So why is a live match day experience so compelling?

I have to confess to being somewhat of a ‘live sport’ junky. The past weekend I flew 13 hours on Friday night arriving in London to watch Chelsea play Manchester United. On Sunday evening, I flew 13 hours home again. Indulgent, fanatical or just plain mad?

I enjoy a length and breadth of different sports and find most of them to be far more enjoyable in person than on TV. Even the ones where the viewing experience is far less.

Formula One and cricket are just two examples where the ‘live’ experience makes actually watching the action in any meaningful way impossible. Anyone who’s been to an F1 race will know the frustration of constantly checking around to find out who is in which place or even on which lap, and you can typically only see one or two corners of action.

The speed of the bowlers and the size of the ball makes cricket impossible to watch in person unless you have seats in the perfect part of the ground. So why go?

Because at F1 you get a sensory overload of speed and noise which television simply cannot transmit. Once you watch it on television afterwards you have a totally different perspective and new found respect for the drivers, oh and your TV doesn’t transmit a smell of burning rubber either.

Cricket is a little more simple in that the atmosphere at the ground is why people attend, it’s a big day out, although again you start to understand the speed of the ball which the camera foreshortens so dramatically. Professional boxing is a little similar in that you typically don’t have a great view of the fight but you can hear the punches and it can literally make you shudder.

A sport that I have watched in person which is actually far better in the flesh than on TV is Australian Rules Football. Such is the size of the pitch and the number of players on the pitch and the patterns of play that result that a panoramic live view is the only true way to appreciate it.

Good old, ‘simple’ football however is for me and other football fans simply unique. The experience in going to matches isn’t necessarily better or worse, but it is very different. Anyone who’s been to a match will understand the differences even if they didn’t particularly enjoy the experience.

Watching football live is a far more personal experience than watching it on television. TV is wonderful at giving you the best camera positions to watch the game, slow motion replays from every angle and there is commentary to enhance the experience – sometimes insightful, sometimes terrible.

But watch it in person and you quite often see far more than the actual game itself, you see all the other battles and sub plots playing out across the pitch.

Rarely have I come away from a live match (I used to go to nearly every Chelsea home game in the ’90s and used to attend regularly at Aberdeen’s home matches in the ’80s) with a proper sense or idea of whether it was actually a ‘good match’ or not. Typically your level of satisfaction is purely a function of whether your team won or not and even matches I have attended as a neutral, again it is difficult to tell.

What you do however see are many things you either can’t see on TV or simply don’t pick up. These tend to be associated with individual players and the sub plots across the pitch, you don’t have to follow the ball or watch what the cameras are showing you.

As an example, I don’t think anyone is any doubt that Eden Hazard is a wonderful player. What had not been apparent to me however until Saturday was just how his game has evolved, the strength, the ability to hold play up and the movement off the ball.

Not seeing my team as often as I would like, I had forgotten just how much work John Terry does which doesn’t involve marking a centre forward. His communication with his backline, marshalling and cajoling was incessant, as was his constant communication with the referee as he attempted to exert influence there also. These are the things Chelsea will struggle to replace when his legs finally give out.

Radamel Falcao was another that was fascinating to watch on Saturday. Here was a footballer that has looked simply forlorn, a shadow of his former self, the victim of a terrible knee injury he seemingly can’t recover from. Yet what one was struck by was the sheer effort he still put in, always working and never giving up.

I’ve been a huge critic of Louis Van Gaal playing Wayne Rooney in midfield (and I still think it’s a mistake) but I have to say that watching Rooney play in midfield, I had a better appreciation of his talents and movement.

Watching the goalkeepers is another hugely interesting factor if you are that way inclined. Watching the high line that a modern keeper employs shows you how the game has evolved there hugely, something the TV cameras just don’t show you as they follow the ball.

But of course with football what draws so many people to the game is the atmosphere. Now it is a far more sanitised experience nowadays than previously, much of the less savoury behaviour has been weeded out but it can still be a highly charged affair.

Much of the lead is given by the away fans who typically are cut from a more fanatical and vocal cloth. The home fans can typically these days be fairly lethargic, they’ve paid their money and are waiting to be entertained.

But even in a more sedate match, there are always flash points and the sight of Manchester United never fails to stir up a home support. And there is nothing quite like the anticipation at a football match just before kick off which is far more of anti-climactic than say the start of an F1 race but yet generates an utter fervour amongst both sets of support.

One of the reasons often put forwards for the global appeal and popularity of the Premiership is the atmosphere and the full stadiums, that atmosphere within the grounds does transmit in some part to television. I have to say I find it very difficult to watch games on TV in empty stadiums even if it theoretically makes no difference to the football on show.

Much has been made of the atmosphere at Borrusia Dortmund and they are now receiving train loads of fans from the UK and other countries, people who don’t necessarily support the club but who simply want to be a part of that atmosphere and experience.

Football and its’ finances are dominated by television nowadays and that will only increase, but the match day experience remains unique and the television companies would be well served to protect it to in turn protect their own product.

This article has been contributed by a member of the SK Featured Bloggers Club. It was originally published on the VoomFootball blog here.