Is Football Aiming to be Sustainable Without Fans?

There will be many different fallouts from the Covid-19 pandemic over the coming years, even when life does return to something which can be described as being close to normal. However, there is a very good chance that the world is going to change before we get there, and those changes will last long after we are back.

In terms of sport, the biggest change we have seen is with no fans being allowed to attend, or in the best case right now, very limited numbers.

Some sports, mainly smaller ones, simply have no chance of being sustainable without fans, so they have cancelled events and seasons for the foreseeable future.

However, others have continued, and are we now seeing them make moves to be sustainable without fans?

Premier League Introduces PPV Football

The Premier League is one of the biggest and best football leagues in the world. They have a large number of TV deals in many areas, this money is what enables huge signings in the league to take place.

In the UK, where the league is played, there are big TV deals with Sky, BT and streaming via Amazon in place covering 50% of the games on most weeks. However, as fans are not allowed to attend at the moment, the other 50% are available and the league has recently done something with these.

The remaining games will be available for fans to buy, priced at £14.95, only in the UK. This looks incredibly like the league is putting something in place specifically for fans in the UK, as though they are trying to be sustainable inside of the UK without having fans inside of the stadium.

In the short term this service is expensive but is available for those who really want to watch the game. This could be big fans of the teams playing or those who are using the best betting apps to place bets on games in the Premier League.

What Does the Future Hold?

How long the PPV football agreement that we have in place at the moment really lasts remains to be seen. However, it is certainly a sign that those in charge of the Premier League, and probably other leagues around the world, are looking for ways to make more money off the fans while they are at home.

As fans return to grounds, there will be fewer people at home to make money off, but that doesn’t mean that the service will come to an end. Many fans are being priced out of football in the top tier leagues and are having no choice but to stay at home.

Actual fans in the ground give the clubs an income, but as we have seen over the past few months, they are not as important in monetary terms as they should be. If a league like the Premier League wanted to play with no fans, the teams could afford to do that.

This won’t happen, thankfully, but we have seen that football without fans can not only survive, but it can thrive in the way it has done for the past couple of decades.