With football clubs releasing new strips every season, the average fan might find himself feeling a bit left behind. Funding a shirt habit with the regularity that the clubs create new colours can prove very expensive, and many fans are choosing to wear retro football shirts instead of shelling out for their newer alternatives.
Whether it be Manchester United’s famous red kit that was worn when they won the first domestic double in the Premier League era, or West Brom’s stripes worn on the day they defied the odds to secure Premier League survival there is a huge market for these older strips.
Look around the terraces on match day, and you will see an increasing number of old football shirts on the chests of club supporters. As time goes on, these older shirts represent great memories of former times.
There are also fashion reasons for sporting an older version of your club’s colours. The slightly dated feel of some older kits have been embraced by football clubs- sides like Manchester United have deliberately created their latest shirts to resemble a shirt from earlier decades. These kits may be just as expensive as those worn by other teams, but they do attract a niche market amongst team supporters.
Football’s place in the entertainment industry continues to expand. Not only is there demand for tickets, more games than ever are being shown on television. Football on TV is a massive business, and the money provided by Sky Sports when the Premiership began in 1992 has bankrolled the massive transfer funds and wages that have been a major part of the sport for the last 20 years.
Other broadcasters have attempted to rival Sky’s coverage, but picking up a fraction of their broadcast rights. ITV Digital signed a lucrative deal with the Football League- promising large amounts of cash to lower league sides, only to implode within two years of it’s start up.
Similarly, Setanta Sports folded after they signed another big money broadcasting contract with the Premier League in 2007. Such was the money required to cover England, Premier League and domestic cup games, that Setanta’s subscriber base was not enough to cover spiralling debts.
For Sky, however, football has been the trump card in their satellite television revolution. Millions of subscribers are unable to resist the level of comprehensive coverage afforded to their sports’ customers, and pay big money for the privilege.
There is no doubt that fans love to watch their team play in the flesh, however with such a global audience attracted to the Premiership, television rights packages have meant hundreds of nations across the globe are now fully hooked on the exploits of the league’s best players.
In the UK there are some restrictions on what can be shown on television, to encourage fans to keep going to the grounds to watch their teams in action. Abroad, however there are no such restrictions, and this has lead to a major legal dispute between a number of customers attempting to watch otherwise unwatchable matches using a foreign satellite subscription.
For pubs and restaurants, being able to show the big Premier League games is a massive draw for customers, and certainly improves the profits of these locations. However, some cannot afford the expensive extra fees put on public Sky transmissions and see the far cheaper, international feeds as a viable alternative. The battle over the money here goes on, however it is an indication of just how popular England’s biggest league has become.
For day to day Premiership football news, fans opinion forums and communities are blossoming on the internet. Fans are keen to debate the key football issues of the day and want to keep abreast with the day’s breaking news stories.
There are a vast number of online resources for the avid fan to peruse and to speculate on with their fellow followers. With so many different sites, blogs and forums, every football fan has an almost endless supply of information to satisfy their football craving.
From transfer speculation, to match reports and off-field drama, there is no stone left unturned in the pursuit of big stories. This makes for intense speculation and lots of excitement for all fans every week.