8pm Midweek Kick-offs. WHY?

[Terminal Boardom]

London clubs in the Prem frequently have kick-offs at 7.45. Why can't we? And this nonsensical time goes back to the days of Elm Park? WHY???

[Thaumagurist*]

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[Harpers So Solid Crew]

Load of old bollox, move it back to 7-30, the later time is a pain. people adjust, always did to 7-30, are things so difficult these days???

[Thaumagurist*]

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[Wycombe Royal]

I wouldn't be able to make 7.30pm.

8pm is perfect and it allows the rush hour traffic to clear Jct11.

[Stranded]

I wouldn't be able to make 7.30pm.

8pm is perfect and it allows the rush hour traffic to clear Jct11.

This.

It was moved back to 8pm a few seasons ago as a lot of people were still coming in to the ground 5/10 mins after kick off.

8 makes sense - game done by 10 and still plenty of time to get back into town to catch onward transport for the vast majority of fans who need it.

[brendywendy]

was from the prem. in our first season we had 7.45s and ended up with people queuing out side the ground and not getting in till after kick off.
fair enough i say
though i understand that TBM may be getting home past his bed time etc

[Sun Tzu]

No surprise that 8pm means certain people miss games due to their bedtimes.

Whatever time we ko someone won't like it but there seems very little difference between a 7.45 and an 8 (15 minutes to be exact)

[brendywendy]

No surprise that 8pm means certain people miss games due to their bedtimes.

Whatever time we ko someone won't like it but there seems very little difference between a 7.45 and an 8 (15 minutes to be exact)

it was decide dthat to avoid teh tail end of rush hour it would be better leaving it 15 mins later.
makes no difference to bed times really, but does make a massive difference to the ability of people to make the start of the game

[Terminal Boardom]

I am not wrong in this. 8pm kick-offs were introduced when we were at Elm Park. Shirley someone has programmes dating back to then to prove me right. As for avoiding the rush hour, are you lot saying that our delays are worse than those in London??? I can go back to the 1980s and 1990s when I would stay in town after work, have some food then stroll to Elm Park. Accepted that the Mad Stad is less convenient to get to but what with the buses and proliferation of parking opportunities I fail to see why we can't go back to 7.45 or even earlier. Since when does a crowdof 5,000 for a league cup tie with Burton necessitate an 8pm kick off?

And just for once, spare a thought for the away fans and reading fans with youngish children!

[Silver Fox]

We should play midweek games on Wednesday afternoons, it's what early closing is for

[Sun Tzu]

I am not wrong in this. 8pm kick-offs were introduced when we were at Elm Park. Shirley someone has programmes dating back to then to prove me right. As for avoiding the rush hour, are you lot saying that our delays are worse than those in London??? I can go back to the 1980s and 1990s when I would stay in town after work, have some food then stroll to Elm Park. Accepted that the Mad Stad is less convenient to get to but what with the buses and proliferation of parking opportunities I fail to see why we can't go back to 7.45 or even earlier. Since when does a crowdof 5,000 for a league cup tie with Burton necessitate an 8pm kick off?

And just for once, spare a thought for the away fans and reading fans with youngish children!

I'm sure neither away fans or families who take kids to mid week games would find 15 minutes anything worth thanking you for.

You may as well suggest we play 40 minutes each way an dget half time to 10 mins.

*pm makes it easy for epople with jobs to get home, get changed and get to the game without breaking the speed limit.

You clearly have no thought for Royals fans who live outside Berkshire either....

[Rex]

That also applies to us as away support though doesn't it, the same as any club support. Getting back from some away games at 2am is something that everyone knows will happen. Working in Essex the 8PM start time is perfect for me as it still takes me 2.5 hours to fight the roadworks and traffic on the M25/ M4. No doubt it's the same for others.

With the fixture congestion we are now experiencing we still have 4 8PM home games to go.

Newcastle
Derby
QPR
Coventry

[Thaumagurist*]

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[brendywendy]

I am not wrong in this. 8pm kick-offs were introduced when we were at Elm Park. Shirley someone has programmes dating back to then to prove me right. As for avoiding the rush hour, are you lot saying that our delays are worse than those in London??? I can go back to the 1980s and 1990s when I would stay in town after work, have some food then stroll to Elm Park. Accepted that the Mad Stad is less convenient to get to but what with the buses and proliferation of parking opportunities I fail to see why we can't go back to 7.45 or even earlier. Since when does a crowdof 5,000 for a league cup tie with Burton necessitate an 8pm kick off?

And just for once, spare a thought for the away fans and reading fans with youngish children!

pretty sure we had 7.43 kick offs early in the prem, and they were stopped after queues, and lost of complaints about not making the starts.

dont care about away fans

[Rex]

I am not wrong in this. 8pm kick-offs were introduced when we were at Elm Park. Shirley someone has programmes dating back to then to prove me right. As for avoiding the rush hour, are you lot saying that our delays are worse than those in London??? I can go back to the 1980s and 1990s when I would stay in town after work, have some food then stroll to Elm Park. Accepted that the Mad Stad is less convenient to get to but what with the buses and proliferation of parking opportunities I fail to see why we can't go back to 7.45 or even earlier. Since when does a crowdof 5,000 for a league cup tie with Burton necessitate an 8pm kick off?

And just for once, spare a thought for the away fans and reading fans with youngish children!

pretty sure we had 7.43 kick offs early in the prem, and they were stopped after queues, and lost of complaints about not making the starts.

dont care about away fans

FAC against Liverpool springs to mind, though i think there was also a turnstile failure in the North Stand with never helped.

[Yellowcoat]

TB comments about the buses but I suspect they are also one of the reasons for the 8.00 pm starts as earlier in the evening the drivers have been coming in from school services and then clearing the rush hour. Part time staff also need to be in place for catering , stewarding etc. Best left alone I would have thought.

[Sun Tzu]

pretty sure we had 7.43 kick offs early in the prem, and they were stopped after queues, and lost of complaints about not making the starts.

dont care about away fans

Pretty sure you are wrong there !

We did once kick off at 8.02 though.

The Liverpool cup game was an 8pm I think but the queues were due to a whole range of things (lots of people trying to pick up tickets on the night, turnstile problem, traffic problems, first big game of the season so everyone a bit out of practice !)

[Rex]

Thanks for that. I thought there were other factors but could only remember people getting turned away in the North Stand due to a fault in the card scanners.

[Sun Tzu]

Thanks for that. I thought there were other factors but could only remember people getting turned away in the North Stand due to a fault in the card scanners.

There wasn't a fault in the scanners, and no one got turned away. It was a technical problem but IIRC it was with the databases rather than anything at the front end. Everyone got in, although some missed the first half !!