Saturday 8 September 2012

Football crazy

As regular readers will know, I’m not the world’s greatest football fan*, but I happened to be reading this article and was struck by a reference to the autobiography of Roy McDonough, the most sent-off man in British football history:
My favourite line? Probably when he asks his physio at Southend whether drinking 70 pints of Stella every week is suitable behaviour for a professional athlete...
Interestingly, Roy McDonough would have been in the same year as me at school.

* it has its place, but it shouldn’t be allowed to take over entire pubs.

5 comments:

  1. Martin, Cambridge9 September 2012 at 17:57

    Roy (aka Donut) had a season at Cambridge during their mid-80s dark days, and is fondly remembered in the same way that Chopper Harris is at Chelsea.

    More like 65 pints of Stella though.

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  2. I'm unsure how successful showing football in a pub is in increasing turnover. If the pub's full, then obviously it is on that day, but a lot of the people watching the match don't bother turning up at other times - it doesn't engender a pub-going habit. I've been in pubs where the match is on and the place is still quite empty. This is why some pubs are giving up Sky Sport because the extra takings don't cover the high cost of the subscription.

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  3. Most of the pubs around me have canned Sky because of the cost. The couple that still have it are busy for big matches but as soon as the the game's over, they empty out as people return to their own locals.

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  4. Around Manchester I would say football is more of a money-spinner because of the strong support for United and City. However, as I've said before, it's often a case of who blinks first. I'm sure the pub trade as a whole loses out from Sky subscriptions, but for the individual publican there is a fear that he will lose a lot of trade to the pub down the road if he ditches it.

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