No fans till March

Quoted from GrimRob

It's a guess, it could be more or less, just to give people an idea to plan around. It could well be the whole of the season and beyond though, who knows?

Thank you Grim.

Quoted from Lincoln Mariner 56

Well it was there decision to restart the league on 12 September, their decision to play the league cup round 1 before the season started on 5 September and to play 2 further rounds in September and their decision to get the EFL cup underway in the first week of the season, so IMO yes it is their fault.

I recall an early interview with Ollie where he was very critical of these exact decisions and it was his opinion football should not return until crowds were to be allowed back even if that meant waiting until 2021.

Personally watching games without fans is like watching Gavin and Stacey without sound, pretty pointless and not entertaining, especially given how we’ve started!!!

Given Grimsby’s much discussed prudence we will hopefully survive by the skin of our teeth but the future has to be very bleak for many clubs at all levels from Championship to Conference North/ South etc. and the knock on effect this will have on other local businesses will be equally devastating.

Hindsight is great

Quoted from supertown

Hindsight is great

Well as I said Ollie said this well before the season kicked off, Shrewsbury proposed September be used to play EFL fixtures as these games rarely attract much of a crowd and would provide a good way of players regaining match fitness. That seemed very sensible at the time and even more so now after witnessing towns’s struggles in their opening games.

It was not unreasonable to expect that as lockdown eased and people start increasingly mixing with others that cases would rise again what is probably unexpected is the Govt hitting the panic button after businesses throughout the country, not just football, have spent considerable sums putting in place for post Covid returns of spectators and customers.

A whole season without fans must be not only be financially challenging for the Club but soul destroying and demotivating for the players.

Absolutely sick of this. As others have said, people gathering is permitted to an extent elsewhere, so just allow a restricted number of socially distanced people with masks into the grounds. Everyone going knows the risks.

My dad turned 77 in March just before this all kicked off and we went out for a meal. He's not at death's door but he's got quite a few health problems. He soberingly told me that he thinks he's got 2 or 3 years maximum left on this earth. We're told that all these restrictions are to protect people like him. Well, he doesn't want it. He's now lost 6 months of life and is being served up a pale imitation of the game he loves. What's he being protected from? He's effectively being asked to quietly die at home with his favourite pasttime ripped away from him, otherwise there's a risk he might die. Either way, his life has effectively already ended.

Treat the virus seriously, absolutely. But typically vaccines take 10 to 15 years to develop. We can't just wait and watch lower league football disappear.

Quoted from MeanwoodMariner

Absolutely sick of this. As others have said, people gathering is permitted to an extent elsewhere, so just allow a restricted number of socially distanced people with masks into the grounds. Everyone going knows the risks.

My dad turned 77 in March just before this all kicked off and we went out for a meal. He's not at death's door but he's got quite a few health problems. He soberingly told me that he thinks he's got 2 or 3 years maximum left on this earth. We're told that all these restrictions are to protect people like him. Well, he doesn't want it. He's now lost 6 months of life and is being served up a pale imitation of the game he loves. What's he being protected from? He's effectively being asked to quietly die at home with his favourite pasttime ripped away from him, otherwise there's a risk he might die. Either way, his life has effectively already ended.

Treat the virus seriously, absolutely. But typically vaccines take 10 to 15 years to develop. We can't just wait and watch lower league football disappear.

This is a really interesting point you make. My wife does a lot of voluntary work with elderly people and she says a lot of them with not too long left would be happy to take their chances carrying on as normal.
Personally my interest in football is dead at the moment and I'm convinced we'd be better just stopping the lower leagues until it's deemed safe for fans to return.

Thankfully not everyone is happy to die at 77 +2 or +3 and most 77 year olds have more to live for than football. Is the disappearance of lower league football really more important than the life of those who are 75+ who want to live a little longer even if that life is a little restricted and enjoy their sons daughters and grandchildren?

Quoted from Ipswin

Thankfully not everyone is happy to die at 77 +2 or +3 and most 77 year olds have more to live for than football. Is the disappearance of lower league football really more important than the life of those who are 75+ who want to live a little longer even if that life is a little restricted and enjoy their sons daughters and grandchildren?

I never said my dad was happy to die or that he's got nothing to live for but football. FFS, I know you enjoy winding people up with your absurd posts on here, but this one is poorly judged.

Quoted from ska face

Now they know where they stand, the club should be absolutely hammering the iFollow streams. Set a target “attendance” and try hit it for every match or run a campaign until March to hit x amount of streams. You’ve got a product available to people who wouldn’t have been able to attend previously.

They have to reimagine themselves as a streaming service until March rather than a football club, see it as an opportunity & don’t wallow in it. Make it accessible, build a culture around it. See every stream as building towards something bigger rather than just a way of watching a match.

If ever the majority shareholder wanted to demonstrate the value of his benign loans, now might be the time to invest in the club’s digital side (shop, Youtube content, get some external advice & direction), given that 99% of interactions with the club are going to be coming that way this year. Would also benefit the commercial side - who wants to pay for a pitch side hoarding when nobody sees it? Digital ads on the other hand...

A proper pre match build up would be a start, highlights of previous games, fan and player interviews, skills challenge, etc

Quoted from MeanwoodMariner

I never said my dad was happy to die or that he's got nothing to live for but football. FFS, I know you enjoy winding people up with your absurd posts on here, but this one is poorly judged.

I consider your post to be equally if not more poorlyjudged and my reply was in response to exactly how I understood it

Your father may not want to be protected from this awful disease and may consider the steps to keep him and other elderly people alive has been a wasted six months especially as he is now being 'served up a pale imitation of the game he loves'. Thousands will disagree and would see this as a slap in the face for those, both NHS staff and carers plus relatives who have spent the last six months fighting to keep our older vulnerable citizens, who desperately want to live a little longer (whether Grimsby Town play in front of crowds or not) alive

Quoted from MeanwoodMariner

Treat the virus seriously, absolutely. But typically vaccines take 10 to 15 years to develop. We can't just wait and watch lower league football disappear.

To be fair there has never been 200 different vaccines in different stages of development before. Nothing like that. It seems we'll probably have one that works confirmed by the end of the yearl