1. See all the action.
“Who scored that goal? The referee is calling offside! But was it?” Either because you could only afford a high stand ticket or Marouane Fellaini doppelgänger sits right in front of you, it happened on all matches you’ve attended at the stadium. Missed goals, yellow cards, elaborated insults between the players, you can see it all clearly now with dozens of cameras zooming in to the detail. Besides, calling your friends from the stands to verify any event is pointless and annoying with all the online sources that are available. Remember your grandmother asking if the ones in light blue are the Manchester United or City players? That would be you on the 21st century.
2. Where you want it, when you want it.
Modern times tech perks over the good old telly. Stranded at your kids’ eight hour long school concert? Waiting at the mall for your wife to pick her new work dress? Be a family role model and prove how patient you are with them…while checking on the mobile how your Indian Super League treble unfolds. Whenever your kids’ performance comes up, or your wife asks how amazingly beautiful the next dress is, the DVR function that sites such as YouTube Live feature empowers you with unlimited replays and allows you to pause before continuing with the stream at the exact moment where you stopped watching. With operators like Luxbet, you can even bet on your favorite team and make money while your wife is spending it!
3. Pocket friendly.
It’s either ridiculously cheap or free compared to match day tickets. Arsenal’s regular Premier League ticket can cost up to £97, and that’s just face value. The higher quality seats have not been on general sale for a few years because of high demand from ticket holders. While Chelsea’s cheapest single match ticket lists at £52, if you want to attend the Chelsea vs Arsenal 2017 Community Shield match a VIP club level ticket goes over £1,500 on resale.
Even taking into account your electricity and internet bills, Live football streaming is way cheaper. You can pay a few quid for official online transmissions, dive into the grey web with VPN services to access free or ad based services, or simply enjoy amazing streams like last season’s UEFA Champions League final that was broadcast absolutely free for the whole world in 360° virtual reality and 4K UHD on YouTube.
4. Safe chats with rival fans.
Enduring trolling beats bearing with looting.
If Scotland Yard would have waited a few more decades, the undercover operations against hooliganism would have been much easier against a decimated force. Crooks don’t have as many reasons to attend stadiums and its surroundings with the improved safety standards, but there are still a few ones that would turn your trip to the stadium into a trip to the hospital. There might not be the highest level of tactical discussion in the streams’ chat channels, but you can always mute the desktop hooligans or close the chat tab entirely.
5. Get in the zone.
You can focus in the action without being bothered by the atmosphere. If your mind can’t handle vuvuzelas horning at higher decibels than the referee’s whistle and Mexican waves blocking that oh so important throw-in, then you are probably in the group of football fans that is just interested in the most pure aspects of the game. Being able to sit in a dark and soundproof room, such as your own bathroom, allows you to pay full attention to each pixel in the screen. It is also a great tool against no-signal-delay-radio-lover-neighbours who love to scream their lungs out just to spoil you the next play.
6. Get your inner coach out, to the world.
Prove those internet wannabes your football knowledge. In case you have a love-hate relationship with people, like most sane humans do, you’ll still feel the occasional knack for socialization when watching a live stream. It might be just to affirm your awesomeness, but aren’t we all into football because its competitive nature?
Luckily multitasking is now available in all modern devices enhancing you to tweet, post or shout absolute footy truths during the match. After all you are the one who got Stourbridge to the Champions League final in Championship Manager 2001-2002 and predicted England’s catastrophe in the last (insert here any random competition after 1966).
7. It’s comfy!
Wide seat sofa, allocated parking spot, face to face with Ronaldo.
You would think that new stadiums improved their seats from hard wood to something more appealing to our lower back health, yet club owners went the thinner plastic crack-your-crack way. If you don’t enjoy spending more time in the local transport system than actually watching the match, normally you would take your own car. That would be neat if parking nearby the stadium wouldn’t be such a chaos. Unless you are willing to leave at half time, the hours that you saved by taking your car will be spent on waiting for the exit cue traffic to clear. Just park it home and relax.
8. Singing down the drain.
Save at dry cleaning and medications. Umbrellas are forbidden at most stadiums so constructing stadium roofs was a great idea, but it seems they are all designed by the leaning tower of Pisa architect. Either thanks to a tornado or the subtlest breeze of wind, rain will still get to your seat unless you have a VIP booth, and even then you would get wet on the way home. If you insist on getting the full Premier League experience and be under a cold pouring rain during Boxing Day just like the players, remember that they have a hot shower right after the match finishes, a full team of doctors for free and a paid sick leave of about £10,000 a day.
9. Crunch time.
Reasonable priced snacks and beverages. A few quids and a quick stop at Sainsbury’s will get you all the lock, stock and barrel that you need for 90 minutes of anxiety issues. While Wembley’s manager claimed that £4 in a FA Cup match for a hot dog is a very keen price…for the quality that they serve. You should be more confident grabbing anything off your single life fridge with your eyes closed.
10. The loo-loo train.
No more toilet waiting lines. Americans have better snack prices but this fact fires back with another problem of its own, never ending bathroom visits that can lead to missed goals, or even halves if you had a hot dog at Wembley. Hmm…maybe that’s the reason why American sports have so many timeouts?