I read an article a few weeks ago about teams in the EFL thinking of kicking games off earlier, due to the price of electricity.

In the Northern Echo this morning, there is a piece on Mansfield Town, giving this idea a run out.

They will trial it at the Walsall game, with a 1pm kick.

The points made.

1. Can they save significant money on floodlights cost?

2. Will changing kick off time have an effect on prospective attendances?

I would imagine there would be a few clubs keen to see what transpires.


Would the last one out, turn the lights off please.

Why cant the players just have head torches?

Northampton v Stockport is a 2pm k.o. today, not sure if it's for the same reason.

Unfortunately some teams will be able to afford better torches then others, and I would imagine some club owners will be saying..have you seen the price of head torches.

No doubt the Elf of Safety would have a field day.

We could install treadmills of the victorian era, in the Town End, which could power the floodlights, this would work particularly well when it is freezing cold and there is N or NE wind blowing...no complaints of being cold then...however the PA system will have to be fixed so people will know, when to go quicker.

Yes I can see it now 'THE TREADMILL END' where you end up fitter then the players on the field.

Thats an idea and maybe Tuesday night games could be moved to 1pm and season ticket holders would get paid time off to watch the game funded by a windfall tax on the energy companies.

Yet the same Mansfield moved our game next weekend to Friday night, they should make their mind up whether they want to save money on floodlight costs or not

Tame glow worms are the answer. Trouble is we’d need 18,000,000 per floodlight.

that was to do with traffic as the towns RU team had a match on the same day so they moved the KO forward one hour. as for ealy KO to save on lighting costs, well these costs never bothered clubs that put their lights on in clear daylight when it only started to drop dark into the second half. no matter what time you decide to kick off a game there will be winners and losers where this affects.

well we could then apply for a government grant to set up our gloworm breeding plant and the greenies will become poolies overnight.

Maybe that's why we still have a few dud bulbs out to save money or were they o.k. but took them out anyway? Hmmmm!

...as for ealy KO to save on lighting costs, well these costs never bothered clubs that put their lights on in clear daylight when it only started to drop dark into the second half. no matter what time you decide to kick off a game there will be winners and losers where this affects.[/quote] by AF

The lights have to be put on in stages, so you don't blow the fuse.. Under the stairs...can you remember when there was a call put over the speakers ..is there an Electrician in the ground. Would happen at least once a year.

You would think with bulb technology advancing, there were floodlight bulbs, that use less power. Unless there like the energy saving bulbs that first come out for the home. It would take 8 hours for the light emitted to be bright enough to see what's going on.

We can't even replace the florescent tubes in the Town End, never mind floodlights

Several non league teams saying floodlights aren't actually that expensive to use, teams usually pay for them in advance and they go off at set times.

If they won't make substantial savings I doubt any EFL club would.

Although its going to be interesting on if England progress far into the world cup, surely Saturday games would remain just at times like 12:30?

for saturday games anyway and you can make it from 12 onwards i wonder what your own ideal KO time would be for home games. I,d plump for 2pm myself. what do others think.

A 2pm kick would be good, but hospitality corporate wise, would not like it much I think?

Maybe a different KO time me mite actually win a game.
Rewind about 340 days for our last home league win on a Saturday.
V Harrogate 3 2.

For what you’d save in energy costs you’d probably lose out in food and attendance costs and probably away supporters, again depending upon the time of course
The 2pm start might be ok at 2pm thedno suggests, but 12 is a funny one…. That said in winter most lights are on as the match starts and the cost of actually starting them up will make any saving marginal for half a match.

out of all the kick off times that are available i always found that stupid 5.20 saturday one in the national league is the worst. neither one thing or another for me if you want to see the game live. must be lousy if you are a pools shopworker as you,ll miss half of the first half even if you watched it on the box.