Sheffield Wednesday at 1pm? – EFL club boss suggests time change amid energy crisis

With rising energy bills set to cause havoc in the United Kingdom over the winter months, a suggestion has been made that some kick off times be moved earlier in the day.

A typical household energy bill is set to rise to £2,500 a year from October 1, up from £1,277 this time last year, and families across the nation are going to be hit hard by the change.

Like many businesses around the country, football clubs – however – are not covered by the price cap that has been put in place – and in order to try and avoid the increased costs a suggest has been put forward.

Bradford City CEO, Ryan Sparks, says that bringing the games forward to an earlier time may help with costs such as floodlights once the winter months set in.

He told the Sunday People, "It’s going to be very expensive and unavoidable and it’s obviously impacting budgets across the EFL… We are already taking measures to reduce our impact on the environment but also not to further reduce our energy usage, such as the use of solar power.

"There is a suggestion within the game that we could move kick-off times, in the winter months, to 1pm on a Saturday and that’s something we would consider.

"Floodlights are expensive to run and when you add that up over the best part of 20-30 home games, the costs are heavy – and that’s only one area of energy demand.

"We have made our thoughts known to the Football League about referees requesting that floodlights are used in recent games, which I find unacceptable given what we’re all about to go through and the clear demand to protect the environment.”

Wednesday had new ‘state of the art LED floodlights’ fitted over the summer in order to save money – and energy – so may not be as worried as some of their EFL counterparts, though it’s still something that will no doubt be considered should it come to it.

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