hector wrote:But in that 23 years, things have changed so much that big clubs just tend to play other big clubs, mostly, and send an XI made up youht team players to play teams like us - if we are lucky!
THe big clubs will go where they can "market their brand" which these days means the US or the Far East - they can get huge crowds, make money, and probably create a few more 'fans' while they're at it. Most big teams don't rely on the domestic market anywhere near as much as they use.
e.g. in the US right now, these are the European teams playing/touring
Arsenal
Liverpool
Man City
Man Utd
Olympiakos
Real Madrid
AC Milan (who've been crap, actually)
Tottenham
Roma
Inter Milan
Fulham
Crystal Palace
Aston Villa
oh, and Bayern Munich
In times past these teams would happily come down to Plainmoor, or other lower division clubs, but the fact is that we don't have the facilities they're looking for, we won't get the crowds, and we don't have the new market for them. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see a Premiership team in pre-season for a very long time.
With that said - why do we need them? the purpose of pre-season is to prepare our players for the coming campaign. Playing Liverpool and most likely getting hammered easily is not constructive. it makes sense to play teams either a bit below our 'level' (to improve fitness and hopefully increase confidence) or a bit a bit above (more confidence building if it goes well - a more reliable test for e.g. FA Cup. Almost said League Cup here but..yeah
)
The only thing a big team coming to Plainmoor would accomplish would be a big crowd. Now, granted, that would be helpful in some respects but you'd have to charge more to properly benefit and that would probably piss people off again.
And the place would be full of 'die-hard' Liverpool (or whatever) fans who've lived in Devon their whole lives, who won't come back to Plainmoor because "the team is crap, they got beaten 5-0"..
[quote="hector"]But in that 23 years, things have changed so much that big clubs just tend to play other big clubs, mostly, and send an XI made up youht team players to play teams like us - if we are lucky!
[/quote]
THe big clubs will go where they can "market their brand" which these days means the US or the Far East - they can get huge crowds, make money, and probably create a few more 'fans' while they're at it. Most big teams don't rely on the domestic market anywhere near as much as they use.
e.g. in the US right now, these are the European teams playing/touring
Arsenal
Liverpool
Man City
Man Utd
Olympiakos
Real Madrid
AC Milan (who've been crap, actually)
Tottenham
Roma
Inter Milan
Fulham
Crystal Palace
Aston Villa
oh, and Bayern Munich
In times past these teams would happily come down to Plainmoor, or other lower division clubs, but the fact is that we don't have the facilities they're looking for, we won't get the crowds, and we don't have the new market for them. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see a Premiership team in pre-season for a very long time.
With that said - why do we need them? the purpose of pre-season is to prepare our players for the coming campaign. Playing Liverpool and most likely getting hammered easily is not constructive. it makes sense to play teams either a bit below our 'level' (to improve fitness and hopefully increase confidence) or a bit a bit above (more confidence building if it goes well - a more reliable test for e.g. FA Cup. Almost said League Cup here but..yeah :( )
The only thing a big team coming to Plainmoor would accomplish would be a big crowd. Now, granted, that would be helpful in some respects but you'd have to charge more to properly benefit and that would probably piss people off again.
And the place would be full of 'die-hard' Liverpool (or whatever) fans who've lived in Devon their whole lives, who won't come back to Plainmoor because "the team is crap, they got beaten 5-0"..
