Why are Champions League Matches Played at the Same Time?

[Mitch B]

Can someone explain the logic behind 2 Champions League matches being played simultaneously?  It seems like an outdated practice given the importance of TV revenue in Sport.

 

http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/index.html#/

[officeglenn]

I think it's because it's a tournament that only started -- only became possible, really -- with the advent of floodlights in stadiums across Europe. It was designed to be played on weeknights in floodlit stadiums, like the League Cup in England. That said, even though there are a few time zones in Europe, there's really only one 3-hour timeslot each weeknight in which games can be played (though it's feasible to play earlier in eastern Europe and Russia) and supporters can get to the stadium and home at a reasonable time. And they have to play CL games on either Tuesday or Wednesday to allow time for teams to recover from/prepare for their domestic league games on the weekend. 

 

In some other cases, games are played simultaneously so that teams won't base their play on the outcome of other games, i.e. teams knowing that a draw would allow them both to advance, so they play a passive, defensive, boring game. I believe the Champions League still does this with the final games in each group in the first stage. But that's less of a consideration in the knockout stages.

[MJWalker45]

32 minutes ago, officeglenn said:

I think it's because it's a tournament that only started -- only became possible, really -- with the advent of floodlights in stadiums across Europe. It was designed to be played on weeknights in floodlit stadiums, like the League Cup in England. That said, even though there are a few time zones in Europe, there's really only one 3-hour timeslot each weeknight in which games can be played (though it's feasible to play earlier in eastern Europe and Russia) and supporters can get to the stadium and home at a reasonable time. And they have to play CL games on either Tuesday or Wednesday to allow time for teams to recover from/prepare for their domestic league games on the weekend. 

 

In some other cases, games are played simultaneously so that teams won't base their play on the outcome of other games, i.e. teams knowing that a draw would allow them both to advance, so they play a passive, defensive, boring game. I believe the Champions League still does this with the final games in each group in the first stage. But that's less of a consideration in the knockout stages.

UEFA is considering staggering group stage start times next year, except for the final day as always. Currently, the only time a game starts early is if it's played in Russia or other far eastern countries. On the money front, that's why this year's group of 16 games were played over 5 weeks. They staggered the groups so they can maximize the amount of eyes on games. In the past the Group of 16 games would have been played over 2 weeks.