The 'working party' and the mysterious title play-off 'plan'

[Guest vanbasten1874]

How about this crazy idea; Say the league finished like this;

 

1. Rangers

2. Celtic

3. Hearts

4. Dundee Utd

 

On the Saturday Hearts host Dundee Utd, the winner then travels to Celtic Park on Sunday and the winner plays Rangers for the title at Ibrox on the bank holiday Monday.

Rangers would get the benefit of playing at home against a team who have already played a game or two in the previous days, where injuried and suspensions could be picked up.

 

Probably not as good as some of the proposed ideas as it would all come down to one game where dodgy ref decisions etc could cause a team winning the league at a canter to lose out but I thought I'd throw it out there.

 

 

Radical idea the team playing 3 games in 3 days line up would need to be

 

superman

 

the incredible hulk

 

captain america

 

spiderman

 

batman

 

and robin

 

the fantastic four

 

and ME of course

[Nookie Bear]

Yep, about ?85 million worth of difference according to wikipedia. The record books show the title winners no matter how it's one. Saying that a title won through play-offs is worthless is like saying a world cup won on penalties is worthless. The record books still show who won it. I'm delighted we won the cup in 2006 despite the fact that it basically came down to a shooting competition at the end.

 

And the point about the Championship is that the rewards for gaining promotion are much bigger than the rewards for winning the SPL. I bet the Old Firm wouldn't complain about play-offs if they got their wish to move south but were told they had to start in the Championship.

 

In fact, didn't someone from Celtic or Rangers come out and say they would be willing to move to the Championship? They'd be down there in a shot - play-offs or no play-offs. Hypocrites.

 

But this is not about prize money though, is it. It's about the league becoming stale and boring. The SPL Play-Offs would still have the two same clubs and another two from about 5 others maybe winning it once every few years and that is going to be just as dull.

 

I know what you're saying but, to me, this is about non-OF clubs giving up and looking for the rules to be changed to artificially close the gap. We have 38 games to keep pace with them and, if we cannot do that, we should get a play-off second chance.

 

We may as well have a top league of 16, not bother playing any league games, but just go straight to a knockout to decide the 'league' champions

[Mysterion]

putting all of the league reconstruction stuff aside - the wealth distribution is a bugbear IMO.

 

wtf are we not splitting the ESPN/SKY money equally and having a sliding scale of prize money depending on league finish.

[Arthur Morgan]

Don't think any Blackpool fans will agree with you. What it's not (well for Scotland) is traditional!!! And we all know that the old traditions are best and should never be interfered with. Not. Sorry but while this may not be a perfect solution it has at least got people thinking outside the box ( 10 team, 12 team, 14, 16, 18 team league) and perhaps a better more workable alternative will come from it. Or should we just bend over and ask the uglies for another 25 years of being butt-abused? To me the fact that they have both (within hours of each other) come out and rubbished is good as they are perhaps realising that the voting system that has kept them receiving the lions share of everything and getting their way always can just as easily be used to scupper their plans (11-1 for changes in league set-up iirc). And if those two coonts are unhappy then that please me.

 

Yeah I keep hearing that about those Blackpool fans, I'm not bothered. I dislike the idea, simple as. I would prefer a league of 16 with 3 up/3 down.

[Coburg Hearts]

MODS - please merge this with the relevant thread rather than having it clutter up the board.

 

Thanks.

 

An absolutely Hearts thread. I love Hearts.

[amadjambo]

Playoffs as a concept to decide championships is proven to be successful in the USA.

 

NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL all have post season playoffs, and nobody ever complains at the end of the season about it being unfair.

 

Playoffs generate excitment throughout the season and generate vast sums of money.

 

Yes, American sport is much different from Scottish football, but for me the biggest difference between the sports mentioned above and football is that the owners of the american sports teams CARE about having a stong and healthy LEAGUE whereas ALL football clubs only care about THEMSELVES.

 

Take the NFL for example, everything is geared to make the league strong, successful, and exciting. No-one wants 1 or 2 teams to dominate for decades as this would ultimately drive fans, sponsors, TV viewers, and $$$$$$$$$ away.

 

The OF have no interest in making the SPL fairer and more exciting as this would erode their power, whereas there could certainly be a case made that in the long term they would actually grow stronger as individual clubs if our league was much more interesting, unpredictable, and able to generate much more money.

 

I'm not suggesting that the playoffs idea that has been muted is necessarily the way to move forward but it certainly shouldn't be dismissed out of hand.

 

But imagine the money that could be generated if we had NBA style playoffs, where for example, the OF match off against each other over a best of 5 or 7 series to decide the championship.

 

Nothing this radical will ever happen in the UK though, it's just wouldn't satisfy the British sense of fairness.

[Debut 4]

It may seem a good idea to some suits and tv companies but would it EVER be accepted amongst fans in everyday life?

 

Imagine Hearts finished 4th and 25 points behind the winners and won the play-off? Other fans would just say "you aren`t really the Champs and you know it". The same situation would apply for any other side who managed to do this too.

 

In the sub-conscious it wouldn`t feel like a genuine victory to me and it would take football fans in this country a very very long time to accept the idea.

 

The OF may have their own interests at heart but all in all it isn`t their fault they win the title most of the time...afterall it is a competition and about fighting to be the best. We`ve been close over the years and i think its attitude just as much as finance thats affects how successful you can be.

 

I`m open minded. If the play-off ever came in, fine, thats the way it is but i have to admit i`d still prefer the competition as it is but with a bigger league.

[Seymour M Hersh]

Yeah I keep hearing that about those Blackpool fans, I'm not bothered. I dislike the idea, simple as. I would prefer a league of 16 with 3 up/3 down.

 

And very laudable that idea is too (well apart from 3 up/ 3 down can't see the reason for that number). So 15 home league games a season would suit you? I'm guessing missionary is you're position of choice . Seriously I think we need to grasp the opportunity for a genuine and radical change to the game in Scotland. Not necessarily the play off option but let's think outside the box here before a decision is made. Then at least we cannot say in 5-10 years, jusus I really wish we'd looked at other alternatives.

[Arthur Morgan]

And very laudable that idea is too (well apart from 3 up/ 3 down can't see the reason for that number). So 15 home league games a season would suit you? I'm guessing missionary is you're position of choice . Seriously I think we need to grasp the opportunity for a genuine and radical change to the game in Scotland. Not necessarily the play off option but let's think outside the box here before a decision is made. Then at least we cannot say in 5-10 years, jusus I really wish we'd looked at other alternatives.

 

15 Home games isn't that much yeah but I would take that over the system being proposed, especially if we had a 16 team league. I really dislike the playoff proposal and for me if we did win via the playoffs then it wouldn't feel right for me. 20-30 points from 1st at the end of the season and then winning the league over four games (2 legs) just doesn't seem right to me.