We are all now familiar of people moaning about moving kick off times to suit TV companies or giving sides more preparation time for the next game and then harping on about the good old days of Saturday 3pm kick-offs.
What happened pre floodlights? I think ours were installed in 1963, but prior to that you obviously couldn't have evening games and most of the winter the 2nd half of 3:00 kick-offs would be in darkness.
Did everyone moan post floodlight installation that this new phenomenon was going against tradition?
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I suspect some of the locals would have complained.
..oh, and a Sunday rail excursion to Doncaster for 19/3
Football has changed a lot and I'm sure it'll change some more. And there will always be moaners!
Suspect most fans were pleased. For midweek games some fans could attend games that they otherwise would not, and other fans who would have attended in any event, no longer had to take time off work.
Anyone know how the early kick offs in winter affected Millwall? They had dispensation from the league to kick off 15 mins after everyone else so some of their fans could get in, surely kicking off 1 hour early would affect their gates?
I suppose pushing your way through a turnstile would be a bit complicated for some spanners.
In December 1973 the Football Association asked the Home Office for permission to play matches on Sundays. Even though floodlights would not be used electricity was needed for the general running of the ground and it was considered that Sundays might allow a more guaranteed supply. Permission was granted, but the change was not universally popular. Bob Wall of Arsenal said: ' Playing football and making profits on a Sunday is wrong. We will not disturb the peace and quiet of the neighbourhood of Highbury on that day.' How times have changed!
But things needed to change. Attendances plummeted for not only were the revised kick-off times unpopular but the price of petrol, which was increasing daily, and the uncertainty of employment meant that many couldn't afford to attend matches.
Things did change. Sunday January 6th 1974 was the historic day which saw four FA Cup Third Round ties played, the first match on a Sunday being the Cambridge United v Oldham match which kicked off in the morning. Two weeks later, on January 20th, a dozen grounds staged League football for the first time on the Sunday, the first of those kicking off in the morning being Millwall v Fulham in the Second Division. A week later on Sunday 27th January the first match in the top flight was played, a Geoff Hurst penalty giving Stoke City a 1-0 home victory over Chelsea. The same weekend saw Darlington play two home League matches - they played Stockport on the Saturday and Torquay on Sunday, both ending in draws. Sunday football had arrived.
It proved to be a popular innovation and generally attendances were considerably better than average. While not everyone was in favour of Sunday football most agreed with FA secretary Ted Croker when he said: 'Football is the national game and we should be concerned to give the public what they want when they want it. A lot of people do want to watch football on Sundays.'
If you are wondering how the clubs got around the law of the land, The Sunday Observance Act (of 1780!), which prevented an admission charge being made for football matches (as well as many other events. Well, it was a fiddle. Admission was free but you needed to buy a programme to get in. Programmes cost differing amounts depending on what part of the ground you wanted to enter. That was enough to get round the law! It was sumed up nicely on the front cover of the programme for the first ever match played on a Sunday -
I'm pretty sure that some midweek games during the 1973 power crisis were switched to the afternoon.