Ballstreet - Ball Street

Ball Street is looking for talent!!

Which of these feet did the 239 league goals come from?

Real football fans club together to save Bath City.  Subscribe to Ball Street on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/user/Ballstreetchannel

We're talking #Top3Foreigners on our 451 show: This man would have been in there if the internet was around back then!

David Ginola au Matra Racing. (1988-90).

What's in a name?

According to the Royal Mail there are only six Ball Streets in the UK, all in North West England.

We didn’t live on one of those but, even though we all come from opposite ends of the country, we grew up on a ball street:  a terraced arena, in footballing heartlands like Glasgow, Manchester, Luton and, er, Wakefield.  Playing the game in its simplest form, where the kerb completed more passes than Iniesta.

That’s where the name Ball Street name from, but behind it lies something much bigger.

Jimmy Bullard with Ball Street

Isn't every league a 'premier' league?

by Matt, Ball Street

First things first, this isn’t it.   People keep asking what we’re up to and we’ve some exciting things in the pipeline - more of which soon.   For now we thought we’d do a blog to introduce ourselves and tell you about where we are coming from.

I’m a Huddersfield Town fan.  In all my time watching the Terriers we’ve never graced the top flight of English Football.  But every year, we’re in a league that matters more to me.  Last year it was League One; this coming season it will be the Championship. 

Now, like me, something like 80% of fans that actually attend matches support teams outside the top 6.  You wouldn’t think that from the coverage our teams receive or the quality of the analysis. 

Sure, Man United’s global fanbase of 333 million has to be catered for, but are the majority of football fans in the UK getting what they need from the media?

It’s still the usual suspects serving up the same old, pre-packaged lack of coverage be it on telly or online.  In our version of the ‘Usual Suspects’, the greatest trick the devil pulled was convincing the world that there was a ‘premier’ league so that we put up with this.

We don’t hate the Premier League, far from it.  We just think that every league is a premier league, and there should be a place where all fans, all teams, get the top six treatment.

Over the coming months and years, Ball Street’s going to try to do something about it.

twitter: @Ball_Street

UPDATE - the people have spoken

What a 24 hours that has been.  Couldn’t sleep for excitement and my eyes are so sore from reading the whole of Twitter last night.  Thought it would be good to take stock of where we are.

Firstly, this is our company blog.  The company was only formed recently, but Ball Street is an idea that Stuart and I had a good while back. 

“Most fans are underserved by the media”

We loved the response to Wrighty’s tweets.  Many fans see it the same way we do: most teams get 30 seconds of highlights per week with little insight.

@ianwright0 Coventry and about 2 minutes on the football league show. Not enough media for outside prem in general given fan base.

— Gilby (@skybluegilby) January 21, 2013

@ball_street Everton main one, we could win the league and the media would talk about the rest of the prem having a off day.

— Ian McMenemy (@ianmc23)

@ball_street Fantastic! Hopefully more fans get on board and you + fans as a collective can really make a difference.

— Nick Murphy (@NickDRFCMurphy) January 21, 2013

That's just a fraction of the responses, with many supportive of the idea that fans outside the top 6 are underserved by the media.

To clarify, we're not having a pop at the BBC Football League highlights show, or questioning the logic of Sky showing the matches that generate the most viewers.  However, we are questioning the lack of depth and quality of the media coverage outside the top 6 in general and we want to help make a change.

We don’t have all the answers, but we do want to be a part of the solution.  We want to improve the media experience for all fans.

As Wrighty says:-

  Morning all, overwhelmed by the response yesterday. @ball_street are you watching? The people have spoken - lets get something done!!

— Ian Wright (@IanWright0) January 22, 2013

Some old friends and many new friends and followers have rallied to the cause, asking to help out.

We’re meeting up with Wrighty and the others today to discuss what we can do.  This feels like the start of something big.

  Matt, football fan/dreamer

So they've built a brand, sold naming rights and corporate packages. But no-one in football got rich on their own. The fat cats would be nowhere without your season ticket money, the shirt on your back and the Sky subscription. Sure, the game needs money. It even needs brands. But part of the game is to be a good sport and look after the game handed down to us by our fathers. Ask yourself: are they playing fair?