My original post is below in agreement with Richie's view about F1 selling its soul...like footy
This is the nail being hit on the head.
Once upon a time, F1 and Football was free for anyone to watch. You could watch all the races from F1 without having to pay any extra costs. The only thing you paid for was your TV license.
The issue here isn't to do with improving the quality and standards of the broadcasting. The issue relates to the fact that over the past 20 years, more and more things that were free, now come at a cost.
Not only do you have to pay the TV licensing company for the right to watch live TV, but if you want to watch sport, you then have to pay out again for that right too. It's nothing about quality, it's about fleecing joe public for every extra penny they have.
Ecclestone has split the rights for one reason and one reason alone. He splits it down the middle, ten games each and increases the amount each side has to pay for thos ten races. They end up paying more than they were when they had both had the right to screen all 20 of the races.
Ecclestone therefore comes out of it with a lot more money in his back pocket, and companies like Sky notice an upsurge in the amount of people buying sky+ or people buying the right to watch Sky Sports on their free view channels (and other tv providers).
You see both Ecclestone and Sky benefit as far as I can see it and the only people that loose out are the BBC (who are a company set up to provide for every member of the British Isles) and Joe Public who have to fawk out even more money just to see the things they like to watch.
Football was the same once. You could watch it free. Then the money grubbing bastards stepped in and suddenly, if you want to watch football from accross the globe, you need to buy a subscription to sky sports in order to do so.
As another poster said, Rugby is fast going down the same route. Sport used to be done for the love of it. Now it's being done for the money, fame and prestige that comes from it. We end up with diving prima donnas, who fall over at the slightest touch and then roll around on the floor like they've got a fatal injury.
Once the referee has done something about it, they get up as if nothing was wrong and go and do it again. Thankfully some refs are wise to it but some aren't. Football is fast becoming a sport for the rich as well.
People on here talk about the 20,000 "fake fans" and how their "excuses" they come up with are just ways of getting out of helping their club. They conclude they're not true fans of the club. But as i said earlier, they don't know the personal situations of those 20,000 fans so they have no right to comment on it.
But this isn't just a problem here in Coventry. Attendance accross the length and bredth of this country is falling. I had a look at season ticket prices at some of the big clubs in the Premiership. If you want to be in one of the best stands (the Sir Alex Ferguson stand no less) you need to pay in excess of £950.
I'm sorry but that's not exceptable. We've already looked at other countries and how they regulate their football tickets. The top club in Germany asks for £90 for a season ticket! Thats a wopping £860 less than what Manchester United ask for.
And that £90 as far as I'm aware is a fixed price for all footballing clubs, regardless of league position in Germany. You might say that the football in Germany isn't as good as the football in england and that the prices charged reflect why because the money recooped with ticket sales goes to buying expensive flashy players.
But that my friend is just an excuse. You could say it's to improve the quality of the service and the football but again that is just an excuse. It's a money making opperation that's taking us sports fans for idiots. They'd cut off their own arms and legs if they could make some money off it and would probably do the same to us too.
In the end, capitalism has a lot to answer for. It's destroying everything in its path and cares not for anyone but itself...
