CONGRATULATIONS to the fixture planners for making the Hull derby the opening game of the season on Thursday, February 15 next year.
I’ve always said that we need to start the season with a bang and the noise doesn’t get much bigger than when the two Hull clubs are facing off against each other.
The black-and-white half of the city had a disappointing 2023 season this year and they have lost some key personnel, especially Jake Clifford, Tevita Satae and Adam Swift.
But their recruitment looks promising so I suspect we will see a much better 2024 from them, and it may as well start on the opening night in front of what I hope will be a capacity audience at the MKM Stadium.
Whatever happens, I can’t see Hull KR coming away with a 40-0 victory, as they did on Good Friday this year when they ventured into the west of the city.
That game was played in front of 20,985 spectators and it will be interesting to see whether that figure can be beaten on a mid-February Thursday evening.
I hope the Airlie Birds will go all out to fill the stadium.
Having said that, I also felt some considerable disappointment on looking at the fixtures for the new season.
With all six games to be filmed by Sky Sports each week, it looked to me like an opportunity to have six matches every weekend with discrete kick-off times.
I had envisaged, for example, one game on Thursday evening, one on Friday evening, two on Saturday (kicking off at, say, 1pm and 4pm) and two on Sunday, kicking off at similar times.
Such an arrangement would allow us all to watch every game live, regardless of which club we support and it would surely add to the audience.
But instead we are going to have three matches kicking off simultaneously on many Friday nights, with one to be broadcast probably on Sky Sports Arena and the other two to be live-streamed by Sky.
If we want to watch all three matches, we will have to record two of them.
I struggle to believe that we have been given an opportunity like this, but that the clubs have been able to insist on playing three matches on Friday evenings.
I sometimes despair at the short-term thinking of our sport and of our clubs.
You could be forgiven for thinking that they don’t want our sport to attract more people.
