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Saints could be set to tour North America or Japan this summer


Saint-Armstrong
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When do the qualifying rounds of the CL and EL start? Qualification for either of those will obviously restrict the time available for a long distance pre-season programme...

 

The earliest Southampton might have to play a Champions League playoff game is August 18, 2015,--after the season starts. The earliest we might have to play a Europa League third round qualifying game is July 30, 2015. I have relied upon Wikipedia for this. This assumes that we do not qualify through the fair play table which I believe is virtually a certainty.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015%E2%80%9316_UEFA_Europa_League#Third_qualifying_round

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When do the qualifying rounds of the CL and EL start? Qualification for either of those will obviously restrict the time available for a long distance pre-season programme...
I thin its quite a short pre-season this year, with next season starting quite early August and there being a round of international games in early June.

 

I had a feeling we'd look at America or Canada, seems to be the place to go for pre-season these days and Krueger must have some contacts in that regard.

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Irony being, if we qualify for Europe, nothing pre-season wise will seem overly interesting.

 

you know what I mean lol, there's a difference between a competitive CL/EL game played midweek in the football season against a decent team vs what we had last summer: we basically played third/fourth tier dutch/belgian opposition.

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Come to Sydney farkeen.

 

I suspect there are more 'Soccer' fans in Oz, per capita than any other ex-colonial place. Obviously, Brisbane would be the preferred choice. I would deffo go to Melbourne or Sydney if Saints played there. In fact Liverpool rep team is coming to Bris and I don't give a hsit. Bring the Saints!

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The earliest Southampton might have to play a Champions League playoff game is August 18, 2015,--after the season starts. The earliest we might have to play a Europa League third round qualifying game is July 30, 2015. I have relied upon Wikipedia for this. This assumes that we do not qualify through the fair play table which I believe is virtually a certainty.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015%E2%80%9316_UEFA_Europa_League#Third_qualifying_round

 

Dates confirmed as above on UEFA's website:

 

http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/news/newsid=2197303.html

 

It'll also come in handy for planning the group stage matches. ;)

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Ralph's already.... " misquoted quote " suggested that Saints were a bigger club than Man U ......in some parts of the USA. This was referring to fan support, and not finances or club history.

 

....closer reference to the context of his statement suggests that now NBC have TV rights in the U.S........ far more people can watch more Prem. games, whereas the prev. " supplier " FOX Sports restricted viewing to those games that featured " the traditional big six " clubs.

 

Now, a whole new generation in U.S. has become EPL fans and are "choosing teams" for the first time, and many of them (not surprisingly) are choosing Saints ahead of those " traditional " clubs.

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Ralph's already.... " misquoted quote " suggested that Saints were a bigger club than Man U ......in some parts of the USA. This was referring to fan support, and not finances or club history.

 

....closer reference to the context of his statement suggests that now NBC have TV rights in the U.S........ far more people can watch more Prem. games, whereas the prev. " supplier " FOX Sports restricted viewing to those games that featured " the traditional big six " clubs.

 

Now, a whole new generation in U.S. has become EPL fans and are "choosing teams" for the first time, and many of them (not surprisingly) are choosing Saints ahead of those " traditional " clubs.

 

Fox put nearly all the games on Fox Soccer and Fox Soccer plus--although a few games were on the Fox network itself which was available with all basic cable packages. You had had to pay extra to get Fox Soccer from most cable TV providers (and less than half of the homes in America got it) and even more extra to get Fox Soccer Plus (which some providers don't carry at any price--including mine). They also had an app (Fox Soccer 2 Go) for the rest of the games but that cost $20/month. One game a week was on ESPN which was easy to get.

 

NBC puts most games on NBC Sports Network which is currently available to nearly 70% of US homes--I assume that even more could get it but choose not to. Virtually every weekend has one game available on NBC itself (the Saturday 5:30 game). They also have an app but it is free if your have a subscription to a cable TV company that carries NBC Sports Network. Also, NBC has done a better job of promoting the Premier League and the in studio experts are better or, at least, more pleasant to listen to.

 

One way or another I was able to watch all of Southampton's Premier League games. (I have only missed one full game and two half games so far for reasons unrelated to their availability--although I missed most of the second half of this year's Sunderland game due to a bug in the app.) However, it is $200 cheaper with NBC than it was with Fox and I can see every Southampton game live if wish.

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One way or another I was able to watch all of Southampton's Premier League games. (I have only missed one full game and two half games so far for reasons unrelated to their availability--although I missed most of the second half of this year's Sunderland game due to a bug in the app.) However, it is $200 cheaper with NBC than it was with Fox and I can see every Southampton game live if wish.

 

Hang on a min here. Take a step back. We are talking the 8-0? How many goals did you miss?

 

Chicago Fire v Saints

Indy Eleven v Saints

Columbus Crew v Saints

 

I think these should be the 3 games of the USA tour. Chicago definitely. How does it all work though - the MLS season runs from March to October. So are we looking at MLS teams who are on a bye week? There ain't that many byes during the English close-season (see schedule below). Sweden and Austria it is...

 

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Hang on a min here. Take a step back. We are talking the 8-0? How many goals did you miss?

 

Chicago Fire v Saints

Indy Eleven v Saints

Columbus Crew v Saints

 

I think these should be the 3 games of the USA tour. Chicago definitely. How does it all work though - the MLS season runs from March to October. So are we looking at MLS teams who are on a bye week? There ain't that many byes during the English close-season (see schedule below). Sweden and Austria it is...

 

I missed five goals in the Sunderland game.

 

Despite the lack of byes, MLS teams find the chance to play European teams. Also, we don't have to play MLS teams. We could schedule games with European clubs in the USA or Japan. A game with Everton, for example, would attract a crowd because of Tim Howard. Swansea would also make an attractive opponent.

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