Earlier start needed for Football Mondays

ON THE SPORTING EDGE

PAUL REID

Thursday, January 26, 2012

MONDAY night's launch of the newest football initiative Football Mondays got off to a better start than even the organisers could ever expect.

A large crowd watched as Montego Bay United, arguably the hottest football team in the island right now, battled from a goal down to beat Portmore United on penalty kicks and win the second end of round final.

The organisers have promised a new age for football broadcast with more camera angles and more entertainment, and by and large they have achieved that and some more. Interestingly though, for all the additional cameras at Arnett on Monday, they were not able to pick up one of the flashpoints of the game, a shot from Portmore's Tremaine Stewart that might or might not have crossed the goal line.

That aside there is one flaw in the concept that I fear could result in the organisers having to rethink the entire thing.

The 9:15 pm start is way too late for a number of reasons, including the fact that the players are not accustomed to playing football that late in the day and I would be interested in hearing how the sports medicine fraternity view this.

With only a handful of teams being able to host night games, it will be interesting to see the list of games scheduled to be played on Monday nights.

The Montego Bay Sports Complex is the only venue outside of Kingston that can host these games which means that most of the games will be played in Kingston.

If these games are not between Kingston clubs or if say Highgate United or the Kingston teams are asked to play in Montego Bay, then one team will be adversely affected.

After playing until after midnight Monday, the Montego Bay United players, staff and fans did not get back to Montego Bay before 5:00 am and most of not all then had to get ready for a full day's work. This means two days of productivity were lost.

It seems to me that when the organisers were getting together maybe they were only thinking of the Kingston clubs, which would not be a new concept.

The main reason we hear the games have been pushed to that late start is that it is the only time slot available on CVM, the local network that has the rights to the games.

That is unacceptable in this day and age especially with two other sports networks that could easily accommodate the games at a more decent hour.

Young ball boys are a part of top-class football and to have these youngsters outside after 10:00 pm at a football game is not good.

Additionally, for the working fans who leave work at 5:00 pm how will they fill the next four hours until game time? Most cannot afford to pay fares to go home and then return to games. What of the younger generation of football fans? Can they afford to be out that late on a week day?

While there was a decent crowd at Arnett on Monday night, the novelty of the night game could have attracted them but will it be enough to hold them for the next say 15 weeks?

If this concept is to be successful, those in charge must go back to the drawing board to make it more attractive and the first step must be to make sure it starts at least two hours earlier.