Originally Posted by Mark.:
“Although it doesn't change your point, the last time Christmas was on a Sunday was 2011.
I'll head off now and get my pedant's hat dry cleaned.”
I wish I'd been able to post this earlier than five days later so it didn't sound like I'd been stewing on it for so long, but... that's what I said, isn't it? I made reference to the last time Christmas was on a Sunday in 2011 - when they had the midweek before Christmas - and then moved on to mention
the time before that in 2005 when we had the midweek after Christmas.
Originally Posted by Neil_Harris:
“Wonder if they cashed in the favour of the Liverpool game at the start of the season? Otherwise that's a dangerous precedent to set. There is absolutely no reason to move that game. Hull managed to play 2 in 4 days (Wednesday/Saturday)”
I don't think it's at all dangerous, as I mentioned before it happened in 2009 when Spurs requested their match against Wigan be moved to the Sunday because it came straight after an international break and they wanted their players to have more rest. If both teams are happy to agree, it can happen. But it's happened twice in about a decade. It's not likely to happen much more frequently either because these days there's very little flexibility in the fixture list and as we know from this thread, it's often more about when you can't play it than when you can. This is one of the few weekends of the season they can do it, because nobody has a midweek match.
Anyway, surely it's no different to Football League teams moving their matches to Friday nights if they think they can get bigger attendances - as I see a number have done on 30th December to avoid having a New Year's Eve match. It's also notable that attendances are usually awful on the Saturday before Christmas anyway.
Originally Posted by Mark.:
“Contractually, the BBC can show MOTD2 on Sunday OR Monday. So if they want to show highlights of the Merseyside derby, the have to forego same-day highlights of today's games.
I don't know why you think SPOTY is relevant. They've shown MOTD2 on the same day plenty of times in the past. The Merseyside derby is a big game so it's understandable why they've exercised their Monday night option.”
Well, yes, and if the two matches had been the other way round, it would probably have been the same. The other issue as well of course is that with The Apprentice it would mean either a very late start on BBC1 or on BBC2 with a much lower audience, also denting The Apprentice while they were at it. If you can show both on BBC1, why not? Exactly the same thing happened this week last season.
The fact many of the team will probably be working on SPOTY is another, smaller consideration. I remember the first year of MOTD2, in 2004, it was still the era when SPOTY was still at TV Centre, so Chiles presented the show as usual in the now-familiar smart casual attire but Hansen and Lawro were the pundits, and were in suits, clearly having just come from SPOTY. Which looked really weird.