The Premier League will complete this campaign without fans in the stands due to the coronavirus pandemic.
It has been a struggle to get the teams back playing and letting fans in is the last thing the Premier League wants to discuss right now.
Some Premier League teams have already started thinking that they would probably not have fans in their stadiums for the whole of next season as well, but Premier League chief Richard Masters has given them some hope.
The new Premier League CEO admits that no one knows when they will move beyond the behind-closed-doors model, but they have hopes that fans could return to the stadium next season.
He, however, warned that the fans would only be allowed back in phases, but eventually, it will return as we know it with time.
‘No one knows when matches will move away from the behind closed doors model and obviously it is right to have contingency plans in place, but there is optimism at the Premier League and at clubs that we will see fans back in the stadiums next season and it may happen on a phased basis,’ Masters told Sky Sports as quoted by the Daily Mail.
‘Hopefully it will be a huge morale boost and that is what we’ve been working towards.
‘We’ve got some incredible fans in this country and we all know the Premier League we know and love won’t be fully back until we have fans back through the turnstiles.
‘Getting it back on our TV screens for people to enjoy will hopefully give the whole country a boost.’
One problem perhaps not yet fully realised by Richard Masters and his colleqgues at the Prem league is this: Once fans who til now regularly attended, see the physical and financial benefits of watching onTV compared to going back to games after this virus is over, a goodly number of them – I do not of course say all, but certainly a percentage of them -will decide to watch onTV from then onwards, thus leaving a hole in those who will watch games live. Many will already have Sky and BT at home but even the pub is much cheaper to watch at than paying Prem league gate prices.
It is a well recognised truism that once old habits change , even through forced circumstances, a goodly number will settle for the new way of watching. This virus will have far longer consequence on Prem finances than many realise. If club owners think for a moment that fans will, en masse, be so desperate to go back to games that they will pay any new price increase, they are barkingup the wrong tree. Most owners are too financially shrewd to think that and will suffer losses. We must hope Kroenke is worst hit of all owners and is forced into cutting his losses by selling our club to a proper human being. ONE WHO GIVES A DAMN IN FACT. Heres hoping!