Are now relegated to the national league with stevenage staying in the football league.

Could that be the final straw that tips them over the edge

apart from the macclesfield fans who will suffer i could not give a damn about em to be honest. if a club is unable to fulfill fixtures due to non payment of wages then they do not deserve league status.

It's cut 160 miles off Pools' grand tour of England next season. Every little helps.

Yes we have lost Harrogate barrow Chorley fylde and York,Gateshead and Spennymoor missed out.
This league must be regionalised.Its non league football!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kings Lynn ...........its a joke

Slightly good news for us, think Stevenage would've posed more of a threat.

Apart from that , what happened to our beautiful game, I think its more or less gone.

agree and others in the nat. league north like hereford and brackley cannot be classed as northern clubs either. would plump for regionalised football now. can remember when the league div. north and south were scrapped. it was a novelty seeing teams you had never seen before for a couple of seasons but the novelty for me wore off.

Yes Mr Acc what it needed at this level is new thinking and a rejection of the continuation of the past arrangements and practices unless its all going to go tits up.
The deal with BT is a pile of shit and does nothing to promote the league. C4 or C5 would make it more available and have a reputation of making innovation to make a show of it. I hear the BT arrangement is not that lucrative either....can anyone confirm what we get?
Games could be available throughout the week and on Sundays..........good broadcasters can make any product razzmatazz.
Sorry if I am starting to sound like Hitler in his bunker in 1945 but the Russians are matching up Church Street!!

When we played in the BT live game at Stockport last October Pools got £2,000 and County £6,000. Pish really, but you are over-estimating the interest any TV channel would have in showing 5th tier football. One match a week is as good as it's likely to get.

Agree though that it's time to regionalise League 2 and the NL and if the crowds were bigger with there being so many derbies there'd be more interest from TV in the 'product.'

I think there is a lot more interest than you think. There are many supporters out there who won't pay sky or bt and would like to watch some football. If the production by the TV company was good and well promoted it would attract advertising revenue. The clubs at our level are all over the country and its surprising how many big club supporters have second clubs usually at our level say tranmere (Liverpool and Everton) etc etc.
It doesn't have to be the traditional type of production with the likes sourness etc droning on about technical shite. Get a personality with big tits to make it fun or whatever. Link it to the history of these towns/ homes under the hammer or a food programme on local delicacies.
I find most football shows boring, its a game of two half's, he's playing as a false number 9 shite!
Got to start thinking differently.

Sky only committed to showing 20 games from Leagues 1 and 2 combined last season, and that's with clubs with as many fans as Sunderland and Portsmouth in those divisions. It's all about national advertising revenue with all commercial TV companies, whether satellite or terrestrial.

Fair enough that you think there's a different model possible, would love to see it though i will always prefer going to matches,

I see your point Mr Hogan but sky is on subscription and has a full schedule with the Premier and Championship and Scottish football (which is about our level.)
Its all about tapping into the disaffected football fans and a new audience and the advertising revenue will follow. Getting shot of BT would release the shackles (ends 2021 i think)
It will have to be groundbreaking with matches being played at whatever time the advertisers want it (8/9pm???)and on numerous days a week building a cult following and controversial.(bare knuckle fights at half time? ok i am joking BUT!)

But whos in charge of the National League? i bet as Will Carling said of the RFU "57 Old Farts"

And while i am on and having a good old Wednesday rant i think the 3pm KO on Saturday is outdated in the modern world.
We at our level cant let the Premier league dictate everything, we have got to make our "offer" a different product/experience.

Interesting
https://www.ruck.co.uk/gallagher-premierships-free-to-air-matches-confirmed/?fbclid=IwAR3F7ehQoZaUstcFJZG3g7XgmqycV1MqFcF5a3Tku9uwY8Usmj-Q4-h-6Ns

How is 3pm outdated in the modern world? what time do you propose Bluestreak?

[quote="Bluestreak"]And while i am on and having a good old Wednesday rant i think the 3pm KO on Saturday is outdated in the modern world.

not sure the saturday ko time is outdated but the 7.45 evening game start could be looked at. with added time getting longer and longer a 9.45 finish is considered early. back in the old days of 7.30 ko and less half time we were all off home by 9.15. an earlier start may encourage more home fans, especially with kids attending. as for away fans, well we do not get many nowadays apart from odd clubs.

Start winning games, especially home ones, might be a good idea

[quote="Flying Hogans"][

When we played in the BT live game at Stockport last October Pools got £2,000 and County £6,000. Pish really, but you are over-estimating the interest any TV channel would have in showing 5th tier football. One match a week is as good as it's likely to get.

And as good as it should get. we do not want to be ruled by any television company. a 6000 pound home revenue from em would hardly go up that much anyway and would not cover the loss of gate money for those who stay away because its on the box or cannot make it to some stupid saturday dinner time ko time.

To be honest I’m absolutely lost on Saturday afternoons when Pools are not playing. Although I follow football as a whole I just don’t have the interest in other clubs especially as the top teams are generally playing on Sundays.

3.00PM kick offs simply chop the day in half and maybe has some historic reason like people working a half day on Saturday morning or the lack of floodlights. The matches finish at 5.00pm which feels a bit early to go on the lash but its all personal preference i admit.
Surely a 4 or 5 oclock kick off on Saturday or Sunday would give all a full day to do stuff and then to go and enjoy themselves with football followed immediately by a night out (or in).
My point in all of this discussion is that football aint changed in decades and it all just the same "offering" and everything especially at our level (National league +D1+D2) needs throwing in the pot so we can come up with something more up to date and different to attract new supporters and advertisers/sponsors.
In catering terms our current "offer" to consumers is Scampi and chips in a basket with a bottle of Blue Nun and a pint of Youngers Tartan Ale.

This must be the most outrageous post ever made on the Bunker

Just think of how the Premier league has developed and innovated over the past few decades and also Cricket with central contracts, one day and T20 which was strongly resisted by the old farts in charge but luckily the innovators won and the game has survived and moved forward.
My experience of going to Pools (and the rest at our level) now is hardly any different to what it was 40 years ago. Ok the bogs are now covered (the old ones were more Corvid19 compliant )but the catering is still shit, some floodlights are still out, the track behind the mill house stand is potholed, the bits of plastic we sit on are uncomfortable, you cant find out if you have won the matchday lottery for a week and the tannoy doesn't work properly.

Yes 7.45 is too late. People now tend to go to work earlier and finish earlier so have to sit around waiting for the game. Games dont finish until up to 9.45 which may be for some a bit late to go for a pint if they are up early the next day. Start at 7 which is better for kids too and a 9pm finish would benefit the clubs bar and other pubs etc. In the middle of winter do you really want to be sat out till 9.45?

Sunday games around 4pm would be good in this league. I remember being told a few years back that Pools played a number of games on Sundays and had some really good results and bigger gates. That would leave Saturdays free for family / work / etc.

Yes it was a novelty at that time but you didn’t have the tv coverage of the big guns. Also I don’t think the pubs were open on a Sunday afternoon then..

God forbid, if any of the above ever changed, it would confuse the hell out of us

Anyway, heard on the grapevine, the club is replacing Carling with Skol this season

at least a 9pm finish would allow me to get off the A19 to the M1 before the 10pm pop up roadworks appear from nowhere. more hassle coming home than driving up which puts me off night games.

I propose 6am kick offs, get the shit out of the way early on, then you are free to enjoy the rest of the day. The only good thing about Pools is 3pm kick off, few leisurely Saturday morning breakfast then a stroll, few pints before the game, few after , then home at a reasonable time 8pm or . for a night in front of the tv. 3pm kick offs are the most important ingredient in British football. it will never change, the majprity of fans love it

Mr Horden i think the 3.00pm ko represents an way of life that has passed and younger people dont operate like that. I would certainly go for a % of games at 4.00 on a Sunday either on our own or with a number of other NL clubs.
I think along with Skol Norseman Lager will be on sale too.

I think young people would like to operate like that, it's just that the world has changed and the poor buggers now have to work weekends and all sorts of weird work patterns. We were lucky, living through times , when most took for granted, Friday night in down the pub, 3pm kick offs, Sunday morning footy, etc.

That way of life may have passed , but I don't remember being asked for my opinion or a vote on it, it was taken away from us, and I'm sure young people would have it back given the chance , why wouldn't they? everyone likes to be with their mates down the pub, match or local footy on a Sunday morning , rather than half of them missing. This is why I am against all day opening of pubs , night shifts, continental shifts, Sunday opening etc

I suspect that Sky have a problem with IPTV. I know more people who subscribe to that than the legal Sky version.

doubt we realized it at the time but we really never had it so good in our social life back in those days. pubs shutting at 11 at night never bothered me or my mates either. we knew a simple way of getting over it. we called it going out earlier. around my area 10.30 saturday night is busy with people actually just going out in taxi,s. at that time we used to look at our watches to see how much more we could get down us before the last bus.