Is it only me that finds the League’s stated policy of playing your furthest away games midweek a bit odd in an entirely part time league? Workington and Whitby away on a Tuesday night you need an understanding boss, basically knocking off at lunch.
Stated policy? Does it say this somewhere? If so how bizarre it makes no logical sense apart from tenuously accepting small gates for longer trips and better ones for shorter weekend trips. Don't get it, not good for players or fans.
From our website in august news
EVOSTIK FIXTURE POLICY
When the 2017-18 fixture list dealt Altrincham many Saturday 3pm kick-offs against local teams such as Ashton United, Stalybridge Celtic and Warrington Town, but Tuesday 7.45pm kick-offs at their two furthest opponents, Workington (294 miles return) and Whitby (268 miles return), many supporters were baffled. However, it now emerges that short-distance 3pm matches and lengthy midweek journeys are actually the policy of the EvoStik League. Writing in the Albion Review, Witton Albion (and Evostik League) chairman Mark Harris confirms the League's views on assigning fixtures.
Following Albion's own midweek game at Workington last week, Mark wrote that "I was recently asked why long-distance fixtures are played midweek. The answer is simple; to play them at weekends would mean the more local derby fixtures being played midweek instead.
"For most, if not all clubs, it is the local games that generate the most income so, coupled with the motorway traffic nightmares so often encountered at weekends, that's why it makes more sense to prioritise the local games. Of course, I'd rather take a trip like the one to Workington early in the season rather than on a freezing cold Tuesday in January!"
