Hartlepool United announce Friday Football

By Albatross
June 27 2003

"It's Saturday, it's 3 o'clock, it's time to go shopping." Yes, once again Hartlepool United will be playing three home fixtures on a Friday Night. To misquote Mott the Hoople, "Do you remember those Saturday games, we do, we do....."

The three games brought forward are Grimsby in September, Sheff Wed the following month, and Blackpool in February. The eyebrow-raising one has to be moving the game against Wednesday; it's one that looks guaranteed to have a big crowd anyway, and unless it's to try and stop Wendys without tickets travelling to the game it would have made more sense to move one of the lower profile games.

This will of course raise the subject of Friday Night Football once again. Good thing or bad thing? The opinion of most people on the net seems to be that it's a bad thing, and from an exile's point of view it definately is. I made several Saturday home games last season by making a day trip of it; but with a weekday evening I would need to at the very least find somewhere to stay overnight, and book the afternoon off work. Anyone travelling more than 30-40 miles to the match will find it that bit harder to get to these fixtures - and there are a few of those.

The problem is, that the crowds we get for the Friday games prove the club's point: over the last couple of seasons, we have had consistently higher than average attendances when we play then. That means more revenue for the club, and is an argument in it's favour that it's hard to refute. It means that those playing in local football on a Saturday, or those who struggle to get Saturday off work get more of a chance to see Pools play than normal; and there's always the opportunity to attract a few floating voters to the game who would normally be watching a Premiership game, at the ground or in the Pub, on a Saturday.

What concerns me more is if we start playing even more home games on a Friday. So far it's remaining at three; but there's a sneaking suspicion within me that good turnouts again will lead to more games being played then. The fact that one of those games is arguably our biggest of the season does little to help that. From a purely selfish point of view, it would limit the number of home matches I can get to severely; and it also causes problems for any fans likely to be travelling long distances to make it to the Vic. While Grimsby and Sheffield Wednesday are relatively close and straightforward, it's not going to please many Blackpool fans; it's a minimum two and a half hour run between the two Pools, and part of that would be during Rush Hour - no joke when you've got to get past Preston, Manchester and Leeds.

Whatever our feelings, it looks like Friday Night games are here to stay; but I for one am hoping that we won't be doing it more often.