one half of the draw whilst the glasgow, lanarkshire, ayrshire, renfrewshire teams etc were in the west section. This would create more potential 'derby' cup ties per season as teams would be far more likely to draw their near neighbours or local teams and have to eliminate them on the way to Hampden. You would end up with far more frequent Hearts v Rangers or Hibs v Celtic or Dundee Utd v Motherwell in the final itself.

[benny]

10/12/16/18 doesn't matter at the end of the day.Scottish football is Pish.It is dying on its knees.How will Hearts get decent crowds and clear debts of 30 million by playing,Hamilton,Falkirk,Dundee,Ross County ect.

Sorry but in my opinion the game is beyond repair up here.

[I.T.K]

I think we should move to a South American style format.

 

10 teams in SPL 1, 10 teams in SPL2 and then regional leagues made up of the rest of the teams and juniors etc.

 

Each team plays each other home and away, then at Christmas have relegation and promotion between SPL 1 and SPL 2 (1 team automatically promoted/relegated and a playoff in a neutral venue between 2nd in SPL 2 and 9th in SPL 1).

 

Play each other home and away again and then have playoffs between the top placed teams in each season for euro places and again 1 team automatically promoted/relegated with playoffs between 2nd in SPL 2 and 9th in SPL 1.

 

The team with the most points over the 2 "seasons" is declared the champion and goes into the champions league.

 

Playoffs between the bottom of spl 2 and regional leagues for entry to SPL 2.

 

Old firm/Sky get their 4 games a season.

The league isn't as stale as before with 1 team getting promoted / relegated at Christmas and a possibility of another.

5-6 money making playoff games.

With only 20 games it would be possible for a smaller team to go on a run and actually win the "Winter championship".

Relegation from the SPL 1 wouldn't be such a disaster as you could be back up in half a year.

Its the right number of games a season too.

It doesn't have any complex splits with an uneven number of home/away games.

 

Suggested something like this before. I think it would be great. It's a mixture of a sprint and a marathon. I think its less complicated then current system.

 

I also really think it would help teams at the bottom of the league as fear of relegation will not be as bad. Teams will get a chance to play the big teams and get cash for that in one half of the season. If they go down they get a chance to come back up and will win games which will keep fans coming back.

 

I would suggest doing this for 4 year + and if does not work.... change it.

 

 

[I.T.K]

That's easy Eldar

 

1. Salary capping (first by the maximum wage then later by clubs only being able to spend what they'd earned)

This must happen, but would also add that the board can invest with up front funds. I.e. they can spend more if they wish, but that cant be put on to the club debt.

2. Shared gate receipts

I would suggest 80/20% split. I think home team should get most of the money to invest good atmosphere and facilities for home and away fans. Some money should go to the away team to encourage them to send fans.

3. more even split of league & cup revenues

100% It should never be like it is now.

4. much lower ticket prices (in real terms)

Yeah, SPL could suggest that a small percentage of tickets need to be at a certain price. Bit like easy jet flight tickets.

5. A bigger league (1948-65 only)

I like the idea of the 20 team SPL that is split in to two 10s as posted above.

 

These economic factors meant there wasn't as much of a financial gulf between teams as there is now - yes Rangers & Celtic still dominated overall but the percentage of trophies won by other teams and finishing 1st or 2nd in the League was far far higher.

 

Scottish football needs to think the unthinkable and given the owners of the biggest clubs systematically dismantled each of these items 1-5 listed above I guess for them that must mean they are the 'unthinkable' actions needed to restore some health to our game.

 

I agree with most of what you say.

[jbee647]

While I like the idea of the bigger league I cant help thinking it's a case of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Scottish football is heading one way at present and it's not upwards.

 

If you take away the 'die hards' or season ticket holders from each clubs average attendance how many are actually turning up on the day. In other words how many folk get up on a Saturday and think 'I fancy going to an SPL match today'.

every club should make sure there are "cash only" turnstiles available for EVERY game, other than obviously Derby games and Old Firm matches, people must be given back the option of being able to turn up to a game on a whim, why do clubs/police make the punters buy a ticket for a game with 5000 fans in a 15000 capacity stadium, during the 80s i had plenty of mates who would decide at 2 30 pm they fancied going to the "match", post Hillsborough that option has been taken away from fairweather punters, like it or not and taking away the snob value that some season ticket holders have, the fairweather punters money is just as important, and in this climate, even more valuable, and we must be encouraging people to attend football matches not making it difficult for them, not every one can get to the ticket office during the week, Chris Robinson i remember suggested that some turnstyle operators were pocketing some of the cash on match days thats why we dont have cash only gates any more, but we really need to evaluate this policy at Tynecastle.

[I.T.K]

every club should make sure there are "cash only" turnstiles available for EVERY game, other than obviously Derby games and Old Firm matches, people must be given back the option of being able to turn up to a game on a whim, why do clubs/police make the punters buy a ticket for a game with 5000 fans in a 15000 capacity stadium, during the 80s i had plenty of mates who would decide at 2 30 pm they fancied going to the "match", post Hillsborough that option has been taken away from fairweather punters, like it or not and taking away the snob value that some season ticket holders have, the fairweather punters money is just as important, and in this climate, even more valuable, and we must be encouraging people to attend football matches not making it difficult for them, not every one can get to the ticket office during the week, Chris Robinson i remember suggested that some turnstyle operators were pocketing some of the cash on match days thats why we dont have cash only gates any more, but we really need to evaluate this policy at Tynecastle.

 

Cant understand why we cant have a machine similar to that at train station or car park.

 

Also don't understand Chris Robinson's comment. You know the value of tickets they are given to sell. After the shift you work out what they sold and value of those tickets. You then expect that cash from them. If the cash is constantly down you say thanks and good bye.

[rossthejambo]

Expanded league to 16/18 teams is the only attractive option to me. Genuinely sick of playing the Kilmarnock, Motherwell, St Mirren 3/4 times a year.

 

People say meaningless games will get less attendances but I remember when games against Aberdeen and Motherwell, even St Mirren, Dundee, Falkirk had full houses. The repetitiveness (along with ridiculous ticket prices) has sucked the life out of Scottish football.

 

More diversity and chances to compete at the top end of the table for longer will help bring it back from the brink IMO. I realise it will take a lot more than just this to fix things but it's a start and it will, IMO, kick start the other clubs who are floundering about in the first/second division who have the fan bases to be bigger (Falkirk, Dundee, Partick Thistle, Ross County, Airdrie).

 

Bring in a relegation/Europa League play off system and then there are less meaningless games at the end of the season because there will always be something to play for.

 

A pyramid system with the seniors, juniors and Highland League will make things more interesting as well as there will be something to strive for for clubs like Spartans, Buckie Thistle, etc who are good enough to compete with those at the bottom end of the league system.

 

It's not the answer to all Scottish football's problems but I think that it will definitely help bring fans back to the games and that's what's most important IMO.