Usually, this would be the day that Premier League dreaming would start. In my house anyway.
Over the last few years, today is the day when the first TV fixture adjustments for the new season would hit the wire, and you’d be able to reasonably start to plan for a glorious early fall trip to watch the top flight in action.
This year, not so much.
We all know the circumstances. A global pandemic, Situations worsening by the day and week, if not around the world then most certainly in America, when one must wonder when any country outside our own hemisphere will allow us in, let alone in without the kind of quarantine that makes this type of travel impossible (and, frankly, a public health risk).
But as we’ve all sat home, and enjoyed a Premier League Feast on television, one has to begin to dream again. And the travel world has pushed the narrative (quite true!) that half the fun is the planning for the trip — and we’ve certainly got to keep that in our lives to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
So over the next few weeks, this blog will tackle two divergent paths for breaking down an im-possible dream trip to watch the Premier League live and in person.
The first path is today’s path. The reality that attendance will likely be restricted around the grounds in the UK for most of the rest of the year. And if things turn around, it will be a gradual drive to get the true home support back in the stands, which means maximizing to accommodate season ticket holders — most of whom will be shut out of matches to start the 2020-2021 campaign at current capacity.
For that, we’ll start tracking and sorting all of the membership and ticket news, plus start thinking about flying, routes, airfare, lodging, and other considerations that you’d need to figure out IF and when there’s a seat at the stadium for you.
It’s still fun to dream, right.
On the second path, we’ll take a look at a usual year, thinking ahead to better days, days in the mid-2020’s when the rhythm of plotting and planning to take in a match (or two, or three!) on a single trip is something that’s more do-able. There are most definitely things to consider, things to plan for, daydreams to be had.
And now, more than ever, it’s important to try and get those things right. Because if there’s anything the pandemic has taught us — it’s to not put off those things you want to do today. And when you’ve got the means (or the miles and points) and you’ve saved and saved, you want to do it right.
We’ll use some hashtags and categories to help keep this content straight. Let’s go with #NormalTimes and #COVID 2021. And we’ll do our best to keep up with the news. So, if you’re plotting and planning for 2020-2021, or 2021-2022 (when the World Cup will throw us a swerve) — you’ve got an outlet for all things going to grounds.