With the new club season underway, Saturday afternoons are no longer our own, with large numbers of English football fans gathered in stadiums up and down the country.
The 3 pm Saturday kick-off is, of course, a revered institution in football. And there are certain things, including the television broadcast blackout, that are designed to support that tradition.
But things have also changed. There are, for example, usually two to three lunchtime kick-offs on a Saturday. Thursday and Friday games have also become more common.
In some ways, this is a good thing. It gives clubs a chance to play televised games, with all the additional exposure and revenue that it brings, but it also weakens the traditional hold of those Saturday afternoons.
Across the world, many different leagues are experimenting with changing schedules. The starkest example is arguably La Liga, where teams now rarely play at the same time. The round of games tends to be staggered from Friday night to Monday night, with each having its own three-hour window.
The NFL has cracked the code
In the NFL, while not association football, they have had a tried and tested formula for years. Sunday is the main day of action, but there are primetime slots away from Sunday that have become their own institutions. Fans will search for Thursday Night Football odds, for example, knowing that a big game is reserved for that spot; the same goes for Monday Night Football, which was a thing in the US many years before anyone had heard of Neville and Carragher, or Sky Sports for that matter.
Nobody is saying that the EFL should replicate the NFL’s model exactly, nor the Spanish one, but there are interesting options available. For example, Saturday night and Sunday night slots are currently not dominated by the Premier League, and it is, indeed, uncommon to see games played later than a 5.30 kick-off on these days. Why not a weekly slot at 7.30 pm on a Saturday or Sunday for an EFL clash?
Changes should be pragmatic and respectful
Of course, any such move would have to be pragmatic, respecting fans. For instance, no fan wants to be trying to make their way home across the country on a Sunday night after a game ends at 9.30 pm, but there are options, including local derbies.
For example, in League One this season, you have the South London clubs AFC Wimbledon and Bromley FC, separated by a fairly short trip on the Tube. The same goes for Millwall and Charlton in the Championship. A Saturday or Sunday evening kick-off for a game of this nature would be quite the draw on television after the Premier League has wrapped up, and there would be few barriers to fans getting to and from the stadium and back home again.
All of this is certainly speculative. And, as we have mentioned, there are plenty of games already moved away from Saturday 3 pm. But there is also a firm appetite for English football, including from a global audience, and it is possible to serve those people while also respecting the traditions of English football.