Back in the day when Cardiff ran the best club team in Europe, their fixture list guaranteed supporters 23 home matches, everyone on a Saturday afternoon bar Boxing Day and Easter.
Their season of seasons, spanning 49 matches in eight months from September 1953, included one against the All Blacks; a once-in-a-generation event worth the season ticket on its own.
More than 56,000 squeezed into the Arms Park to see Cardiff beat New Zealand a month before six of their players reappeared at the same venue to repeat the dose for Wales.
Times change, not always for the better.
Complain
Today’s Cardiff fans have had ample reason to complain about being short-changed without needing a reminder of the magical carpet ride rolled out for their grandparents through autumn, winter and on almost into summer.
The Saturday afternoon kick-off, which they took for granted along with their counterparts at clubs across the UK, has been obliterated from Cardiff’s home schedule in the United Rugby Championship.
A season ticket for their club’s campaign launched in winning style last weekend guarantees nine home matches, two-thirds of them on Friday nights starting at 7.45pm, the remaining third on Saturday nights at the same anti-social time.
The club’s European Challenge Cup campaign kicks off with more of the same, Ulster at the Arms Park on Saturday, December 13, with the latest start of all, 8pm.
The other home match, against Racing on January 10, provides the only Saturday afternoon fixture of the entire season.
Broadcasters buying television rights arrange kick-off times designed to enhance viewing figures suit the viewing audience at the expense of what suits the real supporter who turns up whatever the weather.
He who pays the piper calls the tune, however off-key it sounds to families unable to attend night matches because it means keeping their children up after bedtime.
Old-fashioned
Long-distance, long-disenchanted Scarlets‘ followers from the western outposts of the region feel marooned in the same boat.
The majority of their remaining 10 home matches are late starts, 7.45pm on Friday nights and 15 minutes later still for their Champions Cup ties against Bristol (December 6) and Pau (January 10).
While some old-fashioned kick-off times can still be found in the English Prem, they are few and far between, rather like the competition itself.
Its thinning out post – London Irish, Wasps and Worcester – leaves those left with nine home matches over the regular season – about one a month.
No League flies the flag of the Saturday Afternoon Preservation Society with more gusto than the one across the Channel, where the best club tournament in the game commands the biggest television deal, £606,755,400 from Canal+ over the next five seasons.
The Top 14 ensures that no amount of millions gives the broadcaster carte blanche to reschedule matches and challenge fans to make head or tail of a bewildering timetable.
Schedule
The schedule remains constant for all 26 rounds: no Friday matches, six on a Saturday (one early, one late, the rest in the mid-afternoon slot) and one on Sunday evening.
It causes the paying customer minimum inconvenience, which is more than can be said for the URC, the Champions Cup and the Six Nations.
For the first time, its 15 matches will be spread over four days, starting on February 5, a Thursday night in Paris for France-Ireland, which will make even the well-heeled think twice.
One match will be staged on a Friday night (Ireland-Wales) one on a Saturday night (France-England), two on Sunday (Wales-France, France-Italy) with the rest on Saturdays – five at 2.10pm, five more at 4.40pm.
Meanwhile, back at the Arms Park, the faithful will have to put up with late-night matches for the remainder of the URC season, a run broken only by the Boxing Day derby against the Dragons, timed for 3pm.
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