Motion S4M-02317: Mark McDonald, North East Scotland, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 13/03/2012
Timing of Scottish Cup Semi-final
That the Parliament notes that the Scottish Cup semi-final between Aberdeen and Hibernian will take place at Hampden Park on 14 April 2012, kicking off at 12.15pm; congratulates both teams on their achievement in the competition thus far; notes that the match is being broadcast live on Sky Sports and the BBC; considers that the timing of the kick-off will greatly inconvenience supporters travelling from the north east, and calls on the Scottish Football Association to consider changing the time so that it suits supporters rather than television schedules.
I’m not sure Mark needed to submit the motion. I mean, surely the mass protests, the newspaper outrage and the constant Sky Sports coverage is sufficient on what is, of course, a huge injustice to Aberdonians.
Alternatively, one could remember that football is part of business so subject to money-spinning decisions, and is only a game.
#1 by Danny on March 18, 2012 - 10:02 am
I don’t see the issue. A 2 or 3pm start would be much more convenient.
#2 by Barbarian on March 18, 2012 - 12:29 pm
Does our learned numpty of an MSP realise that noon kickoffs are for public order reasons?
And do I detect the merest hint of yet another plug for Murdoch’s empire (watch the latest PPB from the SNP).
#3 by Doug Daniel on March 19, 2012 - 12:24 pm
Public order reasons? For an Aberdeen vs Hibs match? I don’t think so. It’s because Sky will be wanting to show English football at 3pm, simple as that.
As for your second line, I thought you were better than that. It’s one thing for folk to accuse Salmond of trying to butter up Murdoch because they had a meeting, but to extend that to some sort of SNP-wide pro-NewsCorp conspiracy is pretty reprehensible. Especially when you’re choosing to ignore the fact he mentions the BBC as well – why are you not accusing him of trying to plug them too?
All he’s saying there is that it’s going to be on both paid and terrestrial TV, which is just going to cause more fans to stay at home, rather than getting up ridiculously early in order to get to Glasgow to enjoy an hour-long queue round the block* at Central Station. Perhaps you’d be happier if he’d said “broadcast live on an unspecified subscription channel and a certain terrestrial TV channel funded by licence fees”?
(*Possible exaggeration, since the last time I went to Hampden was for the Scotland-Holland game a couple of years ago…)
#4 by Doug Daniel on March 18, 2012 - 8:33 pm
Being a fellow Aberdonian SNP member, I am of course right behind Mark here. I was up for going to the semi-final, especially as it’s a repeat of the first time I saw the Dons at Hampden, beating Hibs 2-1 in the 2000 semi-final. Assuming Celtic get through, I would expect the final to be only slightly less disastrous than the 2000 one, with Jim Leighton’s final game for the Dons ending after only three minutes, and Rangers putting four past Robbie Winters, goalkeeping extraordinaire. Somehow I don’t think Craig Brown will forget to put a keeper on the bench…
But anyway, 12:15 kick-off means leaving Aberdeen earlier than I would leave my house for work on a weekday. Or I could just watch it on the TV. I’m sure I’m not the only fairweather Dons fan who sees this as being a fairly straight-forward contest.
Still, maybe we’ll get to sing this again next season:
We’re the Dons from Aberdeen
And we’re the finest that’s ever been
And we’re gonna do it for you!
We’re gonna do it for you!
McLeish and Miller, and Strachan too
Will lead us forward and take us through
And we’re gonna do it, we’re gonna do it
We’re gonna do it for you!
We’ve taken our team into Europe
Yes we have, oh-oh-oh yes we have
All the way, every night and day
Singing the European Song!
Oh, oh, oh all the way, every night and day
Singing the European Song!
#5 by Arnold on March 19, 2012 - 7:37 am
I think Mark is spot on with this post. You say that it is all about business but at the same time the number of people going to games has gone down and clubs are struggling. This is not a fan friendly time for a game when you consider one team’s fans are coming down from the North of Scotland.
Am sure you’d love all motions to be high-brow political debate but surely this one taps into the feelings of many aberdeen fans, no? And surely if that is the case then an MSP is right to highlight the issue?