Marca is reporting the LFP has released its early La Liga schedule, and three games in the opening weekend alone are slated to kick off at 11:00. PM. At night.
Needless to say, this hasn’t gone down well with commenters on Marca’s site who are understandably upset, not least because neither Barcelona nor Real Madrid will be subject to these midnight madness matches nor any in the following two match days. The affected games are:
23:00 Mallorca – Espanyol
23:00 Levante – Atletico Madrid
23:00 Zaragoza – Valladolid
The times were presumably set in part to allow marquee time slots for the big two. There have always been late kick-offs in Spain, but asking fans to watch a game at 11:00 PM on a Monday is a bit much, even with the country’s employment problems at the moment.
Having spent time in Spain recently, I think the biggest problem will be people finishing theiir dinner before the match begins.
Eh, Americans deal with it all the time due to the various time zones. They can handle it.
????
This isn’t the same thing at all…there’s only one time zone in Spain.
This would be like a Jays game starting at 11:00 IN TORONTO.
Tyrone, he is talking about the east-west coast shift. Imagine the Jays playing in Cali, with a 11pm opening pitch. The problem is though, people don’t watch those games, unless you have a weird schedule. I used to be able to watch west coast Leaf games – but not anymore; and if it is missing the first game of the season, it is kind of lame.
But that also misses Tyrone’s point.
If the Jays play in California with an 11pm start, people still watch in California (because it’s actually 8pm there).
Now if the Jays played in, say, Baltimore with an 11pm start, no one in Toronto or Baltimore would want to go.
The La Liga teams are starting the games at 11pm local time. There’s 1 time zone. It’s too late in the day for everyone, not just the away viewers on TV.
The only people who will like this? North American fans who get to see games ~5pm.