IF you threw a dart at random into any Scottish football crowd, the chances are you would hit someone who would gladly tell you that Neil Doncaster and his fellow ‘blazerati’ at the SPFL and SFA are running the Scottish game into the ground.
Doncaster himself is all too aware that a man in his position as chief executive of the SPFL is unlikely to win any popularity contests, particularly when you have been in that position for as long as he has.
But as he trumpeted the details of the extension of the SPFL’s broadcasting deal with Sky yesterday, a key theme of his conversation with Herald Sport was his own desire – and that of the majority of stakeholders within the game – to protect Scottish football, and everything that makes it unique. As well as the most attended league in Europe, per capita.
That, he argues, was a central concern when considering that new broadcasting deal, and explains for instance why the member clubs weren’t insistent on having scope for more matches that were not being broadcast by Sky to be made available to fans on a pay-per-view basis.
As it is, each club will be able to offer up five home matches to supporters on PPV as part of the new deal, but when pressed on why that figure was so low in comparison to Sweden, for example, where all matches can be streamed to supporters, Doncaster said: “If you talk to the clubs – bear in mind we are a league, not the clubs – but if you talk to them they will tell you that when a game is on TV, broadly when it is not a sell-out, they will get a lower attendance.
“Some games will be an exception where they will be a sell-out whether it is on TV or not, but broadly speaking.
“So, there is undoubtedly in the UK – and it may be different in some other countries, but undoubtedly in the UK there is a cannibalisation effect when you take a game from non-live to live on TV.
“So, there is a balance to be struck, and my belief is that the right balance has been struck. That appears to be a view that’s echoed by the vast majority of clubs.”
If the use of the term ‘cannibalisation’ pricked your ears up, that’s because you may have read it somewhere before this week.
That was the phrase used by Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack in his own statement defending the new Sky deal, referring to clubs eating into their own revenues instead of increasing them by widening the availability of PPV.
“In the UK, I don’t think you can have it all,” Doncaster continued.
“I think a balanced approach to protect the vibrancy of Scottish football is what we should be aiming for, and what has been achieved.
“That’s been achieved by people like Ron (Gordon) and Dave, to put together a balanced deal that respects what it is in-stadium with the passion, drama and excitement we are rightly renowned for, but enabling a number of the best games to go to live TV and bringing in money from that source.
“So, people who simply compare what we do here with what happens in Norway or Sweden, are perhaps missing the point entirely.”
The comparisons to the likes of Sweden though are pertinent in the eyes of many, with critics pointing to holes in both Doncaster and Cormack’s argument that the Scottish deal represents better value on a pounds-per-game basis.
That would be the case if the Scottish league’s annual fee was divided by the number of games actually shown - currently 48 - but given all the remaining matches that are not broadcast by Sky are also off-limits, that figure can be skewed one way or the other depending on your perspective.
“Well, mathematically [the Swedish league] doesn’t [get better value per game],” he said.
“I’ve got a huge amount of time for my colleagues in the Swedish league, but they have a different approach, and one that results in all games being broadcast live.
“I don’t see many of the 42 clubs we have expressing a huge enthusiasm for all games to be broadcast live.
“They predominantly want to protect the environment in-stadium, and the passion and vibrancy and the drama that gives, and as importantly, the money it generates through the turnstiles.
“Let’s not forget, we are the best-supported league per capita in Europe by a mile, and it’s not by accident.
“Part of that is clearly down to the huge passion that the fans have in this country, but part of it is also down to making sure we don’t put all the games on TV.
“Unlike some other leagues that we have been compared to which may be more of a broadcast product, we’re not that. We’re about what it is to go and watch Scottish football on a Saturday afternoon in-stadium.
“That passion, that drama and that excitement depends on people wanting to go through the turnstiles rather than purely wanting to see it on TV.
“From my point of view, it’s the best of all worlds, you’ve got a balanced approach. And more importantly, 41 of the 42 clubs probably agree with that.”
