WILLIAM KEDJANYI

AUTHOR: Star Sports Content

JUST WILLIAM: Testing Times

Hello one and all!

It’s nice to be back here after a week’s absence, with so much to look forward to. The test summer begins tomorrow, the Oaks and Derby are this weekend, and we’ve also got the small matter of World Cup play-offs involving British teams for the football lovers.

Political anoraks also have the potential for a vote of no confidence in Boris Johnson, a leadership contest, and two by-elections, all of which is covered in this week’s Polling Station:

THE POLLING STATION | The end for Boris?

The New First Lady of Sports Betting

Many of the people reading this will be in the niche area of betting content, and some of them – including friend of the column and Star’s Head of Content David Stewart – will routinely have discussions about who to feature with their brands. And I’d absolutely love to have been a fly on the wall when this booking was made.

Seeing Nicki Minaj as a betting ambassador was not on my 2022 card….

Testing Times

The first test of the summer is one of my favourite days of the year. The anticipation, the excitement, the promise (weather permitting) of hours of high quality, gripping action in contests that can come down to split second acts of brilliance.

All of that should be seen in front of a big crowd – something which has been a norm at tests during the past few years. That won’t be the case at Lord’s, where organisers are potentially facing 20,000 empty seats – which would be an embarrassment for all involved.

The main excuse given was this weekend’s Platinum Jubilee, which means that we have a new favourite to win ‘worst excuse of the year.’ The real reason for a low attendance – which thankfully looks less likely according to the website – will be ticket prices.

The cheapest tickets for adults are listed as being £50, but the last tickets available are £110 upwards, with even under 16 tickets listed as costing £130.

Whilst this is a premium product – some of the world’s best players at the home of English cricket – when a ticket to see one day’s play costs as much as an entire season ticket for The Hundred, it doesn’t take a genius to see that crowds might be impacted.

With the cost of living crisis set to get far worse over the next few months, organisers of all events will have some serious choices to make when it comes to ticket pricing – otherwise we could be seeing a lot of empty seats this summer and beyond.

On that note, I was reading my colleague Simon Nott’s blog – which touched on crowd sizes at the Curragh and in racing more widely, and couldn’t help but wonder when racing will begin to feel the pinch of these factors.

Lower crowds than normal were noticed at this year’s Dante – something which should be a real worry, given how fantastically well run York is – and whilst the Derby is a sell-out, plenty of courses could suffer from potential punters – or indeed racegoers simply going for the sport or the day out – staying at home this year unless admissions are cut. What’s going to give?

We Are The Champions?

Liverpool’s defeat in the Champions League final meant that their season – which had seem them have a realistic shot at the quadruple – ended in disappointment, although that was secondary to the awful handling of the game by UEFA and the French Authorities.

That left Liverpool with two trophies this season, and no success in the Premier League or Champions League, despite winning 92 points in the former and reaching the final of the latter.

Opposition fans – which is normal, it’s football – were quick to label Liverpool’s season as a failure for not taking a ‘big’ trophy and ridicule their trophy parade the next day.

And for all that chucking pelters at opposition teams is the done thing, criticism of a season that brought two trophies – and only four defeats after playing every single possible game in all competitions – is just not something I can take seriously. And I have to say, the parade looked like a pretty awesome time.

And yes, I am an Arsenal fan, before anyone reminds me!

 

William Kedjanyi

Views of authors do not necessarily represent views of Star Sports Bookmakers.

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