How does everyone watch football?

[Redcanuck]

I am curious how people watch  the games.  Do you go in person,  are you season ticket holders?  If you watch on TV? What is the coverage like and how much does it cost? Do you stream on the net?

[Redcanuck]

I go in person to watch Canada play when they play in Ontario, both the Men's and Women's teams.  I have seen Toronto FC in the MLS and Hamilton Forge a Canadian Premier League play a couple of times but not a lot.  Mainly I pay for two streaming devices that I can watch on my TV or computer,  Fubu TV and DAZN Canada.  They cost $200 each per year and I get access to every Premier, Champions League and Europa games plus some games from the Championship and a few other European leagues.

[Stan]

Season ticket holder at Leicester.

Also watch online or via Sky Go.

I get BT Sport free through EE as part of my contract.

[Reluctant Striker]

I have had a Villa season ticket in the past, but to be honest I do have other more pressing needs these days. And so do not get to club games too often. I have easily been to Villa Park the most, but do have relatives (and school friends) that tried to sell to me, or find out which I preferred, of West Brom, Wolves & even Manchester United & Liverpool, many, many years ago. Been to The Hawthorns numerous times. Molineux a few times. Once owned a Manchester United season review annual, from the late 80's days when they hadn't won for ever & ever & ever. And a Manchester United home shirt of early 90's. Both without any request or vague hint from me, other than posters of all clubs possible on my bedroom wall. And perhaps being excited by them winning an FA Cup & the Cup Winners Cup on TV. I was 11-12 & without any parental guidance of any kind.. but I realised Villa were much more local than Manchester. I could very easily have been a Man United fan.. 

Never seen an England football match in person though. But did see Villa at old Wembley.

I grew up with Sky Sports from day one. In recent years it's been Now TV, when really interesting stuff, to me personally, has been on. So it has been irregular that I've seen any full 90 minutes, given Villa's decline. If Villa are not even in the room, I find contentment following BBCs Final Score (describe on TV with no show) & Match of the Day (15-20 minutes for most matches) and immerse myself in local radio for analysis of whatever is going wrong at Villa.

I have used Amazon free trials when it's their round of matches (in the UK?) And very recently noticed Sky Sports HD was available via TV for similar price to streaming on Now TV. And with no mention of minimum months agreement. Rather than the 50%+ more premium price that it had been.

Given all the above, you would be correct to think I may well go for full Sky Sports access in one way or another at least a few months this season. And would quite like to see at least 1 Emery era match.

[Tommy]

Season ticket holder at Fortuna Düsseldorf. 

 

Watch the away games on Sky. Planning to go to more away games in the future though. Not regularly, but more often. 

[CaaC (John)+]

Mainly on TV if it is live but lately I have gone off football watching it live, I would rather just watch highlights on YouTube or wherever.

[nudge]

Barely watch it at all, lost almost all interest I had. Still watch Werder matches online, but these days, I don't really care if I miss those too. 

[DeadLinesman]

Ex-Season ticket holder at United. Having kids put paid to that. It’s too much time out of a weekend or weekday night when you work full time and have kids. Kudos to those that still do it but for me, family life is more important. Also because I watch Warrington RL regularly as well at the Halliwell Jones. I get to more away games than one these days as my mates like to keep their spares ‘in house’. I usually only attend the more local games though like Everton/Citeh/Liverpool when those tickets are available as they’re usually gold dust. 
 

Apart from that, it’s the telly box for me.

[CaaC (John)+]

 The Australian Rules Football season is up and running and I am more into that and keeping track of my Carlton, football has been knocked down a few places I am afraid to say.

[MUFC]

52 minutes ago, CaaC (John) said:

 The Australian Rules Football season is up and running and I am more into that and keeping track of my Carlton, football has been knocked down a few places I am afraid to say.

You know what my only memory is of Aussie football? Early 90s on Saturday or Sunday morning. Programme used to come on called TransWorld Sport. They shown a few minutes of sports from round the globe. Used to show Aussie rule football and was thinking at the time. This sport is brutal lol, well it was then. Have no idea how it is now.

[Dan+]

Had a season ticket since 1999 and do probably 80-90% of away games as well.

[CaaC (John)+]

5 minutes ago, MUFC said:

You know what my only memory is of Aussie football? Early 90s on Saturday or Sunday morning. Programme used to come on called TransWorld Sport. They shown a few minutes of sports from round the globe. Used to show Aussie rule football and was thinking at the time. This sport is brutal lol, well it was then. Have no idea how it is now.

It's on the BT Sports channel, some matches live on either Fri/Sat or Sunday, I only watch the highlights on the link below as I changed my Virgin package doing some cost cutting and I can't get BT Sports anymore.

Link: 

Aussie Rules Football

 

[Spike]

I huff turpentine till I think I can afford tickets then I hit my head on the coffee table.

[Dr. Gonzo]

I use my eyes

[MUFC]

5 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I use my eyes

[Inverted]

I don't have a TV and don't have any club or streaming subscriptions so generally I only see games when I'm visiting my parents at the weekend. Or when there's a game on in a pub I'm in. 

[Coma+]

Used to be a season ticket holder for FC Cincinnati in the early USL days and then the first couple seasons in MLS.  Stopped going because of the pricing and other priorities.  Now I just watch Bundesliga and La Liga on ESPN+, stream live matches on YouTube for German lower leagues.  Had a VPN and subs for Serie A and Argentina leagues but not enough hours in the week to fit all that football in so I cancelled those.

[Storts]

Had a Tottenham season ticket since 1998/99 - go to pretty much every game home and away. Watch non Spurs football on Sky/BT/Amazon 

[Spike]

1 minute ago, Storts said:

Had a Tottenham season ticket since 1998/99 - go to pretty much every game home and away. Watch non Spurs football on Sky/BT/Amazon 

I feel like we need to have a candlelight vigil for your wallet with those recent Spurs ticket prices.

[Storts]

2 hours ago, Spike said:

I feel like we need to have a candlelight vigil for your wallet with those recent Spurs ticket prices.

Without a doubt, most disposable income goes on that. It’s not a sustainable lifestyle with partner/kids etc. very much a single man’s/woman’s game 

[Azeem]

Only watch Cup finals, CL KO games, WC and big derbies. 

[Dr. Gonzo]

When I was still in the UK, I barely ever went to matches because it was pretty fucking hard to go to Liverpool matches. It was expensive and tough to get tickets generally, so I'd have to rely on shit like my dad or grandad taking me and I'd go to maybe a couple of matches every couple of seasons or so.

In the US, for a while I'd have to use illegal streams because finding a legal way to watch Liverpool matches was pretty limited until NBC got the rights to the premier league. They changed everything tbh and their coverage of our league is top tier - and you get more access to English football on TV in the US than in England itself. They made it even better with Peacock, which is worth every penny in all honesty just for the coverage of the league alone... but you get a lot of good content otherwise. For the CL, the coverage in the US is shite and last season with Paramount+ I just decided it wasn't worth the fucking money anymore for their absolutely piss poor coverage while illegal streams exist and I don't have to listen to their substandard commentary (the halftime punditry was quite good tbh, you get Thierry Henry, Micah Richards, and Carragher most of the time) but their commentary teams were/are fucking abysmal.

So nowadays I use a mix of illegal and legal streaming to watch Liverpool. For a few years, with NBC/Peacock and the west coast scheduling... aside from Liverpool, Crystal Palace games were weirdly well covered and they were on TV a lot (I assume some NBC executive's a massive fan) - so for a while I was watching mostly just Liverpool matches and Palace matches every week. So because of NBC I've ended up with a soft spot for Palace that my friends and family think is a bit weird 

But @The Palace Fan will be pleased to know that I think Palace are the greatest team London has to offer and that Palace > Brighton.

[Dan+]

10 hours ago, Storts said:

Without a doubt, most disposable income goes on that. It’s not a sustainable lifestyle with partner/kids etc. very much a single man’s/woman’s game 

It's a bit of a killer isn't it but it's just such a habit now. People talk to me about it as if I'm putting miles in despite not enjoying it and it's simply not the case. If I did genuinely not enjoy doing it I wouldn't do it.

Last season was a test mind. The socials made it bearable.

[Lucas]

I have a membership at Leeds which doesn't guarantee me a ticket however gives me a chance depending on the online ticket system. You need to be quick to queue and hope you get lucky.

Annoying because I do like to plan, pick and choose my games living 4 hours away, so it doesn't disturb other plans.

Away games are nigh on impossible to get directly in the Leeds end. However, due to connections and being part of a supporters club in the South, I do get lucky now and then.

Worth noting if all else fails, I can tolerate infiltrating the home end which I will likely do for a few of the Championship grounds this season.