Management at the London Palladium have gone to great lengths to open the theatre’s doors during these difficult times.
They have bought a thermal imaging camera to check temperatures on entry. They allocate seating times to space out arrivals and reduce congestion in the theatre’s smaller spaces. They have a one-way traffic flow system. They seat families in groups and ensure bubbles of people are safely distanced. Face coverings are mandatory throughout shows. Drinks and snacks are ordered from and delivered to seats to prevent busy queues at the bars.
The worlds of theatre and football rarely collide, but when the London Palladium hosted “An Evening with Arsène Wenger”, it caused a swell of discontent, with observers highlighting how unfair it is that theatres can host socially distanced spectators inside, whereas the Government will not let fans into stadiums to watch football matches outside.
To emphasise the point, during one of Wenger’s shows, phone pictures taken from certain angles appeared to show the theatre full. Having clearly gone to great lengths to follow government guidance, the theatre had to issue a hasty statement pointing out that only 50 per cent of the Grade II listed building’s 2,200 capacity was in use.
Cinemas, meanwhile, have been putting on socially distanced screenings of Premier League matches and drawing decent audiences, again prompting more criticism from the football community.
Vue in Stratford’s Westfield shopping centre showed West Ham’s game against Manchester City on Saturday. They charged £6.99. It was a great idea. Let fans watch the game in their own Covid bubbles a short stroll from where the action unfolded at the London Stadium.
Generate some income for an industry that is on its knees. An industry that has seen its supposed saviour, in Christopher Nolan’s film Tenet, fail to live up to expectations, prompting other major productions, including the latest James Bond film, No Time To Die, to push back release dates. That has left movie theatres without movies to fill seats and forced them to scratch around for alternatives.
Yet figures and organisations across football have been unable to compute why theatres and cinemas are being allowed to host an audience inside, when clubs cannot host larger numbers outside. The concept has baffled many.
Just this weekend, the English Football League said in a statement that the “inconsistency is frustrating and perplexing”. On the West Ham cinema situation, manager David Moyes said it was “probably not my bag but I feel it’s not right”.
Surely it is not such a complex decision to understand.
Football can sustain itself handsomely via its television rights model, without supporters in stadiums. If anything, the absence of fans has created a training ground environment that is producing training ground score lines and potentially the most unpredictable Premier League in years.
Sure, top-flight clubs will lose income while they play in empty stadiums, but they could maybe cut back on a few signings in the transfer window ahead.
One argument for the necessity of allowing fans back in is to save lower-league clubs.
There is a simple solution to that with no risk whatsoever of spreading coronavirus: the huge pot of cash that belongs to the clubs at the top of the pyramid.
The Premier League could solve English football’s financial crisis overnight. One thing Project Big Picture showed everyone is that the top-flight spoils could be shared around enough to sustain every professional club in the country. They are simply choosing not to at this time.
The Government allowed football to get back on its feet during lockdown before many other major industries, and for good reason. It is the country’s most watched sport, it is a form of escapism for thousands, it fills the public coffers with extraordinary amounts of money from tax. But so do theatres and cinemas.
Clearly the country cannot operate at full capacity without the virus ripping through the population and even in the current system the infection rate is rising. It does not take an epidemiologist to realise that there is only so much of the tap the Government can turn on, and it is not an unfair stance to suggest that, given football can support itself, other industries reliant on audiences deserve support.
If anything, theatre and cinema require live audiences more than football. Cinema is already being squeezed by streaming services. Theatre is all about the spectacle in the room. If that is on a screen, it’s just, well, film, not theatre.
Football is undoubtedly a different beast in the flesh rather than delivered through a television camera, but it is still football. And, in fact, some people actually prefer watching from the comfort of a sofa, a short walk from the kettle.
If football fans can do that for a little while longer, hopefully it will not be long until everyone can invite people back to enjoy events again.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/2HAp54e
Post a Comment